The book Улица-Street-Straße had three languages; Russian, German and English and showed the situation in the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in the years 1987 to 2003. I've spend years traveling and creating photo stories in the Eastern Europe. The book was successful and we gained a lot of experience through the self-publishing process. I would like to take you along for
a minute in this new learning experience. The first 200 books I've sold to my friends. Than a few bookkeepers in the Netherlands and Germany who ordered books but distribution via bookshops was time consuming and really expensive. Most books were actually sold via my own web shop. They went all over the world. Sending books by post was sometimes problematic and due to the high postage prices scared some customers off in far away places. But at the end of all of this we were happy as most of the 1400 books we printed have been sold now. So we’re ready to take the next decision: are we going to re-print? The answer was: no. Although artistically successful it would not be profitable. In the meantime thousands of internet users from Russia, Eastern Europe, Ukraine and other places came visiting my portfolio website. Russian and Ukrainian friends had been sharing pages out of my book via social media and independent Russian bloggers had been writing about it. So there is a potential bigger audience out there but how to serve them? We created a new media concept: the one-book-library. The complete book (and extras) to be visited online for a small fee. So why not an eBook? Photography deserves a good presentation. eBooks and images do not seem to match. The online presentation we used is beautiful and functions on different devices: computer, smart phone, iPad et cetera. We keep the price symbolic: 1 euro for a half year access. Membership to the library expires automatically after that period unless the user actively decides to prolong it. It's an experiment; we have to see if it will work. But maybe we are developing a new media model that could be useful for other kinds of image stories. So I’m asking if you would be willing to spend one euro and more importantly share your experiences whether it is good or bad on social media or any where else. A concept like this can only work if many people become aware of it, believe in it and support it. This project is experimental. We appreciate feed back. The price of 1 euro will be evaluated and might change after that date for new members and re-newed memberships. Leo Erken.
