Just Published! 25 Lessons: The Art of Living

Just Published! 25 Lessons: The Art of Living
Originally uploaded by Lorenzo! (lorenzodom)

April 2, 2008, New York City:

Dear Flickr Friends,

25 Lessons: The Art of Living has been a monumental journey, a labor of love and nothing less than an extraordinary experience for me. I spent the last three years creating the book: taking all the 500+ photos that are in the book, writing the story and the incredible lessons I’ve learned from the experience of becoming a New York City street photographer, creating the layout and design for the book, and even writing the code for the website, www.25Lessons.com, which I also translated into 10 different languages including: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.

Thus, finally, my book will be released on Wednesday, April 2 on blurb.com.

Originally, the book was to be published by Cyan Books in the Spring of last year. However, the company had some financial woes and so, although I finished writing it a year ago, the project eventually came to a standstill.

Hence, I decided to move on and publish the book myself via blurb.com. More information on the book including the first 15 pages, testimonials, a synopsis of the story, my bio and a slideshow of photographs can all be found at www.25Lessons.com,

First 2,500 Copies for FREE*… (to everyone around the world)
As I mentioned, 25 Lessons has truly been a labor of love for me– a very personal, creative and colorful expression of my love for my family and friends, a love for my children, for New York City, and—for life itself.

The decision to forgo waiting for the traditional publishing house to recover and to self-publish instead, ultimately means that I have to depend on my friends around the world to help promote my work. This message alone is going out to flickr friends in more than …cities in …countries around the world. Please help by passing on this message to your friends, family and acquaintances around the globe as well.

The book itself has over 60 testimonials from fellow flickr photographers in over 12 countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. And I am a graduate of the World Arts & Culture program at the U.C.L.A and the graduate School of International and Public Affairs program at Columbia University, so reaching out to everyone around the world is truly of great importance to me.

Publishing with blurb.com. also means that whereas 10,000 books were supposed to be printed and prospectively distributed via traditional channels, now the books will be sold via print-on-demand, one at a time.

Subsequently, the price may be slightly higher than original retail mark-up, so that the 4-color book costs $39.95 US Dollars via blurb.com. as opposed to $35 USD via Barnes & Noble or amazon.com. By the way, blurb. transacts in 57 countries.

Hence, I’m advertising that I am giving the first 2,500 copies of the hardcover edition of the book away for “FREE” because the author usually adds a mark-up to the base price in order to generate a profit.

I’ve decided to forgo that option and essentially give it away at cost to the first 2,500 buyers— because as a labor of love I passionately feel that is more importantly to get the word out about the book than to make a profit.

Therefore, I encourage you to order a copy now, while it is "free" and to please help me get the word out by doing any of the following:

1. Spread the word! Pass this message on to anyone and everyone you know, ideally your entire address book. If anything, simply send pass on the website, so they can read about the book themselves: www.25Lessons.com

2.Tell any bloggers, journalists or people of influence that you know about the book

3.If you like the book after you read it, please rave about it wherever and however you can: write reviews, blog about it, post a testimonial on blurb.com.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Click HERE to Read The Press Release

Sincerely,
Lorenzo