What can you do when you hear something like, ‘I really love your books but this one is too expensive. Why is so pricey?’
You explain; all the expertise, time, and hours that have gone into making the book, the production in China, the… You realise that your fan has glazed over, dipped out, you’ve lost him or her.
16 illustrations later, many other hands involved in the process, the publisher’s cut, the bookstore’s cut, the distributor’s cut, everyone has a cut of your £7.99 book. I sometimes think it’s hard to be published these days because so many people have to get paid. We don’t seem to have found a better way to do this publishing thing.
On the other hand, people will happily spend £30 on a poster. One piece of paper. I found that out when I offered hand drawn nursery rhymes as A3 prints over Christmas. I didn’t sell many (didn’t make many) but no one questioned the price tag.
I hadn’t seen many successful attempts at combining posters and books, i.e., one-page books. I like the idea a lot. and decided to give it a try. It turns out to be viable, maybe not for a large company, but for a small outfit like ours.
K