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Russ Cochran Publishing
I have been a publisher now for over 30 years! It all began as a hobby, or as an adjunct to my interests in comic books, Tarzan, and other areas of the woods frequented by collectors.
Collectors. That's been the key word in everything I publish. Here's what to do: you find an area of collecting that has at least a few thousand really devoted, serious collectors...it takes that many to make this work. Then you print something that these few thousand guys simply gotta have.
Example: In 1972 there were several thousand serious collectors of EC comics. Over 99% of them had never seen the detail in original EC art, and had never seen it as it was drawn, in black and white. I published EC portfolio one at a retail price of $10. I printed 1000 of them. They all sold in less than a year.
Example: Readers of the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, especially his Tarzan books, had considerable trouble tracking down all the illustrations which were done for the ERB stories and published in out-of-print pulp magazines, or in comic strips that were hard to find, or in first edition dust jackets which were very expensive. I published The Edgar Rice Burroughs Library of Illustration, a three-volume limited edition set of books which originally sold for $150 in a pre-publication offer. The edition size was 2000 copies, and I sold them all. Now, on the collector's market , if you can find that set of books for less than $500, you're lucky.
...and so on. That's the secret.
One of my latest publications is a book called Chet Atkins: Me and My Guitars, and like all my other books, it's expensive, but if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Chet Fan like I have been for the last forty years, it is so nice and so full of goodies that you gotta have it. It's a limited edition of only 1200 numbered copies, in a handmade slipcase, printed on the most expensive paper I could find, using the best photography I could hire and the best printing and binding available. Sure, I could have done it cheaper, in paperback, with little grainy black and white pictures, but that wouldn't have been any fun for me. The way I did it, with the help of my brother Michael who is a good writer and also a CP (Chet Person), it came out great and I am SO proud of it. Click on this link: Chet Book, to see some pictures from the books and get some ordering information.
Following the resounding success of the book on my friend Chet Atkins (the limited edition sold out in short order) a trade edition of the same book was published by Hal Leonard, Inc. It retails for $30 and I have copies here if you want to order one. If you want your copy autographed, I'll be happy to do that.
One of the people who was impressed by the Chet Atkins book was guitarist Les Paul, who had been one of Chet's main influences and guitar heroes. Les liked the Chet book so much that he asked my brother Mike and I if we would do a similar book on his career, and we undertook that venture in 2002. As of this writing, we have made many trips to Les's house in New Jersey for interviews with him, our Nashville photographer Wolf Hoffmann (the same guy that did such a great job on the photos for the Chet book) has made several trips of Les's house to do his fabulous photography on all of Les's many guitars (Chet had only around 60 guitars, but Les has more than two hundred!). We have scoured the internet looking for old photos of Les Paul both with and without his partner, Mary Ford, and we are almost finished with our newest book, titled LES PAUL--IN HIS OWN WORDS. This book will be published around Christmas, 2004, every one of the 1500 copies in the limited edition will be signed personally by Les Paul, the book will come in a deluxe handmade slipcase, will be twice the number of pages as the Chet book, and will sell for $200. If you'd like to order a copy just e-mail me. As with everything I sell, the Les Paul book comes with a total satisfaction guarantee.
Incidentally, not one person asked for a refund on the Chet Atkins book. Everyone who got a copy was delighted with it. Since that edition has now been sold out for a couple of years, it is increasing in value on the secondary market, and you can sometimes find a copy on eBay for around $300. The same thing will happen with the Les Paul book. When the 1500 signed copies have all been sold, as time goes on and demand continues, the only way for a new collector to obtain a copy will be to buy one from one of the 1500 original buyers, and that will cause the price to go up.