Feb 13, 2015
Al Krysan is the owner of the publishing, manufacturing and
distributing book company called Finney Company. He has
substantially grown the business by acquiring smaller publishing
companies such as Astragal Press and SkipJack Press.
If you ever wanted to write a blacksmithing book, this is the
podcast to listen to, we talk about the process of publishing with
Finney Company and everything they do for you such as:
·
helping with illustrations
·
editing, printing and binding the book
·
marketing the book and distributing it
·
we also talk about the revenue share/the
pricing. Al shares a couple of great ideas for collaborative
books too.
What We Talked About
- The history of Finney
Company from 1946 and in 1996 Al started with the company as a
marking person
- The story between
Finney Company, Randy McDaniel, Astragal Press and SkipJack
Press
- The professional level books for art
educational opportunities
- The markets they sell
to:
- Hobar Books sells to vocation/education
institutions and high schools
- Chester Books that sell to art
educators, museums, and galleries
- Astragal Press that
sells to tool collectors and early trade
- Great Outdoors Catalog
that sells to the Florida Natural history and tourism markets
- SkipJack Press that
sells to the blacksmithing and metal markets
- The publishing process
with Finney Company vs self-publishing
- One of the most
interesting book projects they have worked on was about the
shipping of iron ore through the great lakes to the steel mills of
Pennsylvania
- Joint group
publications that would encourage awareness of their group, such as
Norm Larson’s Iron Menagerie book. The Guild of Metalsmiths
group agreed that the royalties from the book would fund the
guild’s scholarship fund, to date they have brought in over $25,000
for the scholarship fund!
- Al’s blacksmithing
experience back in high school
- Now available, Skipjack
Press has acquired the blacksmithing product line of videos/dvds
from Love of Art Productions and Teaching Tapes.
- The story of working
with Randy McDaniel and publishing his latest book “Hydraulic
Forging Press for the Blacksmith”
Guest Links
Finney Company’s Website – www.finneyco.com
Astragal Press Website - http://www.astragalpress.com/index_astragal.htm
Skipjack Press Website - http://www.finneyco.com/skipjack.htm
Finney Company’s Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/FinneyCompany
Manuscript Submission Guidelines - http://www.finneyco.com/authoring.html
Today’s Sponsor: Nimba Anvils, www.nimbaanvils.com