Hello all. As some of you might remember, late last summer I proposed an idea for a book compiling some of our efforts from this Moleskine exchange. It seemed to have generated a decent amount of interest from most of the members of this group, and fortunately, Andrea had graced it with her blessings.
Some time has passed and while I've sent out some proposals to some companys, I've yet to hear back from anyone. Granted, it's still early and from what I had gathered, you should wait on average of six months to get a response (which seems sort of like a long time to me). I'd imagine there are a billion others with ideas as well, many of which are art-related.
Since the initial post here last summer, things, at least on an economic level had since taken a nose dive (obviously). People are a lot more cautious with their money and I'm sure companies are a lot more reserved about taking chances with certain products. So, with that in mind, I'm wondering if we should resort to one of several options. We can still do the self-published route (Jess, if you're reading, I know you said you had a friend who could help with that, possibly), wait it out and hope we get a bite from a "real" publisher, or simply let this slide and be content with the process/experience and our sketchbooks once they are returned to us. Any option works well for me, and I especially was wondering what you thought Andrea. I know we all have lives - work, friends, family, etc., but hopefully we can get some feedback from everyone here, regarding the book idea. I still think it would be cool to compile a published book with a brief bio from everyone and at least five to ten of everyone's best images. The wonderful thing is, this kind of opportunity is readily available to us now and we have a wealth of wonderful artwork to choose from, from everybody in the group. It probably wouldn't be too difficult to create. Any thoughts?
7 comments:
I still think it's a great idea.
Self-publishing doesn't have to be expensive. (If it's too expensive, though, count me out! I'm still unemployed!)
But I think we have a great selection of work and it's true this is a bad time . . .
I don't know what to say except I still think it's good and I'm open to options and whatever people want to do.
I am in!
I'm keen on the idea though money is tight at the moment, it will depend on costs for me too.
Yes, I hear you about the money issues Mary and Ian. Mike, I'm glad you're still interested. Thanks for the feedback all of you. :)
Of course, I am still keen on this idea! Having no experience with publishing I would gladly follow your lead Steve. I am willing to put in whatever work necessary and may be able to cover some of the costs for folks who can't. Depending upon how much they are.
Did anyone mention LuLu or similar self publishing hosts?
I have no experience with LuLU, but I've read that there's no set-up costs, they take a 25% royalty, you can set royalties to automatically go to authors, creating the book is a matter of being able to use pdf. I think you might have to shift x amount of copies (30?) before getting royalties. The harder part is getting it noticed once created.
Sounds attractive, although to my aesthetic sense I feel it might be hard to create exactly the look of book I would desire - perhaps something that doesn't look like a million other LuLu books! Artiness would come at a cost... I need to see one or two actual books I think - they tend to look a bit nasty and glossy in their demos.
Money hassle free, but with limiters?
Great Andrea!!
John, yeah, I like that you don't have go pay up front and if we do this through LuLu, or any other self-publishing avenue, we might have to somewhat compromise our aesthetic preferences a bit. I'll have to see some myself as well then.
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