The Letterville BullBoard: Question: For those Who Have Written Sign Books: Is it Worth it $$?

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Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :

Hi Writers,

I was talking to a teacher the other day. She had invented a whole new way of teaching by using a story that contained the 4 "R's".
After reading the story, the kids had to do math, sciencce, problem solving, yada yada yada...all based on that one story.

She spent like two years carefully developing each story so that all the other componets of the story fit together.

She presented a prototype to a publisher, they accepted it and after all her hard work has received less than $500 for her efforts, after the book has been on the market for 3 years.

Based on that example above, have those of you that have written books on sign making had about the same experience at this teacher did? Diddly squit money for a lot of hard work?

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Draper The Signmaker
Bloomington Illinois USA
Get To A Letterhead Meet This Summer! See you there!
309-828-7110
drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat

Posted by Dan Antonelli (Member # 86) on :

My book sales are doing OK, although not as much as Tom and I had hoped. I make a royalty off each book sale, and I was also paid to do the layout and design of the book. I simply gave Tom a finished Quark document with the whole book typeset and ready to print. So I was paid for that part, and then the royalties.

It's opened up a lot of doors to me though, and that makes up for the fact that it doesn't generate huge amounts of revenue.

Frankly, we really thought the book would sell more. Guess people are overwhelmed with stuff to read these days.

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Dan Antonelli
Graphic D-Signs, Inc.
Union, NJ
www.graphicd-signs.com
dan@graphicd-signs.com

"You won't get wise with the sleep still in your eyes, no matter what your dream may be" - Rush

Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :

I don't know if my answer will qualify - maybe in the sense of "What NOT To Do" but I wrote 35 or 40 stories about the goof balls I've worked for over the years, (The Lenny Stories), and though I never put them into a book form, a few people seemed to enjoy them immensely, but none of the magazines were ever interested, not for a nickle, except AMAL printed one of them for free and butchered it beyond recognition. I give up. I may do something once in a while just to satisfy a personal craving, but I'd guess the sign industry is just too small to grab enough of an audience to publish to.
I hear a rumor Sign Business Illustrated will actually pay for tech articles, but I doubt a book is a safe bet, and the mags don't pay much if at all.

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"If it isn't fun, why do it?"
Signmike@aol.com
Mike Languein
Doctor of Letters
BS, MS, PhD
___________________

You know what BS is, MS is More of the Same, and it's Piled Higher and Deeper here

Posted by DianeBalch (Member # 1301) on :

It may not apply to sign making, but I've written 2 book chapters on photolithograpy and optics used in computer chip fabrication. I think everyone involved lost money. Sales didn't even go up when they were translated into Russian and Chinese. I made a total of $50.

ernie

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Balch Signs
1045 Raymond Rd
Malta, NY 12020
Wholesale Routing

http://www.balchsigns.com

Posted by Tom Rose (Member # 606) on :

Hi Dave,

Interesting topic. I have not written a book, but did make 2 videos for the sign business. One on running a prosperous small signshop and one on estimating for the small signshop. I really felt that some of the things I learned over the years could help others. I have a website www.signshopvideos.com to promote them along with ads in sign magazines.

The end result is a bunch of work making them, a bunch of money spent advertising them with a very limited number of sales. I probably am in the hole for all of my time plus about$ 1050.00 in ads. The good news is that I did get a video camcorder that I use to take family videos and videos of our foster kids!

I think that the people that really could benefit from books and videos are the very people that do not buy them!

Stupid me, I am still considering making another one on hand lettering.....

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Tom Rose
1938 Model Sign Dude

T.Rose Signs Whitehall,PA
610-264-2541
E-mail tomrose@fast.net

Posted by Mikes Mischeif (Member # 1744) on :

I've received millions for my book, yet I havn't written one word yet. I'd say it's worth it.

-Hillary

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Mike Duncan
Lettercraft Signs
Alexandria VA

From here on down, its all up hill.

[This message has been edited by Mikes Mischeif (edited June 05, 2001).]

Posted by CJ Allan (Member # 52) on :

Dave........
Are you planning on doing a book.....??
Obviously the publishers mentioned above failed to promote their clients books, cause the authors work speaks for itself. Both Dan and Mike are not only top notch sign men, but do a damn good job at writing as well.........!!
Magazines are without a doubt the cheapest of all to work with.......they never have any money, and always tell ya how much exposure you will get.....yada, yada, etc, etc..............anyway, that's another story.......

Give me a call if want.......there are a number of ways to make your book project both fun, and Profitable.......!!

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CJ Allan
CJs Engraving & Designing
Hazel, Ky.
270-492-6209
cjallan@cjs-engraving.com
www.cjs-engraving.com

A Proud "Professional Guest" of this site!!

[This message has been edited by CJ Allan (edited June 05, 2001).]

Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :

CJ,

You asked if I was planning a book. Well, not yet. I didn't realize starting this thread would imply that I was interested in writting a book. I may be and just don't know it myself yet. At any rate, I'm not organized at this point to start a project like that. I continue to contribute articles for SBI and they seem to all get accepted for print. So far I'm 12 for 12 ( approval on 12 articles in 7 months time)

I was curious to see if there is enough of a market to make any money off writting a book.

The teacher I mentioned above had a market of every teacher in the 4-7 year old range, world wide. Thats alot of teachers and way more of a market than that of the sign biz.

Please keep more thoughts coming, and thanks folks.

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Draper The Signmaker
Bloomington Illinois USA
Get To A Letterhead Meet This Summer! See you there!
309-828-7110
drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat

Posted by Donna in BC (Member # 130) on :

I purchase books based on content that I can use at the current time, and if it isn't a repeat of what I already have on my shelf.

Dave, I'd bet that if you touched on the basics of digital printing for beginners, you could do well. There are those out there like me that haven't taken the leap yet, but will need a good reference guide when we/if we do one day.

Perhaps if you started now, I may have a digital printer by the time your book is published.

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Graphic Impact
Abbotsford, BC, Canada
gisigns@sprint.ca

Posted by Print Wright (Member # 850) on :

Print Wright
Gladstone
Australia
Writing and publishing is fraught with pitfalls. We started out writing and publishing, and have a number of books out in the market,selling well within the Australian market context. However they are only worthwhile doing because we print them ourselves and continue to reprint.
Many books are now (and always have been) published by the vanity press. You pay for them to print and publish the book. A guaranteed way for the author to lose heaps. Most conventional publishers will print off the books and market them for a few months. The remaining unsold copies are then remaindered and the author receives no commission on remaindered books.
Kerry

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Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :

I got it!

I'll call my series of books:

Digital Sign Shop For Dummies

Red Letters and Black Shadow on White Is A Big NO NO! (and here's why) For Dummies

Color Management For Edge Users....Because Gerber Gave Us The Tools With Absolutely No Understandable Instructions for Dummies
(that one will be a hit for sure)

Rapid Tac For Dummies....Every thing you wanted to know about RT products but was afraid to ask Roger!

(just kidding Roger....please don't get offended )

Sculpting HDU For Dummies...how to fire up that chain saw and create figureines for wedding cakes....big wedding cakes...for Danna and Bruce

Well, you get the idea.....maybe you have a favorite title?

Later
Draper

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Draper The Signmaker
Bloomington Illinois USA
Get To A Letterhead Meet This Summer! See you there!
309-828-7110
drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat

Posted by Tyler (Member # 2093) on :

Hey Dan, I bought your book through signcraft and recieved it last week. i read most all of it right when I got it, and found it to be very well written and interesting, and with great examples. I have a list of assorted books I want to pick up, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. Look at it this way, even if you arent making a lot of money doing it, at least you are helping out a bunch of fellow signmakers, right?

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Tyler Malinky

A Step Above Signs
Cleveland, Ohio
440.479.8129
440.842.1894 fax

www.astepabovesigns.com
tmalinky@astepabovesigns.com or exmayors@aol.com

Posted by Jeremy Lewis (Member # 1539) on :

If publishing a book, skip the printing altogether, and try the release as an electronic book first. You offer the book as a download that the reader downloads, the file unlocks when paid for, and they can read it on the screen or print out the pages they need the most.

Simple and fast, and doesn't require a publisher, and no printing cost. It will allow you to test books before printing a hit, and offer a lower price to customers since they won't be paying for a bunch of dead trees.

E-mail me for more info if you want:
lmlhypermedia@hotmail.com

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Order Signwriter's Pricing Guides and Electronic Books at: www.signwritersusa.com

Posted by Dan Antonelli (Member # 86) on :

One thing that was brought up here is the fact that the sign industry is a relatively small target market. For that specific reason, SignCraft has been pushing hard to have my book available not only to sign designer, but to graphic designers as well.

We have seen an increase in book sales over the last few months on Amazon.com. Tom was able to get the book available through them. The only downfall is that they buy the book at a much discounted rate, obviously, and there's not as much money in wholesale sales as when an end user purchases direct from SignCraft.

In my opinion, SignCraft has done a great job in promoting and advertising the book. It's in their best interest too - they have a big stake in the sales as well - after all, they laid out the money to get it published.

I considered self publishing, but am very glad I did not go that route. It worked out to be a good partnership with SignCraft - and I was fortunate to have them participate in making the book a reality.

I should also mention that if weren't for a few good folks here on the board, I don't know if the book would have even happened. When I first had the idea, I posted here to ask feedback, and a lot of you responded. That gave me a little push to make the dream a reality.

One of the last memories of my father (who passed away last May) was reading the proofs of the book right before it was published. He was very proud, although he did tell me that I was "giving away all my secrets"!

If people before me hadn't given away all their secrets, I wouldn't be here today!

CJ & Tyler - thanks for your kind words about the book and my work.

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Dan Antonelli
Graphic D-Signs, Inc.
Union, NJ
www.graphicd-signs.com
dan@graphicd-signs.com

"You won't get wise with the sleep still in your eyes, no matter what your dream may be" - Rush

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