Toni wrote:
>Well, lads,
>so let´s get this thing off the ground, then. This has been a dream of
>mine for the best part of two decades. Just a matter of collecting as
>many photos, catalogues and old people´s tales (Mick Butler, are you
>listening? :-) as possible, verifying and editing. Matter of three or
>four years, I guess. I´ve just finished my latest project, and I have
>a lot of experience in writing stuff that no publisher will ever touch,
>so there we go.
>
>Who´ll join the fun?
If "The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles" is a success (see below), Vintage Bicycle Press might be interested in doing another book.
And Peter Jourdain wrote:
>Sounds great, Toni. I agree with your timeline. Of
>course it would require a MASSIVE effort, many
>contacts, and not a few Pounds Sterling, akin to the
>task which Jan Heine recently described on the CR List
>on Feb. 24 regarding his forthcoming book, THE GOLDEN
>AGE OF HANDBUILT BICYCLES. The cooperation of the VCC,
>folks like Hilary Stone, Mick Butler, Peter Paine and
>others, would be monumentally important.
Yes, that cooperation would be important just to find the bikes.
>
>Of crucial importance would be ensuring the QUALITY of
>the photos and illustrations, the accuracy of
>information, and the style and verve of the writing.
>Anyone like me can snap a photo of a bike, but a book
>of the type I am imagining requires the utmost quality
>that only a professional or EXTREMELY accomplished
>amateur photographer can deliver.
It is an issue of cost: Count on roughly $ 800-1000 a day for photography - assuming the photographer does not get paid. Jean-Pierre Praderes, the photographer for "The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles" is a great fan of the British Velocette motorbikes (he has two and races a KTT), so he might just get roped into another "pro-bono" project.
The above daily expense is just for equipment rental, film and development. Also count on 3-4 hours per bike, after an initial set-up of ca. 8 hours. If you can rent a studio near the location of the bikes, reduce the setup to 4 hours, but add $ 250 a day for the rental.
As always, the main issue is cost.
If you want 50 bikes included (as in "The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles"), assuming they are strategically located, you need at least 10 days of photography. More likely, you'll need 15 days. Plus travel, car rental, hotels, etc.
Then you need to do professional scans of the images, for another $ 6000-8000. You could use a digital camera, but the rental would be more than the cost of scanning, plus getting the power to people's barns/garages/cellars to run flashes is difficult enough. If your computer/camera shuts down every time a circuit breaker is tripped...
Then you need to print. For 168 pages, count on about $ 25,000-35,000 depending on the print run. Softcover is a bit less.
Add it all up, and do the math. If you sell the book only to the 100-200 die-hard British lightweight enthusiasts, each one would cost you $ 250-500, and you would not sell a single copy. Sure, if you can get the VCC on board, you may sell a few more and bring the price down some. But as Peter mentioned, there is a lot of territorialism in the vintage world. I have tried for years to get Vintage Bicycle Quarterly reviewed or just mentioned by the VCC - I think it might be of interest to some of their readers - but alas, with no success.
Further complicating things, many vintage cycling enthusiasts don't have much money, and the little they have is spent on building their collections. So if your book costs the same as an "Open-C" Campagnolo quick release on e-bay, the quick release will win out 3 times out of 4.
So your book has to appeal to a wider cycling audience - through its sheer beauty. After all, part of the purpose behind such a book is to generate interest in the subject matter. But here you run a risk that for many who haven't even heard of Thanet or think that Raleigh is a Chinese brand, all old bicycles look alike. Including the many funny frames might help here... so a British book is at an advantage over an Italian one.
For me, the "The Golden Age of Hand-Built Bicycles" is a test. If the book does well, meaning that I do not lose money, and maybe even make a bit for thousands of hours of work, I can see publishing another book of similar quality.
But it is easy to see why no serious publisher will touch such a project. If you had to pay the photographer, the writer, etc., you need to sell tens of thousands of books just to break even. And the bicycle world isn't big enough for that.
That said, the British bikes have a variety - both in frame designs and components - that rarely is found elsewhere, making this a very appealing project. So let's keep the project in mind. Start compiling lists of important bikes in presentable, original condition. No repaints unless it is a historically important machine (say the very first Hetchins or a bike that won the Tour of Britain). Are all components correct? Is the paint/chrome good enough to shine in the photos? Think geographically - are there collections that could yield 10 or more bikes? But also make sure that you have enough variety. A Hetchins collector could fill a whole book with those lovely machines, but for the general audience, you need balance.
Who are the experts to contribute about each subject and review the texts? Who could write the entire text in a way that it speaks to average cyclists, and not just die-hard enthusiasts? Who has historic photos and brochures? Etc.
Let's talk again in a year then.
--
Jan Heine, Seattle
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles
140 Lakeside Ave, Ste. C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com