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Fists Full Of Gold By Chris Ralph


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Last year I went to a meeting where Chris was speaking.  I wanted to buy a book for Adam.  Chris told me the shipping would be much more than the book.  He didn't want to sell me one on that basis.

I do think that he was doing some sort of update but we'll have to wait and see if he responds here.

Mitchel

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, this a very slow response but it is one.
First, late in 2020, the book began to sell at a faster rate than it had since it was first published. So I did a quick update to include the GPZ 7000 and a few other housekeeping items and then went to have it re-printed in late August (at the last print the 5000 was the flagship Minelab). To my disappointment, I found the printer was greatly delayed in reprinting because of Covid 19, now taking 3 months to print as opposed to one month in the past.  Because of the delay, my distributor ran out, Amazon ran out and I ran out too. Most dealers had none in stock either. In late November the new print run was finally completed and the books delivered to my distributor in southern California. Amazon and my distributor now have plenty of the newly printed copies and it is in stock with them. However, I am myself still fully out of stock of the book. Because of Covid, I am delaying making the 1000 mile round trip to pick up copies from my distributor.  Probably that will happen in March. I reprinted 3,000 copies in the fall and am now needing to print another 5,000 to keep up with demand. Its going to print now, and I wont have time to include the 6000 in the new edition, who knows when the information on this detector will come out. It will be a couple months in the field being used before we really have good reliable comment on it anyway. Likely the next print after this one will include the 6000.
Second, printing for Australia has become difficult. I used to print here and ship books over to Australia, but the shipping of small lots of heavy items (like my book) has become crazy expensive. The last shipment I made was actually at a loss. I had a small run printed there but the cost of printing small runs and delivering it to JP makes the book almost as expensive there as it would be to ship my copies over there. I barely did better than to break even. I only am able to make a decent profit on the book here in the US by printing several thousand copies at a time. And before anyone suggests print on demand, no, it is not any cheaper, it is more expensive.
2020 was a poor prospecting season between the virus and the fires. I am hoping for a much better 2021. The last day of the season was the best one (picture included). I am hoping my luck continues over.
Chris

 

Calif_nuggets.jpg

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42 minutes ago, Reno Chris said:

I only am able to make a decent profit on the book here in the US by printing several thousand copies at a time.

It is good to see you back and posting Chris. 
 

I have no idea of the logistics/costs but is an ebook a possibility?   Can then be purchased anywhere in the world with no shipping costs.  I can’t imagine setting up an e version is more expensive than a hard copy  🤷‍♂️

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I was actually asked that previously in this thread - this is my response from Oct. 2019 and really nothing has changed:

There is no ebook version coming.  I looked into it and for the reason that ebooks automatically resize the material no matter what device you are using,  they work very poorly for books with loads of illustrations - like my book.  I looked into it and it was nothing but roadblocks and reasons it would not work. 

Ebooks work great for novels and other books that are pretty much text only, but there are hundreds of illustrations in Fist Full of Gold. I remember looking into it and my book, including the illustrations, was longer than the maximum of what was allowed on the site I was looking at to convert the book to an ebook format - and this was a function of all the illustrations. I could delete all the illustrations, but it would be a grossly inferior version.

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Can you get the book printed in Australia?   You do have the best book out there hands down.
As per my comment from a couple hours ago just above your post:

I had a small run printed there but the cost of printing small runs and delivering it to JP makes the book almost as expensive there as it would be to ship my copies over there. I barely did better than to break even. I only am able to make a decent profit on the book here in the US by printing several thousand copies at a time. And before anyone suggests print on demand, no, it is not any cheaper, it is more expensive.

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1 hour ago, afreakofnature said:

PDF might work as an ebook.  Just don’t know how you could protect it from being “shared”

You're right. I'm writing a book right now and a pdf is difficult to protect.

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1 hour ago, afreakofnature said:

PDF might work as an ebook.  Just don’t know how you could protect it from being “shared”

Yes, don’t think you could. 
 

5 hours ago, Reno Chris said:

 

I was actually asked that previously in this thread - this is my response from Oct. 2019 and really nothing has changed:

 

I thought I’d asked that before - sorry  😏

 

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You have to get a PDF in order to send the book to the printer. That is what they use to get the printing adjustments from. Chris is right with the ebook not being viable. It is easy to pirate, it will hamstring your paperback book sales, it doesn't work well will books like Chris's and mine. Like Chris, my book has 170 full color photos and it screws up the whole flow of the book because of the dementions of devices being viewed on. My next book, "Strategic Gold Detecting - The Art & Science Of Gold Nugget Exploration and Recovery" will have around 350 full color photos. As an ebook that would make the length of the book enormous. The issue of the book being pirated is a huge discission for Chris and myself we have put an enormous amount of time into writing these books, taking the photos which can take years to acquire, then after it is written it still has to be layed out in a format that is appealing and flowing as you read it. The bigger the book the bigger the challenge. Then you have someone in China or someplace else stealing the book, printing off pages, triming things off of it and making a new PDF and reprinting it and distributing it around the world. A week after I received my book from the printer, someone from China got ahold of my book, and when I looked this guy up on the internet I found that he takes images and recreate them. My book got pirated a week after it was released. This will really tick you off. Chris is right to not want to do ebook versions. I have dealers in several States plus I have my website. I looked into distributors but they will severely destroy your profit margin, and that is something I myself am not willing to do. Print on demand is a money making venture for the company printing the book, not the author, plus the books are made by high end copiers, not by web press. You will always have a higher quality product by going the route of a web press.The print on demand was going to cost me four times more to print than getting printed on a web press. At those costs you can't create a book and make a profit.

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