Printed Technical Manuals

Scott Rose · **Posted:** Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:11 am

If you could get a good quality reproduction of a manual in either a softbound or spriral bound format what would you be willing to pay? I'm looking at possibly creating these versions as a fund raising item for WRG/WIX but need to know what would be a reasonable price. Fear not, any manual I create like this will be freely available online in a lower rez version (for size consideration) but this initiative will cost a bundle as it grows and I am looking at a way to offset it.

Cvairwerks · **Posted:** Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:05 am

I'd vote for PDF files and emailing the file instead. Having been involved in the printing industry as a part of my wife's business, it gets expensive real quick to produce copies of manuals in printed form. Until you start printing copies in quatities over a thousand, the costs are horrendous. Figure somewhere around 2-3$ a page for just set-up. A good example is MIL-HBK-5, the structural bible for Aero Engineers....1800+ pages. It runs a little over 60$ just to photocopy it. Then add covers and binding and it gets to be real expensive.

By going with PDF files, it allows the individual to print as necessary what he wants to and in the quality that fits the need. It also reduces the cost of providing the manuals, as once it is in electronic format, copies can be produced at will for very little expense on one's desktop printer.

I like the PDF forms for another reason: The bigger the aircraft, the more shelf space all the necessary manuals for maintenance and operation take up. I like the idea of being able to carry a complete set of manuals on either a CD or a memory stick in the aircraft.

Just my thoughts.....

k5083 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:22 am

Times have changed. If you go through an internet publisher such as lulu.com, which prints your pdf into a professionally bound, nice-looking book, the cost of a 200-page manual with cover (assuming no color illustrations) would be under $10.00, and that's whether you order 1 or 10,000. I would think people would pay that. It's print-on-demand so no inventory to carry. Add a little margin to help the WRG, price it at $15.00, and I bet it would still sell.

August

Scott Rose · **Posted:** Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:42 am

k5083 wrote:

Times have changed. If you go through an internet publisher such as lulu.com, which prints your pdf into a professionally bound, nice-looking book, the cost of a 200-page manual with cover (assuming no color illustrations) would be under $10.00, and that's whether you order 1 or 10,000. I would think people would pay that. It's print-on-demand so no inventory to carry. Add a little margin to help the WRG, price it at $15.00, and I bet it would still sell.

August

You got it, that was the idea

fritzthefox · **Posted:** Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:34 pm

They do calendars, too. I KNOW you could find enough photo contributors on this site to sell a few calendars...

They do CD's, as well, and you could always put the PDF's on a CD for the cheapskates.

Might be good for a few bucks.

Cvairwerks · **Posted:** Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:49 pm

I took a look at lulu.com's pricing and you missed two big things....one is that WIX would have to have written consent from DOD to republish the manuals.
The other is that for every title, WIX would have to purchase a distribution package upfront, as well as pay a royalty to lulu based on 25% of the price above the production cost. Also, if you want any color on the interior, it jacks the printing cost up by a factor of 7.5 times as they treat every page as color then. By the time you add all this up, it pushes the hypothetical 200 page manual to about 22-25$.

Also, it appears that they only print on 24# paper, which is barely heavier than regular copy paper. In my experience, books that get used often need to be printed on much heavier paper than 24#

Self publishing via PDF on CD's with the pricing at 5-15$ would be whole lot more profitable, color wouldn't be a factor and besides, it's searchable in that form, and there wouldn't be a need for DOD to get involved.

My pocket change worth....

bomberflight · **Posted:** Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:22 pm

Scott, if your planning on extending sales to overseas members ~ airmailing cd's is going to be way less expensive than a paper version.

Can you put the B-17 near the top of the "to do" list please ? :lol:

Eric Friedebach · **Posted:** Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:28 pm

Cvairwerks wrote:

I took a look at lulu.com's pricing and you missed two big things....one is that WIX would have to have written consent from DOD to republish the manuals.

Is that a requirement from the printer?

Cvairwerks wrote:

By the time you add all this up, it pushes the hypothetical 200 page manual to about 22-25$.

That price point still seems too low to me.

k5083 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:46 pm

The distribution packages on lulu.com are optional and I assume Scott would opt out of them.

You are right about color, in fact that would probably push the price over $30, which is a pet peeve of mine since I have some projects I would like to do with mostly b/w type but a few pages of color plates; on lulu.com that is really not cost effective. I don't think that's a concern for most tech manuals though.

Copyright/permission is an issue. If it is legal to republish on CD (as public domain government works or whatever), then of course it is no less legal to republish through lulu.com, but lulu.com may need to be convinced.

I leave it for Scott to work out the details; likely there is an audience for both formats.

August

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