Well, my Kindle eBook has been accepted, and is now online at:

www.amazon.co.uk/Weston-Season-Documentary-seaside-Season-ebook/dp/B07M9SGVVX/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1546361731&sr=8-2&keywords=weston+out+of+season

I can't seem to find the reference section here dedicated to the Street Photographers / Landscape that have influenced me in the Photography ifor Publication project, so I'm duplicating it here.

Wim Wenders, Places, strange and quiet.

Mark Havens, Out Of Season

Martin Parr, Boring Postcards

Bruce Gilden - NYC

Here, I'm going to discuss the "Dummy phases, and why I chose the "binding I did.

One of the biggest problems facing Postcard books is the durability of the binding. You want the postcard to be "usable" but in doing so, you can make it too fragile (See above, where cards fall out of their normal binding.

I therefore chose early on in the project, to make a flexible binding that would both keep everything in place, but allow the end user to pull out individual cards if required. Here are a few of my tests.
​

The Dummies above were early tests with "Supaclips". Top one is 10 standard thickness prints, the lower one, 10 standard GSM postcards.
I found this to be the limit for these form of clips. I needed more.

Small clips, with the "ears" removed, seemed to answer my needs. Flexible enough to allow for the removal and replacement I wanted, but firm enough to hold everything in place.

The final "Production" is this. One larger clip in the centre, with two smaller clips on each side. When using only the larger clips, the actual grip was marginal, so I chose to use the centre one, and two smaller - but firmer gripping - side ones.

​I also left one "ear" in place, on the back, so it could be hung on a POS stall, etc. The units will be shipped with extra "ears" so if the user wishes, they can completely disassemble the entire collection.

So, after talking to a company called PRINTED.COM in November, and being assured ordering, etc., would be painless, and printing would take one day, and delivery one day on top of that. I went to order the final print run for my postcards on Saturday (15th).

Summary of the order:

PostcardsA6 (105mm x 148mm)
Double sided
Silk, 350gsm
No Lamination
Square Corners
No Envelopes
 22 Version, 100 prints
Order details
​Order created: 18th Dec 2018
Order reference: #1175334
Delivery method: Courier Track it
Price: £144.06
Job number: #3424651
Job reference: Postcards
Status: Shipped

I originally tried to order on the 15th. Then:

• Their system crashed.
• Customer services are closed.
• Called them on Monday. Uploaded again, assured everything was ok.
• I checked on Wednesday. Order was on HOLD.
• Called them on Wednesday. Told one of the images had a small piece of text in the "no text" area. And the backs were 1mm too small. Also, they were in RGB, and could they have them in CYMB? No emails from them over this, it was just because I'd noticed the order was on hold that I even called them.
  Re-edited EVERYTHING, just to be sure. Sat online while I uploaded all the images, and had them hand checked by "Karl"
• It was confirmed by a guy called KARL, that everything was correct, and that it would be printed that day, and that it would be send out for next day delivery for Friday.
• FRIDAY. Box arrived...
  
  

​Commercial aspects of the project 
Finance is an important element of this project. Ultimately, I have to think of a profit for the project, so it has had to include “Accounting” for the project to be taken into account.
 
Outgoings are:

• Cost of producing the postcards.
  • Print costs.
  • Bulldog clip costs.
• Cost of the website.
  • Domain registration.
• Cost of the eBook.
  • Percentage to Amazon.
• Social Media
  • Advertising on Facebook.

 
From this, the following figures came up (All prices are inclusive of VAT).
 
Postcard Printing (2200 Postcards = 100 booklets)
£185.64

Bulldog Clips (300)
£37.44

Domain registration (.co.uk – 2 years)
£14.00

Advertising on Facebook* (Variable)
£31.00

Cost on Kindle / Amazon**
£00.00

Total Expenditure:
£254.08

Therefore, the perceived outlay is £254.08 for the project. This is to produce (and hopefully sell) 100 booklets.
*The advertising cost is per month (£1.00 per day) but is subject to analysis on a weekly basis. Therefore, the maximum amount could be £356 if that level of advertising is maintained over a year.
** Kindle / Amazon take a large percentage of the eBook price, but this means there is no financial risk. If you sell none, there is no technical “loss” involved.
 
THEREFORE: To create a reasonable return on investment (ROI), a cover price for the printed version would be set at £7.99, which would show a profit of between £544.20 and £210.20, depending on advertising costs.

Mark Havens visits WildWoods and photographs the dwindling facia of a downtrodden town. Sounds familiar?

His stark images have helped in the visualisation of (In particular) my imagery of the Bourneville Estate in WSM. 

This was one of the more influential books I read with regards to "Weston Out Of Season."

He has a stark reality going on here. Momentary glimpses of desolation taken in between filming. I attempted to use this style in the "Beach" Element of my work.

This book is exactly what it claims to be. A collection of "Boring" Postcards collected by Martin Parr.
Like his other book mentioned in here, "Bliss" it is a collection of cards rather than images shot by himself.

They offer a glance at a world long gone. Of Service stations, of car parks and shopping centres and power stations (Among other things).