[FM Discuss] berlin pricing

[Tomi Toivio]

Hello,

I was wondering how hard it actually is to create such a web shop for the
books?

If we find a print-on-demand shop here in Finland and start to sell
translated manuals online?

Regards
Tomi

2009/7/5 adam hyde <adam at flossmanuals.net>

> hi,
>
> following on from the "release early, release often, release
> everywhere" chat and the interesting posts that followed (esp. thanks
> to chris for interesting deconstruction of the fm 'brand') -  I wanted to
> follow up with a question about the pricing of books
>
> At present we have 10 books available.
>
> We put a mark-up on our books of 2 euro for each. The theory on sales
> is :
> 1. we should sell enough of any one book so that the $ could be used to
> fund a book sprint on that topic to update the book
> 2. we should sell all material at as low a price as possible to try and
> get the content out there
>
> However, no one of our books has yet enough $ to fund a sprint. Also, I
> am not sure about the tone of this policy so I think we need to rethink
> the strategy a little. Which brings me to the interesting question of
> 'Berlin Pricing'.
>
> In Berlin there are a number of restaurants and bars that offer a very
> interesting model. I attended one yesterday in Prenzlauerberg where
> entrance was 1 euro, and then you could drink and eat as much as you
> want. When you left you paid what you thought was a fair price. A friend
> and I had 4 small glasses of wine each and paid 20 euro. That is about
> the normal cost for a small glass of cheap wine in Berlin.
>
> When I paid the 20 I felt good (it might have also been the wine ;) I
> didnt feel like I was paying a bill (I could have walked away without
> paying anything), I felt I was contributing to something that I
> personally supported. I was not obliged to pay, but I did and I felt
> better for it.
>
> There are some that would have paid more, and some that would have paid
> less, and some that would have paid nothing. There are also those that
> pay a little, and when they come back next time with more money then
> they are more generous.
>
> The interesting thing apart from the feel good factor (which is very
> interesting) is that the model seems to be working. At least anecdotal
> evidence shows that the bar is extremely popular with people spilling
> out onto the street, and also the bar has been popular and has remained
> in business for 5 years now.
>
> Also, 'everyone' knows about the bar because of this pricing model. It
> seemed to me that there were also a lot of tourists there which
> suggestions word about the bar has spread wider than the local market.
>
> So...I am wondering about our arbitrary 2 euro policy. 2 euro is a
> number i picked out of the air, but I have been conflicted about it
> almost since we have been selling books.
>
> It occurs to me that a much stronger model might be to sell all our
> books strictly at cost price (ie. at the same price lulu charges to
> make them) and offer a model like these Berlin bars. Lulu.com offers
> the possibility of uploading and selling PDF. So we could, for example,
> offer pdf certificates through lulu.com for the price of 1, 10 and 100
> euro.
>
> Then when someone buys a book they may also decide to support us with a
> 10 euro certificate. Or they may not. They might also decide to buy 10 x
> 100 euro certificates, or they may not.
>
> They might also just buy x number of books at cost for their school, or
> they might buy no books and buy 5 x 10 euro certificates because they
> like what we do. etc.
>
> I think this model has an interesting philosophy at its core :
> 1. it puts trust in our audience to support us when they can
> 2. it does not require anyone to spend anything other than the
> bare minimum on our content unless they really can
>
> It seems to me this far better realises our original objective with our
> books than the 2 euro model.
>
> I think that this model is a very good way to build good will in our
> readership. It is a way to build trust and show that we are about what
> we say we are about : developing and distributing high quality
> documentation about how to use free software. That is, we are not about
> selling books for a profit.
>
> Also, by moving the generation of income from profits of book sales to
> the certificates, we are actually generating income as a result of the
> good will we can generate in our audience. This seems a more
> interesting motivation to me - in order to enhance income we have to
> enhance the size and depth of the readerships good will.
> Thats not a bad idea and keeps us focused on our core ideology and removes
> the focus from non-core activities ie. making a profit from selling
> books
>
> There is another component to the model which is interesting. I think
> in this model all sales of certificates would necessarily be put into a
> pool of funds available for funding Book Sprints on any topic. This
> seems to me to sit better within the idea of a community like FLOSS
> Manuals (as opposed to individualism created when income from a book
> gets spent only on a book sprint on that content). It also means that
> we could put funds towards book sprints on topics that might not
> otherwise attract funding.
>
> Lastly, I think that this model would attract a lot of attention as it's
> quite unique. Attention is also not such a bad thing, as any attention
> draws more eyes to the content we develop, and also possibly more
> participation in developing the content.
>
> I'd be interested in any thoughts on this...
>
> adam
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Adam Hyde
> Founder FLOSS Manuals
> German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
> Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
> irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
>
> "Free manuals for free software"
> http://www.flossmanuals.net/about
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.flossmanuals.net/pipermail/discuss-flossmanuals.net/attachments/20090710/ce959c9a/attachment-0001.htm>