[V8] Vintage what?

[Mike Arman]

"I Could'a Had A V-8" . . . publishing options.


Non-profit: Web page. Advantage, free. Disadvantage, it's free, you're giving it away. Once it is 
digital, you are NEVER going to make any money off it, ever, even if it is copyrighted, copy 
protected, you name it, SOMEONE will hack it and it is gone forever. Example - Family Album - owned 
by a large company with significant legal resources, easily available for free in various versions 
on the web, or even for the asking, if you know who to ask, sometimes even on eBay when the owner 
isn't looking.


Small profit - above, plus sell advertising on the website. Not enough market - how many V-8s are 
there and who sells parts for them? Small profit potential, honestly, probably not worth the trouble 
of finding and seducing advertisers, then trying to bill them.


Hard copy - short run press. Various companies will produce short run books, typical prices are 
$5.00 or $6.00 each for a 96 page 8.5" by 11" perfect bound book with a color cover, quantity 100. 
Advantage - not a lot of money tied up in this, the cost per copy hurts profits. Sale price might be 
$15 to $18 per copy, only going to sell this to friends and people on this list - essentially not a 
large market. Total sales might reach 300 to 400, most will be at the "front end", and will taper 
off. Books can be ordered 100 at a time, so you never have a huge amount of money tied up, and when 
sales taper off, you don't have boxes and boxes of books you can't sell and won't throw away. Add 
$75 or so for copyright if you want it (you do).


Hard copy, offset. 2,000 copies, same size, spec as above, print cost about $2.50 to $3.00 per copy, 
there is more setup involved here. Obviously a larger profit margin if sale price is $15 to $18.00, 
but 300 copies times $18.00 = $5,400, basically covers the printing costs, ALL of which have to be 
paid in front. Not going to work here, the market just isn't large enough unless somehow this 
becomes a NYT "must read!" book - which is a very very slim chance unless you like gambling $6K at a 
shot. This becomes viable at projected sales of 750 or 1,000 (better) copies, then it is profitable. 
For an example of this type of venture, look at www.Cessna150book.com (warning - this is one of my 
for-profit sites).


My advice (as a publisher sine 1978) would be to go with the short run press at 100 copies a time 
two or three times. If the book really takes off, you can go to offset printing, if not, you have 
had a great time, made a couple of bucks doing it, and are now a PUBLISHED AUTHOR, which is a great 
stroke for the ego ;-)


And, yes, I'd buy one.


Best Regards,

Mike Arman
90V8, other stuff