*Thilanga mami, I want to ask you for one serious favour for AngryPages — and I don’t intend to keep coming back to you for money after this.*
We want to print the first physical edition of Hemasiri’s *Dust to Sky* properly through *Sumathi Printers*.
Sumathi quoted roughly *Rs. 1,700 each for 100 offset copies, but about Rs. 1,000 each if we do 200*. So the sensible run is 200 copies — about *Rs. 200,000, roughly US$600*.
If Sumathi can even let us pay *50% now and the remaining 50% within 12 months*, that would be enough to get us moving.
This isn’t completely speculative. Hemasiri has already sold *17 digital copies*. We plan to sell the printed book at around *Rs. 5,000*, including at the BMICH Book Fair, Air Force-related events, bookstores and directly through AngryPages. At that price, roughly *40 sales cover the printing cost*, and we still have about 160 copies left to sell through the year. Hemasiri and I have a 50/50 profit-sharing arrangement, so both of us are committed to selling it.
We could use another printer, and for most authors we can simply use digital printing or print-on-demand. But for *our first serious physical book*, I genuinely want it to be Sumathi.
When a newspaper eventually writes about AngryPages, or when we tell this story ourselves, I want to be able to say: *“Our first proper print run was made possible by Sumathi Printers and my uncle Thilanga.”* Not that we went to some unknown printer because they were cheaper.
I also think your own history matters. You studied at the *London College of Printing*, now London College of Communication. That makes this feel like the right connection — publishing and printing coming together through the family.
AngryPages is an American company, but we are deliberately using it to push *Sri Lankan writers, Sinhala language, Sri Lankan history and culture internationally*. Sinhala is currently the only additional language we offer across https://angrypages.com/
We feature our own family history too — Achiammi, UW, my painting of her, Vijaya Kumaratunga and others — because I want the platform to carry Sri Lankan memory properly.
We’ve also put the *Sumathipala family on our Protect page* and have already used those principles when defending members of our family against allegations that were not proven:
https://angrypages.com/protect/
I’m not mentioning that as a transaction. I’m mentioning it because I want you to understand that I’m trying to build something that carries our family, Sri Lanka and our values with it for the long term.
If you help us make this *first 200-copy run* happen, I’ll take responsibility from there. We have larger projects coming that we can self-finance, and our intention is to send suitable Sri Lankan printing work to *Sumathi Printers* rather than constantly shopping around between printers.
*It’s about $600, but for us it would go a very long way.*
If you prefer to treat it as a debt rather than a favour, that’s completely fine too — *we can repay it within 12 months.*
I’d really like Sumathi to be part of the beginning of this, Thilanga mami.
