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the most painful items in terms of “consumers have no idea how much these cost to make & expect them to be cheap” are books & any apparel
large companies get the cost down to pennies by ordering 1000s which is NOT feasible
but they’re so ubiquitous ppl assume they know the cost
large companies get the cost down to pennies by ordering 1000s which is NOT feasible
but they’re so ubiquitous ppl assume they know the cost
books are honestly the worst tho and there are so many reasons. you might think you know how much books should cost but god damn unless you’ve printed books you have no idea.
to bring costs down to an even remotely feasible level you have to order 300+ copies and hope they sell. this is because people WILL NOT PAY much higher than the normal retail price of a book even for indie makers. so to have a profit margin that doesn’t kill you requires volume.
SO MUCH CONTENT, SO MUCH WORK. books take months, maybe years to make, unless they’re super small/short. this is mostly from my pov as an indie comics person who’s also made art books. the content, the formatting, everything takes so much time.
it’s impossible to calculate that labor cost into your profit margin and not cry. like literally impossible unless you are a very rare soul. just fussing here, but most people would struggle to sell even 300 books and tbh 300 is on the low end for lowering you price per unit.
maybe this is just me showing my whole ass, but books are also a hard sell compared to the amount you have to make. for a normal product, selling 100 could be great! for a book you ordered 300-1000+ of... not so much.
there are people out there who can sell books like nobody’s business!! but that’s not most people and tbh even if they’re more indie most of those people eventually get agents/publishers etc bc the actual act of formatting/selling a book on top of making the content. WOOF.
also books are so heavy and take up so much room. are you planning on moving ever in your entire life?? devin and i moved across the country with 100s of books in 2017 and the bill from the movers was harrowing. and then they sit there. in your house. staring at you.
between monsterpop, my fairytale anthology, confetti, and sapphic summer i’ve probably sold around 800-900 books, maybe more. i probably still have at least 700 books sitting around collecting dust. tbh i have no idea if i will ever be free. release me from this mortal coil.
also my wife hates them. the end of this “books will end me” thread has turned very personal lol. devin says if i self publish print another book they will personally throttle me. so that’s a hard maybe 
anyway this is all why if i’m buying art from an artist i always go for the books first because i know the pain lol
also if you want a book from me here you go lmao https://store.mayakern.com/product-category/books/
also if you want a book from me here you go lmao https://store.mayakern.com/product-category/books/
ok concrete numbers -- monsterpop volume 2: 8.5x11", 144 pages, 100# text & cover weight, full color
100 books = $2.2k, $22ppu
300 = $4.7k, $15ppu
750 = $8.8k, $12ppu
we picked up the books in our car, so no shipping fee
you can see why printing books is a numbers game
100 books = $2.2k, $22ppu
300 = $4.7k, $15ppu
750 = $8.8k, $12ppu
we picked up the books in our car, so no shipping fee
you can see why printing books is a numbers game
these numbers are calculated for today. when i printed it in 2017 it was slightly cheaper. we printed with @smartpress (they are great, very high quality, i highly recommend them). other printers might have been cheaper but lower quality and we would have had to pay shipping.
i knew that even for a book of this size/length, it would be a hard sell if i pushed the sale price over $30 (even $30 was a stretch, tho volume 2 was 2x as long as 1 & 1 sold for $25). this informed how many copies we had to buy (that + the number sold during the kickstarter)
but if you buy 750 books, even if it drives the ppu down drastically... you still end up with 750 books. we've sold through most of them by this point, but we still have a ton left, esp. when you add in the other books i've printed. idk. self publishing books is a tough game.
i consider my book printing history/career a mixed bag. some success, some failure, a lot of learning.
but i thought it was important to share this bc usually people only talk about the big successes -- kickstarters that raise $100k+ and end in publishing deals, etc.
but i thought it was important to share this bc usually people only talk about the big successes -- kickstarters that raise $100k+ and end in publishing deals, etc.
most ppl won't come anywhere near that. hell, i have sold more books than most ppl & i would NOT consider my book career successful or financially viable.
there's a lot of reasons i quit comics, but that is the big one. my quality of life was more important than making comics.
there's a lot of reasons i quit comics, but that is the big one. my quality of life was more important than making comics.
over the years i've also seen a couple ppl giving advice to indie/artist alley/convention newbies saying that books are great and basically sell themselves and i cannot begin to express how very untrue that is for MOST people. for some people? sure. but not for most people.
most people cannot afford the 1000s of dollars to print enough books to make the ppu profitable. imagine being an indie seller, making a book, and finding out that printing 100 copies is the minimum order quantity for most printers. have you ever sold 100 of something? it sucks.
there are printers that allow a lower MOQ but it's typically super expensive. there are cheaper book printers! keness ( https://www.keness.com/ ) is great, i printed sapphic summer there. not every book is 144p full color at 8.5x11". there are ways to make it cheaper. BUT STILL...
ANYWAY sorry this has all been bummer zone. i still love comics. i still love books. but they are soooooo much work and so much money, it is honestly ridiculous. imo books were never meant to be made alone.
