RE: [Axiom-developer] Lulu publishing

[Martin Rubey]

Dear Bill,

 > Overall I am inclined to think that producing CD's either separately or as
 > part of a book package is probably not currently worth the effort.

well, I think we agree here.

 > > * include a possibility of ordering a CD in the book and, 
 > > more importantly,
 > > 
 > > * make it very easy to order a CD from the website.
 > >
 > 
 > Who will actually ship these orders? Who will make the copies of the CD? If
 > we get 10 orders, ok no problem. But if there were 100's or more, then that
 > requires someone who commits to doing this task in a reliable and timely
 > manner.

We agree here, too.

 > > I think that the CD will mostly serve people with a bad internet
 > > connection, and I'm afraid that this is the case in some countries which
 > > may become very important for Axiom: Russia, for example, many countries
 > > in Africa and probably in South-America. Therefore I'd also suggest that
 > > both book and CD should cost almost nothing.
 > 
 > In my experience that is not true. Most of the people I have met in the
 > countries you mention are quite used to downloading software or obtaining
 > copies from other sources. They are quite used to not having easy access to
 > boxed sofware from foriegn sources. There are many complications like simply
 > trying to get something through customs brokers etc. But for (most) of them,
 > the Internet download is the fast track.

OK. Convinced. So we agree here, too, now.

 > > I believe that it would be quite possible to tell the people: pay as much
 > > as you want to, but at least bla$, where bla$ is the actual cost.
 > 
 > Yes, but it does complicate the institutional bookkeeping. :)

Still another point where we agree. :-)

 > > The point I'm trying to make: maybe it would be wiser *not* to try to make
 > > any money with the book, but rather try to make it as accessible as
 > > possible. I suspect that this is the reason for the predominance of MS
 > > Windows, in fact.
 > 
 > Could you explain that? MS Windows is almost always sold as a boxed set and
 > Microsoft certainly intends that it make money through sales.

Well, in my experience, MS DOS and MS Windows were de facto free for
everybody. I don't know anybody who actually paid for it (privately), except
through buying a computer where it is already pre-installed. But I'm quite sure
that those who acquired MS Windows by buying a computer would be aware of the
fact that they actually paid for it.

And, it was always policy of MS to give away copies of MS Windows, MS Office
etc. for free or little cost to schools and universities.

They are making money by hooking people onto their products, thus making
business buy them.

If the "hooking" part doesn't imply the "money" part, I don't see a problem.

 > > I don't know if this is feasible. Is it possible to collect orders on the
 > > Axiom website and then forward them to Lulu?
 > 
 > Yes, that is possible. In fact it is encouraged by Lulu since they provide
 > several ways to interface to their ordering system.
 > 
 > But if you are thinking about ordering CD's from Lulu separately from a
 > book, I am not so sure that Lulu provides such a service.

No, I thought about providing the CD by other means.


Martin