The New Thing
Ron Edwards:
Hi Ben,
I waited until it was all ready before posting here. Which is to say, contact Vincent and you'll get what you need. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean; I'm talking about the interface publishers and fulfillers use to keep track of everything.
You're going to laugh, but I actually don't know Meg's hourly rate. I'm sure I'll find out in the course of things. This is clearly not the degree of professionalism (or lack thereof) I'm recommending for others in this thread, but the fact is, I can be sort of a doofus about money,* and anyway, all of us involved are still feeling our way a little.
I was thinking last night, and it suddenly occurred to me that a publisher doesn't need "a group" at all! It could be just you and a fulfilling person, period. Or to get really wacky, it could be just you and your own books, and you use the installation as a means of keeping track.
Best, Ron
* I refer anyone to the first season of the British TV show, Chef, to see a pretty good representation of me as business owner.
lumpley:
Ben, I'll give you a tour of the platform (by email). It's an open house! Tours for everyone, just let me know you want one.
We're paying Meg a dollar a book, flat, not hourly, which we'll revisit after two months. I'm pretty sure we chose that number because it both seems fine and is round.
Quote from: Ron Edwards on October 18, 2008, 04:34:41 AM
I was thinking last night, and it suddenly occurred to me that a publisher doesn't need "a group" at all! It could be just you and a fulfilling person, period. Or to get really wacky, it could be just you and your own books, and you use the installation as a means of keeping track.
Absolutely. If I were building just an inventory management system for my own stock, it'd look a lot like this.
-Vincent
Ben Lehman:
You're totally correct in that it doesn't need to be "a fulfilling person who handles multiple publishers." I imagine that I would be using stuff with a very different model.
In fact, I see no reason why there needs to be any sort of direct correspondence between publisher and "fulfillment person" at all. For instance, I will want to keep some copies of Journeying West wherever Joshua is keeping Under the Bed, so as to facilitate selling them in package deals (and likewise Anna with Polaris). That would (most likely) be separate from where I kept my main stock.
Likewise, I'd want to have at least one US person, a Eurozone distributor, and maybe other areas as needed (For example: oh, look I have a big increase of sales to South America. Maybe I should find someone in Brazil.)
What sort of organizational structure are you using, in terms of taxes and such? You were talking about a non-profit, is that a formal non-profit? What kind? Who is founding it?
yrs--
--Ben
lumpley:
Re: no direct correspondence: Good! You're right. I didn't think about it that way and that's pretty exciting.
Quote from: Ben Lehman on October 18, 2008, 07:08:04 AM
What sort of organizational structure are you using, in terms of taxes and such? You were talking about a non-profit, is that a formal non-profit? What kind? Who is founding it?
Not a formal non-profit. Not even any kind of structured organization. Each fulfiller is financially independent, responsible for her own taxes. I believe that Meg's tax-time plan is to use the good old lemonade stand model. Her gross, costs, and net income from this thing as a (very!) small business will all come straight out of the database at the end of the year.
-Vincent
Ron Edwards:
I can't over-stress that all of these details about this particular deal with this particular fulfiller are, effectively, irrelevant for purposes of doing something like this on your own. I'm not saying it's rude or dumb to ask, but I am afraid that people will think we are presenting some kind of highly-polished business model to emulate in all details. That's not the case. All such things are settled among whoever you are and however you want to do it. All that's being made available is the (hope I'm using the right word) platform so the publisher knows what's going on with the books and money at all times.
Best, Ron
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