CompuServe Messages

{continued} Print publishers are not yet accustommed to cumulative electronic publishing, and CDROM publishers are in no position to dictate terms – yet. And pricing must account for the cost of production over the long term, not just a single project. The OED operates with a very large staff, and they have exactly one product, the OED, which they are now learning to sell in different ways. Other dictionary publishers also spend a lot on development (typically $7-10 million), but they can sell products in various print versions (including paperback), and electronic versions (both stand-alone and as part of other systems). They can also peel off parts for specialized books. And they are not commited, as OED is, to maintaining huge files backing up their citations and definitions for every word in the language. Through all this rambling, I guess I'm trying to point out that there is a lot more to making information products than may appear on the surface. Even the small lists I have posted on this Forum required many hours of effort. The price any user pays is, at most, a couple of minutes of down-loading time. It is very rare for any publishing enterprise to generate a cash-cow. It is a lucky and happy accident. And they go through a lot of dogs before that happens. Perhaps the biggest problem facing CDROM publishers is that everyone knows the cost of the medium is small. And what they now have to do is actually price the value of the content itself. This is tough, and will take some time to sort itself out. This monolog has not been particularly well structured, but I hope it has added some insight. Have a great Holiday! — Rich Bowers