At last, took awhile but Switchbacks Vol I can now be bought on line. Kind of complicated to make happen since the book was printed in Boulder, is being sold in the states, and I live in France. My printer saved me. Steuben Press in Longmont was a major windfall. Did a search on the net for printers, they were one of many in Colorado, I liked what I read, liked even more what I heard when I called, decided then and there no need to search further. That turned out to be a great call. Pricing was excellent plus Adam, the owner, stocks them and mails them out when an order is received plus, and this is what totally saved my butt, the orders pass through his account. Without a residence in the states I was unable to have an account to do it myself. I asked if there was any possibility of doing it with him, told me he didn’t see any problems so why not! And with that all was in place. Then I just had to figure out how to create a site on Squarespace with an on-line store for the book.
So, the details, big book, weighs in at 1 lb 10 oz I’m told, 196 pages, 178 photos (yea, I counted them one day, had no idea before that, front and back covers aren’t included in the count), landscape format 12 in x 8,5 in, a really good quality silk paper for the interior and a laminated cover. It’s not a hard cover, would have been too expensive, which I suppose the book is already. Price is 42$, 48.50$ with the shipping.
Only ran-off 200 copies but also had another 100 covers printed so that if my some wonderful good luck I actually sell out the 200 and need some more I can have them at the same price as the first 200. Obviously a small run like that is way more expensive than if I’d run-off 1000 but I kind of hated the idea of ending up with books to throw away, not to mention the money thrown away. So 200 seemed like a good number, large enough to reduce the price but small enough that paying for them wasn’t a bank buster.
For those who have been waiting for the book and finally order it, all I can say is I hope it lives up to your expectations. I think it’s a good book, obviously since I did it, but I’m also someone who loves books and for me it’s a good book. Any screw-ups you find are mine; the book was literally a one-man show all the way until it got to the printer. I suppose that about covers it. No, one more thing, since the idea of doing the book has been so enthusiastically pushed by forum members for some time now, and since I like this forum and always find something interesting on it, 1$ of every book sold will be given to the forum administrators to help keep it going.
And no, there isn’t and won’t be an electronic version. I like books I can hold and turn pages and see lined up on the book shelves and loan to people when they see something they haven’t read so it’s in paper only. I’m old fashioned I guess. Logical I suppose since I’m old.
Okay, to order the book go to
http://velodogs-publishing.com. There are various pages of excerpts from the book (jpg’s of pages) and miscellaneous info and of course the part where you can order it. If you’re in the Boulder area you can also go to Vecchio’s and buy it from them to avoid the shipping cost. Otherwise sales are only via my site. Between the cost of the book and cost of shipping it to shops and the final retail price which I wanted to keep as low as I could there isn’t enough margin to make it all that interesting for shops to carry. Or at least that’s my thinking but if some shop wanted to sell it, for sure that’s doable. Personally I think the book is a fine way to market riding a road bike but on the other hand anyone who’d be interested in reading about riding a bike in France is already well sold on the sport.
Thanks for your patience all those who have been waiting for the book. Must admit I’m looking forward to hearing what people think of it, or at least I am if they like it!