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Writing and Publishing, Part 57:
Becoming your own publisher:
My publishing Effort:
The Anatomy of a PC:
This book is different that any of my previous efforts. In this
I was truly following the dictum, write about what you know about.
I really do have 43 years of experience in the electronics business.
So, I decided to put some of that expertise into a book for laymen.
The book is aimed directly at the layman hobbyist. It is intended
to allow a completely inexperienced person to successfully build
their own PC.
The Anatomy of a PC is a step-by-step, photo-illustrated guide to understanding, building, and maintaining a PC. In this effort, I took my time to get everything right, from the photos to the prose, to the cover. I got a great deal of help with the photos from my wife. I keep my targeted reader always in mind to make sure that he would understand. My intent was that anyone who can program a VCR should be able to use this book to build their own PC. From the people who have read and used it, I have found that my goal was achieved.
In a way, this book was obsolete before it was printed. Processor speeds and component choices have mushroomed while prices have plummeted. However, the basic concepts have not changed at all. In that sense, the book is still completely valid. And, it is still a great buy at $30.00.
Why then, am I not selling it? I don't know. I can only guess and surmise. I know that people are using the book. My wife reports that the book is always out when she goes to our local library. I gave them a gratis copy. Also, no one who bought the book returned it for a refund. Apparently they kept and used it.
What about my marketing approach? I did attempt a whole new approach in this effort. One of the first things I did was to seek and get the endorsements of two first class engineers. I placed these on the back cover of the book. Unfortunately, copies of the book never got to a place where thoughtful people could pick them up and notice the endorsements.
In addition to the endorsements, I tried to market the book to retail firms which deal in computer components. I particularly targeted motherboard retailers. I sent letters and proof copies of the book to several vendors. My goal was to get prepublication orders. I offered discounts of up to 50% for large volumes. I got no responses at all. Even with a copy of the book in hand, no purchasing agents pre-ordered. Therefore, I went to press with a minimum press run of 1500 books. I still have most of them.
Looking at a copy of the cover letter I sent out, I notice
some things I would have done differently. First, I would have
offered deeper discounts for smaller volumes. Here is what I offered.
1 to 5 books: Full cover price.
6 to 10 books: Discount 5%.
11 to 20 books: Discount 10%.
21 to 30 books: Discount 20%
31 to 40 books: Discount 30%.
41 to 75 books: Discount 40%.
76 or more books: Discount 45%.
500 or more books, special shipment: discount 50%.
I could have started with 10% for 5 books and gone up to 60% for
100 books or more. I don't know if that would have changed anything.
This is all speculation now.
In addition, I asked for a 1/3 deposit to secure the order in the first press run. This is a tough area for me. That, of course, is due to my experience with The Gaffer's Shorts. I know what can happen when people do not fulfill their commitments. I get left holding a very large and expensive bag. At this time, I was still recovering from the $10,000.00 hit I took because of that.
I'm not sure that any of this would have made a difference. I am inclined to believe that purchasing agents are, by and large, idiots. I don't know why that is. Most companies in the same business offer the same products at the same prices. They babble about service, but that is bull and everyone knows it.
With competition so keen, I would think the purchasing agent to be the most important assignment in a retail firm. They finally decide what the customer will get to choose from and at what price. In a very real way, the purchasing agent determines the success or failure of the firm. Yet, how is the job seen? It is seen by most managers that I know as a plum assignment. Who usually gets it? A brown nose or a relative of the boss. Same thing.
In retrospect, I could have offered a bribe, but I don't know how to do that. I have never done it. I have been in at least one situation where I suspected later that a bribe was what was expected. I'll never know for sure. If that is what is required to deal with PA's, I'll always be odd man out. That arrow is not in my quiver.
In addition to offering the book to retailers, I also sent it to a different group of book review editors. These are the editors of technical magazines. This got me one review in VidioMaker magazine. I put that in my advertising copy. What also happened is that my ideas and title were borrowed and published in a major computer magazine under someone else's name.
I have already addressed this problem in a previous essay. I will only add here that most magazine writers that I have read are hacks. They do very little original work. They not only borrow, they make a practice on never acknowledging the source. The senior editors usually know this, but they need production to fill a lot of empty space. The hacks can be counted on to produce on schedule. So much for editorial integrity.
I also got good reviews by Midwest Book Review and Bookviews. These are essentially web based review editors. I don't know that either of these ever produced any sales. My take on this has to do with the ineffectiveness of the web as a tool for reaching specific demographic targets. It has to do with web traffic. Most surfers are just that. They are not tuned to any specific area of interest. I don't yet know how to attract specific types of visitors. I'm not sure that it is possible. I'm left with the weird notion that maybe I should advertise my website in a newspaper.
Another thing I did with this book was to offer it to several highschools for free. I covered this in W&P 51. This never produce any sales. It did bring me in touch with why so many of our kids are so poorly educated. Brain dead bureaucrats is the reason and the only reason. I'll let Willie Gaffer discuss this at length in his essays.
One other thing about this book. I once again discovered that I would have to find another book manufacture. These people who treated me so well on Supreme Commander George seemed to go a long ways to screw me on this book.
It started with my discovering, after the fact, that they did not have in house capability to do my binding. It was a hard cover and would have to be farmed out. Instead of picking the book up a the manufacturer as I had intended, I would have to pay for shipping from a bindery in a distant city.
Bad enough. Latter I got a threatening phone call from one of their bean counters. Unless I paid immediately for the books, sight unseen, my shipment would be held in limbo. This came with the Christmas selling season already starting. In order to get my books into the Christmas market, I would have to give up all of my leverage.
I snapped off an angry e-mail protest to my contact in the company. My contact was a woman who first told me, "We will trust you until you give us a reason not to." It turned out that she had lied. It did not matter because she was on maternity leave. My protest did not get answered for several days until another person bothered to check her e-mail.
After that, they punished me for being so difficult. I receive two more e-mails telling me that my production schedule had been delayed for some obscure reasons. With those two delays, I was out of the Christmas marketing season. I finally got my books a few days before Christmas.
What happened? I don't know. I have no idea why the same people who treated me so well on the first book treated me so shabbily on the second. I have no inclination to find out. I have already said that there are too many bookmakers to give any one a second chance once they screw me. That's why I have selected another book manufacturer for my next book.
My next book, which is now at the book manufacturers is called
"No-Count-Charlie." I'll detail that effort next week.
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