Digital or physical product? What's more ...

What's more practical?

If you write a book (or a booklet, referring to mine of 43 pages), do you have an idea what's going to come first?

Whether you are going to have it printed or send it out to people digitally?

Do you have such considerations when deciding to produce a product of your own, done in writing?

When you consider the practicality of things, it's certainly best to have it published digitally, as an e-book, then those other formats I'm not that familiar with (the KDP?, Kindle, etc.).

Because paper costs a lot. Even more than before.

As I'm in the translation business, I know that the paper needed to print out a translation (a certified one) now costs at least 50% more. First I used Navigator, which to me is the best kind of paper around (and it says premium on the website).

Then I opted for cheaper variants, depending on what's available in the shop or how much i can afford for my business at a certain time.

So, doing away with paper is good.

For the environment too, if you want to uphold values, live sustainably.

The same goes for the invoices I send out. Better by e-mails.

What's more attractive?

A physical book. The ability to leaf it through, smell the paper, look at the cover, put it on a shelf, and it rests so well with the other books you have lined up there.

The appeal of a book is something that can't be substituted. An e-book won't be a more appealing option.

What's more expensive?

Printing the book, of course.

For that I fetched 2 offers- one from Printera, a printing company in Sveta Nedelja, near Zagreb, and a Slovenian company I worked with just once (they have a company they work with in Zagreb, which helps when you have to pick up the copies yourself).

Of course, I could have collected more offers, but I somehow didnt want to bother that much.

I knew the Slovenes do their job OK. I commissioned them to print my photo portfolio and I liked it. Here you can have a taste of some of my work done in Manchester, in 2018.

So I picked them again. Ordered 5 copies, for starters. I'll see how the sale goes.

At the moment I've got orders for the printed copies, too. Who pays first, will get it by post.

That part I like very much, although I've never had the chance to send my work to anyone by post.

I remember standing in a line at a post office and I saw a Croatian jewellery designer, quite popular on IG and with Croatian fashion mags, holding a bunch of boxes, putting it down on the counter and fixing stickers on the boxes, writing the names and addresses of her clients from a list of who ordered the items. I watched in awe, thinking how great it would be to do the same (with my own product) and attach personal notes inside the packages.

Now I have the chance to do exactly that.

But it's costly and takes a lot of time.

Still. such things have more appeal for me. You remember them better, then just seeing an info that someone downloaded your book and you will receive a monthly sum on that and that date. The sending out is done automatically. You're not present at that moment. You just know when someone bought it.

And what then?

You can ask the people how they liked it. If they buy the book, they can send you a photo of them reading it. That's a nice memento. Fit for the social media.

An e-book can't be presented in that way.

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Anyways,

Thank you to all who have bought the digital version, and a big thank you to all who decide to invest in my physical product.

I've put a lot of myself into it, as into everything I write.

You can download the book here. Remember, 15% of the proceeds from each sale will go to help organisations and centres that help combat unemployment (especially young people leaving schools).

Or order the book from the author (me).

Here's me leafing in the book.

Thank you for reading.

Appreciate every comment or reaction I get.