The New Thing
HighmoonMedia:
Hey, Vincent. I wasn't trying to be facetious, just wanted to make sure I understood correctly what this move is all about.
lumpley:
Oh it's all cool, no grief one way or the other. I didn't understand your question! If I answered it anyway, great, I'm glad. Otherwise, ask it again in, I'll try again.
-Vincent
Ron Edwards:
Hey,
I think I might understand your question. I tried to make the comparison you're asking for explicit already in the Adept & IPR thread, linked in the first post. I don't know if you've seen that yet.
Here's the list of concrete differences.
1. Commission amount. IPR uses 15% commission off the cover price. For me, $1 per book through this new approach is either 5% for Sorcerer or 7.5% for the other books. I might be increasing my prices soon, so those percentages would drop further.
2. Convention presence. I want to emphasize that the IPR contract is generous and fair regarding exclusivity; i.e. there isn't any. However, when they sell your book at a con, they act as a retailer and get 45%. As such I'm not objecting to that amount; what works better for me is for convention sales to be more direct even than on-line. In other words, I want all the money. By acting as a retailer, IPR is basically moving away from my goals for convention sales. Since the fulfillment method I've moved to doesn't mention conventions at all, now it's all on me again - if I want my books to be at a convention, I have to ask a friend who'll be there to sell some for me on a totally organize-as-we-go way, and that's how I want it.
3. Contact with customers. Now I will know who they are again, and I personally reap the positive outcome of a good sales experience, or of a poor one that I can correct personally. IPR did a good job of both these things, but the benefit accrued to them - now it's back on me. The only thing I'm outsourcing is the brute act of mailing, and the professionalism of making it happen is my responsibility.
4. Web and sales-point experience. I think I'll get better sales from customers arriving at my site or (later) at a site which doesn't feature very many titles. This is not to say that sales at IPR were poor for me, but I think the overall situation of being buried in a sea of other books and companies, and for site visitors to have no way to assess the (I say seriously) genuine unique qualities of my books there, doesn't serve me the way I want. All of this means I need to revise all my own sites and coordination with other sites, but that's something I should be doing regularly anyway.
All of the answers are tuned closely to my goals as a publisher and should not be understood as a recommendation or expectation for anyone else. However, I do think that it illustrates the way one person assesses the differences in the two approaches.
Does that help, or make sense?
Best, Ron
Meguey:
A few quick notes:
1. I always liked going to the PO, and missed it. If you try this, make sure your fulfiller feels the same way.
2. The first batch of orders have been filled. Independently Fulfilling tracks the cost of packaging and postage and my $1/book against the up-front money from whoever I'm fulfilling for, and I get to walk to town and mail books.
3. I really like the flat fee/book thing. Each group that sets up Independently Fulfilling for themselves can work out their own details. We timed it out and it seems very reasonable, and it lets me not feel rushed - books go out twice a week, and the rest of the time I don't worry about it. If it really takes off, there might be a need for compensation for time spent restocking supplies, but that's a bridge to cross when we come to it.
4. Independently Fulfilling seems like the sort of thing that will work best when the fulfillment person can reasonably expect the various publishers to swing by and drop off stock if needed. With few exceptions, this is how I plan on handling it, although I really see the wisdom in Ben's point about stocking some stuff that clearly has cross-market value.
HighmoonMedia:
Ron and Meguey, thanks. That goes to the heart of what I was curious about. Good luck with these new plans.
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