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Myrvhold has a bad rep in the tech industry due to Innovation Ventures. But re: Modernist Cuisine, I've always puzzled over the COGS and ROI math. Despite the
by quesera 2y ago
Myrvhold has a bad rep in the tech industry due to Innovation Ventures.
But re: Modernist Cuisine, I've always puzzled over the COGS and ROI math. Despite the high price, he might actually be selling at cost. A lot of effort went into these books. The photography was surely expensive to create, and definitely to print. The books must be very low-volume sales, you have to account for the wholesale price to bookstores, and add some required margin for the publisher... I wonder if they are above water for Myrvhold at all. Not that he needs them to be, obviously.
I also wonder about Don Knuth, and some of the TASCHEN specimen titles. Publishing is a tough business!
- Agingcoder 2y agoI know a bit about the taschen/luxury books business, having a very good friend who works in this space ( she’s built a publishing business, and makes a living out of it, typically her books print up to a few hundreds at most). Basically, there are book collectors who are willing to pay for beautiful books ( my friend sells art pieces according to her , not mere books ), companies willing to buy them ( and sometimes codesign them if they’re say luxury brands ) and give them as gifts to their clients, and then people like you and me who will maybe buy one just because you really want it. It’s not a highly profitable business by any means, it’s a small market, and it’s the opposite of the high volume mainstream publishing industry.