The Versatile Master Artist

The cover illustration for the ”Little Prince” album utilizes such an art-grade printing method, while the illustrations within the other pages remain relatively low-cost CMYK printing.

The final step is binding them together.

”If only all the illustrations could be printed with separate color correction, that would be great.”

Anna still feels somewhat unsatisfied.

”My dear girl, printing only the cover like this is already quite excessive. Printing everything like this, do you want the final price to be set above 50 pounds?”

Osborne chuckled silently.

Worldwide, the cost of art albums is very high.

In Dongxia, where book printing and labor costs are the lowest, a thin and exquisite album of a few dozen pages often sells for the same price as an encyclopedia set.

”In ’19, I handled the revised stage script book for ’Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ by Lady J.K. Rowling, and it was set at just 25 pounds. Even then, we received countless negative feedback, saying we shamelessly profited from fans’ emotions. According to the Group’s market department report, to achieve larger sales volume, the bottom line is 20 pounds. Pricing it higher doesn’t make up for the total sales decline in terms of single-item profit, making it not worth it.”

”This isn’t a textbook that has to be bought; readers have multiple ’Little Prince’ options besides the Scholastic Group’s version.” Osborne shrugged.

”Printing costs aren’t the major expense; ink, no matter how pricey, is only worth a few pounds. If I were the publisher, I’d rather squeeze some profit margins.”

Anna sipped her lemon water lightly and suggested.

Hehe.

Osborne chuckled twice, rolled his eyes, and stayed silent.

Expensive books are a phenomenon throughout Europe and America, and talk of squeezing profits by Anna accounts for nothing, nor does Osborne’s words.

Different publishing groups compete on large scales, but none seem interested in price wars.

Best-selling eBooks in Kindle stores, ”Star Wars” comics, without any physical print costs, still sell for over ten pounds.

”Alright, don’t worry. CMYK is already a high-end printing method, with the industry’s standard color deviation being plus or minus 10%. Scholastic Group’s production line can control it within 3%, the effect won’t be too different.”

Osborne casually chatted: ”You’re really invested in this book. His agent, the enigmatic Mr. Tree Sloth, is your acquaintance?”

”Your aunt’s classmate? Or some other acquaintance?”

The girl blinked, giving Uncle Osborne a mysterious ”guess who” smile.

”This illustration deserves hard work; since it’s decided to revise, not carefully color-correct, controlling every trace of color deviation to perfection, fully restoring Detective Cat’s strokes would be a great loss. It would do a disservice to such a work.”

Anna changed the topic: ”Especially those eyes, Uncle Osborne, they possess a magical captivating gaze, am I wrong?”

”So, I believe the ’Little Prince’ project team will understand my little whim.” she said.

”The new illustrations are good, but the old ones were great too.” Osborne didn’t see it that way, ”Not everyone agrees there’s a need to revise.”

”Then what about you?” Anna smiled at Osborne.

”I... I’m honestly not sure.”

Osborne hesitated for a moment: ”From an artistic perspective, this illustration is certainly good. But Anna, you understand, your uncle is a businessman. Businessmen believe more in marketing, more in brand buzz, yet it’s hard to have great expectations from such artistic things because they are uncontrollable.”

Osborne cut a piece of Wellington steak and tossed it into his mouth: ”I believe in Anna’s vision; I also see this as one of the best illustrations I’ve seen in my career. Yet it’s just one illustration; I dare not pin too much hope on it.”

”Scenes of illustrations creating miracles in book history aren’t few.” Anna whispered.

”Indeed, miracles are always possible, but they’re always a matter of probability.”

”I can’t randomly see an illustration and believe it will become the next ’Nils Holgersson’s Wonderful Journey Through Sweden’ or ’The Wind in the Willows’. Though the artistic value may be comparable, the commercial logic is different.”

No, if from an artistic standpoint.

Anna corrected Osborne: ”It’s not the next ’Nils Holgersson’s Wonderful Journey’ and ’The Wind in the Willows’, it’s higher than that.”

”Beautiful things always touch the heart, merely a simple and unadorned physiological feeling, unrelated to artistic logic or commercial logic.”

”Anna, it seems you have great confidence in this book’s sales. That’s best; I, too, hope to lead in publishing what becomes a future best-selling classic for many years.”

Osborne turned, ”If text and illustration can complement each other perfectly, that’s ideal.”

”I’ve read Dean Hawke of Oxford University’s translated version, with elegant text, devoid of the often stodgy air and tendency for verbose words typical of old scholars studying traditional English literature, classic in prose.”

”If Detective Cat’s illustrations are as Uncle Osborne insists classic, the previous set of illustrations perfectly met these requirements, now this cover illustration—”

”If you need a miracle, then it can give you a miracle.”

Anna tapped the table with her alabaster-like fingers, speaking confidently and decisively.