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Web-based publications are free for a reason - they
aren't worth much, and anyone can put together a pretty website. Just look
at the horrible mis-identifications out there on even the good websites.
As an HAP chairman for my local club, I have to deal with this all of the
time. Fortunately we have a great botanical library here in St. Louis and
I'm slowly getting people trained to use it.
As for a web publication - it's not easy to carry
a web book around and read it on the patio on a nice sunny day without
lugging all kinds of gear with you. It's not a good idea to
take a laptop with you into the fishroom to compare photos to specimens in
your tank. You can do those things with a printed
publication. In addition, real publications have value because they are
fact checked and edited professionally. For us to publish something,
it should also be unique.
Any item has a value. As the AGA we tend to
undervalue our product. Not sure why, but we always have. Yes,
hobbyists are notoriously cheap, but they WILL pay for good information.
Nice photos reproduced well will help sell a publication, too.
For TFH or Bowtie to buy a book and put
it together they run many calculations first. These are
proprietary, but I can tell you they won't touch something unless they can be
sure something will sell several thousand copies, at least. I doubt a
niche book like algae or moss would do that well, so I doubt they would touch
those topics as stand alone books. They don't fit with their current
business models. They sell to the mass market.
We're looking at a niche market - maybe a couple
hundred copies. This can do well enough for us if we market it properly,
keep costs in check, charge a reasonable markup, and don't go crazy with the
initial printing. We can learn from mistakes we've made in the past.
And it doesn't have to be a TFH or Krieger level publication. TAG is
beautiful and an already established format. This booklet can be
approximately 40 pages with no ads, just lots of good information and some great
photos. We should be able to sell at least 200 copies. I'd bet we
sell many more than that.
Here's a real example of something that can sell to
a niche market - in this particular example people who want to learn how to
ship fish. I wrote a simple 20 page black and white desktop published
book with no photos. It is NOWHERE near as nice as TAG, even the old black
and white TAG. It is called Shipping Tips for Tropical
Fish Hobbyists and is 20 pages of single spaced information about just
that. I currently sell it only on Aquabid and at swap meets for
$12.99. In the past two and a half years I have sold nearly 700
copies. In the beginning I was selling 30 to 40 copies a month, one at a
time. I'm still selling 5 or 6 copies a month. I print them and put
them together as they are ordered, so my only carrying cost is blank paper
and covers.
There is a market out there for good information
printed and put into one single publication and people WILL PAY for it.
This is what we can do to be different! We're not TFH,
Krieger or Bowtie looking at a mass market, so don't think that way or
you will be disappointed.
We're the AGA and we have a small market of people
who keep pretty plants in glass boxes full of water. We also have people
who write well and who have information that people will pay to read. If
we have experts on various specialized topics such as mosses or algae, so much
the better.
If this one does well, we could do a whole series
of small booklets: mosses; algae; crypts; swords; grass-like plants;
rhizome plants; stem plants; foreground plants; aquascaping; plant tech
(lighting, CO2, dosing, etc.).
My two cents,
Mike
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 7:01 AM
Subject: Re: [AGA-mcm] Aquarium Moss
Publication
As
one of the people involved in the proposed algae project, I have to say that I
wouldn?t be happy with a web-based publication? I never have been. I
suspect you may find other authors who feel the same
way.
Karen
From: aga-mcm-bounces@thekrib.com
[mailto:aga-mcm-bounces@thekrib.com] On Behalf Of S.
Hieber
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 6:55 AM
To: AGA
Advisory Committee
Subject: Re: [AGA-mcm] Aquarium Moss
Publication
Being an
Adam Smithian, I'd like to suggest that, if there was already a high demand
for this product, someone in the "for profit" sector of the economy would
probably already be producing it. Does TFH miss a trick? So, I agree
with Ben but also don't have any missgivings about there being much
money to be made -- it seems to me more a question of how much subsidy we want
to undertake. Wouldn't it be cheaper to pay somone to put the info on line
rather than hire a paper printer and have to handle shipping,
turnaround times, etc. I know printed color paper has its intrininsic virtues,
and we have some of the best people for bringing paper to it's most
artful frution, but if it's information dissemination we're interested in
as a service to the community, isn't the net a more obvious choice? I'm
thinking something more along the Watson model might be more appropriate, more
effective and more cost-efficient.
From: Ben B.
<rodeotrout@gmail.com>
To: AGA Advisory Committee
<aga-mcm@thekrib.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 4:07:31
PM
Subject: [AGA-mcm] Aquarium Moss
Publication
I'll take the opposite viewpoint and say if this is
something we want to do, then we should take anyone's money who is willing to
part with it. Maybe we could give members a discounted price.
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