From owner-freebsd-doc Fri Jul 23 7: 2:27 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from freeamp.org (209.249.146.48.has.no.reverse [209.249.146.48]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0A33215721 for ; Fri, 23 Jul 1999 07:02:13 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from marc@freeamp.org) Received: (from marc@localhost) by freeamp.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id HAA30796; Fri, 23 Jul 1999 07:28:42 -0700 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 07:28:42 -0700 Message-Id: <199907231428.HAA30796@freeamp.org> From: To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org, de-bsd-translators@de.freebsd.org Subject: Hardcopy versions of Handbook and FAQ as BoD Reply-To: van.woerkom@netcologne.de, marc@freeamp.org Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org 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@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message