If your looking at things as a fundraiser, and I'm sure you would have done this, car stickers.........!!
I use to do calanders for the karate club and always successful.........same with stickers and tshirts......
If done as a once of, then the International Year of Astronomy would be a fantastic time to do it.
Some content ideas might be:
- brief history of IIS site/community ... & key milestones along the way
- resources (astro societies, star parties, local vendors, etc.)
- selected articles/reviews (with permission from contributors)
- maybe a couple of edited/condensed key threads ... from each forum?
- promotion of the hobby/knowledge ... aka goals of the site/community
- pictures, pictures, and more pictures
I'd probably part with about $40 to $50 .... or ask Santa for it.
You might want to think twice about doing a calendar.
People will get miffed if their images don't get chosen for one of the months. I guess the only way to alleviate that is to conduct a vote. Assuming, of course, that someone/people is/are up to the task of finding the images in the first place to be voted upon.
I can't complain, though; two of mine got chosen for the Canberra Astronomical Society 18 month calendar, lol. Yay, another publication!
At this stage, I'm not really interested in doing a calendar.
Well, I was interested a few years ago and started looking at prices etc, and then realised that Astrovisuals already do a stellar job on astronomy calendars and I couldn't get them done for nearly as cheaply as he is.
Marcel, I already get stickers done and literally give them away.
You might want to think twice about doing a calendar.
People will get miffed if their images don't get chosen for one of the months. I guess the only way to alleviate that is to conduct a vote. Assuming, of course, that someone/people is/are up to the task of finding the images in the first place to be voted upon.
I can't complain, though; two of mine got chosen for the Canberra Astronomical Society 18 month calendar, lol. Yay, another publication!
Regards,
Humayun
I've been thinking overnight about this Humayun - and I agree with you. When you have to choose only 12, you'll invariably lose favour from those who weren't represented.
I'm still waiting for some indicative quotes to come back from the few places I contacted yesterday. I've looked at Rabbit Photo and a couple of other photo-finishing houses like them here and overseas, as well as a couple of short-run digital printers.
Prices that they indicate over the phone for a 100-odd page book are a little frighteneing at the moment, I have to say.
Sorry to do this to you again Jeanette and Mike - but I'm going to post a poll which will give us an indicative breakdown on who might contribute an image (main image plus personal/rig photo) and then who might spend what to buy a copy. This might give us an idea of both quantities required and more importantly how many pages we're likely to have to pay for.
Single page per member - more crowded, but maybe OK?
Image resolution would need to be fairly high, so I'd look to keep the page size down to around 20cm (8 inches) square. any larger than this and we'd start to seriously limit the viability of most of your imges.
Points taken............then perhaps Like Humayan pointed out an 18 month calendar and you could either split it inot 2 persons per calendar etc or vote. We always ran a vote and worked well without any other members getting upset.....In fact, one of the members went on to have their entry on the front cover and the other last page........
Single page per member - more crowded, but maybe OK?
Image resolution would need to be fairly high, so I'd look to keep the page size down to around 20cm (8 inches) square. any larger than this and we'd start to seriously limit the viability of most of your imges.
have smaller images and 2 or 3 underneath then . gear, personal portrait and possibly one other item .... not everyone is an imager (even though i am), i dont think it would be overcrowded on one page per person.
Well, I was interested a few years ago and started looking at prices etc, and then realised that Astrovisuals already do a stellar job on astronomy calendars and I couldn't get them done for nearly as cheaply as he is.
Agree, even though I often think the images chosen could be better, the content in general of that calendar is near on impossible to better, and at such a good price.
dont know if this helps but there is an online publisher, www.blurb.com (and others no doubt), who allow you to create a digital book, then upload it to their website for preparation as an actual book. others can then go to the website and order the book - therefore there are no overhead costs, just a charge per book to anyone who orders it. no need to know how big the print run will be as its all 'to order'.
in another hobby of mine, they create a year book. members supply 2-3 photos with a blurb about themselves and their equipment, the volunteer editor creates the book uploads it to blurb.com and then anyone who wants one orders it.
a variety of book types are available but a soft cover book of about 80 pages will be about US$50, plus shipping to Australia is another US$20. creative editing can ensure a reasonable price based upon pages/cover type/paper type selections.
food for thought? the site is worth taking a looksee.
dont know if this helps but there is an online publisher, www.blurb.com (and others no doubt), who allow you to create a digital book, then upload it to their website for preparation as an actual book. others can then go to the website and order the book - therefore there are no overhead costs, just a charge per book to anyone who orders it. no need to know how big the print run will be as its all 'to order'.
in another hobby of mine, they create a year book. members supply 2-3 photos with a blurb about themselves and their equipment, the volunteer editor creates the book uploads it to blurb.com and then anyone who wants one orders it.
a variety of book types are available but a soft cover book of about 80 pages will be about US$50, plus shipping to Australia is another US$20. creative editing can ensure a reasonable price based upon pages/cover type/paper type selections.
food for thought? the site is worth taking a looksee.
Thanks Ian - yeah, there are tons of these sites around these days - including the Rabbit Photo one I mentioned up front. The problem with them is that they usually limit creativity (some severely), so I'm looking at doing this one in InDesign from scratch. Getting them printed at a local Australian digital printer on an Indigo digital press will be cheaper than doing it in the States I suspect. Once I get a good feeling for the total number of pages, I'll start to ask for quotes. I'll have another look at Blurb (which is one of the services that provide a standalone application) and see if they've progressed any since last time I looked.
I think the Coffee Table book is a wonderful idea!! Given the plethora of photographic skills amongst IIS members, I can't see why every human being wouldn't want one on their table! (lol) Put me down for a couple............
