City loses $76,000 after books returned
An official calls Jeremy Harris' book a "bad business decision"
The remaining copies of former Mayor Jeremy Harris' controversial book, "The Renaissance of Honolulu," probably will not find their way under anyone's Christmas tree this holiday season.
The city lost more than $76,000 in publishing the 227-page softcover coffee table book, and the 1,028 unsold books were returned to the city and will likely be donated to charity, city Customer Services Director Jeff Coelho said.
The venture was a "bad business decision," Coelho said.
He said the books are in storage, and by next summer the city will decide what to do with them. One possibility is to keep a few for reference material, with the rest of them donated to Friends of the Library for their book sale.
The books are being stored at no cost in an empty room at City Hall.
Coelho said his department does not have the capability to conduct cash transactions to sell the book. Also, under an agreement with the distributor, the city agreed not to be a direct seller.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Jeff Coelho, city director of Customer Services, showed one of the remaining 1,028 copies of former Mayor Jeremy Harris' book, "The Renaissance of Honolulu," that are stored in what was once the darkroom in City Hall. Coelho said there is little demand for the book, as it was poorly done. Coelho displays one page where gray rectangles were published in place of three pictures that were supposed to be there but were not supplied by the publishing deadline. He said there are many examples like that. "It's a good idea that went bad quickly, and somebody should've recognized that maybe they should've printed half as much or printed less full-color pages or something like that," he said. "It was probably rushed to get completed." CLICK FOR LARGE
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Suggestions in the past of what to do with the leftover books ranged from passing them out to visiting politicians to burning them.
Originally there were 5,000 copies printed, but the distributor, the Islander Group, received only 4,913, and the rest of the copies are unaccounted for.
Coelho said there might be a few copies still out in stores, so the city will wait until next summer to see if those books make it back to the distributor, which will eventually return them to the city.
BY THE NUMBERS
The numbers on "The Renaissance of Honolulu," by Jeremy Harris:
Cost per book: $19.95
Publishing costs: $108,763
Total income: $32,731
Number of books printed: 5,000
Number of books returned to the city: 1,028
Source: City and County of Honolulu
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According to the city, the cost to publish the book was $108,763, and the city received $32,731 in revenue from the sales.
"The production costs of the product far exceeded any potential revenue to the city, so even if you ... had sold every single copy, you still would've lost in excess of over $60,000," Coelho said.
Criticism of the Harris book came as soon as it was unveiled in December 2004 before the end of his term, with questions being raised about whether publishing the book was an appropriate use of taxpayers' dollars.
"It's a good idea that went bad quickly, and somebody should've recognized that maybe they should've printed half as much or printed less full-color pages or something like that," he said. "I just think it was poor decision after poor decision. And it was probably rushed to get completed."
Coelho said two years on the bookstore shelves was ample for anyone who wanted a copy of the book.
"That's got nothing to do with the idea -- I think the idea had some foundation. I just don't think they looked at the financial ramifications for it," Coelho said.
