18 June 2010

 

Why a Taboo Edition at all? 
Well, during the course of producing Retro Lovely #1 and #2 I have gotten quite a few submissions that I've had to turn down.  Not because they weren't awesome images, but because the content was a bit more revealing than the majority of work we've included in the issues.  The other part of it was, in issue #1 we had the image of Caroline Jones by Digital Articulation... originally that image was actually done up as this pseudo magazine cover, simply called "Taboo Edition"  Kevin the photog suggested we rework it to be Retro Lovely Taboo Edition, for the heck of it.  Well there had been more than just a few inquiries made by photographers and customers of Retro Lovely alike about this "Taboo Edition".  Touched on a nerve apparently.  So some more discussions have occured between enough of us that it had to be cosidered more seriously but the one rub is on one hand I am doing everything I can to grow Retro Lovely itself so that it can be more self supporting  (I still play bank for a lot of this) and be grown.  So much like the banks in the credit crisis... I'm personally tapped out.  I could possibly eek out the time to co-ordinate and produce this thing, but not subsidize it like I have Retro Lovely.  So began the thought of launching it much more as a partnership for those interested in it. 

 

I am thinking the Taboo Edition run 84 pages.

No ads but perhaps we allocate 4 pages for informational use.. so 80 pages of art.

 

Let's assume a modest run of 1000 copies. Using the same stocks as Retro Lovely each of those 80 pages would in effect cost $60.  So basically I am saying if 80 artists came together and had a page each, it would cost them $60 for that space.  Of the run it's also like each party is "buying" 12ish copies if each party sold their copies they be getting back $120+.

 

Now if this was launched and a few parties decided to partner in it we could begin promoting it (I did put an ad for it in Retro Lovely #2 and will have a sub-site for it by the time RL#2 is delivering) and pre-selling it.  So if right now we knew 100 people might pe-order a copy, that would be $1000 in funding.  If that $1000 came off the costs, it means the actual per page cost would come down to $47.50. If we might pre-sell 200 copies then the per page costs would only be $35.  Let's imagine a surreal scenario.... say we pre-sell the whole run.... 1000 copies times $10 each = $10,000....  Then what would happen is, it's fully paid for, every copy sells and I send everyone $65 per page they had in the issue.  Now if the pre-sales were solid enough, it might be that 2000 copies should be printed, the thing there is that additional 1000 er copy would seem really cheap, you'd go from each one costing $5 to each one running about $3 each.  The trick is maintaining the page count, there is a sweet spot. The other trick is to not print too many...  you never really know what the cost is until everyone is sold... like with RL#1, we were very very lucky it did so well... if the extra 1000 I printed were sitting in my basement unsold...  issue #2 would not be able to be printed... As the bank my hands would have been tied. I would most certainly not have gotten back the money I put up to help it along. I know there are a few of you on this mailing list know very well the anxiety of trying to figure out how many copies of a calendar, or poster, or book should be produced...

 

So what I am suggesting is.  Let's be super conservative on it.  Assume $60 per page.  Try to figure out our level of involvement each and commit a 50% deposit per page.  Then begin promoting it, and see if we can't get presales to take care of the balance of the costs.....  Thus some who might think "I'd love 4 pages and while shelling out $60 for one isn't too bad.... $240 hurts...."  A deposit of $120 for 4 isn't as bad and spreading it out helps plus the possibility that presales would pick up the slack.  Some of you have been very successful at marketing Retro Lovely that I think you will not have too hard of a time to promote, sell some and have it be very easy to do.  It might also be that some of the models we work with would be interested in this, actually themselves getting involved up front, invest a small amount to be in the mix. And there too, you could present it as "It's $30 but you get 6 copies" Or frankly I don't care how you might offer it to them....  might be in some instances you could say "You could be part of this simply by purchasing 6 copies"  Then the page is paid for, and you have 6 copies remaining which could earn you $60....or more.  You could also empower the model to promote an very easily between you have it be very very afforable to commit to.

 

Imagery too risque' for Retro Lovely. This does not mean they MUST be nudes showing things.... but they can.  I'd like to think of it like this.... if it would be suitable for Playboy or Penthouse, it would work for Taboo... if it were more at home in Hustler... NO.

 

I would still want the ability to say "no thanks" to some images if the quality wasn't there... I mean it should carry the same sort of level of quality RL has been..  just that it allows for more to be shown.  There would need to be retro-vintage elements in the images and I know it's possible, and with a title like Taboo to open the gates to some images that tend to the fetishy side of things pretty strongly...  so even there there could be some images that have the model mostly covered up, but the rest of it a bit too "fringe"... so while I'd not say "no fetishes allowed" I'd still say it would still not have to be something that would look at home in Hustler etc...  Save all that for Retro Lovely X, if it ever came to it.

 

I am thinking to announce this formally after shipping for RL#2 is underway.  We don't need a hard target right away, but once I think we have about 50-60% of the space spoken for I'd begin to think about a landing date.  If this could possibly hit before RL#3....somewhere midway between #2 and #3... that would be excellent in a few ways... mainly we'd not tax the audience too much... we would not be tempting those to choose between either over "cost" and wouldn't wear out our welcome.

 

OK... so it's official. There is the rough map. I am also not going to send future emails like this to anyone who has not told me the have an interest in RLTaboo, I'll set up a different mailing list for interested parties.

 

 

Michael

 

Also I say it from time to time, forgive my typos and grammar here, I pretty much just type as I think with these things.
 
Also please begin using this email address for me, my other one is dropping a lot of mails for some reason and I do not trust it.....  please now use  michael@retrolovely.com