An Innovative Company Gives Antique Collectors What They Need

Book purchases often yield a reference with just few pages of really usable information sprinkled between history lessons and price guides. The author may toss in a glossary of terms and a few maker’s marks, but more often than not, that elusive piece of information is missing. Buyers are forced to buy book after book just to build a good library on one subject.

From the publisher’s point of view, the problem is simply about economics. The market for books on collecting is very small compared to the type of books that reach the New York Times best seller list. The problem is magnified by the high cost of book printing. After the book is written, edited and published, it still needs to be promoted which adds another cost.

The traditional solution has been, sadly, that publishers don’t pay authors a lot of money to write books, usually between one and two dollars per book. If you have written a “Harry Potter” book, you have made a million dollars. But with small press books, this can be as little as $5,000 for years of work and research. So authors for these types of books typically don’t spend a lot time writing and researching. It simply doesn’t pay.

What then, is the future of small-press books? Technology and innovation may provide the answer. Advancements in printing equipment have given us digital printing, which has much smaller set up costs than traditional printing methods. We have web sites like Amazon, Alibris, and Half (from eBay) that make it possible to sell nation-wide from the comfort of your laptop computer.

What’s left? A new company, AAA publishing, located in San Bernardino, CA thinks they have an innovative answer. They cut out the middleman. The authors own the company. Their first book “All About Antique Silver with International Hallmarks” has 268 pages of solid information. The book also contains international hallmarks for 24 countries. Save yourself a trip to Barnes and Noble. Visit their web site at aaa-publishing.com. Read the synopsis and reviews about this book and decide for yourself.