Hi Michael,
Pardon me for starting a new thread but I couldn't find an appropriate one to append to. I received my copy of your Bangladesh book today and I must say that it is excellent - both my wife and I enjoyed it immensely and I'm sure will continue to.
I'll admit that my primary motivation in ordering it was to evaluate the quality of the production and printing (vs Dudley's book) because I can compare many of the images to your online versions, but the book is worthwhile on its own merits. However I have a couple comments and questions, some of which are perhaps better answered by Dudley, but I thought I'd pose them all here and you can respond to those that you wish.
- I noticed that some images reproduced with more impact (relative to the web versions) than others. In particular, images which depend on shadow detail didn't do so well, as expected with offset reproduction. If you were doing this book again, or producing a new book, would you bias your image selection based on this or other criteria that you observed?
- I would have appreciated a little more text regarding the context of the images, even the location of the "bonus" photos at the back would have been nice. Is there any restriction with the layout templates to including more text on an image page or are you restricted to either just a text page or image/title page?
- I noticed that you, like myself, have a propensity to portrait format. With the format of this book this results in quite a bit of whitespace for these images. Is it possible to place two images on a page, or would you reconsider image selection the next time based on this? I noticed that some publishers offer a square format that might be better suited for a balanced mix of portrait/landscape.
- I did quite a bit of research (ie googling) re printing such a book and although I found a number of POD sites where the upfront costs were modest or zero and economical for very small runs or personal/friends use, the costs involved for a moderate run were quite a bit higher making them uneconomical. Are you (or any readers here) aware of any other viable options for moderate run printing, on the order of 1000 copies?
- When I ordered my book on your site the cart indicated a quantity of 250 still available. Do you care to share with us the actual number of copies sold to date?
TIA for any responses you feel inclined to make, and still marvelling over your book,
- DL