Well, hi-ho everyone, from a warm summer day here in Chicago, which I'm spending in my apartment this afternoon giving my left knee a rest, which apparently I really hurt over the weekend while bicycling and didn't realize, because I am an old man and old men are pathetic. It's true. So I'm spending the day getting online things done instead, and computer things, and trying desperately to finish up teaching myself Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash, so that I can have the virtual photography gallery up for my arts organization, the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (CCLaP), by July 4th as hoped. And in fact, working on that stuff and getting ready for that first show brings up a good subject that comes with this newest version of the CCLaP plan; of just how I plan on making money, anyway, when I don't actually have any money to spend?

That's a good question, one I've been pondering a lot too; because believe me, I ain't opening CCLaP for my health, that's for damn sure, but rather to get to a point as quickly as possible where all my bills in my life are getting paid because of it, and hopefully even a little extra, God forbid. Last year I tried opening CCLaP under a ridiculous proposition that a lot of people didn't believe; that I could literally start up all these new programs and cool projects at once, if only someone with $5,000 in spare cash could invest it in the center beforehand. And now under the newest plan, I'm yet again opening under a ridiculous proposition that a lot of people don't believe; that I can actually start raising semi-significant revenue without spending a penny in advance, or let's say just very few pennies (less than $400 altogether, when all is said and done). That's the idea, anyway, to have raised about a thousand bucks by this autumn altogether, so I can move on to the next stage of the revenue-raising plan.

So this is basically how I want to do it, which I don't mind sharing because it's a complicated plan (like always) that I think most people unable to pull off, even if they do know it in detail...

First, like I said, open this virtual photography gallery, all Flash-based and really impressive in that "ooh, that's a Flash site, ain't it" kind of way. And with audio interviews between me and the artist concerning each piece, which you can listen to by clicking a button in the corner, so that if you want it to be, it'll be like actually walking through a gallery with me and the artist as we gab about the work. And then probably creating a 3D virtual gallery as well in Second Life, because hey, I've got the land and it's all paid up until next October, for God's sake, I might as well be doing something there with it. And all of this includes a virtual exhibition catalog as well, in the form of a free downloadable PDF eBook, designed in the super-cool way I've done past books of photography. All of this combined will hopefully give the proceeding just a little bit more gravitas than simply pointing people to a Flickr account, for example, will keep photographers interested in showing there and an audience interested in checking it out.

So the idea, then, is to combine all this mentioned with some of that "print on demand" merchandise that now exists online; the places like CafePress, for example, MOOCards, Flickr's various commercial options, where they merely keep an electronic version of your artwork on file at their warehouse, and literally crank out one more t-shirt or postcard or poster or coffee mug or refrigerator magnet or whathaveyou each time someone orders it. It's not the best option for a small business, because that POD company keeps a significant amount of each sale; but it's a good option for people like me, who are going into all this without any upfront money whatsoever.

Any revenue generated from all that, then, gets split in half between the artist and CCLaP; the artist does what they want with theirs, while CCLaP's gets held as part of a book fund for the fall (but more on that in a bit). And then CCLaP has a Paypal account as well, so the virtual gallery will have a virtual glass box at the end too, in case visitors want to throw a few bucks in after the tour for a good cause. Strictly voluntarily, of course, and non-payment certainly doesn't withhold you from any of the show. Then combine that with a growing series of social events in Chicago, where I'll probably pass the hat once at each, again with about as low-pressure a sales pitch as possible.

So will all of that be enough for CCLaP to raise US$1,000 (500 pounds, 800 euros) by, say, October? That is, by not spending a penny of it, but instead keeping it in digital form where I can't get at it? Oh, and of course promoting all the merchandise through Second Life as well, on top of selling virtually matted and framed versions of the photos for just like a quarter apiece, for other avatars to hang in their own virtual homes, just as a gimmick that will get people talking and visiting the main website. If I can somehow get all of this to equal a thousand bucks by this fall, that'll be enough to publish CCLaP's first full-length paper book, 500 copies, which I'm budgeting right now at a dollar apiece to make, even though they'll be fully bound trade paperbacks (but more on that below), plus a $500 cash advance to whatever writer I sign, as an enticement for signing with CCLaP and not someone else.

So how am I going to pull off 500 trade paperbacks for 500 bucks? Easy; I'm going to make them all myself, I've decided, art-book style, with the pressboards and fabric and glue spindles and all the rest. That's one of the things, in fact, that I'm becoming more and more comfortable with this year, as I transition into yet another new way of doing things with my center; I'm finally admitting to myself plainly how much faster I am than so many other people when it comes to certain things, how much more energy I have for all this stuff than a lot of other people, of all the things I can accomplish that a full-time 9-to-5er can't. Like, I can hand-print and hand-bind, in a complex and high-quality way, 500 copies of a paperback book myself. I can, in my apartment, and bind say a hundred of them at first over a month, then keep slowing binding them as sales slowly continue through 2008.

That will give me a high-quality book at the end, in fact an even higher quality than a normal mass print run, because I'll be able to add covers of harder stock and the like. And that'll let me sell it retail for a decent price, $15 or $16, for only a production cost of a dollar, giving both CCLaP and the author much higher royalties than in most basement- and small-press situations. (That is, once you subtract marketing costs, postage, wastage, cuts for a distributor like Amazon or bookstore, and all the rest of the thousand ways they stick it to you). After all of that's paid off, again both the author and CCLaP split the rest 50/50, a much higher ratio than most presses; and since CCLaP's costs for the next book are getting paid for first, at that point I'll finally start feeling comfortable with keeping half of CCLaP's profits for myself, to actually start paying bills in my life, and re-investing the other half into growing CCLaP's budget for the next project.

Oh, and that'll let me do something else cool, too; to offer a really fancy custom version you can order directly from the website, where I actually print on the front page that that particular book was printed just for you, and leave a space for the author to sign it, and with probably special fancier covers and front leafs and the like. You know, something cool and fancy, a ridiculous $30 or something, specifically for the author's family and friends, as a way of being a little more extra supportive of the author than the usual reader. Just to give people the opportunity, you know.

Nobody does it this way because no one usually has the time or energy to do it this way; I do have the time and energy, which is why I'm trying it this way. This way is actually much better than any of the other ways; it's a higher profit margin per book, a much more intimate relationship between your press and your customers, and a much higher-quality book in their hands too. And that's how I'm hoping not only to eventually start turning a significant profit out of no upfront money, but in a way that will impress other organizations and make them say, "How does CCLaP do it like that?" And even better than all of this so far mentioned, I can do everything I've talked about by myself; no need to raise the money for an employee, no begging for a volunteer if I can't, no need to share the profits. I don't know why I tortured myself for so long, trying to do things the way that everyone else did them. I don't know why I didn't just tell myself before, "Jason, you're in a position to do things in a much different and better way than anyone else."

So, there's the plan. Will it work? We'll see! I'm willing to bet that it will, though. Maybe my numbers are a little off; maybe it'll take me until January 2008 to raise a thousand bucks, instead of October '07. As always, we'll see.