Old dpbanks blog.

2/29

Four new books arrived to be worked on.

Here are the results of some of the beta tests.

2/28

Up early again to get the various layout sheets emailed to customers. Reviewed one more time the 32 books going to Capitol Bindery on Saturday.

2/27

Up early to finish layout sheets for 32 hardcover books. They will be emailed tonight.

Shipped out softcover beta test results to eight participants.

2/26

Packed end results of 8 beta tests. The will ship out Wednesday.

2/25

Photographed beta test results. Worked on layout sheets for hardcover books and answered pricing emails.

2/24

Worked on unpacking, organizing and reading instructions for the 32 books that arrived on Friday. One book in particular had 4 pages of instructions and quite frankly scares me. Challenges, challenges.

2/23

Had breakfast with Kevin and Robert from Capitol Bindery. Robert is back to work and is feeling much better. I picked up 4 finished books and dropped off some lamination for 6 books that they are working on at the bindery.

Hardcover Score Card
6 books at Capitol to be bound.
32 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery.
6 Books on the way.

Met with Todd at Snow Dog. Picked up 8 finished beta tests, left two for corrections and briefed on the status of three still in the works. I won't be meeting with Todd for two more weeks now. I will be photographing and packing the 8 finished beta test for shipment early next week.

2/22

Thirty-two books arrived to be worked on.

2/21

More random thoughts.

The plan is to pick up 10 of the 13 beta tests from Snow Dog on Saturday. From there I will get them photographed, packed and hopefully shipped out on Monday.

I had assumed that making soft covers would be less of a craft than making hardcovers. I am finding out that this is not the case. If Todd at Snow Dog was not as experienced as he is then we would not have been able to do a couple of the beta tests.

The x-factor in designing and creating a custom cover is still the spine. Everything flows out from there and the designs that work best are the ones that more forgiving if things shift one way or another even as little as 1/16 of an inch.

I am of the opinions that covers should be shared free of charge except when noted.

2/20

Some random thoughts.

Production on ten of the 13 beta tests is going well. I am waiting on the go ahead on the last three books. We did have one page get torn. We took the whole book apart and inserted a new page from a copy of the issue purchased at the local comics store. Then we rebuilt the book.

I hve field questions as to why I am only allowing a certain amount of hardcover projects to move through Capitol Bindery. The senior binder has been ill so I have been keeping production at a level that Kevin can handle while he is short handed.

I have been the brunt of some angry emails regarding not selling internationally on eBay or adding international customers to the soft and hard cover binding customer lists. At this time I am not set up to properly handle these needs and still make a profit. Sometimes the hardest thing in business is realizing you can't help every body.

Regarding soft cover binding. At the moment we are not charging for design and production of custom covers. I think that situation will change. I have been toying with the idea of a virtual tips jar.

I have been getting compliments on how my design have gotten better in such a short time. Until I knew what Snow Dog could handle I kept things simple. Now that I see they can do the complicated spine placements then I have added to the complexity of the designs. I had been a graphic artist for 25 years before I switched to sales ten years ago.

2/19

Another idea.

2/18

Another idea.

2/17

Took the day off.

2/16

Back on my feet somewhat shakily. Had breakfast with Kevin at Capitol and picked up three finished books and dropped off 8 new books to work on. These books shipped on Saturday.

Hardcover Score Card
9 books at Capitol to be bound.
0 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery.
6 Books on the way.

Met with Todd at Snow Dog and reviewed his progress on 6 soft cover books and dropped off 4 more for him to work on. Three more to go!

Roughed out a design idea for one of the remaining beta testers. Waiting to hear back.

2/14-15

Home with very nasty case of the flu.

2/13

Did final checklist for four beta tests going to Snow Dog on Saturday. I did the same for 8 books going to Capitol Bindery.

Did the scanning for the last three beta testers. I can't count because I have ended up with 13 beta testers instead of 12. Baker's dozen!

2/12

Revised cover for a Beta Tester.

2/11

The books for the last two Beta Testers have arrived. One of them has real problems that will have to be fixed before binding.

2/10

These books will ship out on Monday.

2/9

Had breakfast with Kevin at Capitol Bindery. Picked up 9 finished books and dropped off two to be worked on.

Met with Todd at Snow Dog. Dropped off books for six beta-testers. Worked on tweaking covers for four other beta-testers. Still waiting on books to arrive from two beta-testers.

Hardcover Score Card
5 books at Capitol to be bound.
6 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery. (waiting for ok on layout sheets)
9 Books on the way.

2/8

2/7

2/6

Books for beta tester 9 showed up. He supplied his own cover and it was perfect! I think I am caught up on all my emails and I am back to answering them within a 24 hour period.

2/5

Worked on cover for Beta Tester 8. Worked on removing staples and pages for some of the books.

2/4

Worked on covers for Beta Testers 6 & 7. Answered emails.

2/3

Cover for Beta Tester 5.

2/2

Had breakfast with Kevin at Capitol Bindery. Picked up 10 finished books and dropped of 11 books to be worked on. Brought the 10 books home and got them photographed and packed for shipping. They will ship out on Monday.

Cover for Beta Tester 4. This was designed by the tester and built in high rez by me.

Hardcover Score Card
12 books at Capitol to be bound.
7 book at my house waiting to go to the bindery.
3 Books on the way.

2/1

Cover for Beta Tester 3.

The books from the fifth beta tester arrived. For the next several months I am selling samples on ebay. What works best for me it to sell one thing a day rather then a batch all at one time. I have some scan and bind projects that I probably can't sell on ebay. If you are interested in knowing what's available, send me an email.