new spire rock book is out

[markwebster]

I just published the new spire rock guidebook. Here are a few sample pages:

http://www.websterart.com/img/spire_rock_advertisement.pdf

 

So far it is only for sale at www.edgeworksclimbing.com This is the second edition, it's been out of print for 15 years. I did all the work this time, including all the photography, design and prepress. It's twenty pages, all in color, and includes the 2 biggest boulder problems, neither of which were in the old book. I'm going to gradually get it out into a few more stores.

 

If you don't know spire rock, it used to be the only place in Puget Sound where you could rope up, not counting that little boulder somewhere in Seattle. It went up before the uw rock, and vertical world.

 

I'm hoping the book re-generates some interest in spire. It used to be, and still can be, a fun place to hang out. Those routes are actually quite hard to do. It's gotten polished over the years.

 

This was a two year labor of love, chipped away at it in my spare time...Hopefully I beat Yoder to the market as he is also planning to include it in a new book.

[tfarr3]

How abouts did you do this? Did you contact a publishing house for quotes of prices or is every guidebook printed just off a home printer and put together by you?

 

reason I ask is I recently moved down from Juneau, AK to Spokane where i've been putting together a list of Ice climbs in Juneau and need to put something into print and get it on the shelves. There is a ton of potential there its just there aren't enough climbers in Juneau to take advantage of it. Ive got enough material from probably a 40-60 page guidebook. I played around using shutterfly to print books but it's to costly per print.

[markwebster]

The problem with small run books is that the labor required to photograph, write, and design the book will never be offset by sales.

 

I built my book in Adobe InDesign. If you can teach yourself the software, you can cut your costs down to zero...assuming you work for free. "adobe indesign classroom in a book-amazon" Then find someone who has one of these:

http://www.xerox.com/digital-printing/printers/print-on-demand/docutech-6180/enus.html

 

I went to http://www.jndprinting.com/ in Tacoma, and they sent my file out to someone who has a docutech. The file I sent them was an Adobe PDF.

 

Because no printing press was involved (docutech = lazer printer) you can get a book published in quantities of 10 or less and still get a low production price per book. And if you know what small guidebooks cost, you'll know that the book has to be dirt cheap to produce. The stores by them from you for a little more than half the retail price...do the math.

 

jnd is a great company, I worked there for 7 years. But I'm sure there are other good printers out there.

 

printing them at home is not practical or cost effective. I tried it, though I have an inkjet. You can, and should print proof copies at home on double sided glossy. If you had a lazer printer, it might be more practical.

[PhöQ]

The old book seemed pretty good as is but yours has the flash that all the kids want.

 

I hope you included such esoteric boulder problems as "Windmill" and "The Flea"

[TMO]

Mark,

 

THANK YOU for your hard work! Much appreciated. I hit Spire Rock at least once a week, a really enjoyable place to get a workout.

 

TMO