While e-book prices may seem on course for a race to the bottom, some publishers are counting on customers’ deep pockets, especially for high-end art books that support a worthy cause, to maintain price points. Assouline just released a dual French- and English-language collection of photographs of the earth, Gaia, “curated” by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, to raise money for the clean water charity he founded, One Drop. The book is available at three price points, including one that is likely to be the highest of 2011. Still at $7,000 it’s less than half the price of several Taschen limited editions from pre-recession days, Sumo and Goat, which retail for $15,000.
Gaia, however, could have the distinction of being the most expensive book ever to be produced, if the $35 million price tag for Laliberté’s training to go into outer space and the 11 days he spent there are taken into account. The billionaire was the first private space explorer from Canada. The book, which contains photographs he took from 220 miles away at the International Space Station, includes his Preface as well as literary comments about earth by writers ranging from Galileo to Carl Sagan and John Keats.
In addition to the $7,000, 178-page hardcover with foil accents, size 17 X 24,” for which purchasers earn a $4,500 tax deduction, Assouline is offering two other bilingual editions: a 144-page hardcover in a clamshell box, which retails for $875, and a $65 trade edition. The pre-launch tour was pegged to the cover-price, starting with Laliberté’s initial event at the Grand Prix in Monaco at the end of May with Prince Albert. Other stops included Paris, London, and Los Angeles, where Assouline has boutiques, as well as Laliberté’s home in Montreal. According to Mimi Crume Sterling, v-p of global communications for Assouline, the press is planning a rolling launch to promote the finished book with an event in Las Vegas in November to celebrate the second anniversary of Laliberté’s trip.
