Theos-Talk Archives (September 2010 Message tt00071)

mkr, 
Like any other "Business" Theosophical Directors are mindful of the revenue source that helps fill the account for necessary other operations. Publishing books and selling Books is, I think, a major resource worldwide in lodges that also tithe to the Hdqtrs as well as Adyar and Wheaton Publishing Houses. There is much more margin realization when printing books than making PDF free downloads available to the rest of the world or even PDF downloads at a greatly reduced price since no paper or additional printing is required. There is still the cost of purchasing the necessary dedicated servers and software that can execute the processes necessary to effect orders, authentication and fulfillments, royalty payment to rights holders, revenue transfer to accounts, bookkeeping and accounting and other actions remain the same even when marketed from the online web. They would also need to hire or contract with professional software firms or individuals to maintain and service reliability of the order system day to day. Staff they currently employ at Adyar and Wheaton may be effected negatively when switchover to web publishing is undertaken and they may have substantial loyalty's and investment in them. Also they may require purchase of different insurance protection to implement online publishing. I personally would favor both but one must see reality that presents. For example each Publishing House vendor that currently prints or otherwise sells hard-printed copy may refuse to allow online publishing and deny further sales collapsing the revenue resource. at any event the cost of considerable negotiation with Vendors could be costly because of the large number of books they already sell. Even if they desire to put online downloads in action these can be monumental barriers to execution and modernization. Who is the proper "Target " to write to on this issue at Adyar and Wheaton? What is their view analytically about this idea? Some one with proper credentials could inquire in writting to them in a proper polite, tactful manner, maybe we can get a few answers that way. 
John 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "MKR" <mkr777@KMf4VYGF_sU0jJa2ImxrQUA4SF3Y2MGBsRlcXDlQfdcfrXko3Sbwx73Xrw3pyeBGlYXfyTIyrthIQw.yahoo.invalid> 
To: "theos-talk" <theos-talk@yahoogroups.com> 
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2010 8:52:22 AM 
Subject: theos-talk Outdated model used by theosophical publications 






The recent publication of HPBâs discussions in the London Lodge has brought 
to light serious defects in continuing to use the traditional publishing 
model. Twelve to thirteen years of time was lost and the end product was too 
pricey since most theosophists are not wealthy and it is defeating the very 
purpose of publishing books which is to reach as many people as possible. 
[Recent publication of Joy Millsâ book on Mahatma Letters also follows the 
traditional model and is not inexpensive.] 

What is shocking is that no one in the chain of publishing decision making 
seemed to be sensitive to the issue of several years of delay in publishing. 
We do not know if the author of the book was also sensitive to this issue 
and what he tried to do address this issue. 

Once the book preparation work started, it should have been serialized in 
one of the serial theosophical publications so that we all need not wait for 
the entire book to be ready and printed and bound for purchase. 

Internet is the big elephant in the room today. It is central to 
communication and distribution of information and only a recluse living in 
the jungles of Amazon can be ignorant of it. Why no one in the decision 
making and production of the book did not take steps to use Internet to 
speed up the release of the material to theosophists. We may be dealing with 
Ancient Wisdom, but need to use modern tools to reach our audience. 

The publishing debacle should be a wake up call to all theosophical 
organizations who want to publish material to reach theosophists. If 
theosophy were to reach the world at large, we need to take full advantage 
of the modern technology without which we would be doing a disservice to 
Humanity. 

Hope this msg gives some impetus to those who are calling shots in 
publishing. 

MKR 

There is no religion higher than Truth 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]