#Arkhaven INFOGALACTIC #Castalia House
If you’re having any trouble retro-backing the bindery by acquiring an edition of THE ILIAD or THE ODYSSEY, please note that you can now do so via NDM Express as well.
In fact, NDM has actually gotten ahead of us and is now offering A SEA OF SKULLS Volumes One and Two for non-subscribers too.
Now that THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY are ready to go to print, we’re giving everyone two weeks to become a retro-backer of the bindery before we place the order for the interiors. For more details and interior images of the two books, including the title pages, please visit the Castalia Library substack. We’re also looking into the possibility of making them signed and numbered editions, if that’s of interest. Although Homer is obviously unavailable, we could arrange for them to be signed by either a) the bookbinder or b) me, depending upon which would make these very special editions even more desirable.
The results of the subscribers’ poll, in which nearly one-third of the Library subscribers made their opinions known, are now available on the Castalia Library substack. The new schedules have also been announced. A brief summary:
The entire team is in agreement that this plan is the best we are able to do in the circumstances. It might be worth noting that this was a community effort, as it was a subscriber who came up with the plan in the first place.
After some discussion, analysis, and research, we believe we’ve come up with a plan to address the panoply of rising costs of producing the world’s most beautiful books in a painless manner.
If you’re a Castalia subscriber, please read it, take part in the poll, and let us know what you think in the comments there. Please note that nothing has been decided yet, we’re just trying to come up with a plan that will work for everyone and maintain future viability without imposing unnecessary expenses on anyone.
So President Trump has imposed a 39 percent tariff on Switzerland. This has a direct impact on all the Castalia Library books now being produced in Switzerland, beginning with the Byzantine histories and Dracula. Now, the tariff is imposed on the declared value, not the retail price, so it’s not quite as bad as it looks, but it is a bit of a problem going forward since the discounts provided to subscribers for paying in advance don’t account for this additional expense to the 12 or so books now in production.
Now, even if we jacked up the subscription prices by 40 percent, our books would be a much-better value than Easton Press books, which go for $168. However, we know things are tight, and we don’t want to price our books out of the reach of subscribers who can’t afford a price increase right now.
So what we’re contemplating doing is to add a T-version of our base subscriptions to Library and History, similar to the Euro version of History, that will allow those subscribers who can a) afford the additional tariff cost and b) want to support the bindery. Libraria and Cathedra prices have a sufficient cushion to absorb the additional expense; we priced Cathedra with the expectation that there would be a tariff, although we were hoping for something in the 10-15 percent range. That would mean increasing the monthly subscription price from $50 to $75 for Library.
Another option, indeed, one that we’d originally contemplated from the start, is going back to producing all the US books in the USA, while producing the higher-quality books from the Bindery for Europe and the rest of the world. This would complicate our production runs, but since we could still produce all the interior book blocks from the same tariff-neutral location, would be entirely viable from a manufacturing standpoint. The primary downside is that we would have to establish another shipping operation instead of being able to rely solely on the US one.
Speaking of US production, THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON has passed the stamp test and will be getting bound and shipped to the warehouse very soon.
Anyhow, if you’re a Library, History, or Cathedra subscriber, please feel free to share your thoughts on how you think we should address the situation.
One of the elite rewards of the Hypergamouse campaign was the Coffee Table Book, which is a large horizontal edition with only two panels per page, thereby spreading out each episode to two pages and permitting larger panels and higher resolution art. This backer’s edition is now available at NDM Express as well as at the Arkhaven store and features the first 100 episodes of the popular comic as well as the nine episodes of the original black-and-white comic drawn by the original illustrator. NDM Express is recommended if you have credit card issues at Arkhaven.
There are more details at Sigma Game if you’re interested, including a picture of a test binding of the Hypergamouse leather edition in the new burgundy pigskin. But today is the last day to obtain a copy of this special edition with a very limited print run of less than 150.
If you are a business, and you do basically the same thing in a variety of ways, DO NOT PRETEND THAT YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE PRICE IS.
We make books. I can, and will, tell you what it costs to make a book. Now, obviously the specific price will vary depending upon whether you want to make one small paperback that will spontaneously combust within 15 years or a giant tome bound in albino orca leather and stamped with pure platinum, but the average price for a basic book is what it is.
For some reason, more and more businesses seem to get off on absolutely refusing to tell you anything at all about the price of their goods and services. Which in addition to being infuriating, and a waste of time, is counterproductive, because the first thing I do when I can’t get a price estimate is to go somewhere else where I can.
Is this an instinctive response to Amazon price-shoppers? Or are they simply attempting to delay the moment of truth when the potential customer decides if the acquisition is worth it or not? I don’t know and I don’t care.
Speaking of making books, I’m very pleased to say Castalia House is making a new book. Publishing it would probably be the more apt term, as I just finished the initial edit of a new Chuck Dixon novel. And it is really good, in fact, it’s even better than those Conan novels that, in a very real, official, and legal sense, never existed except as figments of your very vivid imaginations.
Castalia Bindery will be offering a new service soon to fill in the inevitable downtime in between book runs.
While we are extremely busy working on catching up to our backlog now that the bindery is fully operational, it is clear that there are going to be occasional days when we’re waiting for book blocks or leather to show up due to the vagaries of international shipment. So, we’re planning to take a page from some of the better old binderies out there and utilize that time turning nice old first edition and special edition hardcovers into custom leatherbound books.
Read more about it at the Castalia Library stack. If you’ve got an old first edition or a particular set in mind, get in touch. We’re not going to have time to do a lot of these, and they’ll have to fit in around the production runs, so first come, first served.
One of the elite rewards of the Hypergamouse campaign was the Coffee Table Book, which is a large horizontal edition with only two panels per page, thereby spreading out each episode to two pages and permitting larger panels and higher resolution art. This backer’s edition is now available at the Arkhaven store and at NDM Express. NDM Express is recommended if you have credit card issues at Arkhaven. We’re doing this for the benefit of those who missed the campaign for one week only and features the first 100 episodes of the Arkhaven comic as well as the nine episodes of the original black-and-white comic drawn by the original illustrator.
Each episode features large panels and stretches across two pages, which is why although the coffee table book is 222 pages, the content is exactly the same as the 115-page hardcovers and paperbacks that have already shipped out to all of the backers, including the essays by Vox and Lacey. It also has the special gold Arkhaven logo that is reserved for first editions. You can see more pictures, including the cover, at Sigma Game.
The price of the book is $169, which includes shipping. It’s a uniquely collectible and historical book. Unfortunately, the window of opportunity to buy a copy is just six more days, since the print run is going to be small, limited, and ordered very soon.
As for the leather edition, as you can see, we are making progress. And as will only be clear to the most discerning eyes, we will also be introducing our new pigskin leather with it.
Discover the life of Saint Henry II of the Holy Roman Empire, a pious and just ruler who lived a saintly life. He fought battles, built cathedrals, supported reforms in the church and monasteries and loved God above everything else including worldly power and riches.
This book came about because I was looking for children’s books about the patron saints of my godchild and some other little ones who are dear to me. When I couldn’t find anything, I decided to write one myself. This book would make a great Baptism, Confirmation, Christmas or birthday present for a little Henry in your life.
Our own Alisabetta, Princess of the Blood, has penned an illustrated story for Christian boys about Saint Henry, who, by a fortunate coincidence, is celebrated today. She’s crowdfunding it on Fund My Comic; the picture book is available in English, French, and Italian.
Saint Henry, also known as Henry II, was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1014 until his death in 1024. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church for his piety and support of the Church, and he was canonized in 1146.
In other crowdfunding news, you can still back John C. Wright’s campaign for the covers of his STARFIGHTER novels.