... just got a message, "Why is your Quintology $23?"
Well...
Five issues. Three will be what's going as "normal" sized, determined by how many pages we can print up per issue and still come in at the 50 gram postal weight.
Postage for these to outside of Europe are 1,40 each. Printing each one up comes to approximately .41. (and for that I'm counting a normal print run of 200, and not including the extra print run for this "free issue" offer I ran this time) Envelopes are about .07 each.
So that's 1,88 in just material costs. Three of those come out to 5,64.
The two other issues are going to be double sized. I'm assuming that means we'll come in just under the 100g postage fee, which means those will be 2,80 each. No fucking clue how much more printing will be, but let's just assume printing twice the size will cost 50% more. So that's .61 each. Envelopes shouldn't cost more but I still don't know if these double-sized monsters will be in A4 or A5 format. Let's assume A5. So 6,82 for these two.
12,46 total in just printing, postage, and envelopes for each person to receive one copy of each issue, assuming a 200 print run. Paypal takes 1.03 of every order so it's really 13,49 total cost.
4,01 "profit." Less than a euro per issue.
Now then, this is all of the printed output for the year, if we actually get it all done and printed this year. Also included in the costs for the zine have to be the website and forum hosting. That's 180,90 euros by current conversion rates. 180,90 / 200 = .90, so profit per subscription is down to 3,11.
Plus, every band reviewed or interviewed, and their label, gets a copy, and they don't pay me for that. Say 20 of those copies go out (38 bands reviewed and interviewed in this latest issue, by the way), half to Europe and half to elsewhere, and that postage cost (just counting normal size now, not dealing with the double sized issues at the moment) of 24,00 euros per issue, 12 cents per subscription.
2,99 is the "profit" being made on each subscription now. Of course some other "freebies" get put out there for courtesy or attempted publicity attempts but I won't count them towards my costs. There's also pieces of music that I buy for the sole purpose of reviewing them, but again, not your problem. But there are wonderful other expenses like printer fluid or toner or whatever the fuck this thing uses, and that's abuot 10 a pop, and I go through half or a full one per issue with printing and revisions. Let's call it 3/4ths of one on average. 3.75 cartridges, 37.50 for the five issues, which is 19 cents per subscription.
2,80 "profit" for a year's worth of LotFP writing, fifty six cents per individual issue in the Quintology coming in after costs, assuming every single copy printed gets sold (I'd need to sell one new subscription for every existing one for this to happen). And assuming postage prices or paper prices don't increase. And assuming I'm not thinking of some really cool ideas for more elaborate presentations for some of these theme issues this year. And assuming other little expenses like printer paper and miscellanous office bullshit shouldn't be counted. And assuming I don't make any international phone calls this year specifically for zine purposes.
Then add the exchange rate as the euro is much stronger than the dollar right now, which is so far out of my control that it isn't even funny.
So yeah, 17,50 for the year, which Paypal is calling around $23.
I hope we can agree that the pricing is fair and having a 16% profit margin, at best, is not unreasonable.
Well...
Five issues. Three will be what's going as "normal" sized, determined by how many pages we can print up per issue and still come in at the 50 gram postal weight.
Postage for these to outside of Europe are 1,40 each. Printing each one up comes to approximately .41. (and for that I'm counting a normal print run of 200, and not including the extra print run for this "free issue" offer I ran this time) Envelopes are about .07 each.
So that's 1,88 in just material costs. Three of those come out to 5,64.
The two other issues are going to be double sized. I'm assuming that means we'll come in just under the 100g postage fee, which means those will be 2,80 each. No fucking clue how much more printing will be, but let's just assume printing twice the size will cost 50% more. So that's .61 each. Envelopes shouldn't cost more but I still don't know if these double-sized monsters will be in A4 or A5 format. Let's assume A5. So 6,82 for these two.
12,46 total in just printing, postage, and envelopes for each person to receive one copy of each issue, assuming a 200 print run. Paypal takes 1.03 of every order so it's really 13,49 total cost.
4,01 "profit." Less than a euro per issue.
Now then, this is all of the printed output for the year, if we actually get it all done and printed this year. Also included in the costs for the zine have to be the website and forum hosting. That's 180,90 euros by current conversion rates. 180,90 / 200 = .90, so profit per subscription is down to 3,11.
Plus, every band reviewed or interviewed, and their label, gets a copy, and they don't pay me for that. Say 20 of those copies go out (38 bands reviewed and interviewed in this latest issue, by the way), half to Europe and half to elsewhere, and that postage cost (just counting normal size now, not dealing with the double sized issues at the moment) of 24,00 euros per issue, 12 cents per subscription.
2,99 is the "profit" being made on each subscription now. Of course some other "freebies" get put out there for courtesy or attempted publicity attempts but I won't count them towards my costs. There's also pieces of music that I buy for the sole purpose of reviewing them, but again, not your problem. But there are wonderful other expenses like printer fluid or toner or whatever the fuck this thing uses, and that's abuot 10 a pop, and I go through half or a full one per issue with printing and revisions. Let's call it 3/4ths of one on average. 3.75 cartridges, 37.50 for the five issues, which is 19 cents per subscription.
2,80 "profit" for a year's worth of LotFP writing, fifty six cents per individual issue in the Quintology coming in after costs, assuming every single copy printed gets sold (I'd need to sell one new subscription for every existing one for this to happen). And assuming postage prices or paper prices don't increase. And assuming I'm not thinking of some really cool ideas for more elaborate presentations for some of these theme issues this year. And assuming other little expenses like printer paper and miscellanous office bullshit shouldn't be counted. And assuming I don't make any international phone calls this year specifically for zine purposes.
Then add the exchange rate as the euro is much stronger than the dollar right now, which is so far out of my control that it isn't even funny.
So yeah, 17,50 for the year, which Paypal is calling around $23.
I hope we can agree that the pricing is fair and having a 16% profit margin, at best, is not unreasonable.
