funding for letterpress project

Hi,

I am on the search for funding for a project I am in the middle of and I am hoping that some members here will have ideas on where I can get support from.
I am hand-setting and printing 500, 350 paged books I wrote in my early teens while having an illness called M.E, and I will be doing woodcuts throughout it and eventually I will handbind the books. I have been working for almost a year and have another year ahead but no moeny left.

Any ideas??

Anna

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Given that you have another year to do the work, I would suggest looking at artist grants and funding. If you had a shorter length of time for the completion date I would suggest KickStarter.

Hello Anna,

I am astounded at the scope of your project: 350 pages of handset type and woodcuts, printed 500 times and hand-bound. I can’t imagine that you are hand-setting the entire book before you print it. If that were the case you must have spent a fortune on type and you must have a roomful of galley cabinets. So, if you are setting a few pages at a time, printing them, and redistributing the type, you must have some finished pages to show. You could use these pages to put together a prospectus. The prospectus should include a few images of your woodcuts as well. With the prospectus you could solicit advance orders for the book, and use the proceeds to complete the project. The number of advance orders you receive will give you an idea of your potential sales. Then you can work out the numbers to see whether your book will be profitable or whether you need to consider it a labor of love.

Barbara

Anna, that is a wonderful project. I had no idea what ME was. I will be happy to send you some foundry type.

Just think of the imposition work needed for a 350 page book :|
That is assuming that it is being printed on a 10x15 or bigger, anything smaller wouldn’t be viable.

Girl with a kluge, I like the cut of your jib

Girl with a Kluge - M.E. is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, also referred to as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It’s kind of rare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_fatigue_syndrome

Well yes, I do have quite a lot of type, I made it with a man who still has a working letterpress workshop, and I am working at an open Studio in Sweden. I set 12 pages at a time, and print 6 on each side. So far I havnt started on the woodcuts because it has taken me so long to get the hang of type-setting I dont want to mix tasks just yet!
I haver been researching grants but most of the deadlines have passed. The main thing is that whatever it is cant be too time consuming or I will be working for more years on this book!
I will have a look at kickstarter, thank you!
Anna

note to Barbara- I print 12 pages, undo the text, then start on the next 12 pages! that really would be expensive!

In regards to the woodcuts,, I would suggest doing them all at once so they are done and you can just lock them into the chase when printing. It will help to simplify your workflow as you won’t need to go back through.

If it were me, I would look at doing one of 2 things:
1. create the woodblocks, lock them into the chase with text and print them right along with everything else.
OR
2. create the woodblocks, print them onto plates and make sure there are blank pages in the correct places and mount the plates afterwards.