Benedikt Taschen has lost huge sums of money on some of its books and he don’t regret it at all. Mr. Taschen likes to do things his way, and he has built a publishing empire being an unusual publisher.
“Publishing is, as life, unpredictable and can be dangerous. I am an optimistic guy, like Voltaire’s Candide, kind of sleepwalking through business and life, bumping every once in a while into a genius who makes me rich, in my head, heart and financially. As a friend of mine put it: the plan is, there is no plan.”
"We have a different way to approach things; usually we don't care about budgets. I never compromise quality, and I'm willing to take a risk. We want to have our books done right and then we look at how to finance it."
Mr. Taschen started selling comic books when he was a teen-ager, with his first store called "Taschen Comics", today he have 200 employees in seven offices and 11 stores world-wide.
His most famous book might be the limited edition of "SUMO" (1999) by Helmut Newton, it was an over sized 35.4 kg book with 420 images book, on a stand designed by Philippe Starck. The first "SUMO" copy sold at auction was in 2000 for $430,000.
Today Taschen known for its exclusive sex, film, photography and architecture books and so much more, look for yourself and buy one.
