Creating a new or original product for your online market can be a daunting task. I found a way of bringing new life to out of print publications. To learn that a particular book you are after is "out of print" can be the source of much frustration. I saw this however as a great opportunity to start an on-line business.
My Brother-in-law's late Father "Jack McDonogh" was a successful artist, art teacher and author of three books and a video. The video and two of the books were on watercolour painting for beginners and one book was on pencil sketching. I believed that the sketching and painting techniques that Jack had spent more than 40 years developing would still be applicable today (although they have been out of print for more than twenty years).
I entered into a joint venture with Jack's family to have the publications re-launched in new formats. Fortunately the family had copies of the original publications in very good condition. It was crucial to have a top quality job done on the scanning as being an art book that the artist would no doubt want to print it out, rather than refer to it on a computer screen. This meant that I paid for an expert to do the scanning, as when i did it myself on my office scanner I lost too much detail in the illustrations.
I was fortunate to have found a copy of Jack's video that despite being twenty two years old, was still in great condition. With the conversion it was possible to free up the region codes that you would normally use to limit the DVD to one region, eg. region 1 is USA, region 4 is Australia. This meant the DVD would play in all regions. The Pal and NTCS format difference has been overcome by the fact that most modern DVD players will play either format. Also DVD players installed in a computer will play either format.
Before I went ahead and spent money having the first book scanned and setting up my web site I first had to ensure if there was still a market for these publications. Firstly I monitored ebay for about 6 months for the sale of used copies of Jack's books.By saving the search for Jack's name on ebay meant that I received an email whenever anyone listed an item using Jack's name in the title. I was able to see that there was a fairly regular sale of used copies and that they attracted multiple bidders and sold for a reasonable price. I was also able to check using Google how many sites were online selling similar products and by monitoring the sponsored links using Pay Per Click advertising the number of sites that would be actively competing with me.
I also approached locally run art classes run out of the art supply shop to ensure that the content and techniques that Jack had developed over twenty five years ago was still applicable today. The feedback from both the students and teachers was very positive.
To be able to copy and sell Jack's publications without breaching copyright laws I first had to obtain the owners of the copyright, Jack's family, permission to use their fathers work and I also had to contact the original publishers of the books and video to have the publishing rights reassigned back to Jack's family. As the publications were out of circulation for more than twenty years and the books publishing company had been taken over by another publishing company this took some detective work on my part and some time but was worth it in the end.
As I didn't know of anyone else that had already done this sort of project that I could call on for advice, I found there was some indirect information available online and although I don't live in a city I found there were people and resources available locally that I could tap into to achieve my goal. I believe that there may be other individuals that may have a similar opportunity to relaunch an out of print publication online that would still appeal to a niche market.
Richard D Williams
A Registered Nurse who lives in Bathurst Australia and I am seeking to create an online income from the relaunch of out of print art publications. The latest re-release is of the insturctional art publications of the late master artist, art teacher and author Jack McDonogh (1916 -1994). Jack spent more that 40 years developing his techniques, and had his life long contribution to the art world ackowledged when Jack was awarded a honorary Master of Arts degree and had a new building named after him at the University where he taught art.
Jack's step by step publications are for the beginner level artist who needs to be able to pencil sketch or paint landscapes in watercolours. Jack taught thousands of art studentds and now his publications can assist a whole new generation of budding artists.
Maybe you hold the copyrights for an out of print publication (not necessarily art related)that is still relevant today, that you would like to see re-launched online? Maybe I can be of assistance to you in your venture? I would love to hear from you if this is the sort of project you are considering undertaking.
Richard D Williams
http://www.howtopaintandsketch.com
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