the most painful items in terms of “consumers have no idea how much these cost to make & expect them to be cheap” are books & any apparel

large companies get the cost down to pennies by ordering 1000s which is NOT feasible

but they’re so ubiquitous ppl assume they know the cost
books are honestly the worst tho and there are so many reasons. you might think you know how much books should cost but god damn unless you’ve printed books you have no idea.
to bring costs down to an even remotely feasible level you have to order 300+ copies and hope they sell. this is because people WILL NOT PAY much higher than the normal retail price of a book even for indie makers. so to have a profit margin that doesn’t kill you requires volume.
SO MUCH CONTENT, SO MUCH WORK. books take months, maybe years to make, unless they’re super small/short. this is mostly from my pov as an indie comics person who’s also made art books. the content, the formatting, everything takes so much time.
it’s impossible to calculate that labor cost into your profit margin and not cry. like literally impossible unless you are a very rare soul. just fussing here, but most people would struggle to sell even 300 books and tbh 300 is on the low end for lowering you price per unit.
maybe this is just me showing my whole ass, but books are also a hard sell compared to the amount you have to make. for a normal product, selling 100 could be great! for a book you ordered 300-1000+ of... not so much.
there are people out there who can sell books like nobody’s business!! but that’s not most people and tbh even if they’re more indie most of those people eventually get agents/publishers etc bc the actual act of formatting/selling a book on top of making the content. WOOF.
also books are so heavy and take up so much room. are you planning on moving ever in your entire life?? devin and i moved across the country with 100s of books in 2017 and the bill from the movers was harrowing. and then they sit there. in your house. staring at you.
between monsterpop, my fairytale anthology, confetti, and sapphic summer i’ve probably sold around 800-900 books, maybe more. i probably still have at least 700 books sitting around collecting dust. tbh i have no idea if i will ever be free. release me from this mortal coil.
also my wife hates them. the end of this “books will end me” thread has turned very personal lol. devin says if i self publish print another book they will personally throttle me. so that’s a hard maybe 😂
anyway this is all why if i’m buying art from an artist i always go for the books first because i know the pain lol

also if you want a book from me here you go lmao https://store.mayakern.com/product-category/books/
You can follow @mayakern.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: