We just sent the “American Peasant” book to press, but it’s a lot like landing in a foreign country (yay!) and having to wait behind 1,000 people at the immigration window (ugh).
Normally, our books come out about five or six weeks after we send them to press. But these are not normal times. Thanks to the latest brood of cicadas venture capital ridiculousness, all our books are in a long queue at the printer. Right now, the best they can say is: Maybe it will be done in August or September. Maybe later. Maybe sooner. Can’t say.
I have no desire to change printing plants. We’ve worked with this one for 17 years, and I know exactly what their sheet-fed presses are capable of, and how to get the best results out of the different papers they stock. This hard-won knowledge keeps the cost of printing and thus the retail price down.
So we will just have to wait. It took two years to write “American Peasant,” so waiting a couple months shouldn’t be a big deal. Right?
In the meantime, above is a preview of the cover (no, I have not been taking street drugs), and some of the images and spreads from the book; the gorgeous opening images of each project are by Narayan Nayar.
I’m excited to see “American Peasant” released into the wild, but until then, I’m working hard on issue 2 of The Stick Chair Journal.
— Christopher Schwarz
Is
Can we pre-order LAP books before they come out? I’ve never seen this mentioned before, and you have two books out to the printers I’m eager to get. I don’t know if a pre-order list is worth the hassle, but if you do have that option set up, you could ship out a boatload of books right off the bat, and Megan won’t be drowning in inventory.
We have experimented with it in the past. It makes us lose money. Here’s why: People forget that they have pre-ordered. So they pre-order it two or three times, sometimes under their name, or their spouse’s name or…. Then when it’s released, they order it again.
We have such a huge crush of orders that we can’t spot the duplicates. Se we have to pay to have them all shipped back.
We hope that some day our store will be smart enough to spot duplicate orders and warn the customer (or us). But until then….
Congrats Chris and well done N!!
That’s a great looking cover.
Thank you! It’s a love-it-or-leave-it design. But it makes so much sense once you read the book.
Just wondering if you plan on selling or know where to purchase the race knife in a compass like the one displayed in the book? Thank you in advance!
This must be a big load off. Any clue as to what’s next for you after volume 2 of the journal?
Probably a shorter book project. Two contenders:
Pocketbook of Finishes that Won’t Kill You
Boards, Nails & Paint (a project book of a dozen gorgeous boarded projects I’ve been hoarding for years).
They sell the cutter and the holder through Crucible tool. The compass you have to buy yourself. Here is a post from The American Peasant with recommendations:
https://lostartpress.com/collections/tools/products/crucible-engraving-tool
I’ve used the cutter, certainly a learning curve but you’ll be making arcs in an afternoon and decent looking ones with some practice. The cutter against a straight edge also works really well. Good luck!
I can’t wait to get a copy of this book. What is the function of the object in picture #6 (the one sitting on a stump). It looks to me like one of those roadside lending libraries that seems to be all the rage around here lately. I’ve been meaning to make on of those for a friend.
It’s a wall cupboard. Usually inset inside the walls of a house with the face frame covering the gap. It also looks good just hanging on a wall.
Naturally, I will buy this book as soon as it is available. I’m happy to see that you printed the title in another color. This certainly helps in the legibility of the cover design.
Can we order this as PDF-only?
There will be a pdf when the book is released. It will be be free (like my other books).
Probably my favorite book cover of yours. Congrats !
Excellent. Will there be a sequel, “Finishes That Will Definitely Kill You?” Or simply “Killer Finishes.”
Chris/Megan. My ‘day job’ is as a test engineer for web systems (there are other smart people here, who might have an idea better than mine…)
“non-nerd” There should be a way to have the store issue you an ‘orders report’; that can be pretty trivially tested for duplicates. (I deal with duplicate data in my day job all the time)
I’ll email Megan with a couple suggestions.
Gorgeous cover!! Really striking and inviting.
Peasant anarchist? 🤔 I look forward to being enlightened further, paisano.
Ugh… David, of course.