This is an amazing endeavor for sure! While car guys like us would definitely be interested, I can't justify buying 70 of anything, much less 70 of anything costing $75-$100. I want this to succeed because I want to be to the point where I can drop $5250-$7000 on something that doesn't take me to work daily lol. Stuff like this is awesome along the lines of having a Ferrari as furniture in your living room.
I'm curious to how this will be published. Will you be binding the books yourself or have you sold the idea to a publishing company? I would expect something like this from a large company, so I wonder if professional help would help your achieve your goals or if it would water down the whole project.
Since it is alphabetical, adding new volumes may present a challenge. (Enter me, to tell you how to run your life lol) Have you considered a chronological approach to the physical copies? Since you are essentially covering all of automotive history, from a reader's perspective I would like to see trends in the industry as a whole. When did electric starters come into play? Seat belts? Styling trends? Going chronological would also make more sense for updates as time goes on. Say you finish, I hit the lottery and buy the whole set. Ahh, the entire automotive history in 70 volumes, A-Z, up to the year 2013. Enter 2014+ models, you can't exactly amend 70 volumes to include the new cars, and having 1886-2013 in alphabetical order and 2014+ by year would not float by boat. On the other hand, 1886-2013 in 70 volumes, along comes 2014, slap in on the end, and so forth. As a purchaser of ridiculously high quality and complete information pieces, this looks much better in my library.
I hope with all my heart you succeed! Best of luck!
Good comments...
For this collection, there are it's customers. If this 70 volume series would have not been published by me, i would have bought it for sure and i do not have same money as Americans. I also have here in Romania some people that want to by the whole series and wages are quite low here.
There are some sales targets established by me, to make it fesable, which are quite low.
The most important fact is this one:
The updated versions, will not be released in 2014, as there will be a new volume each two months (that's the time necessary to lay the information on page, so 50USD a month will not be a huge effort, for a true car enthusiast.
If you add also the 25% discount for collectors, we are talking only about 37.5 USD/month, which i do not consider much.
If you think really good, people spend more than 37.5 USD a month on useless things. Because we are on a game forum, i can say that some people spend more than 37.5 USD a month on games and accessories for console, which can also be considered a hobby.
To reach the last volume, few years will pass. After that there will be available two options:
- A new series, completed with the new information.
- A special book, called "Add-on of the first series", with all the new models and information added. This will not be annually. It will probably cover 2 or three years.
It is possible, that a buy back will be offered for collection, in exchange of the new one, for a fee. I'm not sure right now about this.
So it's only 37.5 USD/month for few years and after that, around 100 USD/few years. Not to mention, this collection will have it's value as time passes by
You are right, chronologically would be more simple, from printing and buying point of view, but in my opinion, to make a chronological one wold be much harder, regarding the fact that the database has more than 10.000 car brands and 50.000 car models. And it will be hard to follow a car brand or model evolution in time.
Belive me, i know what i'm talking about, i have worked between 8 and 20 hours a day, for 15 years, i did not have a job as i had income form various small businesses, which were not time demanding. Only from time to time i took a little break.
So in conclusion if a smoker, quits smoking, he has the money for the whole series, some beer and good health...
Regarding the publishing:
-I have my own publishing company, a very small one, with only few magazines published before, locally
-I do not have employees, only externalized services under contract. As you can see in the photos, the page design is very good.
-The book will be printed on high quality, by a printing company specialized in hardcover books.
All my costs are calculated per book, not per month, because not having employees, only collaborators. For example the packaging is made by the post office at a constant cost/book, not by an employee, etc.
There are many collaborators, from simple persons to big companies, but none involved in copyright and other direct things, related to the Encyclopedia, just providing me payed services.
PS: Thank you for the good wishes.
👍...
it's a language I'm try to learn!
