TO THE PRINTER

Okay, so I had self scheduled the book to be done by now and instead it is just now getting to the printer. I tried. But at least it's at the printer!

PRICING THE BOOK

After getting the final quote from the printer the news is not good. Let me explain.

The first edition of the book was priced at $11.95. This is a pretty good price. But the problem was, bookstores get a 40% discount when they purchase my book. So I get 60% of the price of the book. Well that sounds dandy! But then there's the cost of paper and printing. Take that out of the 60% and I get a whopping ¢55 a book. That is not good.

Now please don't think I plan to make millions from the book. That is not why I made the book. I needed the book myself. But after all the work I put into it, it sure would be nice to at least break even. Not to mention my editor (who is also the CFO, who is also my wife) would like to see some income coming to the family from me as well. I can't just run around to 151 playgrounds just for fun. :)

So with the addition of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury and 20 extra pages for the second edition, I definitely needed to increase the price. So I calculated and cringed with the extra paper and printing that $14.95 would pay for the increase AND give me $1 in return for each book.

Well, that $14.95 price was prior to getting the final quote from the printer. Once I got that, things were looking really poor. After deducting the printing and paper charges, I now made a really big whopping ¢0. That's right, after printing I was making EXACTLY nothing. Zilch. Not a penny. And that was just the price of paper and printing. That doesn't include the cost of other "supportive" book supplies like boxes, packing tape, mailing, etc.

Now let me back track a moment. After printing 1000 copies of the first book, and selling them (or giving comps to the media and libraries because I LOVE the libraries), I made <-$1000>. That's a negative sign behind that dollar sign. So, I didn't even break even. But I knew this would be the situation going into this project. I needed to print and sell something around 1500 copies to break even. Well, the 500 second edition printing puts me into the 1500 copies. But that means I must make a profit selling the books.

With the second edition and the $14.95 pricing, it pretty much determines I will make nothing and the CFO will sigh. That's not good. So, I have agonizingly finalized the price at $15.95 and returns me to the ¢60 a copy range. Which, out of all honesty, is really not that good for a self-published book. I read in one of those "Self-publish your book and make millions!" books that you should be pricing your book at 50% profit after all the production. 3% is close isn't it?

After all my grumblings and moments of giving up, my wife, editor, and CFO never gave up on ME. She has encouraged me to finish the second edition even if it makes nothing and we have to eat wood chips ground cover for dinner.

100% PCW PAPER

It took some time but I finally chose a 100% Post-consumer waste paper that will HAVE TO work for the book. A lot of printers don't use 100% PCW paper on their high speed printers so I had to purchase the paper myself and deliver to the printer. The previous paper I used on the first edition was Badger's Envirographic 100 in a nice heavy weight.

Well, when I called to order more for the second edition, wouldn't you know the paper company has stopped making the paper. Well, after some research, I chose Boise paper's Aspen 100. It's a lighter weight paper, but I think it will work.

Post-consumer waste paper is paper made from the paper that you (hopefully) recycle at home or office. You know, all that copy paper and junk mail you get and never read. That paper is made into a pulp and made into PCW paper. It's currently more expensive and there are not that much available choices.

Why go through so much work for the more difficult to use, more difficult to get, more expensive 100% PCW paper for the book? Because it needs to be shown that 100% PCW can be used just as well as other papers, even for a book!

Is it better for the environment? Some would argue not. The paper that you so deligently recycle actually gets collected and shipped to CHINA. The paper companies buy their paper from China and then the paper gets shipped BACK to be made into paper. That doesn't seem very energy efficient or clean? But the alternative (at this moment) is to continue to chop down trees to make paper. That doesn't seem right either. I argue, that we should use the paper we have without making new virgin paper. As PCW paper is more readily used, perhaps a paper processing plant will be created in North America. Maybe I should start one? Anyone have $200 million dollars in seed money?

Noooooooo, ANOTHER PLAYGROUND!

Just when you think you have found all the playgrounds and you have almost finished the insides of the book, you go for a casual drive with your family and discover a playground not in your book. Doooooh!!!!! Is it even worth putting it in? My editor says "yes." She's such a perfectionist . . .

Playground #151, DiBiase Park in Salem..

COVER DESIGN

So while my editor (that would be my dearest wife) is proofing the insides of the book, I now have an opportunity to design the cover. Here are a few VERY initial designs:

The idea behind this design was a bug box. A shadow box displaying the various unique playgrounds on the North Shore with pins holding them in place with labels and all.

Going for a much more crazy, complex, messy, layered design using silhouettes of playgrounds as well.