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[POD] Re: Level -1 doc.




At 09:18 AM 8/23/02 -0700, Robin wrote:
>On Thu, Aug 22, 2002 at 08:20:59PM -0400, Logical Language Group, Inc. wrote:
> > At 05:13 PM 8/22/02 -0700, you wrote:
> > > > The consensus of the membership however was that, for the lessons,
> > > > they wanted hardbound, or failing that for cost reasons, a
> > > > better-than-Kinko's variety of print of demand, and Mark Shoulson is
> > > > committee-charged with investigating companies that do that sort of
> > > > thing.
> > >
> > ><nod>  He and I have already discussed it, and we think that
> > >iuniverse.com should do the trick nicely.
> >
> > Hopefully he'll get around to telling ME this %^)  We may be making
> > decisions when Nick has his September two weeks for lojban.
>
>Well, he's on this list.  8)
>
>Short version: we are of the shared opinion that iuniverse.com is our
>best option ($159 setup, about $10-15/book *retail*).  Basically at that
>point we have to sell more than 100 books before going to a real
>publisher and getting 1000 of them because even vaguely economical.  And
>I *think* they can do order fulfillment.

This probably is the wrong forum for this, but ...

I looked on their site, and I don't see how much money LLG would get; I 
presume we would get standard author's royalties, though those might 
actually go to Nick and Robin.  As you describe it, we "break even" when 
our royalties hit $159, which I suspect would take 100 books at standard 
royalty rates (probably no more than 5-10% of sales unless you have word 
otherwise).  And when we hit 200 books, LLG will have made another $159.

It looks like iuniverse is not a print on demand outfit, but a vanity press 
publisher.  Right now LLG is the publisher of our books, and we're looking 
for an on-demand printer that lets us keep our name on the books.  (And if 
they don't do order fulfillment, what does print-on-demand mean with them?)

With a real book that we can get 1000 for $3500, and sell them for $20 each 
plus shipping, the theoretical break even point is 175 books.  We thus lose 
money on 100 sales, and make $500 on 200 sales.  We've sold close to 400 
refgrammars so far, so this seems like a good minimum on the 4.5 year sales 
potential of the lesson book (we would hope that the LLG community will 
grow rather than shrink in the next 4+ years, and I imagine that just as 
many would buy the lesson book as bought the red book, maybe more because 
of the lower price).

We somehow have to make money on our publications in order to support the 
organization.  Or there won't be an organization in a few years.

lojbab

-- 
lojbab                                             lojbab@lojban.org
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA                    703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban:                 http://www.lojban.org