A reprint of the book is much easier said than done. Another print run, be it 200 or 500, would probably start at about USD $10,000.
I should note that I
could have saved a bit of money, or increased the print run, or both in the past, and in the future, had I chosen to have the book printed in China. While this unto itself may be worth some insightful discussion, as a veteran of the printing industry, I'd contribute some thoughtful commentary on the subject. I'd also conclude with, "Over my dead body."
There are two problems here: first, I don't have $10,000 laying around. Second, the easy sales have already been made. Incremental sales from today forward, would come at a steep marketing cost that I did not have when the book was released. With the book mentioned on about every website serving the community, on eBays all over the world, Amazon, etc. you'd have to be living under a rock or just not paying attention to the "Pagoda World" (sorry to borrow the term here) not to know about it. Those who know about it but didn't buy it, made a conscious effort to do so.
I'd have to sell nearly half the print run to break even. Then, and only then, would any profits begin to flow. If you think the first hundred copies would be difficult to sell from a new print run, the second hundred would probably be exceedingly hard to sell.
I said the easy sales have been made. In February of 2012, for example, I sold and shipped over 40 books. In July, that dropped to about 9 books. In August, only one order came in. While 2 came in September, I was down to about a dozen books left and cut it off. That's when I started crafting the final letter and refund to the contributors.
Further marketing of another print run would be expensive--advertising is VERY expensive. I leveraged and utilized all I could to promote the book initially, and was reasonably but not completely successful. Comp and review copies sent to people like John Olson, The Star Magazine, and Roy Spencer led to reviews appearing in their publications. Roy's review was particularly good, as he, after really looking at the book, "got it" in terms of concept (not that it is "high art" or anything, but some don't get it...) and said so; literally seconds after he reviewed the book and blasted the review out in his monthly newsletter, MercedesHeritage, the orders started pouring in. I think I got his email at 2:00 one afternoon, and by 2:05 orders were coming in.
Comp copies, with the guise of promoting the sl113.org group were also sent to personnel at DBAG and MBUSA. While MBUSA liked the book, that was it--with a thank you. DBAG, however, wanted to sell them, and overall bought 75 copies wholesale to sell in their museum gift shop. So, some books sent to Germany with project funds yielded a sale of 75 copies. Not too bad.
On the other hand, a comp copy sent to editor Lizzie Pope of
Mercedes Enthusiast was "acknowledged" but not even a thank you, and certainly no mention of the book. Another sent to editor David LaChance of
Hemmings Sports & Exotic Cars yielded a promised review in the June 2012 issue, but that never happened, and he never responded to further inquiries. Further puzzling with Mr. LaChance is that in the most recent issue of Hemmings, he specifically mentions the upcoming anniversary of the Pagoda, and asked for specific stories about owner's experiences...jeez, he has 66 of them on his desk! Has he forgotten? I guess so. Hey, not everything works the way we like, but both of these publications do indeed review books each month.
There were, as you might imagine, some comp books sent out to other media outlets that were never acknowledged and never reviewed. Their loss.
With a limited edition of 500 copies, sold out in 9 months, I have little complaining to do! There is one last quandary, perhaps a moral or ethical issue.
All of the promotion, be it to the original contributors to coax them out of $190 and their stories and photos, or potential buyers of $75, suggested a limited edition of 500 copies. So, after the fact, we print more? Perhaps this is a moot point; perhaps we could circumvent the quandary by making a second book varied enough from the first, but some people paid $75 for the book with the idea of it being a limited edition. Some might be annoyed if more were printed. Just a thought, but one that stares you in the face if you open the book and read "Limited Edition"...in the world of collectors cars we are in, and in the world of art, it is the number of copies of something that most often is a dictate of value. That's why the 300SL is more valuable than a 190SL which is generally more valuable than a Pagoda... It is also why the original oil painting on the front cover of Pagoda Style sold for USD $4,500.00 and the giclee editions are somewhat less. If the "editions" were printed on paper by offset and unsigned, they'd be called "posters" and sell for $10. The more exclusive, the more the value. Holds true for cars, books and art.
Perhaps there will be another book of some kind in the future. Now, I'm just working with Paul Bracq on the prints as George mentioned. I was astounded that the original sold quickly (and Mr. Bracq was quite happy) and astute collectors have been ordering the giclee editions.
Very often we neglect the journey with our eyes focused on the destination. "Are we there yet?" Well, in this case it was all about the journey--not the destination. As one contributor told me in a personal thank you note received today by good old fashioned handwriting on a card, sent by snail mail (we call it old school!), the end is a little bittersweet.
But the journey, and scenery along the way was terrific! 
