ubuntu-manual team mailing list archive

[Kevin Godby <godbyk@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, everyone.

We publish our manual through CreateSpace.com. In addition to making
the manual available for purchase through CreateSpace.com, they also
offer additional distribution channels including Amazon.com.

Recently, CreateSpace has offered three new distribution channels:

1. Bookstores and Online Retailers. Make your book available to online
and offline retailers such as Barnes & Noble and to distributors such
as Ingram and NACSCORP.

2. Libraries and Academic Institutions. Make your book available
through Baker & Taylor to libraries and academic institutions.

3. CreateSpace Direct. Make your book available to certified resellers
through our wholesale website.

However, if I opt to have our manuals made available through these new
channels, it raises the minimum price of the manual.

For example, Getting Started with Ubuntu 13.10 (English edition)
currently has a minimum price of $4.49.  If I enable the new channels,
the manual may be available to more people (if bookstores and
libraries buy it), but the minimum price would become $6.73.

I wanted to get everyone's opinion on what we should do here. Should
we make our manual available through more channels but at a higher
cost or should we try to keep costs as low as possible and provide the
manual only through CreateSpace and Amazon?

(Note that this doesn't have any impact on the free PDF downloads that
we provide. They will always remain free.)

Thanks for your thoughts!

—Kevin Godby