I realized my blog posts have been sparse over the last month. It’s time for a little catch-up on what’s going on here at Flesk.
The Art of Brom book is at the top of my list of projects to finalize. The amount of accounting necessary for organizing our nearly 2400 Kickstarter supporters has been time-consuming, but you won’t hear any complaints from me. It’s part of the job and we are grateful for the massive amount of support we have received. I read an article on CNN about how 84% of Kickstarter’s top projects shipped late. Brom and I have every intention of being within the 16% category that ships our project when promised, which is in June 2013. We’re right on schedule. The book looks amazing by the way. Brom is designing and writing it. He recently showed me an update for the book. It is packed with great material, including some new stunning paintings.
I spent much of this month doing my end of the year accounting and taxes. I’m about 98% done. I just need to fill out and submit some paperwork. It’s a huge goal out of the way so I can now focus on books over the next few months. Doing my own accounting and reviewing the previous year in-depth is very beneficial to me. I can see where good decisions were made, and also bad decisions. It lets me refocus and restart for the year. I treat each New Year as if I am a new company starting from scratch. I try to rethink my approach to just about everything to hopefully have a better year than the last. I also enjoy reading business books and tax and accounting guides. Running a business is not easy and requires constant vigilance. Things are not the same from year to year. If you treat the next year like the last year, then your time will surely run out soon. Research, planning and taking new actions are a vital part of staying fresh. I find it to be very helpful to just sit down early in the year, stop everything for a week or two, review the past, and then I check my roadmap and make sure I haven’t taken the wrong exit. Then I repeat my self-assessment in smaller doses during the summer and fall.
Now getting back to books; I am editing and designing the second Spectrum Fantastic Art Live commemorative book. My goal is to have the book done and ready for the printer on February 1. I don’t see any reason why I won’t meet this goal. I’m about 85% done. This is an 80-page, 9 x 12 inch hardbound book which includes a 12-page gallery section on the six guests of the show: Jon Foster, Peter de Seve, Tara McPherson, Charles Vess, Michael Whelan and Terryl Whitlatch. All of the art, captions and introductions are in place. I just need to finalize the design on a few pages, write my afterword, and then design the jacket and hardbound boards. We’ll get all of the details up and on the Flesk website soon.
March 1 is the deadline to get Brom’s book to the printer. Much of February will be spent finalizing his book. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I’m excited about every nuance and as I mentioned earlier, I feel good about our schedule.
The month of March will be spent finishing Mark Schultz’s new art book so we can have it to the printer on April 1. This will guarantee we have it to premier at Comic-Con in mid-July. We are also re-releasing Xenozoic with a new cover, and there will be a new Schultz signed print available too. I’m putting together a Kickstarter campaign to allow our advance supporters to get some bonus material and special deals. More on this in a few weeks.
In the pipeline, with no date set yet are, a full-blown retrospective on the life and art of Al Williamson, and books on three artists that I will be working with for the first time. (I’ll announce who they are soon enough.) The Williamson book will be amazing. The final material I am looking for are scans from originals for two representational EC complete stories (His Valor story would be nice. It’s one of Al’s favorites.), a representational Creepy story and a few proper page samples from Buster Crabbe. I have just about everything else that I need. If you have any of this material and you are willing to share, please let me know.
I’m working with Steve Rude on a new Nexus art book collection. I have already scanned and indexed hundreds of pages. We are looking for the final material needed and then I can get started designing the book. It’s already mapped out. This book will be stunning. I’ve never seen an approach like this done before and the idea has been in my mind for a while. I’m looking forward to getting the book out for you all to see.
There’s a little update. There is much more to share, and in greater detail, as time moves on. Stay tuned
Enjoy,
John
John Fleskes
Flesk Publications
Text copyright © 2013 John Fleskes. All rights reserved.
Links:
CNN Kickstarter Article
