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Josie: Just so that we don't get at cross-purposes, I'm talking cottage-industry here. > > Barely -- just done a google-search for images of Sappho and Anacreon to get > > pretty pictures for the cover -- admittedly, I didn't cost-in a wrap-around > > 160 gm cover, printed by ink-jet (colour) -- that would add at the most > > another 10p. > > > An offer for future reference. On PA I have access to 140 > printmakers, mostly professionals, some of whom have already > done book illustrations. If at any time you, or anyone else > on this lust, require some illustrative work please consider > a collaborative effort with one of them. I am happy to post > any image requests to PA and I'm sure that many would jump > at the chance to collaborate. At the moment we are > undertaking a project themed 'illustration' where the > particpants are responding to a fragment of text of their > choice and making an edition of prints to exchange. We are > also setting up an exchnage based on digital printmaking > which is another story Point. As well, the images I pulled from the Net are prolly copyright (your accountant would know) -- but I was doing quick-and-dirty on this. And yes, it +costs+ to get properly trained in design and layout. But I DO rather object to paying through the nose (paying whom?) when I can (in even my own amateurish fashion) Do Better Myself. > Was that 40p to me? Promise not to spend it all at once ... FINALLY got the damn thing paginated properly -- now all I have to do is work out how to shift all the pages three pages forward (and allow me to have a title/acknowledgements pages, ISBN [where DO you get these?], etc.) without re-screwing-up the pagination. 40p plus postage (Australia is a bit away from here). > All that was off the top of my head, in practice, 'real' > cost accounting gets much much more complicated. I was > merely pointing out some of the factors that tend to get > overlooked when people gasp at the price of things. What I > did leave out is the environmental and social costings but > that's also another story. See above. I'm not arguing your Real-World Costings (add in, e.g., business rates on running a print-shop) -- but when laser-printers dropped below £200 to produce an identical end-product, the ball-game changed. > > I had one of those chain-phone-calls on this. The Demon Princess said, > > "Daddy, you're an idiot -- they paid mum £100 for the cover of _The Coffee > > House_." Not that long after, my ex-wife was on the phone ["Do you know > > where our daughter is at the moment?"] and I said, inter alia, DID they pay > > you £100 for the cover of _The Coffee House_?" and she said, "Are you > > joking? Zilch." > > Yes, well, I can relate to this. Artists have all the same > problems that writers have it would seem, You want to suffer, try writing an opera libretto. My hair stood on end when i discovered that one of your compatriots (You Know Who I Mean) was flogging off an opera she wrote (and I wrote the libretto for) for seventy five frigging aussie dollars. Really do wish i hadn't lost the contract that guaranteed me 7.5% of the royalties ... > with the added > factor of material costs. Most of the time they dont break > even on materials and are expected to be grateful for an > opportunity to get their work seen - but I'm not telling you > anything you didn't already know, am I? [funnily enough - > mine own daughter gets occasionally called demon-spawn, are > they related?] Almost certainly -- does your daughter knit? > > Well, if you're so clever, _you_ print dave's b*gg*r*d to b*ts*y Chide 1. > > Not _that_ kind of printmaker *chuckle* How much is he > payin? Paying? You're joking. I got lumbered for Chide as I have (for my sins) a laser printer and dave has an inkjet. Cost of consumables, and in an insane fit, I said, "I'll do it." But you could try him for a (free) cover-illustration. Cheers Robin