Unconventional Theremin Method Book

.. I just wonder what the person who got the "Beat Frequency Method" thinks about it! LOL!

Who knows.. These sort of 'accidents' can have awesome effects on the universe - It may be the 'seed' which starts someone on their Theremin journey.. There is even the possibility that another universe came into being simply to cater for the futures widely diverging paths - a universe somewhere where you got the right book.. and this one.... ;)

Wow. A whole universe! Fancy that. That's a lot of matter. Where did the energy come from to create it? I hear tell that gravity extends outside of the regular dimensions. How come I didn't feel a jolt?

Perhaps I did get the right book in a sense, but I just don't know it yet.

"That's a lot of matter"
Reminds me of "men in black" - Who defines what a 'lot' of matter actually is?
To be honest, I dont buy the "Alternative universe created for every deviance" hypothesis.. Its a fun idea - a sort of pseudo-science alternative to religeon perhaps.. One can feel better believing that in some other universe it was you who got the 3M bonus which in this universe you are helping to pay.. NO! STAY OFF POLITICS! What really upsets me is that bloody mans first name is Fred!

AAArrrgggghhh - Time to take my pills....

Well from my deviant universe to yours I'll ask:
Gordon, so how *do* we get a printed hard copy of your Book?
I'm saving a space on the theremin bookshelf for it.
Congrats!

At the moment probably the best way is to print a copy directly from the scribd page, or download the pdf from there and then print that.

Some printers offer a print option called "Booklet Mode" which would be perfect for printing double sided on five sheets of paper. (Printing it full size gives the "large print" version.)

When I have an acceptable copy from Lulu I will make it available for purchase there, but I'm not selling anything I haven't seen myself first.

... Gordon's book arives nanoseconds prior to the Big Bang, setting off a massive explosion that sets the whole universe into being ...

Sick minds think alike!

Don

Almost.

Book arrives, I open a page at random and spot a hideous, glaring typo straight away, setting off an explosion...

Fools seldom differ.

Update.

Book arrives. Looks excellent.

But... a bit darned pricey! It's a [i]slim[/i] volume. I wouldn't pay eight quid for it. Well, I did, but you know what I mean.

So, my business advisor (Mrs C) and I have put our heads together and come up with a plan to add value to the product.

We're going to get a short run printed and we're going to get a similar number of Beat Frequency CDs (currently £7.99 on iTunes) duplicated to accompany the booklet, on the basis that [i]eventually[/i] we will sell enough at £8+p&p to return our investment.

It's a little bit backwards - instead of a music CD with a booklet inside, it's a booklet with a music CD inside, but it amounts to the same thing.

Watch this space...


BTW, Fred - Sorry that your name got some bad PR recently. I know exactly how you feel.

Gordon.

:-)

Gordon>>
I've been meaning to say that Lulu is really the least cost-effective and most inefficient way to publish a small book. POD (Print On Demand) is only good if you're a tree! Otherwise, you'll get a better job for a better price at a small local printer.

Of course, the disadvantages are that you can't order a one-off copy, or get them one at a time as customers request them. But because this project doesn't have too many pages, having a batch printed shouldn't be overly expensive. You might consider getting a few quotes for say: 50 copies, 100 copies, 150 copies.

With so few pages you could get quotes for slot-perforated binding or other adhesive bindings, which are far cheaper, and will be strong enough (in fact I assume that Lulu do the cheapest version possible even if they charge the most).

Actually, if you typeset it thoughtfully to ensure your pagecount is efficient (a multiple of eight) then it may even be do-able as a booklet with just a couple of staples holding it together at the centre. How many pages does it presently run to? Can you typeset it to sixteen including the front and back cover?

I'm pretty certain that with a print-run of about 100, you could get the price down to something that would not only be attractive to potential customers, but leave you with a small profit too. IT may also be more cost-effective than including CDs ... although this is an interesting possibility.

A printer would need a print-ready PDF of the typeset version ... but with a little know-how this can be done easily and quite possibly for zero cost. Let me know if you want more info.

Hi Thereminstrel.

Yup, it's a stapled booklet. The page count doesn't really justify anything else. I am aware that Lulu is not the cheapest, but it is cheap enough for the business model we are running (start cautious, build slowly) and having had experience with printers in the past I [i]like[/i] places that show their prices up front and allow a proof copy at an acceptable price. It fits the "start cautious" criterion. If it turns into a runaway best seller (hahaha) then we'll get serious about profits and go to a proper printer, but right now easiness counts for a lot (as a fellow ME sufferer I'm sure you can appreciate that,) and Lulu is easy!

Pricing in more detail: I don't want to go too cheap - if I'm selling online Paypal or Google checkout are not very good for small amounts. The place I found for CDs has a minimum run of 50. The breakpoint for Lulu is 25 - at that point the price drops to a quarter and postage becomes the dominant issue - 50 is a little cheaper per unit than 25, but only by the postage. Putting these two together means that, for a run of fifty, the first 17 sales cover the initial outlay. At that point I have 33 units that effectively cost me nothing. In the worst case scenario I can just give them to thereminists when I meet them without loss, and earn a little goodwill in the process. Otherwise, depending on how fast they sell, I can reinvest the money from half the remaining sales to buy the next batch of 50 or reinvest the whole amount, doubling the size of the run and benefiting from reduced unit production costs.

I've used this model before and it is simple enough that anyone can understand it, but still effective. (It's not "get-rich-quick".) Previously we were selling lapel pins to raise money for charity and it only took a few doublings before we were able to reduce production costs significantly (and improve the quality of the product at the same time) and over a couple of years we raised a five figure sum for charity with minimal effort and risk before demand for the pins petered out.

I don't expect to achieve that this time. I do expect to make a few collectors of theremin ephemera rather happy by selling them a booklet with a free CD, and maybe cover my travel costs at a few gigs by selling them as a CD with a free booklet.