Re: [OT] Re: Thoughs after discussions at OSCON

On August 9, 2005 06:38 am, Tom Copeland wrote:
> Just a thought on this. Self-publishing is another route to take; if
> you print 5000 softcover books for about $10K and then sell them for
> $29.99 each, well, do the math :-)
>
> Of course, there's a huge downside - you have to do a ton of work. You
> have to provide a camera-ready PDF file, set up a web site to take
> orders, do all the marketing and promo, have a place to keep 10 cubic
> feet of books, handle order fulfillment (i.e., lugging 10-20 copies a
> day down to the post office), and so on.

Two other downside factors: distributing network and editing. An individual may know their material but that has nothing to do with knowing how to write and having the means to get it out to the people who want to read it.