For some strange reason, every time I tried to post THIS VIDEO:               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmc2-x9fscE

It would link to Joshua Markers Facebook page. Werid. The video is a short introduction to the Book of the Is. It's quite good. There are less than 100 of them left now...

A few people have asked me how the Book of the Is did, sales-wise. So since we are now in full blown (and 50% funded!) Kickstarter mode for the Book of the Un, here is a quick round-up of what happened 5 years ago...

I had a shitty loan for the building, figured I'd get a better one. Signed on for 5 years. The last year of the loan was 2008. So zero money being loaned, espeically to a guy like me with a non-conforming building like the Chez. So I needed to react. I couldn't do what I had been doing (renting $300 rooms to people) if I wanted to keep the building. I was going to have to rent it out fully to a tennant or come up with a different model. The place was a constant revolving door of people coming and going. So when people left, I used the money that the Book of the Is generated to NOT re-rent their rooms. Within a year, everyone was gone. I took the Book of the Is money and some credit card money and did a renovation on the building and just started having events, and with the money the events generated I was able to look way better on paper and got a hard money loan that I still have today.

Writing the Book of the Is was like a fundraiser for the building. Here are the numbers:

Metrics of the Is

  

Sales

$250 x 66     $16,500

$100 X 161   $16,100

$40 x  1,860  $74,400

$20 x 40         $800

Total      $107,800

 

Expenses

Designers (7 total)      $4,300

Manufacture (2,500 x $8.37 each)  $ 20925  

Photography    $1,800

Shipping  (from China) $870

Book release party on Minna alley $5,700

Slipcases  $750

Mural on side of Chez $1,500

Editing and proofreading $600

Total    $36,445

 

Net profit:  $71,355

 

There are now less than 100 Book of the Is left. The Chez Poulet is totally stable money-wise now and in a few short months we will have our day in court, literally. We've applied for permits and we get a hearing in front of the Planning Commission soon. Then we will be 100% legal. Crazy how much  time, effort and money it's all taken. But we're almost there...

 

If you wanted to buy one of these last copies of the Book of the Un, you could do so here:            http://chickenjohn.com/the-book-of-the-is/

 

chicken