Book idea--further thoughts

[Brian Puccio]

On Wed, 2006-02-01 at 09:26 -0500, Michael Steinberg wrote:
> Publishing is a tough business, and I doubt that any publisher would
> invest in a book if they knew that Ubuntu would be undercutting them
> by making it available for nothing. The same is true about bookstores;
> competition for shelf space is intense, and between two books of equal
> appeal the loser will be the one that buyers could download or order
> free.
> 
> What about self-publishing (i.e., a Ubuntu Press)? It's easy & fairly
> cheap these days to produce a book. The snag is distribution. If
> Ubuntu decided to give away the books through Shipit--assuming that
> there's the money to burn, which I wonder about--the result would be
> that it wouldn't get into bookstores. If it's sold on the website
> instead (and remember, it's free as in speech, not as in beer), there
> would still be problems. Bookstores won't deal with small
> publishers--too much paperwork, not enough stock to make the time &
> effort worthwhile. You'd have to distribute through Baker & Taylor (in
> the US) or similar wholesaler, and you're not likely to get the book
> into too many stores anyway because you don't have sales staff.
> Selling it through the web site creates its own hassles, since
> Ubuntu's not set up for that.

Has the Lulu suggestion been thrown out?

http://www.lulu.com/ (they run Drupal, the same software that powers
Ubuntu's Fridge, Spread Firefox, and a bunch of other websites)

Here's a bit that might really fit in well with the Ubuntu community:

> Because we support the free and open exchange of information, if you
> decide not to get a royalty, we also waive our commission. The selling
> price of your printed book, calendar, CD or DVD will be its production
> cost only; download versions are free.

If you are OK (or if Canonical thinks the book is a good thing), looking
in to the distribution services they offer might be something to thik
about:

http://www.lulu.com/help/node/view/153

However, those services are optional as I understand it.

(Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Lulu in any way, I heard of them
through the Drupal community and have not used their services.)
-- 
                                                   brian at brianpuccio.net
                                                   GPG Key ID 0xBBD2401F
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