From: sissyboy@alaska.net   
      
   Well Richard, you certainly have some pretty strong opinions there. Maybe   
   you've had a bad experience with a Print on Demand publisher in the past, or   
   maybe you're just one of those people that likes to run their neck about a   
   product without actually looking at it.   
      
   The truth of the matter is that someone can find out of copyright books on   
   the web. They can go through the hassle and download it and read it via   
   their computer, or go through the hassle and expense of printing it up   
   themselves at home. Of course one using the self printing option will find   
   out rather quickly that many times it isn't as nearly as pretty coming out   
   of your printer as it was on the computer screen.   
      
   That is where someone like me comes in. I find books that I and others I   
   know like or want. I clean up the text, edit as needed, usually reformat the   
   layout to some degree, and as in the case of "Attack" locate and add public   
   domain photographs and a significant amout of appendixed background   
   material. Ater those hours are invested, I go through the process to have   
   all that material turned into a real book that can sit on ones shelf.   
   Considering my profit margin is about $1 a book, and I expect 10 or less   
   books of any given title to be bought by people I know, that means my, what   
   was the word you used, yeah "scam", that's the word. My "scam" garners me a   
   whopping $10. Wow, look out folks, I have discovered a gold mine here!   
      
   Of course my profit margin increases if people I don't know buy my books,   
   but really, how many are actually going to do it. Let's be real, in the   
   unlikely event I were to sell a hundred copies of these books to people I   
   don't know (which is highly unlikely), that means I have made $100 in return   
   for the 4 to 20 hours I spend on each title. Considering that "scam"   
   connatates getting something for nothing, I'm not seeing where I have   
   garnered "something for nothing". In fact the end of the stick I'm holding   
   is awful short.   
      
   I know guys like Richard can't fathom the basic concept I operate under, but   
   for the benifit of everyone else I'll spell it out.   
      
   I like the feel of a book. A real book, not something from my printer that   
   has been stapled together. The books I chose are ones I remember as a   
   youngster, or are of a subject that interests me. The common thread   
   throughtout my selections is that a large publisher will never put them back   
   in print again. I fill that gap, and I do it with quality, not just a simple   
   "page dump".   
      
   In the end I really don't care if anyone outside my sphere buys any of the   
   titles that I have ressurected because I already have accomplished what I   
   set out to do. I can go to my bookshelf, pull down a book that I have   
   breathed life back into, and enjoy the feel of the pages between my fingers   
   as I read it.   
      
   As far as posting anymore announcements on this group, we'll have to see. If   
   all it garners is snipes by trolls who have not even bothered touching the   
   product before they start talking out of their asses, I won't bother.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)