(If any of you have difficulty downloading or reading this I have put a PDF version (POD_Description_R2) on the AISBoard website. I decided to do some research on the subject and in conjunction with some pricing that Jody Nolin did and in consultation with Mike Lowe and Judy Keisling, I would like to present the following for discussion. I am not at this time making a motion but rather want to make sure that we have ample time to vet the issue. I open this discussion in regards to printing the 2009 Checklist but the same could apply to almost everything we print. ______________ Print On Demand (POD), sometimes called publish on demand, is a printing technology and business process in which new copies of a book (or other document) are not printed until an order has been received. "Print on Demand" developed only after digital printing began, because it was not economical to print single copies using traditional printing technology such as letterpress and offset printing. In today’s print market some companies also use the term to mean short run printing often targeting vanity or academic works. In its simplest form copies of the document are only printed when an order is received. CreateSpace (createspace.com) is an established POD printer (an Amazon.com company). I have approached them as a POD source for the 2009 Iris Check List. Following are the terms, operational characteristics, and benefits of using this POD source. This is how it works. The CreateSpace primary thrust is to produce “Trade Paperbacks” but they also have the capability to produce hardback books. AIS signs up for a (free) account and submits a print ready file to CreateSpace. The file is reviewed for conformance to their technical standards. (No proof reading is performed, that would be our responsibility.) Once the file is approved we would order a proof copy. The charge for the proof copy is the same as a production copy (pricing below). The typical time for production of the proof copy is 1-2 days. Once the proof is approved, we set the list price for the book and activate the sales channels we wish to use (see below). At this point we are given a page in the CreateSpace eStore. This is a webpage that anyone can use to purchase our book. If you would like to see a sample page, go to: https://www.createspace.com/3405715 (you may have to paste this address into the address bar of your browser) Purchasers pay the list price plus shipping and we receive our royalty from CreateSpace. When a book is ordered CreateSpace prints the book and ships it to the recipient. It generally takes 1-2 days for production. At the time the order is placed the purchaser is given an estimated delivery time and has a choice of shipping methods. We can of course order copies at our cost to have on hand at the AIS Storefront or to offer for sale at our meetings and conventions. Once the trade paperback version has been approved for production, we can opt to have the book produced in hard cover. There is an additional setup charge and different pricing for this (see below). As part of the standard package CreateSpace provides an eStore page (as mentioned above) and a listing on Amazon.com. (At this time a hardcover version would not be listed on Amazon, only on the eStore) They also offer a “Pro Plan” option that allows us to earn additional royalties and lower manufacturing costs as well as access to an Expanded Distribution Channel (EDC) with the potential to distribute our book to a larger audience through more outlets including: retailers, bookstores, libraries, academic institutions, wholesalers, and distributors. One disadvantage of the EDC is that books sold through the Expanded Distribution Channel may be manufactured by third parties. There may be some minor differences in manufacturing (e.g. paper thickness, color shade, etc.) between the EDC and other Channels. (Hardcover books are not listed in the EDC.) Below is a Cost and Royalty Comparison between the Standard and Pro Plans. CS eStore Amazon CS eStore Amazon EDC List Price $16.00 $16.00 $16.00 $16.00 $16.00 CS Share $7.70 $10.90 $5.85 $9.05 $12.25 AIS Royalty $8.30 $5.10 $10.15 $6.95 $3.75 We can choose which channels we activate for our sales. Standard account – no charge Pro Plan – $39.90 first year, $5.00 per year thereafter Estimated unit manufacturing cost (794 pages plus covers, 6 X 9 trim ) - $10.37 Conversion to hardback - $199.00 Estimated unit manufacturing cost - $18.41 Jody has gotten some quotes for small run quantities of hardcopy versions: Source 300 units 400 Units 500 units Colorwise press 70# satin 17.44/$5232 16.66/$6665 16.14/$8072 50# uncoated 16.47/$4942 15.70/$6278 15.18/$7588 DiYa Corporation Includes shipping 18.89/$5667 12.48/$6240 Book Printing Revolution plus shipping, $99 set up fee 18.57/$5571 16.24/$6496 Bookmasters plus shipping 16.53/$4959 Benefits of PODAIS does not have to spend thousands of dollars to have 1200 - 1500 copies of the Check List printed and shipped to the AIS Storefront. Much faster availability of first printed units. There is no minimum purchase requirement. There are no storage requirements for the AIS Storefront, no trips to storage containers. We don’t have to insure the books against loss or damage (we have in the past lost the entire stock of a Check List to water damage). Large heavy cartons of books don’t have to be shipped to new storefront locations. No risk of loosing money long term by ordering too many copies and having to sell them at below cost. We don’t have to worry about continually changing shipping and mailing charges esp. to foreign addresses. That is all handled by the eStore process. We could price the softcover at $17.00 and the Hardcover at $22.00. The hardcover price would only be a $5.00 over the price of the previous Check List from 10 years ago. (We ordered 3000 copies of the 1999 Check List. The per unit cost was approximately $4.00, total cost approximately $12,000 plus shipping.) Convert publication to Kindle - $69.00 Longer TermWe could, for minimum cost, convert previous Check Lists to POD and eliminate all the costs of maintaining storage of them. We could publish a complete copy of an updated and corrected Registrar database. DisadvantagesMight be slightly more expensive for purchasers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||