One of the six tasks I’m juggling now is a refresh of the Lost Art Press website. It mostly will make the site easier to search. And it will categorize our products to help new customers make sense of the things we make (we make more than 100 things).
One of the recommendations from our consultants is to add what is stupidly called “social proof” to our site. “Social proof” is basically kind words about the company from customers.
My inclination has always been to let the products sell themselves through word of mouth. But the consultants have reams of data that show that new customers need and want social proof before they’ll make a first purchase.
So I relented.
This is me wearing out the knees in a pair of jeans (i.e. I’m on my knees). If you are so inclined, could you write up two or three sentences (no more, there’s not a lot of space for this) about Lost Art Press or Crucible and what you like about us (writer cringes; feels dirty)? It helps if we can use your name, too.
Look how fancy we are. A metal sign (from Covington’s Sign Works/Todd Engraving company).
I don’t like to take books out of print. In fact, we have spent the last 16 years trying like hell to keep everything possible in print.
Recently, we took “The Solution at Hand” out of print, and our email lit up with people asking “why?” Interestingly, many of these people had not bought the book and were disappointed they couldn’t buy a copy. Which is one of the reasons books go out of print.
There are many reasons books are discontinued. Here are the common ones.
The book is a translation or reprint from another publisher (think “Grandpa’s Workshop”). When you buy foreign rights, it’s typically for five years. After that you have to re-up with a new and expensive advance. You do the math and realize you won’t make a profit until 10 years, so….
The author dies or becomes incapacitated. And the author’s literary heirs don’t want the book to continue in print.
The book stops selling. And it gets to the point where you lose money every month paying for storage.
To reduce our storage fees (and get more control over our operations), we bought the Anthe building in downtown Covington, an old factory. According to the inventory analysis we did, we had plenty of room on the first and second floors for our books.
Someone, somewhere made a mistake.
We were told we had three semi loads of books. After we unloaded the third semi, we sighed with relief. Everything fit, barely. Then John got a phone call. There were two more semis coming.
We don’t have elevator access to the third floor (yet), so we had to rent storage lockers to hold the 40 pallets of books on the last two semis.
So we are in a bit of a bind right now. Until we get the third floor ready for storage, we barely have any room to move. We have pallets of new titles on the way. “Cricket Tables” by Derek Jones should be here in the next two weeks.
Where are we going to put them?
And that’s another reason we have to discontinue books. John and I are working on a lot of ideas that should get us the space we need. But until then, we have to be careful. Otherwise, I’ll end up storing books under every bed, chair and table in my house – just like we did in the beginning years of this company.
So if I had any advice for our customers it’s this: If there’s a book you want to own someday, buy it now. I am still trying like hell to keep all our titles in print, but right now it’s an almost impossible task.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Some of you have asked if we could sell the pdfs of discontinued books. Many times the contracts we sign make that impossible. But it might be possible for some titles. So thanks for that suggestion.
The Berry Center Farm and Forest Institute (actually but a small part of it).
Have a great evening, and come back next week for more! (Comments are now closed.)
Chris and I are catching up after a fabulous field trip yesterday to the Berry Center in New Castle, Kentucky (highly recommended if you’re ever in the area and are a fan of Wendell Berry’s work, both literarily and as it relates to equitable and ecological farming). But that doesn’t mean we don’t have time for your woodworking questions!
You probably know by now how it works, but just in case: Leave your question (brevity appreciated) in a comment below, and we will do our best to answer. Comments will close at around 5 p.m.
The engraving cutter sitting on a newly cut spell.
We have Crucible Engraving Tools back in stock and shipping. This tool engraves straight lines and arcs in wood so you can create decorative patterns or “spells” found on peasant furniture in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
Megan and I have filmed a new video on the basics of using the tool against a straightedge and in a compass. The new video is below. You can watch an earlier video of how to sharpen the tool here.
Our engraving tools are made entirely in the United States and were developed to create a simple and affordable way for you to try them out. The tool is $27 and includes a specially machined handle (that can be held like a pencil or installed in a pencil compass), plus two cutters and instructions.
Right now, the tools are available only in the U.S. and through us. We have some international retailers interested in them, but whether or not they carry them is their choice.
I developed these tools to help with my next book, “The American Peasant.” Right now the book is an ever-evolving substack (check it out here. Warning: my substack is not for kids). I am working on the book almost every day, and it looks like it will be complete in early 2024.
For now, I think you’ll enjoy trying the engraving tools – they are easy to sharpen and use.
We get asked (a lot) if we could please add a “book ribbon” to all our titles (a shiny ribbon that helps you mark your place in a book). We would love to, but we cannot add one without dumb price increases and unacceptable delays.
Here’s the truth: Neither of our printing plants can add a ribbon while our book is being manufactured. They don’t have the equipment. To add a book ribbon, we have to make the book, then ship it to another plant. There it waits its turn for a ribbon. Then the books are shipped back to the plant for QC and final wrapping and tagging. Then shipped to us.
This adds considerable expense and time to a book – one that we do (begrudgingly) for “The Anarchist’s Design Book.”
The full five-ribbon treatment.
But I would rather light a candle than curse your darkness. So here’s a quick tutorial on how to add ribbons to a bunch of books for about $12.
Order these Bible ribbon bookmarks. You get six for $12. (Yes you can make your own ribbon thingies, but you don’t have to.)
Use scissors to cut the ribbons apart if you don’t want five placeholders. The ribbons separate easily into pairs or threes.
Jam the leatherette section between the book back and and the cover. No glue necessary. If you are a “Glue is Necessary” person, add some rubber cement to the leatherette before pushing it into the book.
Done. Enjoy your bookmarking abilities.
These ribbons are ideal for books that are about 9” tall or so. The ribbons will stick out of both the top and bottom of the book. But you can use them with bigger books, too.
I sliced two ribbons from a bunch of five and inserted it into this POS.
You could also staple/glue/otherwise affix a piece of ribbon to a piece of cardboard and insert the cardboard into the gap between the book block and cover. There are lots of tutorials on how to do this with a piece of string, a paperclip and a sturgeon’s swim bladder.
