Q. Why a Price Transparency Guide?

A. Void has the willingness to offer its titles at an affordable price. We want money not to be the deciding factor when someone wants our books. That said, we are not always happy with the amount someone will spend on our publications. The reasons a book costs what it costs vary. The same goes for the shipping fees. It's been a challenging time for independent publishers. Both production and shipping costs are skyrocketing. And as much as there are factors we can work on, there are some we can’t. We often hear questions about why some books are pricier than others, and why the cost of shipping can seem heavier than the book itself. We thought that a bit of pricing transparency could have a good impact on your decision to purchase our books and, therefore, support a passionate independent publisher.

Q. Why is it a challenging time for publishers?

A. Since Covid there's been an ongoing paper supply crisis. Paper mills have been raising prices (at one point, even monthly). With no guarantee of the delivery date. This poses a big problem for planning the production of books, as it is a nightmare for self-funded publishers that now have to deal with increasing production costs. On top of that, shipping is also going wild. Inflation, wars and the oil crisis are driving shipping fares higher. With price increases more often than we and our customers would want to. And there’s Trump.

Q. Why does a book cost what it costs?

A. When designing a book, Void carefully weighs the design aspects to balance a high-quality unique object with cost efficiency. We’d like our books to stand out. And at the same time, that people can afford it. However, some projects demand specifications that are not cheap to start from. It could be special colours to render the best of black and white photography, a bigger dimension for a book, an open flat binding, a high amount of pages, or sometimes, yes… we fall for that very exquisite (and expensive) paper. Other factors come into the equation when pricing a book: the transport of tons worth of books to the publisher, warehousing, taxes, credit card fees, webstore fees, PR, sampling copies, importing fees, retail discounts, and the losses: lost and damaged shipment, defective product units, display copies, stealing, and so on. Beyond the pure production costs, there are also the values involved in the book’s conception: editing, design, proofs, prepress, proofreading, translation, fonts, software, illustration, etc. Also, the book sales should also cover a publisher’s overhead costs such as web hosting, web store, brick and mortar store, salaries, and so on. And (yes, there’s still an “and”) before we forget: the artist fees. Yes, you read that right — we belong to that select club of publishers who actually pay artists. A good book is worth more than its cost of production.

Q. Why doesn’t Void throw some promotional discounts?

A. A few reasons. First, we already price our books with a small margin. Secondly, we are gladly distributed by Idea Books, and after a book goes to the trade, we can’t just change the prices of our products without creating a big mess throughout the whole retail chain. Furthermore, the initial book pricing is not an arbitrary decision. We decide on something that would make sense for the financial sustainability of our operation, and also, that could make sense for the market… so, we try to stick to a solid price. Except on pre-sales, when we have books at a special pre-order price, to encourage people to try a few different titles. It also grants some upfront funding to partially cover the printing.

Q. Why are rare books more expensive than the initial price, then?

A. It is true. Not always, but sometimes we set aside some 10 to 15 last copies at a higher price. This is a way of making up for some investment. As we calculate that in the beginning there will be losses. We also calculate that there will be this final extra income. The retail price already takes this into account. And… it is also quite hard to say farewell. We understand that these last pieces will take much more time to sell out. And this helps us to be around our babies a bit longer.

Q. You say that Void calculates its books to be affordable, but how come I find cheaper books in other imprints?

A. Yep. Some publishing houses have more affordable books. As much as we can’t answer for others, we know that many publishers have a strong funding system —countries like The Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland and the Nordic ones have a good public grant system for publishers. It allows them to invest less of their own capital in the production of books. Not to say that it is a common market practice to have the book funded by the same artists being published. External funding is something that allows imprints to charge less for books. Void, being self-funded, can’t afford to charge less for a book than what we already do.

Q. How does Void fund its books?

A. As a quick answer: with Void’s own funds. A bit more complex answer would be: 3 of our books were done in a co-publishing venture with the artists, called COOP. 6 others had some partial funding from grants (Futures Photography and Creative Europe, Listasafn Árnesinga, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Mondrian fund, and the French Institute in Athens). But mainly and mostly, Void funds its projects itself. To happen, future books rely on the previous ones to be sold and profit. Our book-making workshops are also a way to increase Void’s revenue and enable books to happen. As simple as that. You might ask why we don’t apply for funding and, well… unlike some North European countries, art funding is not a thing in Greece.

Q. Why can't I find Void’s publications in my neighbourhood bookstore?

A. Digital books dealt a big hit on brick-and-mortar stores that ended up reducing their physical space. Which books take up more space than others? Yes, that’s right, the big and heavy artbook ones. For this reason, there was quite a decrease in bookstores stocking artbooks. The ones that do, usually have a conservative curation to diminish risks. We know that our titles are not exactly conservative. Void does better with the non-orthodox audience (thank you!). So, there’s a funnelling in the bookstores that would carry our titles. Idea Books does a great job in distributing our titles to more than 20 countries, and in more than 100 stores that are unorthodox enough to have Void’s books (Cheers to all of you!). The world is huge, though. There’s a big chance you live in one of the other 170 countries without any brave bookstore stocking our publications. If so, we ship worldwide all our titles, including the special editions that are rarely found in a regular bookstore. Our books are also part of more than 170 library collections in 27 countries. Check our About page and see if you are lucky to find one close to you.

Q. Which are the shipping options Void offers?

A. We offer 4 different forms of delivery and one pickup option.
You can find, at the top of our Store page, an explanation for each option.

Q. How does Void calculate the shipping fees?

A. We try to keep our prices at a minimum —for the most prohibitive long-distance shipments, we don't even charge in full. Void uses the price tables from Greek Post and DHL to set the shipping costs. It’s this simple. Furthermore, we don’t charge for handling. And we don’t charge for the packaging material that we use. The packaging material is not that affordable. But we learned that it is worth spending a bit more on good packaging than on replacing books. Since Greece is not a central European hub, unfortunately, our shipping prices are a bit higher than purchasing something from Brussels, let’s say. That’s why we work with a global distributor that can supply our titles closer to you.

Q. Some publishers offer flat-rate shipping. Why don’t you?

A. Two things to be explained: flat-rate shipping, as a rule, has its cost included in the product price. People would prefer to buy a book for €50 with free shipping instead of a book for €30 and pay €20 on delivery. But if doing this, we would put a lot of financial burden on our distributor and the retail chain, which would need to acquire our books at a more expensive trade price. In the end, we are very invested in having our books in different stores and countries, so readers can buy locally. 

The second thing is that some publishers have books stocked in different countries or continents. So they can dispatch a long-distance order from a closer warehouse. We still don’t have such a logistic system. One day.

Q. Still, shipping fees are too costly to send to me. Do I have alternatives? 

A. We understand it is frustrating that sometimes you'll spend as much on shipping as on the product itself. We encourage you to let local bookstores know of your interest in our titles. This might work. You could be supporting not only Void but also a dear local bookstore. Another idea: you could perhaps find a friend who also wants some of our titles and split shipping costs. On our end, we keep doing our homework to keep our margins low. Finally, Void invests good time in trying to add more of our books to libraries around the world. We are still far from having global coverage, but you might want to check if you can find one of our titles close to you. Check the dedicated book pages under the tab BOOKS to find where they are publicly available. Who knows if you hint to your public library about our titles… they might acquire them.

Q. Why am I awesome?

A. Supporting independent publishers adds a lot to your awesomeness.