>>> Item number 27934 from WRITERS LOG9404A --- (38 records) ----- <<< Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: TECH: Self Publish CDROMs? [odd facts to stir the discussion of cdrom publishing...] Just to let you know - the latest CDROM FAQ says that producing the master and duplicating 1000 disks runs about $2000. That's like making the printing plates and running off 1000 copies in the older printing press terms. The good/bad part of this is that two dollar CDROM holds over 600,000,000 bytes (600 Megabytes). Assuming 10 letters per word (actually, 6 is what most people use, but 10 is easier to calculate) that's 60,000,000 words. Most novels run about 100,000 up, so we're probably talking at least 300 novels (assuming some people are wordy). But you don't have to fill the disk. You could put one novel (collection of poems, short stories, etc.) on the disk, and sell it for enough to cover production costs, or for a slight profit, or even give it away... Or put one money-maker (one major writer - King?) on a disk, and farm out the rest to new writers - no or low pay for them, but the exposure! One-off (single copies) run about $300 dollars, with $100 per for added copies. Even that isn't so far out of reason for personal publishing. I mean, I think it would be impressive as all get out to say "This is my CDROM book." It would be easier to carry around than those vanity press books, too. Keep your eyes open - I think this technology is going to have a major impact on the publishing industry if they (we?) ever figure out how to handle the economics... tink