Post #186030 by boutiki on Sun, Sep 11, 2005 6:41 PM

Wow! Were we surprised to read this. We had a couple of people comment on problems with their binding when Tiki Quest first came out, but we thought it was an isolated issue and had not heard anything since. Until now.

First, we want to say how badly we feel that anyone has had any problem with their copy of Tiki Quest. Humuhumu is exactly right. We published Tiki Quest ourselves when we decided that there was not a publisher who shared our vision or would give us the control we wanted with the concept and aesthetic of the book. We decided to put our money where our mouth was and paid to print the book and to try and distribute it ourselves. We eventually were picked up by distributors Last Gasp and Islander Publishing Group (in Hawaii) who have helped get it in different shops, but all the books were printed in one run at Inland Press in Wisconsin.

Without boring you with all the details, we learned about EVERY aspect of doing a book from beginning to end. We wrote, photographed, and designed the book, then we took it to the printer who printed it in a 36 hour marathon session (that was one long press check!) and they also bound and boxed up all the copies. Once they were ready, we rented a truck, drove to Wisconsin, and brought them all back to our home where we unloaded all 5000 copies into our studio. We have boxed up and shipped out every copy that is currently out in circulation, but unfortunately we have not been able to inspect and test the binding on every copy before they were shipped. We have a few copies here in our office, studio and home which have NOT been treated gently and we have yet to experience any problems.

Since we are not a big publishing house like Chronicle, Simon and Schuster or Taschen, and were doing a relatively small run, we were not able to negotiate a discount price for printing. We also used a printer here in the states, which costs more than printing in China or Mexico. However, we thought the extra expense was worth it since Inland is known for quality printing—they do a lot of "heavy use" books like textbooks and travel/tourist books. They also did the binding in addition to the printing (which is not always the case, as some printers job out the binding) so it was all done in the same facility. We also paid extra for "perfect binding" (an ironic name if this is the result) which is supposed to help maintain the integrity of the cover, spine and binding. These factors along with the fact that it's full color throughout drove our printing costs so high that it had to be reflected in the cover price. Most copies have been sold at wholesale, and if you knew what kind of discount distributors demanded, you would understand why authors are paid such a minute percentage.

This is all irrelevant to someone who has paid good money for a book, and the expectation that it remain intact if treated with care is certainly reasonable. We'd be miffed if the same thing happened to a book we bought, regardless of price. We'll certainly let the printer know about the defective copies, not that they are likely to do anything considering it's a relatively small percentage of the books printed (we hope!).

Those of you who have (re)bound your copy are very ingenious, but you should not have had to resort to doing that to enjoy the book.

Although we did not personally print and bind the books, we are still very embarrassed and feel responsible for any quality issues. So as a remedy we'd like to offer a replacement to anyone who has had a problem with their binding. Just send your defective copy to us via USPS media mail (will cost under $2) at the address on the front page of the book and we'll send you a signed replacement copy at our expense.

Sorry about any inconvenience or hard feelings.
-Duke and Amy