Publishers Design Group | Custom Publishing: Case Study

Custom Publishing: Coffee Table/Pictorial

CUSTOM PUBLISHING: SPECIALTY-MARKET, LARGE-FORMAT

Some markets have built-in, captive audiences. This is especially true when veteran artists have sold to collectors for decades, or for non-profits and museums that have acquired large membership bases, or manufacturers (Harley Davidson, GM’s Corvette nameplate, Gibson or Martin Guitars, etc.) that have built an avid, loyal fan-base for their products. The list would also include architects, sports franchises, tourist bureaus (local, regional, national, and foreign), record labels, chambers of commerce, historical societies, alumni associations, and environmental groups, to name a few.

The main sales channels would be to customers who have purchased products from or supported these organizations. Often the audience can be reached directly through mail campaigns, catalogs, or at retail outlets like automobile showrooms, art galleries, or museum gift shops.

A custom publishing program can not only produce profits from book sales, but can also strengthen loyalty among customers and donors while introducing new prospects to the organization and its services or products.

CASE STUDY: ENFANTINO Publishing Program

Publishing Goals: Enfantino Publishing came to PDG in 2005 with their first book concept. They wanted to use book publishing as a way to establish a large retail line of books and products featuring contemporary, best-selling, celebrity artists. Primary sales channels would be the hundreds of art galleries that already carry these artists, private collectors, cruise lines that offer art tours featuring the artists, boutiques and gift shops, and specialty retailers. The book trade would be a secondary channel.

Primary Consideration: How to help a client, new to book publishing, understand the complexities of coordinating book projects while trying to create a three-edition title that would sell for $35, $80, and $250, depending on the binding and a few extra components.

Primary Solution: Target the book to the client’s main channels: galleries and private collectors. Produce an oversized book with the same interior for all three editions: a paperback for the bookstores, a hardback for bookstores and galleries, and a padded leather edition for galleries and private collectors.

Client Consultation: Revolved around project coordination, paper selection, book design, packaging, distribution, printing, shipping, marketing, and structuring a budget.

Concept and Product Development: The client needed a finished product that would display a new approach to publishing art books about celebrity artists. Each group of books needed to include approximately 30% to 35% biography on the artist, with the remainder of the book being a gallery, showcasing approximately 80 to 120 prominent, defining pieces of art. The books needed to be entertaining and informative, without too much discussion on art or art history—these needed to be “inside, behind-the-scenes” snapshots and interviews with famous celebrities who knew the artists or were collectors of the artist’s work.

Enfantino Publishing required that a paperback, hardback, and a collectors’ edition be created for each artist in their program. Each collectors’ edition needed to contain a “limited edition” with an individually numbered registration certificate. Godard’s collectors’ edition was further embellished with a padded, leatherette cover that would be held closed by a studded belt with a letter “G” buckle. The buckle was designed by PDG and was cast and plated at a metal foundry in Asia. To further distinguish the edition, the black leatherette material was boldly embossed with the artist’s name and his main identifying icon, a martini glass.

Project Coordination: Most resources were spent in coordinating all the elements (paintings, drawings, photos, stories, quotations, and captions) that needed to be included in the book. Over 500 images, with some spreads containing up to 20, arrived from a variety of sources. Celebrity artists have many celebrity friends that attend parties wherein many photos are taken. The amount of time required to catalog and evaluate the printability of each was enormous. The client did an excellent job of editing the library down to the necessary 500.

Marketing Approach (pre-launch)
The strongest marketing asset was the celebrities gracing the inside pages. Back cover endorsements included Vince Neal of Motley Crue Band, Criss Angel of A&E’s Mind Freak, and Ozzy Osbourne, who also contributed the foreword to the book. The marketing copy promised readers that they would see many celebrities, famous people, collectors, and friends of the artist, like Robin Leach, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gloria Estefan, Tommy Lee, Christian Applegate, Pete Rose, and Nikki Sixx, to name a few. 

The popularity of magazines like People, The National Enquirer, US, and many others proves that Americans are fascinated by glamour, notoriety, opulence, and reading about the edgy lifestyles of famous people. The Godard story delivered all of the above. His appearances on TV shows like, Mind Freak, Inked, The Tonight Show, and American Casino, along with occasional criticism in the press, including a censorship article in the New York Times, have contributed to both Godard’s success and the popularity of the book line.

Design & Production Approach
Godard is flamboyant, colorful, and eccentric, and the basic design template had to reflect his personality. The variety and number of images accompanying each story in the book required that a 2-page spread format be used, allowing images and design elements to flow across the gutter. The basic template had to be flexible enough to allow for page spreads with varying amounts of text, and still maintain a consistent look.

Marketing Approach (Post-launch)
Having obtained a wealth of media attention, the demand and interest in the books was high. The titles went on to win two national book awards, including, “Best Art Book of 2006,” by USA Book News, and has been cited and written about in many publications. The Midwest Book Review highly recommended that every public and university library in America acquire a copy. 

Line Extension
Enfantino Publishing has since extended the Godard line of books with a small, gift edition that contains Godard’s quotes on a variety of topics, each quote formatted on a backdrop of one of his paintings.

The client plans to extend their publishing program to include many other pop, celebrity artists, including, Sharie Hatchett Bohlmann, James Coleman, Dave Garibaldi, among others.

Since publishing the Godard line of books, PDG has released three other artists’ books for the client.

Publishing Model
All of Enfantino Publishing’s books are custom published. The oversized paperback and hardback editions were published to the book trade through Publisher Design Group’s main publishing division, PDG. The Collectors’ editions, with accompanying products, and the small gift/quote books are published through White Stag Press publishing division.  Retail, gallery, and specialty shop sales are handled directly through Enfantino Publishing.