[FM Discuss] books and fm - need your thoughts!

[Joshua Facemyer]

> Would it be an issue if Maintainers or the 'main contributors' for a
> manual got paid but others didn't?
>   
I think it would.  However much any one of us would like to get paid for 
it personally, there are multiple people that help and I think that 
would definitely deter help.

However, I think maybe a way to handle it is let each book team decide 
where its money goes - that way if it's only one maintainer, they could 
make a personal profit, if it's a group, they can use it for the 
software project's needs or split it how they will, etc.  I guess the 
idea is that this shouldn't need to be decided globally.  We just say 
that the maintainers decide what to do with the profits and leave it at 
that.
> Yes, we already provide the sources for free so anyone can sell books if
> they wanted to anyway. The GPL (the license we use for the manuals) does
> not prohibit commercial activity. So...actually anyone can do this
> already so I guess its more a question of whether we actively promote
> this as something we wish to see happen or not.
>
> An interesting possibility for this model is if we empowered people to
> become their own 'FM Book Shops'...selling manuals at events, on the
> street, wherever, so they can make some $. 
>
> Its good to remember we don't have to stick to any one model - we can
> mix it up as we like.
>   
One idea I had, which would obviously be a manual team decision, is to 
offer a basic manual at no/little profit and an advanced manual for more 
profit.  Just an idea.  Not really related directly to the topic :)
>
>   
>> -----------
>> Now, what i imagine :
>> - for every fnished manual 4 buttons : (1) buy the pdf (for support), (2) buy 
>> the book (for any use, we have to think at a pocket format too), (3) read on 
>> line, (4) donation to support FM goal.
>> - a dedicated page "FM bookshop".
>> - To help some print project or any project we can make a call for community 
>> (like LGM done)
>> - The person who print the book have to know what he do. It's not a 
>> automatically print of all manuals.
>>     
I agree wholeheartedly.
>
> Interesting ideas!!!! The interesting thing about using lulu (if we
> utilise this as the central print on demand service) is that it enables
> us to set a mark-up (profit) for each book. 
>
> It could be, for example, that we sell books with no profit or a set
> profit, or both. We can also sell PDFs as you suggest (through Lulu). 
>
> This would mean we can imagine the book sales (or PDF sales) as being
> part of fund raising campaigns - either for  FM as a whole or for
> specific projects as you suggest. I think the Libre Graphics Meeting
> (LGM) raised about $13,000 USD or so with their short campaign? We
> certainly could do this sort of campaign but also offer something in
> exchange for the donation (eg. a pdf).
>   
That would be cool, and a good way to raise money both for FM and 
specific projects, especially for causes like book sprints.

JF