Stephen King the Doubleday Years

[subie09lega]

Not yet.

Thanks Dan! Glad I didn't miss it.

[slayn666]

Not yet.

Will there be a 'Salem's Lot art portfolio offered?

[Brian James Freeman]

Will there be a 'Salem's Lot art portfolio offered?

Working on the details and arrangements now, so hopefully!

[Brian861]

I like big books and I cannot lie.

Funny, Brad LOL. It would be cool to have portfolios with matching numbers for all the books in the series as well as a slipcase at the end of the project.

[slayn666]

Working on the details and arrangements now, so hopefully!

Well that didn't take long.

[Dave1442397]

Well that didn't take long.

No, it didn't And I agree with the slipcase idea. I'm keeping my Carrie portfolio in the bubble wrap to keep it safe for now, but a nice slipcase for all the portfolios (all six?) would be great.

[Martin]

No, it didn't And I agree with the slipcase idea. I'm keeping my Carrie portfolio in the bubble wrap to keep it safe for now, but a nice slipcase for all the portfolios (all six?) would be great.

Completely agree!

[FrankP]

Completely agree!

A slipcase for all would be awesome!

[frik51]

I think CD is working on this.....

sk

[Teriw]

I hope there's something we could get for them. I'd rather them not altogether though since they each belong with their book. Honestly I'd be wiling to pay for a whole new folder altogether. something sturdier. I was very disappointed with the Carrie folder. I had to put it back in the bubble wrap and I can't display it nicely like I do with my IT portfolio. I shouldn't have expected the same for the lower price point I suppose but something more than a plain but pretty folder would have been nice.

I vote we pay more to get the usual Cemetery Dance wonderful packaging rather than pay less for sub par. I wonder if this is why Carrie hasn't even sold out yet?

[Dan Hocker]

I hope there's something we could get for them. I'd rather them not altogether though since they each belong with their book. Honestly I'd be wiling to pay for a whole new folder altogether. something sturdier. I was very disappointed with the Carrie folder. I had to put it back in the bubble wrap and I can't display it nicely like I do with my IT portfolio. I shouldn't have expected the same for the lower price point I suppose but something more than a plain but pretty folder would have been nice.

I vote we pay more to get the usual Cemetery Dance wonderful packaging rather than pay less for sub par. I wonder if this is why Carrie hasn't even sold out yet?

I don't actually think one has anything to do with the other. This is actually a pretty normal for artwork related products. If I remember correctly the Dark Man art portfolios to awhile to sell out as well. IT was kind of an outlier there, but I think it's popularity has more to do with just how special IT is to Stephen King fans. Overall though we are happy with how they turned out and most people we've heard from have been happy with the product as well.

I can't really say anything one way or another about a slipcase though. I will say that if we where to produce one, it probably wouldn't be until we are much further down the line with the whole Doubleday series. We would need to have all the portfolios on hand to determine how big a slipcase would need to be. The last thing we would want to do is have to guess and have it turn out they don't all fit or the case is to big once all is said and done.

[Brian James Freeman]

I hope there's something we could get for them. I'd rather them not altogether though since they each belong with their book. Honestly I'd be wiling to pay for a whole new folder altogether. something sturdier. I was very disappointed with the Carrie folder. I had to put it back in the bubble wrap and I can't display it nicely like I do with my IT portfolio. I shouldn't have expected the same for the lower price point I suppose but something more than a plain but pretty folder would have been nice.

I vote we pay more to get the usual Cemetery Dance wonderful packaging rather than pay less for sub par. I wonder if this is why Carrie hasn't even sold out yet?

Thanks, as always, for the feedback! We love to hear it, positive or negative, so we can make our products as desirable as possible in the future.

Part of the dilemma here is that Artwork Portfolios aren't nearly as popular as books by a wide margin. Donald M. Grant still has copies of their Deluxe Wastelands Portfolio by Ned Dameron that was published in the early '90s at a retail price of $30.

CARRIE has a 750 copy print run while IT was limited to 500 sets and THE DARK MAN was also limited to 500 sets, I believe.

We wanted to have 750 sets for CARRIE, so that anyone who bought the Artist Edition could get a matching number for their portfolio. $50 was the absolute most we thought we could charge for 750 sets, and that seems to have been correct since we still have about 100 sets left to sell. So that $50 price created the budget for paying all of the creators involved for the rights, printing everything, producing the folders, shipping the signature sheets around the world, and (hopefully) covering our staffing costs involved with the creation and shipping of the product, all while keeping the lights on at the office.

The problem with producing a folder like we did for IT is the increase in the production costs. Those IT folders cost us nearly $70 each, which was way more than we had budgeted, and we actually lost money on that project because of that cost. Had we known what the folders were going to cost, we would have needed to increase the retail price considerably and then I bet we wouldn't have sold 200 sets, let alone the 500 we did eventually sell. (Those 500 sets took a LONG time to sell... yet now Betts is asking $300 for them, so I guess we did something right there!)

To provide IT style folders for CARRIE would have pushed the retail price to around $125, which just wouldn't have worked in the current marketplace.

We did look at some options with thicker cover stocks, but the problem we found with the heavier cover stock on the prototype was that it added a pressure point where the folder could crease or mark the artwork inside over time with any pressure or weight being applied.

We really liked the 1/4 inch spine on these portfolios because it solved the problem of the THICKNESS of the artwork included, which could have been creased in a regular style folder, but I would have also loved a heavier cover if it could have been done! Unfortunately, I can't always get what I want when we're working on a tight budget, but I try my best!

Brian

[Brian861]

Thanks, Brian for the great response and explanation. While I too was disappointed with the folder; it in no way took away from the gorgeous art contained inside. But I think most would have to agree that after reading how the whole process takes place, it makes us feel better about it moving forward. And if a slipcase is produced at the end of the run; I have no doubt it would be of the highest CD quality we're all used to.

[FrankP]

Great explanation BJF!

[Brian James Freeman]

One other thought on the folders: we produced extras to be safe and will continue doing so for the rest of this set. I ordered more than we SHOULD need. So, if when the time comes that you go to put your set in the slipcase (if you've bought all of them, of course, and the slipcase!) and you discover a problem with one of your folders, we SHOULD have a replacement for you to get it back to mint. And I do think the idea I have for this slipcase will protect them VERY nicely and look GREAT on your shelf. That's down the road, but that's my plan, at least.

Brian