Posts by Gareth
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Colour? Birds? Can do: Kotare/Kingfisher, 26/6/11
(Stupid thing stunned itself flying into a window. I rescued it from the cats.)
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Capture: Colour is the new black, in reply to Islander,
Not if they start white in the first place...
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More colour: Peony rose, 3/11/2010
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Capture: Colour is the new black, in reply to Hebe,
I'll see your Herber, and raise you mine (he's my nearest neighbour): Raymond Herber, Iron Ridge Quarry 2008
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Colour? Got Colour. Whariwharangi beach, 21/2/10
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Bull at the Biennale 9/8/11 (At On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer , Michael Parekowhai, 54th Venice Biennale)
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I'll see your Whiritoa Beach, and raise you Looking south to Timaru from Mt Thomas, 15/11/11. (Looking forward to following this blog).
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^What Mike said...
PS: What is the state of print-on-demand in NZ? There used to be a bunch called Viking in Wellington, but they seem to have disappeared. Ideally, you need P-O-D + web sales in one unit for ease of shipping, but that's not insuperable, as long as the printer can ship for you.
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Jacqui: I originally ordered 2,000 copies (152pps, glossy, colour throughout, + covers) but they made me an offer I couldn't refuse on run-on copies so I got 4,000. IIRC the run-ons were $2 each... NB that was 2005 pricing. Breakeven was under 1,000 sales (because a good chunk of sales were direct or not through shops).
In order to make sure that the work was fully professional, I got a designer to do me a template for layout (but did all pages and scans myself), and worked with an editor to ensure copy was up to scratch and proof-reading had another pair of eyes.
For my next book (which is fiction), I will work with an editor and designer as before, but the publication risk will be mine. But first I need to finish writing the damn thing...
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Lilith is on the money, as it were. Of three books published in NZ, only one has really given me a decent return on time employed in R&W (like R&D) and that's the one I published myself. Cost $4 a copy to print (in ChCh), sold at $40 - net to me of $13.30 after GST, distributor and retailer takes. Direct sales from my web site are much more profitable... Even though I printed too many, the profit was more than acceptable -- and 5 years on, it's still selling.
My next book will be an e-book, available also as print-on-demand (in different territories, and perhaps in a number of different editions). I suspect that I can price the e-book well below traditional publisher prices -- low enough to make it pretty much risk free for the buyer -- and still make a decent return. Not having to fund the capital risk of a print order makes a big difference.
