Theos-Talk Archives (January 2011 Message tt00149)

Thanks

When theosophical books are published in the traditional hard copy print, no
one should expect it to even breakeven for a long time. In addition to the
cost of printing the books, there is the continuing cost of keeping up an
inventory. When you add all this up, it is a losing proposition for a long
time. So the publishers should realize that the typical book publishing
business model does not fit into publishing theosophical books.

The main purpose for which theosophical publishers were established was to
print books and to provide them to theosophists, and not to make money as a
business proposition. Spreading theosophical information should be the top
priority and the publishers should put on theosophical hat when decisions
are made to publish any theosophical book.

Current technological trends such as print on demand, ebooks, scanning
capabilities play a major part in how successful a publishing venture is.
Looks like the publishers and reviewers are yet to wake up to realities of
today and unless done quickly, theosophical publishing enterprises may soon
become so unprofitable that they may shut down at least some parts of the
enterprise. Wisdom lies is seeing the big writing on the wall and not wait
like a sitting duck.

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 10:05 AM, M. Sufilight <global-theosophy@GbJUQjUsuJ8G_TZIOfPnseLD8BJLc88F-84RAJ6J7aH34-RpLb4zEkZ2Hxm-Kz5bhDTXK-eoOyp2PbHQHd3ndzeEAEY.yahoo.invalidk
> wrote:

>
>
> My views are:
> Copyright violations should of course not be supported.
> But the attempt to help others by scanned PDF's or similar are important
> and not all authors need the money they get from their books when they are
> sold.
>
> M. Sufilight
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: email2cal
> To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com <theos-talk%40yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 11:03 AM
> Subject: theos-talk Re: Comments on reviews of theosophical books
>
> Dear Ramadoss,
>
> I don't quite understand what feasible alternatives to profit-based
> book publishing you have in mind. What I understood suggests that
> your proposal is not a sustainable business model (scanning
> copyrighted books to PDF files is good for personal use only). And
> let's not forget that many good spiritual books would not written in
> the first place if their authors did not hope to make money and make
> a living.
>
> Max
>
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com <theos-talk%40yahoogroups.com>, MKR
> <mkr777@...> wrote:
> >
> > When browsing the reviews of some of the recent well known theosophical
> > books like the SD Commentary and Reflections on an Ageless Wisdom (ML to
> > APS), most of the reviewers have done an excellent job. As we all know
> these
> > recent books are pricey for the average ÃâËpoorÃââ theosophist especially
> in non
> > Western Countries.
> >
> > None of the reviews I have come across about the above books have brought
> > out the critical issue of making them widely accessible to theosophists
> > around the world. Today, any book can be instantaneously distributed at
> no
> > cost around the world using Internet and it costs nothing to create a pdf
> > file.
> >
> > One wonders if there is no mention about the cost of these books in the
> > reviews, is it likely that the reviewers are not sensitized to the price
> and
> > distribution issues since they do not pay for it and do receive a free
> > copies.
> >
> > Books like the above are almost exclusively read by theosophists and
> hence
> > the logic that applies to other books published for general audience is
> not
> > at all relevant. Unless the cost issue is addressed quickly, we will see
> the
> > same fate as pricy utility software faced in the past as cheap high speed
> > scanners have changed the technological landscape in the world.
> >
> > Godspeed for making books available in pdf files.
> >
> > MKR
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>  
>


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