Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.ruhr-uni-bochum.de!news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de!RRZ.Uni-Koeln.DE!news.gtn.com!osn.de!noris.net!blackbush.xlink.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!oleane!jussieu.fr!math.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!erkyrath
From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: Comment on how to make money on IF
Message-ID: <erkyrathDvLn4J.JK6@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL1]
References: <erkyrathDvKqJn.L2I@netcom.com> <4u0bb9$8l7@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 05:55:31 GMT
Lines: 53
Sender: erkyrath@netcom5.netcom.com

Nulldogma (nulldogma@aol.com) wrote:
> [...] if no one wants to do it, then it won't get done. I'm hardly
> proposing this as a panacea to the problem of distribution -- it's just
> *one idea* for a way of reaching out beyond our regular audience. I'm all
> for continuing to look into pressing our own CDs and other options as
> well.

Sure. I'm posting comments about the CD idea, too.

> As for the difficulty of mailing out disks, I can only speak from my
> experience: It's not that big a deal. You buy a stack of disk mailers, and
> a book of 78-cent stamps. Whenever you get a check in the mail, you throw
> a disk in the mailer, slap on a stamp, scrawl on an address, and throw the
> whole thing in your nearest mailbox. It's hardly brain surgery, or even
> babel fish procurement. 

Well, Colm just complained about how much time envelope-stuffing took. :)

> > > Well ... there's nothing stopping any of those authors from selling
> their
> > > freeware games on floppy for $5 or $10. 
> >
> > Fear of being bludgeoned to death when one of my customers gets Net 
> > access and learns the real story? :)

> Whereas if they bought it on a compilation CD, they wouldn't be mad? 

Like I said, I think $15 is a fair price for a compilation of many works 
which are freeware (or non-pre-registered shareware.) It's the economy of 
scale, like I said. Selling one free game for $10 makes me wince, but 
selling ten for $15 doesn't; and the amount of labor is comparable. 
(Labor, not monetary investment. The day-to-day envelope-stuffing.)

I'm not posting this to say one idea is better than the other, please 
understand. I'm trying to make clear why a catalog is of small benefit to 
me, in enough detail that other authors will know whether the same issue 
apply to them or not.

> But it seems it
> could work for some of us (I've currently heard from Colm McCarthy,
> Stephen Granade and Eileen Mullin), and if we can get enough people where
> it's cost-effective, I'd like to give it a shot.

Now, if there were both a catalog and a CD, we could advertise both in 
one ad... (Half-smiley. The projects are very different, and are unlikely 
to fruit at the same time, even if both occur.)

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
