Persoanlly, I will buy the softcover, but I don't think that you should give up on a nice hardcover having some use. I assume that the $25 - $40+ price range you're quoting for the coffee table book is dependent on a large volume order? I wouldn't count on selling a book at that price point to enough customers to make a full run worth it, but could you offer a very limited run to high-level Kickstarter backers? I don't know the numbers, so maybe this is not possible, but it seems like that would be a way to provide such a book for the people who'd like it and provide a nice, exclusive sweetener to the KS rewards.
As a backer of several comic related Kickstarters (Benign Kingdom, The Bear, Fame and Misfortune, etc.) I'd expect to see a nice reward like this at the $100 - $200+ level maybe limited to 20 backers. The exclusivity of an offer like this might actually encourage collector types to support at a higher level, when they might not have bought the book done in a normal run.
I voted softcover because I think a standard full comic will last just fine in that.
That said, what about 2 editions? A softcover normal edition, then a hardcover "special edition" with a bit more content… the special edition shouldn't cost you much more for 20 more pages, am I right (time investment? how much more work would that be?)? You're probably doing the bottom tier production run either way, so it shouldn't hurt to just charge $40-50 for the special edition (is there a fixed price for just initiating a run?). I would definitely reserve a copy of the special edition.
Most of my manga is softcover. So is my complete collection of Tin Tin - with the exception of Tin Tin in the Soviets which I've only found once in hard bound. Most graphic novels are not a read weekly item. More of a read annually thing. A good paper binding will be fine - check any Tin Tin!
Persoanlly, I will buy the softcover, but I don't think that you should give up on a nice hardcover having some use. I assume that the $25 - $40+ price range you're quoting for the coffee table book is dependent on a large volume order? I wouldn't count on selling a book at that price point to enough customers to make a full run worth it, but could you offer a very limited run to high-level Kickstarter backers? I don't know the numbers, so maybe this is not possible, but it seems like that would be a way to provide such a book for the people who'd like it and provide a nice, exclusive sweetener to the KS rewards.
As a backer of several comic related Kickstarters (Benign Kingdom, The Bear, Fame and Misfortune, etc.) I'd expect to see a nice reward like this at the $100 - $200+ level maybe limited to 20 backers. The exclusivity of an offer like this might actually encourage collector types to support at a higher level, when they might not have bought the book done in a normal run.
I voted softcover because I think a standard full comic will last just fine in that.
That said, what about 2 editions? A softcover normal edition, then a hardcover "special edition" with a bit more content… the special edition shouldn't cost you much more for 20 more pages, am I right (time investment? how much more work would that be?)? You're probably doing the bottom tier production run either way, so it shouldn't hurt to just charge $40-50 for the special edition (is there a fixed price for just initiating a run?). I would definitely reserve a copy of the special edition.
Most of my manga is softcover. So is my complete collection of Tin Tin - with the exception of Tin Tin in the Soviets which I've only found once in hard bound. Most graphic novels are not a read weekly item. More of a read annually thing. A good paper binding will be fine - check any Tin Tin!