RIP Daamen Printing
well, Daamen Printing in VT, which none of you have heard of except queenklong and i, is about to close its doors. the head printer is retiring and called me this morning to ask if i wanted the film to reprint Inhaling the Train Wreck, Edition 2. they're going to UPS it to me. in New Mexico. on their dime.
THIS is why you work with local/small businesses. they were recommended to me by a letterpress printer in suburban Boston for their prices, and boy oh boy were they cheap. and accommodating: i gave them less than 3 weeks, countless revisions, and easily 5 or 6 different quotes before i'd even sent the book in. and in the end, all shipping (USPS) fees included, it came to about $1800 to print 400 books, 112 pages long. sure, there was a small shady moment when i got up there and they had apparently tried to print the book without a glossy cover, then decided it wouldn't work, and told me they wouldn't charge me for the gloss, when i'd asked for gloss from day 1, but that's overlookable, and has been since i got my hot little hands on them books.
without Daamen Printing, there quite likely would not have been so successful a tour, nor as good looking a book, and now they're closing shop. while not the highest quality printing i've ever seen, they provided a hell of a price and just remarkable service to me in a time of need. it's a damn shame other poets won't be able to take advantage of it in the future; they were right at the top of my list for any northeastern full-length book publishing projects. i'd even recommended them out a few times to folks as far off as... out here.
so in 10 years or so i'll be posting these canisters (or however they come; i've never seen printer's film transported before) on ebay or it successor. juvenilia, bitches. come 'n get it. in the mean time, i hold my hat for a great publisher's resource closing this October.
THIS is why you work with local/small businesses. they were recommended to me by a letterpress printer in suburban Boston for their prices, and boy oh boy were they cheap. and accommodating: i gave them less than 3 weeks, countless revisions, and easily 5 or 6 different quotes before i'd even sent the book in. and in the end, all shipping (USPS) fees included, it came to about $1800 to print 400 books, 112 pages long. sure, there was a small shady moment when i got up there and they had apparently tried to print the book without a glossy cover, then decided it wouldn't work, and told me they wouldn't charge me for the gloss, when i'd asked for gloss from day 1, but that's overlookable, and has been since i got my hot little hands on them books.
without Daamen Printing, there quite likely would not have been so successful a tour, nor as good looking a book, and now they're closing shop. while not the highest quality printing i've ever seen, they provided a hell of a price and just remarkable service to me in a time of need. it's a damn shame other poets won't be able to take advantage of it in the future; they were right at the top of my list for any northeastern full-length book publishing projects. i'd even recommended them out a few times to folks as far off as... out here.
so in 10 years or so i'll be posting these canisters (or however they come; i've never seen printer's film transported before) on ebay or it successor. juvenilia, bitches. come 'n get it. in the mean time, i hold my hat for a great publisher's resource closing this October.