Macca's 21st Edition -the first printed offshore, behind the scenes

Greg McDonald · November 16, 2013, 01:24:04 AM

Hi PP,

Welcome to the very stressful world of the "behind the scenes" workings of marketing, not to mention the writing and publication" of a book. I have always maintained that for every word that appears in one of my books I have written ten words behind the scenes. This entails writing press releases, brochures to mints, dealers, clients etc as well as directions to the printer regarding paper stock and distributors, as well as organising barcodes, ISBN numbers etc, etc, etc.

I also take on board what you had to say Interest. I have been very proud of the fact that my previous 25 books were printed in Australia. This is the first one that was not and I didn't even know about the change of direction until late July and when I was already into updating the new edition.

While my printer Ligare in Sydney has a solid footprint with a strong future in Australia, it remains a fact that the average novel sells around 1500 to 3000 copies.

Over the past ten years our print run has varied from 14,000 to 18,000 copies per edition. This means this one book can dominate a printing press for days if not weeks, while smaller (and more profitable) books wait their turn.

There is no doubt that the printing industry is going through the same tough times as the motor industry and any other manufacturer who comes within the sights of governments (of both persuasions) that are run by mostly academics and union officials that wouldn't have a clue about running a business. Just look how the recent changes to Self Managed Super Funds have resulted in the demise of several major numismatic dealers as well as untold art galleries, antique dealerships etc.

As far as my situation goes, I got a telephone message in July from my printer saying that big jobs like mine were just not cost effective to produce in Australia due to higher wages and benefits. I am not arguing against any of this .... that's just the way it is.

Anyway, my printer has invested in a state of the art complex in Singapore and while my current book was supposed to be printed in Australia as usual, the decision from management was that my book was to be printed off sure. I was not happy about this last minute decision for the reasons outlined by interest but I resigned myself to the fact that the Singapore was Australian owned and a fair percentage of the profits came back to Australia. If you think this is a copout, just remember where the bulk of the profits have gone from building Ford or Holden cars in Australia.

My biggest problem in having the news about the new printing situation was that I had to bring forward my print date by five weeks. That was a struggle bout we got there.

When discussing the change with the printer, I asked how the book could be printed more cost effectively thousands of miles away, some of the answers were very interesting. One was taxation was so low most businesses were just happy to pay it without having to employ expensive accountants to get too creative. There is no such thing as "payroll" which is in the 21st century about as outrageous as the 16th century inquisition.

I hear what you are saying interest but unless this country can find a leader who has some basic "hands-on" business experience we are stuffed. It's not a case of other countries taking our jobs .... we're giving them away.

In my own case the savings I made in costs was about as much as I pay in tax each year. I wonder what the government would say about me continuing to print in Australia, paying the extra costs to keep jobs in Australia but giving me a discount on my tax. Not a chance as that's the sort of thinking you'd get from someone who has had business experience.

With the recent change of government there are a lot of new faces on both sides...as well as a colourful mix of independents. I wonder if anyone who loves to work on mintage figures would be interested in researching the backgrounds of all our elected elite and letting us know just how many have had any business background. I think it is crash that you need more brains and skill to fly a Jumbo Jet than you do to be elected to Parliament and potentially run the show.. "Mr Finch, this is your cue to go to the window...now in a loud voice....!"

Fulvio · November 16, 2013, 02:06:19 AM

Quote from: 'Greg McDonald' pid='34541' dateline='1384527244'just not cost effective to produce in Australia

This is one of those issues that's just never going to go away.

Its not that there's anything wrong with globalisation. Nor is it simply that aussies get paid too much.

If you grow apples and I grow bananas, and we both do our bit as efficiently as possible, then we both benefit from better, cheaper apples AND bananas.

But that isn't what happens here. Instead, You grow apples, I try to grow both, poorly. So your apples clobber mine, as do someone else's bananas. Then you use the money from your sales to buy my farm out from under me, and I end up growing nothing. Instead I become a middleman selling your apples and bananas, and jacking up the price tenfold. So everyone loses.

Is it just the politicians to blame? I don't think so. Its business people and consumers as well. Business people for looking no further than immediate profits, and consumers for both failing to support local producers and also failing to keep them honest. You need only look at goods which have zero local content. Compare prices here to anywhere else in the world to see how we're ripped off on absolutely everything.

The thing is, it doesn't have to be this way. We have so much talent here, that we could easily take on any and all comers, at least in the developed world. But we don't. And worse, our brightest people end up being forced offshore because they simply can't achieve anything here. And that's a tragedy, I reckon.

PNC king · November 17, 2013, 07:35:28 PM

i was wondering when this guide will be coming out on ipad , so we can save money on postage my simply downloading it and save the enviroment by going paperless

robbiegal · November 17, 2013, 07:41:05 PM

the e-reader maccas
good suggestion

only prob is maybe about 65% of collectors are older and aren't quite as IT savvie as our younger counterparts ... speaking for myself of course!

PNC king · November 17, 2013, 07:43:44 PM

Quote from: 'robbiegal' pid='34721' dateline='1384679465'the e-reader maccas
good suggestion

only prob is maybe about 65% of collectors are older and aren't quite as IT savvie as our younger counterparts ... speaking for myself of course!

and maybe all previous maccas could be down loaded to paperless , most oldies are slowly getting up to speed , most beging computer classes are attended by over 65 year old s

robbiegal · November 17, 2013, 07:47:31 PM

do you have to pay for these downloaded books?

PNC king · November 17, 2013, 07:56:31 PM

Quote from: 'robbiegal' pid='34726' dateline='1384679851'do you have to pay for these downloaded books?

yes you have to pay , but you would pay less for paperless as you do not have to carry the printing and paper and postage costs

trout · November 17, 2013, 09:07:22 PM

Quote from: 'markn' pid='34733' dateline='1384682790'Can we please keep this thread on topic.

:agreed:
If you mob want to "Cheapskate" around getting the hard copy then simply start a new thread :ok:
Me personally, I always get the latest addition of Maccas simply because it is an Australian numismatic item filed with useful information and I like to have the hard copy when I go away when I don't have internet access to "Blue sheet"
The Maccas book ,renniks and the US "Red book" are all just guides to values and are pretty accurate at the time of printing :ok:
If you want "Real time" values you will have to pay way more than $30 a year :angel:

robbiegal · November 17, 2013, 09:59:41 PM

oh
I guess it's good re; paper & resources
no, I don't think that it's cheapsaking - there is a new emerging generation of ebook people - the e-reader thingies are testament to that

but I have a son whose income is being a bookseller
I am seeing the jobs that go down the gurgler with the ebook world

so for people like me - it's just another way for people to lose their jobs

sorry i'll go back on topic and order one please

trout · November 17, 2013, 10:13:09 PM

Good on ya Rg :good:

Greg McDonald · November 17, 2013, 11:17:27 PM

Thanks for that Trout. Appreciate the support. Thanks to everyone else who has purchased a copy.

I get about half a dozen offers a year from people who want to go into a "partnership" to have the book as an app or down load of some description.

I'd be happy to do this but one thing that worries me is the amount of photographs that would have to be included. Wouldn't 3000 images sort of "overload" the app or take days to download.

It has taken me years and countless hours to get all the pics I have on file and to me the collection is priceless (well almost). The pics are the real value of the book.

If I did produce an ebook, what protection would I have against someone simply downloading all the images and producing their own book.

I am a bit of a novice when it coms to advanced electronics but I have some personal experience of this. Back in my youth a mate and I hitch hiked and bused across the USA from San Francisco to New York when he lived. Had six weeks on the road and six weeks in New York. WE've kept in touch over the years and he even came back to Oz for my 50th birthday.

My mate was a mathematics professor and he had a teenage son who was so brilliant it was scary. When the iPhone (Sanyo version) first came out in the USA you had to sign up to just the one telephone provider. This upset all the other providers and many of their customers.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, my mate's son brought a phone and pulled it apart. It didn't take him long to rewire the innards so that you could insert any chip. He put it on Utube and before long he was on every major news program including CNN, Fox etc.

At one stage Sanyo was going to sue him but decided that was going to be a lost leader as he was only 14. They made a smarter move by paying for all his college fees and having a seriously well paid job waiting for him.

That brings me to my point ... how safe would all my illustrations be. I know that most are now available on the web but they have to be enhanced, re screened and the colour balance improved. I guess that each coin in my book would take at least 2 to 3 minutes to do - not counting the time in looking for them in the first place.

Don't want to sound like I am being unhelpful but the book is my living and I really don't need a hundred clones of my book out there.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Regards

Greg

Fulvio · November 18, 2013, 12:39:57 AM

Quote from: 'Greg McDonald' pid='34751' dateline='1384692447'Thanks for that Trout. Appreciate the support. Thanks to everyone else who has purchased a copy.

I get about half a dozen offers a year from people who want to go into a "partnership" to have the book as an app or down load of some description.

I'd be happy to do this but one thing that worries me is the amount of photographs that would have to be included. Wouldn't 3000 images sort of "overload" the app or take days to download.

It has taken me years and countless hours to get all the pics I have on file and to me the collection is priceless (well almost). The pics are the real value of the book.

If I did produce an ebook, what protection would I have against someone simply downloading all the images and producing their own book.

I am a bit of a novice when it coms to advanced electronics but I have some personal experience of this. Back in my youth a mate and I hitch hiked and bused across the USA from San Francisco to New York when he lived. Had six weeks on the road and six weeks in New York. WE've kept in touch over the years and he even came back to Oz for my 50th birthday.

My mate was a mathematics professor and he had a teenage son who was so brilliant it was scary. When the iPhone (Sanyo version) first came out in the USA you had to sign up to just the one telephone provider. This upset all the other providers and many of their customers.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, my mate's son brought a phone and pulled it apart. It didn't take him long to rewire the innards so that you could insert any chip. He put it on Utube and before long he was on every major news program including CNN, Fox etc.

At one stage Sanyo was going to sue him but decided that was going to be a lost leader as he was only 14. They made a smarter move by paying for all his college fees and having a seriously well paid job waiting for him.

That brings me to my point ... how safe would all my illustrations be. I know that most are now available on the web but they have to be enhanced, re screened and the colour balance improved. I guess that each coin in my book would take at least 2 to 3 minutes to do - not counting the time in looking for them in the first place.

Don't want to sound like I am being unhelpful but the book is my living and I really don't need a hundred clones of my book out there.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

OK, moving this over to the other thread so as not to upset Mark with too much offtopicness. :angel:

I'll draft a reply in a minute...

runway · November 18, 2013, 12:57:52 AM

Insiders Club Newsletter wheres that going Greg?

Fulvio · November 18, 2013, 01:40:10 AM

Quote from: 'Greg McDonald' pid='34751' dateline='1384692447'If I did produce an ebook, what protection would I have against someone simply downloading all the images and producing their own book.

This is a complex issue, but here's my broad view...

Content and Form are two different things. And there are multiple vested interests in any publication, regardless of the form it takes.

An Author wants to reach as broad an audience as possible. And hopefully to receive some remuneration for the immense amount of work that goes into the creative process.

A Publisher wants to make as much money as possible, charging the maximum and paying out the minimum to authors, printers and the distribution chain.

A Retailer wants to bring customers in while making a reasonable (or higher) return.

A Reader/User/Buyer wants the content, in as convenient as form as possible, for the minimum outlay.

These vested interests are usually at odds, and as we've seen in the music and film worlds, the publishers are very quick to cry about being robbed by pirates. Artists however are not all of a like mind, and cover the full spectrum from overbearing protection to giving content away for free.

Print media is even more complex, since there is a dissociation between the physical copy, the content and the underlying information, especially with reference works. If you copy a movie or a song, the copy is clearly identified for what it is. Likewise if you photocopy a book. But what if you plagiarise parts of the book, or rewrite tabular information in a new form? Not so simple, eh?

So when dealing with a product like Maccas, where exactly does it fit, and what's the best option(s)?

Well, the information it contains is voluminous and also perishable. A single copy doesn't suffice, because the information changes and dates quickly. But buying multiple copies of the exact same portions year after year is silly, not to mention environmentally unfriendly and economically unsound (as a consumer at least).

Online options tend to kill off print media. Who buys a new Melways every year when Google Maps and GPS are easier, quicker, cheaper and more current? But online options require data connections. Google is useless without internet access. GPS is useless without line of sight to multiple satellites and power to your receiver. So there is a place for offline access of some sort. And yes, that includes paper.

Now, personally, I have zero interest in feeding the middlemen. I regard publishers as bottom-dwelling scumsuckers, and don't want to line their pockets at all. Retailers are not quite as distasteful, because they provide other value, but they're certainly not a high priority to me either. To me, the author is the only one who deserves support, and I would much prefer to deal directly. Nor am I a huge fan of wasteful processes. Chopping down rainforests to provide a transport medium for thoughts is not responsible when there are better alternatives. I don't "do" newspapers and junk mail, and prefer my books and periodicals in electronic form.

So I would prefer a PDF of a publication that I can copy between devices, carry around in my pocket and search easily. That's why my decimal mintages and banknote prefixes lists are PDF's. I doubt I would ever commit either to paper.

So yes, an electronic Maccas would be a good thing.

But what about protection?

Well, protection against what, exactly?

Somebody copying it without payment? How does that differ from using an old copy, or borrowing the dealer's, going to the library and photocopying a few pages or whatever? If I'm not going to buy it, well, I'm not going to buy it... end of story. I'm not a customer, so there was no loss from the non-sale.

Stealing the images or other content? To what purpose? To sell a competing publication? That's not going to happen, and if it did, it would be easy to prove copyright infringement. For personal or trivial use? Who cares? If I take a photo and you swipe it, enjoy. I'm glad you liked it. It only becomes an issue if you stick your name on it and put it to commercial use, and even then we could come to some arrangement.

It seems to me the only valid concern is the possible loss of income if free alternatives exist. And there are lots of ways around that which various authors and publishers are using. Advertising is an obvious way to generate income. Subscription models work. So does asking for donations. Giving away base publications and charging for maintenance updates works too.

None of these are going to generate the retail price of a dead tree edition, but then most of that price is eaten up by third parties anyway. I'd be surprised if any more than five bucks finds its way into Greg's pocket from each sale anyway.

There is a certain inevitability to ePublishing, and its not a matter of if, but rather when, it becomes the only viable option. And that makes it worth researching thoroughly ASAP.

Bigfellani5 · November 18, 2013, 10:03:14 AM

Shame so many things are going offshore and costing Aussie jobs. I wish the same concern was shown every time a buy or sale is made on ebay as all those ebay fees are going offshore. There is also the issue that every time a bricks and morter coin dealer is not supported it is also costing jobs which is not good for Australia or your hobby.