John Paquay writes:

Just for the record, I don't publish this manual for the money -- my
time probably would be more profitably spent panhandling or collecting
aluminum foil and bits of string. By the time I pay for copying and
printing, binding, envelopes, postage, labels, and the like, I
sometimes wonder if I'm actually paying people to take the thing off
my hands.

I've long considered publishing the whole manual in a downloadable
electronic (pdf) format, but I haven't yet made that jump due to
considerations of the whole copyright/ intellectual property (and I
use that term loosely) issue -- but that option remains a definite
possibility. If anybody has thoughts on that issue, please feel free
to email me (it's almost certainly too far off-topic for the
newsgroup).

How about instead publishing it on a CD...less work, lower publishing cost,
mailing expenses much lower (even with a bubble wrap protected envelope,
mailing should run under a buck a copy). The user gets to print only those
pages that are absolutely needed in the shop.

The copyright issue shouldn't be any more of a problem than it is with a print
manual: most scanners today can turn your print manual into a superb copy in
minutes, with reproduction close to original quality. My 200 buck Epson 3170 is
a case in point, with a 3200 dpi resolution on smaller pages, easily doing 600+
dpi on 8-1/2 x 11. You're beat before you start, really, so your best bet is
to lower costs enough so you actually make a couple bucks on the manual. If
someone needs printed material, they can print out the pages and take them into
the shop...the great thing is that if coffee, finish, glue gets on the printed
material, it's easy to print fresh.

You can't really stop thieves. Basically, depending on the fact that most
people are honest works about as well as anything else the average Joe can
afford.

Set it in PDF, copy it to CD and you might increase your profits by reducing
printing costs and mailing costs.

Good luck.

Charlie Self

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same
function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of
things." Sir Winston Churchill