We hit $600 dollars while I was sleeping, so the printing is happening.

I'm going to wait till the end of this month to officially end the funding and move on to the physical production of the book. But until then, I've extended the goal to $1200 and I want to pose an idea. This isn't talked about very much on twitter because either people don't know or they just don't find it interesting to talk about, but the way someone like me makes money is through kickstarter, usually. This is because I do limited print runs that makes maybe 1k in profits after selling, printing, packaging, and shipping.

This is partly my fault, because I could increase prices and try to make more per book, but ideally I'd rather not have to raise them too much. Because the goal of someone like me is to do an offset print run. 1,000 books, hardcover, stitched binding. This, in my opinion, is where livable wages become possible.

1,000 books, even at $25 dollars is 25k in gross income. Now, a lot of that still has to go to printing/shipping, but I and many people like me have lived on less than 25k a year before. And this talk may not be exciting, but it's just my truth of this indie business. It's the same thing with itch. One book is great, two is better, and the more books you have the more passive sales you can make. The more print runs like this you can have, the more help you can hire, the more months of rent you can cover, and the more groceries you can buy.

Secondly, hardcover books are just pretty. There's something professional about them. The stitched binding helps that because the book will last longer and lie flat when opened. 

The sad thing, and the thing we all learn which is why so many people turn to kickstarter, is that it costs a big chunk of change to do a hardcover, stitched binding, offset print run. EVEN if it's black and white. We're talking 6k for me to print Endsville. Which honestly isn't so bad for how many pages it is, but it's still a lot of money. You can do a lot of things with 6k, and I'm sure if I handed you that wad of cash right now, "printing a book" would be the last thing on your mind.

So, yeah, I want to pose an idea. I increase the goal to 6k and see if we can make it. 

Additional thoughts on this:

1. Anyone who already preordered would get the hardcover, no questions asked.

2. I'd want to increase the price of the book to around 40 or 45 dollars. I've *never* done a huge book like this and I don't want to undervalue it. This is new territory for me.

3. I'd want to do some fun stuff with the book. Put in a fold-out map or something like that. I don't know yet.

But yeah, this is where my head's at right now. I'm always thinking about the future and making something sustainable for my partner and I. And honestly, this is the way to do it, beyond relying on kickstarter.

Anyways, thanks for reading and let me know what you think.

John