Re: Print On Demand-Seeking a real number

[kay ludi <kludi@juno.com>]

Hello all,
When the AIS Storefront was moved to our location in September/October
2002, the inventory of the 1999 Checklist was 2101. Research of AIS Board
Meeting Minutes indicate that 3000 copies of the Checklist were purchased
at a cost of  $4.00 each. The following are the sales by fiscal year
(October through September) after the AIS Storefront was moved. (I do not
have previous sales figures but the difference between the number
purchase and moved inventory is 899.) 2002/2003-106, 2003/2004-98,
2004/2005-52, 2005/2006-34, 2006/2007-28, 2007/2008-27, 2008/2009-19,
2009/2010-17, 2010/to date-9. Total sales 390. Current inventory is 1715
copies.

The sale price was set at $17.00 per copy. Considering the AIS cost of
$4.00 plus postage(then) ($2.26) and the envelope (approx $.50), our
profit was $10.24 per copy. 
At the 2010 Fall Board Meeting in Portland, the sale price was reduced to
$10.00 plus a S&H Fee of $3.00. Total customer cost $13.00. AIS cost of
$4.00 plus current postage ($2.76)and the envelope ($.60), our profit is
$5.64. 

In a discussion at the 2010 Fall Board Meeting no number was set as to
how many of the 2009 Checklist should be ordered. In my notes we talked
about 1200/1500. The number was not set based on several factors:
1. Cost of printing
2. Search of other means to make the Checklist available without having
to establish a large inventory.

To help make a comparison I offer the following in regards to the yearly
Registrations and Introductions Booklet (Years 2007, 2008, 2009 and
2010). Each year AIS has purchase 500 copies for the inventory. (I do not
have the printing cost per copy at my location.)

2007 R&I sales by year - 2007/2008-363, 2008/2009-61, 2009/2010-21,
2010/2011 to date-5. Total sales 450. Current inventory 56 copies.
2008 R&I sales by year - 2008/2009-323, 2009/2010-56, 2010/2011 to
date-35. Total sales 414. Current inventory 91 copies.
2009 R&I sales by year -2009/2010-353, 2010/2011 to date-30. Total sales
383. Current inventory 122 copies.
2010 R&I sales (available late March and April) 167 copies. Current
inventory 337 copies.  

In the past sales have been to the affiliates, hybridizers and customers
who have just a small selection of irises. 
John Ludi
AIS Storefront

On Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:40:17 -0400 (EDT) Robert Pries 
<robertpries@embarqmail.com> writes:
> 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/Augu
stSt
> 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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