[lojban-beginners] Printed Materials

[Scott <scottr@synthiotics.com>]

I've been thinking it would be nice to have a printed and bound version of the 
jbovlaste dictionary.  However, the pdf file that I downloaded runs 167 pages 
in length.  That's too big for me to easily print out, and having a place 
like Kinko's print and bind it is quite expensive.

However, Cafe Press (http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/products/books) 
allows one to print-on-demand books for significantly less than Kinko's costs 
to print and bind books of equivalent size, with a whole array of page-size 
and binding options (although apparently they are always soft-cover).  For 
example, a 7.5" x 9.25" perfect-bound copy of the jbovlaste dictionary would 
have a base price of $12.01 (not counting shipping costs).

The nice thing about Cafe Press is that there are no upfront (or even hidden) 
charges.  No out-of-pocket expenses to set something like this up.  Since 
it's print-on-demand, there's no inventory to manage.  Basically upload the 
book text and the cover art, set a list price (the base price plus whatever 
profit you want to make on a per-item basis), and it's good to go.  The only 
money changing hands is between the buyer and Cafe Press (for the full price 
of the book) and between Cafe Press and the author (where they send the 
author the difference between the full price and the base price).

*I* would set something like this up, but I certainly don't hold the copyright 
to the jbovlaste material.  However, whoever DOES hold the copyright to the 
material might want to consider something like this.  It's a very easy and 
inexpensive way to provide published material like the lojban dictionary 
(inexpensive for the buyer - free for the author) I mean, how many people on 
this list would be willing to pay $15.00 for a printed and bound lojban 
dictionary?  If LLI set it up, that would provide a $3.00 per unit profit for 
LLI with no out-of-pocket expenses and a very affordable bound dictionary for 
everyone who wanted one.  The material is already available - the jbovlaste 
pdf file is easily generated.  All the hard work is done.  Now it's just a 
matter of making it available in hardcopy.

It's also possible to have Cafe Press print and bind books without making them 
available for general sale, so it's easy enough for me to just have them 
print up a copy for ONLY me and it would just cost me $12.01 (plus shipping).  
But I'm thinking it would be better to have a more "official" version that 
also makes a little money for the copyright holder.

I don't know.  Just a thought.

mu'o mi'e la skat.