Book sales, 2010-2011

Thought you might like to know that the LibreOffice Documentation Team
has made approximately USD95.00 from book sales this year.

Details to be published eventually when I get the end-of-year
bookkeeping done for Friends of OpenDocument, Inc., the publisher.

--Jean

Hey, I bought one! :slight_smile:

Cheers

Marc

95 USD? I "make" 1500 USD every year selling my 50 page A4 coloured
OpenOffice.org documentation to the students of our department every year.
Mind you, the money, 2 Euros per copy, doesn't even cover the costs of
printing, but still. I wonder why professors of computer science don't
support OOo and other open source projects together with their students.
They're all Microsoft addicts?

Hi :slight_smile:
Time is a crucial factor here. The documentation has not been on sale for the
full year. The fact that ANY income has been generated is awesome.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

From: David Paenson <davepolit@googlemail.com>
To: documentation@global.libreoffice.org
Sent: Tue, 28 June, 2011 22:06:59
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-documentation] Book sales, 2010-2011

95 USD? I "make" 1500 USD every year selling my 50 page A4 coloured
OpenOffice.org documentation to the students of our department every year.
Mind you, the money, 2 Euros per copy, doesn't even cover the costs of
printing, but still. I wonder why professors of computer science don't
support OOo and other open source projects together with their students.
They're all Microsoft addicts?

>
> Thought you might like to know that the LibreOffice Documentation Team
>> has made approximately USD95.00 from book sales this year.
>>
>> Details to be published eventually when I get the end-of-year
>> bookkeeping done for Friends of OpenDocument, Inc., the publisher.
>>
>> --Jean
>>
> Hey, I bought one! :slight_smile:
>
> Cheers
>
> Marc
>
> --
> Marc Paré
> http://www.parEntreprise.com
>
>
>
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deleted

That 95 USD is the "profit" after printing costs. It's what Lulu passes
on to us. We've sold 13 books. I suspect this number will increase as
more people discover them. Sales of the OOo books started out slow but
over the past few years consistently bring in over 100 USD each month.

Of course, we're not in it for the money, or even the book sales. It's a
service for those who want printed copies.

--Jean

T It's what Lulu passes on to us.

Why are you using Lulu?

It doesn't cost that much more to setup an account with LSI, which will
give the material far more credibility.

I suspect this number will increase as more people discover them.

Not with Lulu as your publisher.
Brick and mortar book stores will not stock books from Lulu.

It's a service for those who want printed copies.

The only place they will find it, is on the Lulu website.
Amazon does not list it.

jonathon

For the most part, the products are available at little to no cost. Many of their products are very good (assuming you stay in the MS world). Many recent graduates tell me that they have MSDN Licenses, which pretty much allows them to use any product for free as long as they are a student.

So, you give it to me for free..... and maybe with special incentives..... most of the products are not bad... not a surprise they choose them.

> T It's what Lulu passes on to us.

Why are you using Lulu?

It doesn't cost that much more to setup an account with LSI, which will
give the material far more credibility.

There is no cost involved in publishing books through Lulu. There is a
per-page setup cost for LSI (Lightning Soucre) for each book and for
each update to a book. Considering how often the books need to be
updated, this cost could be significant. Whether any increased sales
would offset this extra cost, I don't know.

I already have an account with LSI and have considered publishing OOo
and LibO books using that account, but so far I have not thought the
extra expense worth it. However, sales of the OOo books have now built
up a large enough profit margin (around $8,000), I could use some of
that for publishing through LSI. Of course, that's OOo, not LibO, unless
the ODFAuthors group agrees to use the money for that purpose.

>I suspect this number will increase as more people discover them.

Not with Lulu as your publisher.

The OOo books are now bringing in approx. $150 a month. I forget how
many copies are being sold, but of course there are more OOo books at
this point than there are LibO books. The numbers will increase.

Brick and mortar book stores will not stock books from Lulu.

> It's a service for those who want printed copies.

The only place they will find it, is on the Lulu website.
Amazon does not list it.

They can find out through the LibO website, through mentions in blogs,
mailing lists, the users forum, and other places, from which they can
click through to Lulu. Being listed on Amazon etc would be even better,
but is it worth the extra expense? I don't know.

If someone else wants to do the printed-copy publishing, through LSI or
anywhere else, they are welcome to do it. I have more than enough other
things to do.

--Jean

Hi,

Anyway, it's great work you've been doing, Jean. A big thanks for that
on behalf of all of us.

Microsoft has other three-year free software deals similar to the free MS WebsiteSpark <http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/> and WebMatrix <http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/> programs--for those free spirits who are not averse to also use proprietary software in addition to open-source apps. And after the three years are up, they can keep their free software.

For students, there is DreamSpark <https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx>--DreamSpark is simple: (from the MS DreamSpark website)
It's about giving students Microsoft professional tools at no charge.
It's Easy:
Sign In
Get Verified
Downloads

Gary