When you work w/ an Amazon or other large scale company, you could get wild swings in orders. I was at a company that rode that for almost 1/2 their business until they either switched vendors or calculated they could build it themselves. I wonder what percent of FedEx/UPS disappeared when Amazon built its own delivery service. And cut out all the training FedEx/UPS does for its drivers...
The 21st century has tools that enable small, niche businesses to effectively market their products and compete with the big and small guys. You do pay modest amounts to Substack, your web services provider and possibly a couple of others. These services have killed many small niche intermediaries and agents who distribute to small specialty stores, but open markets and keep costs low. I frequently visit specialty stores around the country. There are several whose products and customers would respond to a couple LAP works. Ever the enthusiast, I recommend LAP. I seek out the purchasing manager and share the LAP website, but I have yet to see a book. Perhaps some editions could be available through such shops, via carefully selected agents in a different cost model? I would love to hear your struggles keeping up to move volumes of stock out of the bigger LAP warehouse!
First: Amazon won't help you. Folks who want your kind of stuff have already or will find you.
Second: when my wife and I were looking for our first house, 20 years ago, we wanted nothing more than $150,000, and we wanted it in the town we're in, Bay Village, Ohio, which is a freakishly nice place to live. But we kept finding houses that were very small or very run-down.
Our finance guy, Bob Wilson (PRAISE HIS NAME), said to me, "you know, you guys are approved for about $400,000 ... interest rates are at an all-time low ... you COULD buy a LITTLE more house". This freed up our search, and we found a much bigger four-bedroom colonial for $225,000.
What Bob Wilson (PRAISE HIS NAME) did there, was save our family a move, put our family in a home big enough for our two boys (only one of which we had at the time), for my little boat, my wood-shop, my kid's model railroad, my wife's horse tack, and a lot of other stuff for which people want space.
Bob Wilson (PRAISE HIS NAME) prevented us from having to move the whole time we raised our boys to adulthood - never having to change homes, neighbors, friends, etc.
Chris Schwarz - you GOTTA buy that bigger building. Listen to the wisdom of Bob Wilson (PRAISE HIS NAME).
Think I’d rephrase as “should have a plan.” Not all of them do. And not all of them know everything they need to.
Richard Feynman has a great quote:
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
Some folks can make a business happen with hard work and good connections. But there’s a lot more to it than just that. The road to profit *may* follow.
All small businesses have a plan. Take Henry Disston for example. He started out in a cellar making hand saws. It grew as a businesses because of hard work and a vision. Stick to the plan. The road to profit will follow. It maybe not as smooth as you want it. All profitable gains come with great risk, and great responsibility. Good luck l am sure you will be fine with expanding.
Pretty sure at 5 bucks a pop, times "thousands of paid subscribers" according to Substack, this year is going to be OK at LAP. You can probably afford a big building, especially at your local prices.
Congrats on the success of this new blog. Truly.
Also, as many coasties report; land anywhere around a city on either coast is near unobtainium for most. 150k will barely buy you a used meth camper here in the PNW. Wish there was saltwater for me in Cincinnati.
Carrying debt is crossing a Rubicon. Smart debt is one way to grow success. And dumb debt, well, that is a spiral to hell. Fortunately for us, your debt sounds smart.
124,000 public and educational libraries in the U.S. according to the ALA. With the quality of materials, craftsmanship and subject matter; and just a bit of controlled and targeted marketing, orders will come rolling in. But you've probably done that.
Cutting royalties might reduce your revenues and profits. It would almost certainly result in fewer authors agreeing to write for LAP, and at least some of the authors who wrote for the reduced royalties would be less enthusiastic and the resulting book would probably be lower quality. Both would decrease revenue and might offset any increase in profit from reduced royalties.
Selling through Amazon and other national distributors such as Barnes & Noble would probably result in it's own set of problems which might not be worth the aggravation. At worse becoming dependent on third parties to sell your product would make you vulnerable to changes in the policies and practices and related.
My wheelchair accessible shop has an oversized step up a steep ramp to get in. It still attracts the best of us to come visit and work. Thank you LAP our lives are better for your hard work. Spiders and all. Tell John that I went with the no.7.
Fair winds and following seas to you and your company!
Your books are amazing, your tools are great, keep doing what you are doing, maybe the new space allows you to get more people in the class, maybe I will get in one.
"We sell directly to consumers" I understand and empathize with the decision but it has some second order consequences like not having your books in public libraries. Libraries buy books too and our library system, which covers a large swath of a major metro area, will try and buy books that are requested by patrons that they cannot get from within their library lending network. When I requested they add some Lost Art Press titles (a few more sales couldn't hurt right?) they couldn't get them from their primary book suppliers. The librarian I worked with said she even tried the Amazons and B&N's but she couldn't get approval to buy the books she could find on Amazon because they were over $100 from secondary sellers. I'm not sure if worrying about accessiblilty via libraries is a luxury the business can afford, but it might be worth considering the second order impacts some of these decisions have on the books and the business. Good luck with the warehouse plans.
When you work w/ an Amazon or other large scale company, you could get wild swings in orders. I was at a company that rode that for almost 1/2 their business until they either switched vendors or calculated they could build it themselves. I wonder what percent of FedEx/UPS disappeared when Amazon built its own delivery service. And cut out all the training FedEx/UPS does for its drivers...
The 21st century has tools that enable small, niche businesses to effectively market their products and compete with the big and small guys. You do pay modest amounts to Substack, your web services provider and possibly a couple of others. These services have killed many small niche intermediaries and agents who distribute to small specialty stores, but open markets and keep costs low. I frequently visit specialty stores around the country. There are several whose products and customers would respond to a couple LAP works. Ever the enthusiast, I recommend LAP. I seek out the purchasing manager and share the LAP website, but I have yet to see a book. Perhaps some editions could be available through such shops, via carefully selected agents in a different cost model? I would love to hear your struggles keeping up to move volumes of stock out of the bigger LAP warehouse!
First: Amazon won't help you. Folks who want your kind of stuff have already or will find you.
Second: when my wife and I were looking for our first house, 20 years ago, we wanted nothing more than $150,000, and we wanted it in the town we're in, Bay Village, Ohio, which is a freakishly nice place to live. But we kept finding houses that were very small or very run-down.
Our finance guy, Bob Wilson (PRAISE HIS NAME), said to me, "you know, you guys are approved for about $400,000 ... interest rates are at an all-time low ... you COULD buy a LITTLE more house". This freed up our search, and we found a much bigger four-bedroom colonial for $225,000.
What Bob Wilson (PRAISE HIS NAME) did there, was save our family a move, put our family in a home big enough for our two boys (only one of which we had at the time), for my little boat, my wood-shop, my kid's model railroad, my wife's horse tack, and a lot of other stuff for which people want space.
Bob Wilson (PRAISE HIS NAME) prevented us from having to move the whole time we raised our boys to adulthood - never having to change homes, neighbors, friends, etc.
Chris Schwarz - you GOTTA buy that bigger building. Listen to the wisdom of Bob Wilson (PRAISE HIS NAME).
Think I’d rephrase as “should have a plan.” Not all of them do. And not all of them know everything they need to.
Richard Feynman has a great quote:
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
Some folks can make a business happen with hard work and good connections. But there’s a lot more to it than just that. The road to profit *may* follow.
All small businesses have a plan. Take Henry Disston for example. He started out in a cellar making hand saws. It grew as a businesses because of hard work and a vision. Stick to the plan. The road to profit will follow. It maybe not as smooth as you want it. All profitable gains come with great risk, and great responsibility. Good luck l am sure you will be fine with expanding.
Just signed up paid to support the journey. Carry on!
Pretty sure at 5 bucks a pop, times "thousands of paid subscribers" according to Substack, this year is going to be OK at LAP. You can probably afford a big building, especially at your local prices.
Congrats on the success of this new blog. Truly.
Also, as many coasties report; land anywhere around a city on either coast is near unobtainium for most. 150k will barely buy you a used meth camper here in the PNW. Wish there was saltwater for me in Cincinnati.
We’re rooting for you.
Carrying debt is crossing a Rubicon. Smart debt is one way to grow success. And dumb debt, well, that is a spiral to hell. Fortunately for us, your debt sounds smart.
"You're gonna need a bigger boat"
124,000 public and educational libraries in the U.S. according to the ALA. With the quality of materials, craftsmanship and subject matter; and just a bit of controlled and targeted marketing, orders will come rolling in. But you've probably done that.
"Don't work with sex leeches"?
Now you tell me.
Too late.
Don't spend so much energy on expansion, that you forget to make the Gibson chair video.
Estragon and I are waiting for Gibson.
Cutting royalties might reduce your revenues and profits. It would almost certainly result in fewer authors agreeing to write for LAP, and at least some of the authors who wrote for the reduced royalties would be less enthusiastic and the resulting book would probably be lower quality. Both would decrease revenue and might offset any increase in profit from reduced royalties.
Selling through Amazon and other national distributors such as Barnes & Noble would probably result in it's own set of problems which might not be worth the aggravation. At worse becoming dependent on third parties to sell your product would make you vulnerable to changes in the policies and practices and related.
I have absolutely no idea what any business, anywhere, should do. Anyone who asks me for business advice might as well ask me for fashion advice too.
But in the words of Chauncey Gardner, "I like to watch."
My wheelchair accessible shop has an oversized step up a steep ramp to get in. It still attracts the best of us to come visit and work. Thank you LAP our lives are better for your hard work. Spiders and all. Tell John that I went with the no.7.
Fair winds and following seas to you and your company!
Your books are amazing, your tools are great, keep doing what you are doing, maybe the new space allows you to get more people in the class, maybe I will get in one.
"We sell directly to consumers" I understand and empathize with the decision but it has some second order consequences like not having your books in public libraries. Libraries buy books too and our library system, which covers a large swath of a major metro area, will try and buy books that are requested by patrons that they cannot get from within their library lending network. When I requested they add some Lost Art Press titles (a few more sales couldn't hurt right?) they couldn't get them from their primary book suppliers. The librarian I worked with said she even tried the Amazons and B&N's but she couldn't get approval to buy the books she could find on Amazon because they were over $100 from secondary sellers. I'm not sure if worrying about accessiblilty via libraries is a luxury the business can afford, but it might be worth considering the second order impacts some of these decisions have on the books and the business. Good luck with the warehouse plans.