Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 13:14:32 +0200 From: Titus von Boxberg <titus@pleach.de> To: van.woerkom@netcologne.de, marc@freeamp.org Cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org, de-bsd-translators@de.freebsd.org Subject: Re: Hardcopy versions of Handbook and FAQ as BoD Message-ID: <37A03798.AE81961D@pleach-hamburg.de>
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Hi all, I think that your idea sounds good, but may be a little too big for FreeBSD: I think that FreeBSD hasn't experienced a public interest large enough to expect that people would also spend money for a printed book (speaking only for germany). Otherwise, I think, there would be a serious second source for FreeBSD CD-ROMs; it's really annoying that it always takes several weeks until the new walnut creek distribution is sold e.g. at Lehmann's. SuSE is (or at least were) selling FreeBSD but I'm not aware of any really serious german distributor. So: Before you do this, maybe you should ask a major distributor (either an experienced Linux distributor or e.g. Lehmanns) if they are interested in that project. And there are *lots* of Print On Demand Services (of course without the distribution channel of LIBRI via the bookstores), surely being less expensive. And as you said, even with Libri you are depending on the feedback of the BSD user community. So long, TITUS email: titus@pleach.de marc@freeamp.org wrote: > > There is a new publishing option available in Germany that > I believe could make sense for our project. > > It is called book on demand (BoD) and is a service by > LIBRI, a publishing company and well established distributor to > around 3000 bookstores in Germany. > > One pays a certain fixed amount for a print mastering, > depending on the number of pages. > > The interesting thing is that the books will be available via > the standard book distribution (ISBN and everything) and are > manufactured on demand! > > Customers can order it from their bookstore or via Internet > online stores that cooperate with this distributor. > > Quality is announced as beeing indistinguishable from traditional > paperback. Different formats are available too. > > The customer price for an 80 pages version of the FAQ I estimate to > be something around US $5, a 600 pages version of the Handbook > should be possible for around US$ 30. People outside of Germany > would have to be similiar extra fees like for a traditional > foreign book. > > This will be a non-profit effort. I calculate prices so that they > cover production, I don't want to make money on this. > > My first goal is to have some quality reproductions of the FreeBSD > documentation in a nice paperback format that is affordable for > every user. > > I see this advantages: > > - good quality > - reduced financial risk due to uncertain number of copies sold > - distribution (incl. money handling done by the BoD company) > - the process seems fast > - possible model to get a German translation in the close future, > by adding an amount that would pay a translator > - wide availability (money stores, should be around for some time) > - the BoD company is allowed to make copies, but it has no > exclusive rights > > I see this disadvantages: > - quite a share goes into distribution (LIBRI, bookstore) > - I depend on honest user feedback to do proper calculation for > reimbursing my print mastering expenses > > So please e-mail me what you think of this and if you would be > interested in such books. > > I will try to calculate expenses for typical orders > from Germany and outside and post them here soon. > > Regards, > Marc > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@de.FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe de-bsd-translators" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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