MH434 Book

No skill requited, except hard work, patience, IT setup and painstaking pedantry…

🙂

Glad to hear the project is still ticking over. I will be buying at least four copies when it comes out, whenever that is!
JDK, i’m sure you’re sick of people saying ‘i can help, let me in!!’ but i work for a large format inkjet printing company, we do mainly posters etc, but if there is anything i can do to help i’m sure i can twiddle a few knobs (so to speak). Maybe leading up to release a small marketing program… just an idea. Good luck with it all, can’t wait!

MH434

“I just met ‘Grey Hammock’.”

Booker 1972.

Mark

Hi Black Knight,
How’s it coming along? If it continues to snow at the current rate here (6in and counting…) I’ll get to it after the three other projects and 5 articles I’ve got to write in the next couple of weeks, no problem.

As it’s a voluntery project, for me, it has to wait in the queue behind the things that pay for food. If someone ~hint~ wanted to volunteer to put some of it together, that could kick start it. No skill requited, except hard work, patience, IT setup and painstaking pedantry… Yes, I have the list of those who’ve offered help (and the call will come) but there’s been a few other items to do first!

Offers via PM, please!

Cheers

(£5800 + £1600) / 5000 = £1.48 per copy. At £14.99 selling price = Gross Margin of £13.51 (90%). And they say there’s no money in publishing! 😉

Gross margin providing that you sell at full list. Add onproduction costs (copy editing, proof reading, photo costs, scanning etc) distribution costs, postage (generally more than the cost of the book) everyone and his dog’s profit margins, wastage, review copies, storage (that’s is about a ton of books) and what it cost you to produce (often over a year’s work) and the fact you have taken on the risk of not selling all of them and having them hang around for years (5000 is a lot on an aviation title, especially one self-published) it doesn’t look so attractive.

If there was no money in publishing then no one would do it but there is not as much as some people would like to have you believe.

Melvyn Hiscock
NBS Publications

How’s this one coming along?

Yes but you missed my point…there is money in it!

Good oh. Do their authors live off the royalties? No.
Does the publisher just do this and no other job? If yes, Is it well paid? No.

It’s not rocket science, it’s publishing. So it pays, badly. There is a difference between ‘none’ and ‘very little’ but I’m not to be convinced that there’s more than very little.

(Shhhh. If you give it away, they’ll all want a bit! :D)

Yes but you missed my point…there is money in it! I know of a very successful company making money out of aviation books, so much so they are on their 50th title in 10 years… it must, it can, and does work!

Sorry Spitfire art, you’ve bumped into a catchphrase. I pointed out, some time ago, anyone trying to make a living out of aviation books was being unrealistic. There’s very few people making a very hard working badly paid living from that in the UK. Most of us (me included) do it because we think it’s worth it. I then uttered the phrase: “There’s no money in publishing.” I have my leg pulled about it regular now.

Actually originally, it was a fr. chap called Balzac. Freely translated, it goes: “I was an author. I made no money. I set up as a bookeller. I made no money. I became a publisher. There was still no money. Where’s the money?” 😀

www.mmpbooks.biz www.warbirddigest.com

Who says that there is no money in publishing, what an absurd answer, if there wasn’t there would be no book s published! There are considerable other costs to be taken into into account. As a book and print publisher I have to do just this, so glib disposable remarks are irrelevant! You won’t sell a book if you don’t get off your arse to take the risk. I’m about to build a house in my back garden…it’s a risk that I won’t get my return on capital back as fast as I want to, but I know I’ll have three times the value. All I am demonstrating re the book, is that it’s not much of a real risk, and in any case by pass British printers as they are more expensive. If anybody wants contact details, I’ll pass them on. Anyway…”no risk, no fun”…”no guts no glory”!

Yes, and on that maths a CD costs nothing.

Retailer’s cut

Royalties

Operating the publishing company

Distribution and RETURNS

etc. I’ve been looking for the money in publishing, and it’s damn elusive.

Jusat to my comments, when printing why not get quotes from De Agostini in Novara Italy. I’ve just published a 96 page full colour large format (bigger than A4) paperback, 5000 copies and printing/transport back to UK cost £5800, with £1600 origination costs PDF straight to print. Book sells at £14.99 (Spit & Polish)

I might try to remember that for future reference….

Hi Black Knight,

You are right; there was a lot of interest, and there’s been a lot of silence. The issue is that I’ve got lots of volunteers, contributors and offers of pics etc; as well as (most critically) agreement in principle from OFMCo. (The idea is to raise money for the burns charity espoused by the Mark Hanna foundation.)

Catch is I’ve been rather too busy of publishing things that pay some of my bills and the day job. However, I’m happy that something WILL happen, and I hope we’ll be able to get the ball rolling again soon.

Cheers!

Great Stuff 😉 Anna 🙂 🙂

Jusat to my comments, when printing why not get quotes from De Agostini in Novara Italy. I’ve just published a 96 page full colour large format (bigger than A4) paperback, 5000 copies and printing/transport back to UK cost £5800, with £1600 origination costs PDF straight to print. Book sells at £14.99 (Spit & Polish)

Hi JDK,
I couldn’t remember if it was you doing it. I’m stuck with my project due to a blown computer so god only knows when that’ll get back on track.

Hopefully the winter will provide an opportunity. Just let us know when you’d like us to help get things going.

Here’s a shot I’ll be offering. Note the guy with the hand saw making some adjustments to the prop following a ground strike. Biggin Hill 1991.

regards

tc

Hi Black Knight,

You are right; there was a lot of interest, and there’s been a lot of silence. The issue is that I’ve got lots of volunteers, contributors and offers of pics etc; as well as (most critically) agreement in principle from OFMCo. (The idea is to raise money for the burns charity espoused by the Mark Hanna foundation.)

Catch is I’ve been rather too busy of publishing things that pay some of my bills and the day job. However, I’m happy that something WILL happen, and I hope we’ll be able to get the ball rolling again soon.

Cheers!