Re: Post Factory

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005, Greg Schmitz wrote:

> As I have mentioned to others "offlist," I think Judy is rightfully
> concerned that if PF is digitized, even if for sale, the digital files
> will no doubt make their way to the web. The costs to "police" the
> web (monitoring and legal) would no doubt exceed the costs of
> publication many fold.

Actually, I wouldn't really worry about that, because if I value my time
at about what I'd earn scrubbing floors (my normal benchmark) it costs me
more keeping the issues in print, tipping in the odds & ends, packing the
hulking 9 issues up snugly especially taping the corners & middle so the
Belgian post office can't drown them, etc, & schlepping to the post-office
than I "make" on the sale... (In fact if I count my time as above, the
entire operation has been & will ever be deep in the red.)

There's also the fact that since the contributors have worked free, I
wouldn't feel right profiting from them anyway...

True, if there were photos of other *people* I would try to keep them off
the web because there are perverts out there, but that doesn't apply to
this content...

It's because --

I myself think that print is holy & web (whether I use it or not) is like
TV, instrument of the devil. Well, that's my first thought & I refuse to
defend it, but it's really I suppose a matter of control -- artistic
control. (OK, I said it.)

I assume if anyone does print out their PDF, it goes on normal printer
paper which is 8-1/2 inches by 11 inches.... But Post-Factory is
carefully, cleverly or stupidly, designed to fit a page 9 inches by 11-1/4
inches... and, in case it's not obvious, it's what they (lyingly) call
"perfect bound," that is, it's stapled in the center so it opens out, sort
of like what they call "a book." You turn a page and there's print on the
other side. Which is to say, if someone does print it out from the PDF
it's going to be a batch of single sheets, possibly stapled in one corner.

Like a workshop handout.

Yeccch!

But, you say, most folks would just use it in PDF form, that is
electronically, and not *print it out*? That means you'd probably
electrocute yourself if you take it into the darkroom -- and then blame
me. I suppose most with-it folks now have hand-held readers so they could
read in bed or walking the dog or at breakfast or wherever -- but
that's still a different kind of reading, IMO -- yes you could use a
search function, but you have no sense of what's before or after, you
can't flip through pages back & forth & as I understand it, hiccup & you
lose your place. In fact you could only see PART of a page at a time.

Needless to say a perfectly rational person would not have entered this
operation at all, so no use dishing up the logic -- tho I will add that
there's a fairly extensive INDEX through P-F #7 at www.post-factory.org
and that when/if I return to earth I'll continue that through #9. I
assume the search function that's been described is more extensive than
the index, but not sure it's such a great difference as a practical
matter... Or let's say it's a trade off.

Meanwhile I actually can make a PDF on Pagemaker, which is my program for
the files -- but that's the type, the photos and do-dads etc. don't PDF
without special attention, if then, & my attention is (or is supposed to
be) directed elsewhere now. Plus what about the color tip ins? Only a few
of course, but --- they matter, at least to me, and maybe even to others.

> I too want PF to be read far and wide and to that end request that
> the libraries that I use, both public and private, purchase a set of
> PF for their collections. The existence of PF in a library collection
> probably does more to secure a publications availability now and for
> future generations than any number of digital files now.

Actually, for better or worse, probably not -- at least at Pratt they were
simply stolen... and I'm not sure that reading in a library is as
important as, say, hanging out with, say Liam, or whoever is the guru of
the particular page. And then a week later when you want it, you've lost
the damn thing somewhere, maybe in a pile of papers-- this also sharpens
the mind...

>> Nice idea! To save on shipping costs sell it on the website. For sure I
>> will buy all issues in a pdf format.

NOT nice at this end because it's a WHOLE OTHER operation, other
electronics, other administrations, snotty clerks at credit card companies
or paypal... and if you haven't heard the tales of horror, you should. I
have done nothing in my life, sinful as it may be, to deserve spending my
old age dealing with PayPal... This isn't a large business, an operation
that profits from volume. For 10 years I think this entire wonderful list
never had more than 600 subscribers at a time. Only if every one of them
bought P-F AT ONCE, would such an economy of scale mean much.

As for shipping costs -- in the US that's $2 for the batch together. True,
it's $20 to Europe by airmail, I guess about $12 surface, but with the US
dollar so low, that's cheaper than an e-reader.

Meanwhile, if a check comes in the mail, I slip it into an envelope, and
when a bunch accumulate, take them to my corner bank (and can buy a peach
or some strawberries from the stand out front) -- and done.The tellers
there, face to face, are always polite, so I can save my conniption
strength for more serious affairs. Anyway, as I probably said before, I
don't need more money, I need more time. (So why am I spending so long
writing this? Good question.)

meanwhile, thanks again Greg, your compliment is better than gold... and
more thanks & cheers to all...

Judy
Received on Wed Sep 21 00:40:55 2005