Re: A book was [Re: [mv] Windows Status]

[Mike Heins <mikeh@minivend.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Mike Heins <mikeh@minivend.com>     ******

Quoting John Carroll (jjc@groveton.com):
> The market is probably too small.  Based on the books I've done, I'd
> expect it to take at least a year to write the thing, plus another
> month to put together a solid proposal.  Royalties on other books I've
> done have ranged from 5% to 10% of the cover price -- the first ten or
> fifteen thousand copies paying royalties from the bottom of the sliding
> scale. If the book sells only 2,000 copies at $25.00 each, the gross is
> only $50,000, of which the writer could expect to get maybe $2500, or a
> bit more with a good contract. Double the cover price and with luck he/she
> makes $5,000 or a little more.  Even if the royalties are 10% from the getgo 
> and the cover price is $50, we're not talking about a living wage.  Maybe
> my estimate is way too low.  I've no real idea how many people use, or are
> likely to start using Minivend in the next few years, but I doubt it's in 
> the tens of thousands.

Exactly the analysis I came to and that I am sure has come to any
savvy person who might have been looking at an MV book.

Frankly, the biggest beneficiary of a book would be me. 8-) I would
(and have) funded some work, but it is hard to find the right person. I
would certainly pay someone $10,000 or more upon publication of even a
mediocre book-length piece, but that doesn't mean much in the context
of a year's hard work.  Of course there can be rewards to writing a
book beyond the immediate financial. If you were looking to start an
ecommerce consulting business, for example, it would be an excellent
credential. That is why I wrote part of a book. 8-)

There *might* be an opportunity for a book titled something like
<LARGE>E-Commerce</LARGE> <small>featuring Minivend</small>.

> 
> There's also the question of how long the book would remain useful as
> Minivend goes through successive revisions.  If someone started writing a
> proposal today and everything went perfectly (which it never does) the
> book would hit the market no sooner than 18 months from now and perhaps
> already be obsolete.  Would the perfect book for Minivend 4.x be more help
> than hindrance to someone running (say) Minivend 6.x three years from now?
> That would depend on the course of e-commerce and Mike's interests over
> that time, but I don't know how to predict either.  
> 

I usually say "I am not going anywhere", but there are some things in the
works that might surprise a few people. I am still not going anywhere,
and expect to be developing ecommerce software for years to come, but
I have often wondered what would happen to MV if I actually promoted it
instead of hiding it out. We may find out. 8-)

Best,
Mike
-- 
Internet Robotics, 131 Willow Lane, Floor 2, Oxford, OH  45056
phone +1.513.523.7621 fax 7501 <mikeh@minivend.com>

I have a cop friend who thinks he ought be able to give a new ticket;
"too dumb for conditions".
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