Book Project Debrief · Pet Photographers Collective

Book Project Debrief

So at the start of this year I started a book project. This was my 2nd book project.

My first one I did in 2021 and the reason why it took so long for me to do the second one was because I didn't have a good experience with the first one. Mainly because I did everything myself, I was also still working a full time job, didn't qualify the leads so let everyone who applied in, shot 48 sessions for the book in the space of 6 months but then took over 9 months following to try and to put the book together together and I think it traumatised me (i know, it's dramatic but i feel like that's why it took me so long to do another one).

Anyway, I'm not sure how useful this is but I just did a launch debrief for my workshop launch so I thought I'd do the same for the book project.

Goal: 30 sessions

Total sessions filled for the book: 26

Registration fee $150

Donated to charity (50%) - $1950

No of people upgraded: 22

No. of clients purchased: 25 out of 26

Total product sales made: $70,572

Average sale: $2,714.31

Ad spend: $0

Business Sponsors: $8000 ( 1 sponsor at $5k, 1 sponsor at $1k and 4 sponsors at $500).

Cost of proof reading and publishing (layout design) - TBC but quote was for $4000 plus $200 for proofreading. Printing quote is around $4500-5000 for 100 copies.

Clients came through organically, email list, or emailing existing clients. I also got free publicity in the media using press releases I sent out. I did spend $30 on printing flyers which I dropped at some vets and groomers.

Lessons learnt: Outsource putting the book together to someone else. Getting business sponsors was really good (I didn't come up with this idea, thank you, Jes Wasik got business sponsors for her book project so I decided to try and do the same) in that it allowed me to use that cost to put towards paying someone to design and put the book together.

Qualify and call all leads. I had qualified leads this time instead of just letting everyone who applied to be in the book. I had a phone call and then an in-person consultation for each one (except for existing clients). All indicated they spent, except one decided at the end that she wasn't in a financial position to purchase. She did however say she may purchase at a later stage.

I also gave myself a bit of leeway and less pressure. Although I had a goal of 30 and I didn't reach it I was still happy with the numbers i managed to get.

Overall I think this book project was much more successful and definitely heaps more profitable than the first one (total sales for the first one was under $22k). I now plan to do another book project launching early next year.

If you've read up to here, I hope that you had found this useful or at least insightful. Feel free to ask me any questions.

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