Would anyone pay for a physical copies of the magazine?

Hi,

I am interested in having physical copies of these magazines, but i understand that challenges that comes with running a printing press. I was wondering if anyone else was interested in having physical copies? Also, is there a way to get physical copies without the RepRap team having to resort to mass production?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2013 08:28AM by thetechelective.

I think a kickstarter page would do well for physical versions.

One option would be to use something like Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/) to print on demand. A quick check shows that 1 colour, paperback copy would cost €14.90. 100 would cost €13.41 each

I had one of my visual instructions printed out for me and the quality was good.

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garyhodgson.com/reprap | reprap.development-tracker.info | thingtracker.net

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Question
Would anyone pay for a physical copies of the magazine?

No, it's all ebooks for me (when possible)!

I love my Kindle (and both my nieces love them too)!!

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

I personally wouldn't be interested in a printed version.

I have to agree with rhmorrison. Ebook. It is already a PDF, so it is pretty easy to transfer it to a Kindle.

I love hard copy of books and magazines but space is tiiiiight where i live in the UK. I Would fix hooks to the ceiling If I was allowed. So no I would not pay for a physical copy. Also it is a bit of a waste really. Unlike a favorite book you are unlikely to read a book more than once except for certain referance pages and youd just print those pages only.

I actually printed issue 2 out. Until there is an e-reader that is the size of a magazine page I like my mags in paper form. Reading a mag on an e-reader or tablet is a pain, having to zoom in and out to read text etc.

That said I wouldn't pay €14 for a magazine! I have a colour laser printer and just ran it through that

Do you have a link to show us some images of the magazine? I also like physical magazines for aesthetics reasons, and i do understand that some people only want the content and they don't really care what format it comes in. I think a physical magazine would open the doors for more people to join the reprap community.

I approached the idea of a printed "reprap magazine" about 2 years ago and contacted some chinese counterparts for printing them. For 5000 prints, production cost would be around 2 USD . this was excluding shipping cost. I took in account an shipping cost of 500/600 usd.

This was for a full color magazine, 80 pages.

When I contacted local publishers/print companies, the cost per magazine for the same was around 3.5 Euros.


The pickle here is, it is still an niche market on a per country, while being an large community worldwide.... So you can get them printed locally or in china, But you will end up with 5000 copies send to your own address, then you will have to send the magazines all over the world which means the postage cost would be higher than the magazine cost.

It is not impossible..... it really depends how far you are willing to go to get it done... and whether there is enough demand for it locally and globally.

My opinion would be, get it done in china or locally, and make deals with global reprap shops globally and each shop purchases 100/200 copies.

This means you cut some of the profit, in return the retailers distribute the magazine for you and you cut your shipping cost aswel...


The magazine is written by some of the most respected people in the reprap community, it would be nice to show some appreciation for the work they deliver.

I think if an printed copy is to be made available, it must be done in collaboration with the shops and writers.


I would however use an actual poll and ask the readers what they prefer....

Personally I love an paper version......HOWEVER...... I would rather pay 2/3 USD per month to get access to the digital version and get it instant download.... than pay 6/7 USD and get the paper version couple weeks later because of delays in the distribution chain....

The trend for traditional papers and magazines has been that they are moving towards digital format and people paying for online subscription. Business wise, it does not make sense to go backwards.

An possible compromise might be: paid subscription for the digital format, see after 1 year how many subscribers you have, if they are the amount you are happy with to place an order for an printed version, you can offer an "1 year" edition in printed format to the subscribers who want the last 12 editions printed bundled version on their shelves .

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/11/2013 08:27AM by sam80.