[V8] Vintage what?

Tue Sep 22 09:18:20 PDT 2009

I second. Roger, it could easily be a collection of stories an/or earlier
posts, edited for content. Kind of like Hemingway's "By-Line" book, only
you're not dead and certainly more amusing.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Arman [mailto:Armanmik at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 10:56 AM
To: v8 at audifans.com
Subject: [V8] Vintage what?

"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
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