Thinking Of Writing A Book.

[UKRay]

Your idea sounds great though I'd be inclined to develop a book that could be sold as a download. This would mean you could automate all your sales and keep distribution costs down. Have a word with CitizenKate if you need some help deciding how you might achieve this. She has undertaken a couple of successful projects for me and I would definitely respect her advice.

Ray

[CitizenKate]

I thought my ears were burning... I usually feel a little uncomfortable tooting my own horn in the forum, but since this is highly relevant to the topic, and because I know there are numerous others out there who are considering this same sort of thing, I will mention this.

We do have a digital delivery "solution", that we've deployed on a couple of web sites so far, and more coming up, including my own (I'm planning to offer some original pattern collections for sale, hopefully starting later this year). It completely automates the purchasing and fulfillment of digital publications. Once it's set up, you don't have to lift a finger to process a payment or deliver the product. The program handles all that automatically, so that all you would have to do is promote the publication (which is actually the tough part), and periodically check your bank account to see how many payments have been deposited there (which is the fun part).

As to the question of printed vs. digital, I agree that publications are "going more digital", but you will have at least some customers who will prefer the print version. There are still people out there, mostly living in rural areas, who simply don't have the internet bandwidth or a reliable enough connection to be able to download an entire publication.

Fortunately, there's no reason you have to choose one or the other. You can sell mostly digital copies, and still offer the print version for those who prefer it. In fact, this is what Paul Burnett does on his site, from where he sells numerous of his publications. If the download version is cheaper (which it should be since it's way cheaper to produce and deliver), that will probably give the majority of your customers a greater incentive to buy the download version, not to mention the advantage of being able to have it now, instead of a week later. But you can also keep a few copies of the printed version on hand for those who are willing to pay the higher cost of producing and delivering it. For them, the site processes the payment, then sends you an email with all the information you need to fulfill the order. It's a happy medium that involves minimal printing and shipping costs, minimal labor, but still can accommodate everyone. This would probably be a good solution for most publications.

I'm going to want a copy of your book, too, by the way.

Kate

I thought my ears were burning... I usually feel a little uncomfortable tooting my own horn in the forum, but since this is highly relevant to the topic, and because I know there are numerous others out there who are considering this same sort of thing, I will mention this.

We do have a digital delivery "solution", that we've deployed on a couple of web sites so far, and more coming up, including my own (I'm planning to offer some original pattern collections for sale, hopefully starting later this year). It completely automates the purchasing and fulfillment of digital publications. Once it's set up, you don't have to lift a finger to process a payment or deliver the product. The program handles all that automatically, so that all you would have to do is promote the publication (which is actually the tough part), and periodically check your bank account to see how many payments have been deposited there (which is the fun part).

As to the question of printed vs. digital, I agree that publications are "going more digital", but you will have at least some customers who will prefer the print version. There are still people out there, mostly living in rural areas, who simply don't have the internet bandwidth or a reliable enough connection to be able to download an entire publication.

Fortunately, there's no reason you have to choose one or the other. You can sell mostly digital copies, and still offer the print version for those who prefer it and are willing to pay the extra cost associated with printing. In fact, this is what Paul Burnett does on his site, from where he sells numerous of his publications. If the download version is cheaper (which it should be since it's way cheaper to produce and deliver), that will probably give the majority of your customers a greater incentive to buy the download version, not to mention the advantage of being able to have it now, instead of a week later. But you can also keep a few copies of the printed version on hand for those who are willing to pay the higher cost of producing and delivering it. For them, the site processes the payment, then sends you an email with all the information you need to fulfill the order. It's a happy medium that involves minimal printing and shipping costs, minimal labor, but still can accommodate everyone. This would probably be a good solution for most publications.

I'm going to want a copy of your book, too, by the way.

Kate