>Peter and Rupert are right in what they say, and point up a hole in the
>marketplace that we all know exists. It is self-evident that a publication
>of 200 copies (or several such) is not going to support a repping system
>whose overheads are inherently high - subsidy or no.
absolutely
>What's needed is a website, such as the one SPD is constructing, such as
>the ones that exist in Australia (AWOL etc), such as the one that Peter
>himself sought to set up, where overhead can be kept to a minimum. If they
>can take on-line orders by credit card, I suspect that a large part of the
>"marketing" problem can be solved for small presses with small print-runs.
>It would still exclude the offline part of society, but given the rate at
>which we're all going online that should not be an insuperable problem.
absolutely
I've been talking with various 'funding' people about a gateway website for
all indie products - books, videos, CDs, CDRoms and so on. It's likely to
come on-line in the fall this year. With the fold of the proposed, long
touted (even by moi) then dumped, lottery recordings and publications
schemes and looming successors to such, to situation is going to go a mite
critical. We sell far only through selected outlets, such as the ICA, where
there's an outward cross-art form audience, interested in new work per se
- whether it be writing, sound composition, text-based installation,
performance and on. That's the context and the mixed gateway I'm
advocating.
Direct Mail cuts out the cuts and puts the costs back under publisher's
control somewhat. Although I don't personally feel that cheaper books will
sell more books.
love and love
cris
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