That Ain't Workin' - My New Book

[Pottel]

I shared the info on web, FB, Insta, X, and even LinkedIn

I hope it will give you more orders

Thank you so much.

Hi Chris,

Knew about it thanks to JF post on both his blog and LinkedIn.
I ordered it today and I'm looking forward to receive it.
It's me who asked you to send it to a UK adress as my best friend is currently there.
Will save me the 10£ postage 

Greetings from Belgium

once a dutchy always a dutchy huh old friend....hiding in Belgium :-)
x

[Dutchessy]

Vape68, what country is this bookshop you phoned in? Could be much cheaper to print there than in the UK for one thing (not that I have any idea where Chris printed).

Switzerland

weird, your ip says otherwise...

Maybe he is a ghost who lives in 2 countries at the same time 

[Pottel]

I worked as a photographer for many years and when I buy books from other photographers at galleries, they often cost more. Chris does not have to justify any cost, to anyone.

To question the amount of time or money put into the production is missing the point, however “well intended”. He wasn’t working for an hourly rate, nor should he or other artists have to justify costs in that way. He can charge what he likes. It’s a unique book that someone will VALUE themselves, if they want it.

I’ve felt before that some people on this forum also view all of DS work more as “consumables” and perhaps don’t seem to view them as creative works, made by all the creatives involved.

Chris has been realistic and upfront on getting things shipped, which should be enough in itself. It’s unfair to focus in on his shipping costs and potentially bog him down in admin, over a few quid. All of which is frankly beneath him in my view. On the contrary, he has gone out of his way to help.

From an archival perspective, Chris’ images are also a valuable record of that time. Film can degrade over the years, hence I questioned Ed last year on whether he knew if the unused Alchemy footage was all accounted for, as I feel that it would be prudent to have it all scanned at least for archival purposes, even if not to be released, akin to how a photo agency or museum would archive historic pieces, to avoid further degradation. Black and white film tends to be more stable, though colour film dyes can fade over the years depending on storage conditions. So, well done Chris for being proactive and getting your work collated and archived. It must have been a lot of work but I’m sure rewarding to hold the printed book in your hands.

Archiving the images is priceless.

Very well done on a beautiful looking book and getting it realised.

well put. thnx

[Waldo]

I shared the info on web, FB, Insta, X, and even LinkedIn

I hope it will give you more orders

Thank you so much.

Hi Chris,

Knew about it thanks to JF post on both his blog and LinkedIn.
I ordered it today and I'm looking forward to receive it.
It's me who asked you to send it to a UK adress as my best friend is currently there.
Will save me the 10£ postage 

Greetings from Belgium

once a dutchy always a dutchy huh old friend....hiding in Belgium :-)
x

Dutch and Belgians are not the same.
Need to learn your geography, mate.

Anyway, why should I pay for postage if I can avoid ?
It's not like I'm robbing Chris of anything.
If I was "dutchy" I would not buy a 55£ book.

Also, why do you think I'm "hiding" in Belgium ?
It's my country.
Furthermore I'm from the

[vape68]

Isn't the cost of producing it just about £5-8 ? I think you should have kept the profit margin much much lower

Gotta love a forum!!!

Apart from the fact I spent many spare minutes taking the photos on the tour, instead of sitting in the dressing room sipping a beer. The fact it's taken me two years of work to make the book, which was mostly hours and hours of painstaking work cleaning hundreds of dust spots and scratches one by one on at least 100 images, using software like Capture One and Photoshop. The fact I paid for those software programme's monthly subscriptions for two years while I worked on the book.
The fact is took me four months of work to actually build the book in Adobe's InDesign, which I had no idea how to use in the beginning and spent hours watching Youtube tutorials and made many mistakers along the way..
And even THEN, the book does NOT cost £5-£8 to actually print.
I'm usually eating some of the postage, the shipping boxes cost £92 for the first 150 books. It took me all morning today to sign, pack, drive to the post office and half an hour in the post office filling in custom forms and going through the different nations the books would be going to with the man behind the counter. PayPal is deducting a £3 - £4 fee from most sales too (not all).
In the end, if you have a 106 page book with 80+ never seen before behind the scenes images of a beloved tour that took place 35 years ago, please make your OWN book and sell it for £10. Please do it - LOL

it is amazing how one tends to not notice all the praise one gets and gets stuck on trolls trying to annoy the hell out of you. (just noticing, not blaming) do not get all worked up about such moaning know-it-alls Chris.
he is NOT forced to buy your book, just like he is no way entitled to know the cost of your book. ignore is the message here

hey how come many people are not tolerant here ?

once again, the right price for any product is the key to sell more and profit more,
I was trying to help Chris and also please more fans, that's all,
what's the problem ?

[vape68]

Vape68, what country is this bookshop you phoned in? Could be much cheaper to print there than in the UK for one thing (not that I have any idea where Chris printed).

Switzerland

weird, your ip says otherwise...

I am currently near Milan, 50km from where I live in Switzerland

[ds1984]

hey how come many people are not tolerant here ?

once again, the right price for any product is the key to sell more and profit more,
I was trying to help Chris and also please more fans, that's all,
what's the problem ?

The "problem" is that you are not understanding psychology.

You may come with the best intention but the way you do it is inaccurate toward the people you try to explain your point.





 

[Jules]

Did I ever say that ? No

Well you are, because you are thinking the book cost £5 to £8 to print and then saying I should sell it for £27.50 and make less profit.
So let's be honest here...
You are completely discounting (to £0) the man hours it took to produce, the cost of software, capture One, Photoshop, (In Design £22 a month and this is the only reason I needed it), the film scanning equipment, macro lens, 24mb digital camera.
Even just the exclusive nature of the photographs, never previously published, no other photographers embedded on the tour.
And you went to all the trouble of phoning your local book store?
This isn't a commercially published book. I'm doing it myself, I'm signing every copy, packing it and posting it at various local post offices.

Did I tell you to sell for raw costs ? No.
At £27.5 you would get a 70-80% profit margin which is really very good for any seller or any product,
I also thought the main point was to get your nice photographs to as many fans as possible, so that everybody wins.

Re the bookskop, I obviously asked if I wanted to print my own book 100 pages A4 black and white what's the cost and that was the answer, so same case as yours. I guess you don't want to answer what's your cost and that's fine.

Again it's rude not consider at all Chris many hours of hard work, your way of consider this is like Chris had to do nothing but print and sell. Work has to be valued and has to be paid.

PERIOD.

[rmarques821]

It's like going into a restaurant and saying an onion costs 20c, how come your French Onion soup is $10on the menu.

no, it's more like saying at $5 vs $10 you can sell many more and please many more fans. that's the only concept I expressed.

He's directing it at a very very niche market, of maybe die-hard Dire Straits fans who buy anything associated with the name. That's why the price is so high, and I would do the same, to be honest.
The truth is that the average Joe can't afford to splash out £65 for a photobook of a tour that took place 34 years ago. Where I live, the book would cost me a total of £75 which is insane in my view, irrespective of the work it took to get it done.

[Chris W]

Very well done on a beautiful looking book and getting it realised.

Thank you. Very much appreciated!

[Chris W]

Anyway, why should I pay for postage if I can avoid ?
It's not like I'm robbing Chris of anything.

It's so much easier to post to the UK.
Yesterday I spent a long time kneeling on the floor of a convenience store filling out ten customs forms before posting to Europe.

[Chris W]

He's directing it at a very very niche market, of maybe die-hard Dire Straits fans who buy anything associated with the name. That's why the price is so high, and I would do the same, to be honest.

I'm not directing it at anyone specifically.
Most high end photography books are around £50. I own quite a few. I fully realise I'm not a professional photographer making great art. But I priced the book based on 1) the two year's work it took to produce and 2) the completely exclusive nature of the images. No photographer was on the tour. We had the odd local guy at a handful of shows, DS hired a top photographer for the shows that were filmed for 'ON The Night'.
No photographer was hanging out with the band, at the less glamorous venues etc.
Having a cache of images that NO ONE has ever seen before is a one off moment. Once they are published they are out there, that's why I put a higher value on the book.

[Chris W]

I was trying to help Chris and also please more fans, that's all,
what's the problem ?

This is such absolute nonsense.
You COULD have just suggested a price the book lower and sell to more fans. Instead you made a wild guess as to how much it cost me to make the book (£5-£8), bluntly asked me how much it cost (more than once), disregarding the actual work it took to produce the book before the final print stage.
I'm happy with the price and don't need your uninvited advice. And why would I take advice from someone who places NO value on the actual photography, the two years of cleaning and editing images, and just think that a book costs £5 to print?
It was more than that anyway.

[dustyvalentino]

Yesterday I spent a long time kneeling on the floor of a convenience store filling out ten customs forms before posting to Europe.

Rock and roll man.

You shoulda learned to play the guitar. You shoulda learned to play them drums.

[Chris W]

Ha, Ha.