Re: Print On Demand-Seeking a real number

[Robert Pries <robertpries@embarqmail.com>]

Seeking a Realistic number;

If one is not going to use Print On Demand (POD) then it is necessary to establish the proper number of copies of the Checklist to print. Actually to even make am intelligent cost comparison between traditional printing and POD one should have this number. But know explanation was given as to how that number was arrived at. It would appear it was pulled out of thin air, using the wishful thinking that we could reach a certain price break. The following is a more rational approach to discover that number.

There are three things to consider;
1.	Historical data;
2.	Current data
3.	Future Expectations

HISTORICAL DATA; How many did we print 10 years ago? How many were sold at full price? How many are left? Since I do not have the real figures let me to make some educated guesses. We may have printed around a thousand. I suspect we sold 200 the first year and possibly 300 the next ten years. If we doubled the cost as the selling price then we would have almost broke even. But money invested during those ten years would have doubled in value. The books still in storage are costing us storage costs. So we would have been better off printing less then 500 by this scenario. If we take into account that we have lost almost half our membership from the start of this decade then the historical data would suggest 250 copies as a rational number for us to print this time.

CURRENT DATA; There are several ways we could look at current data. The checklists are primarily used at iris shows. We have about 100 shows a year, so one might expect to sell 100 checklists. As our society shifts to a more computer oriented one people may use the Iris Register and the Iris Encyclopedia to validate show entries. We might look at the number of R & Is sold each year for the last 3 years. I suspect it was around 100-150. There is no reason to believe that there are people who would not buy an R & I at least 3 years ago who would buy a checklist. 

FUTURE EXPECTATIONS; It is very possible that we will be discussing printing a comprehensive version of the Checklist in the near future. We did not make the millennium to print the millennial checklist but there is no doubt in my mind we could do the 100 year checklist or something sooner. Those that stopped purchasing the R & Is the last couple of years thinking they will get the decennial checklist will probably wait for that. I would not expect more than 100 to be sold in the first year and probably no more than that in future years.

However I approach it, it seems printing 500 would be an irrational expectation. Of course POD would not require this decision but I suspect POD would be far cheaper. Our organization has been slowly failing for more than 10 years. We must stop making the same mistakes over and over or we will not make the 100th anniversary in 9 years. 


----- Original Message -----
From: "andi rivarola" <andinsky@gmail.com>
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 3:37:53 PM
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] Print On Demand

Love POD, and better yet any E-format mediums for Kindle for my iPhone, my
Mac, and/or a future iPad. I currently have several books on my iPhone
(which has enough memory for at least 100 hundred books). I also have books
on my Mac.

I think POD is a great step before getting into e-publishing.

Part of the company I work with is in the printing business, although I'm
not involved in that aspect of it.

I checked with a colleague and he gave me the following information. These
two companies also do E-publishing since it's the way of the future and
everyone involved in publishing has to be ready for the next step. He told
me that the two biggest players in the POD market are:

Amazons Create Space: www.createspace.com
Ingrams Lightning Source  LSI  www.lightningsource.com

I have not done any research on them.

For your information,
eBook Sales Nearly Double, Now 9% of Total Consumer Books

A recent
report<http://www.publishers.org/main/PressCenter/Archicves/2010_Oct/AugustSt
atsPressRelease.htm>from
the Association of American Publishers stated that eBooks
sales grew
193%<http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ebook_sales_triple_in_one_year.php>
between
January and August 2010. In dollar terms, eBook sales for January to
August were up from $89.8 million in 2009 to $263 million in 2010.

More on this article here:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ebooks_ereaders_top_trends_2010.php

Hope this helps.

Andi Rivarola

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