PsL Monthly 1993 December/PSL Monthly Shareware CD-ROM (December 1993).iso/dos/prgmming/prgrammr.let

Text File | 1993-10-27 | 6KB | 124 lines

Public (software) Library
December 1993 Monthly CD-ROM

=====Programmer Letter
     from Nelson Ford


===PsL Programming CD-ROM

If you are reading this but did not get this file from your own copy of
PsL's December 1993 CD-ROM, you are missing out on a valuable resource.

In the summer of 1993, PsL began issuing a Monthly CD-ROM with all the
new programs which we received during the most recent 30 days which
passed our testing -- usually 600-700 programs a month.

Starting with the December CD, we began adding a section of PsL's huge
disk-based shareware library to the CD each month, with Programming
being the first section to be featured.

If you do NOT have the CD, call 800-2424-PSL or 713-524-6394 to order
your own copy. Single issue price is $29.95 or sign up for the monthly
subscription at just $19.95 per month plus shipping - billed monthly,
cancel any time.



===Programmers Marketing Co-Op

Bob Ostrander, former owner of Public Brand Software, has announced the start
of a service for shareware programmers in which he will use his extensive
contacts in the computer industry to seek out new marketing opportunities
for his clients.

Examples of these opportunities include retail publishing contracts, bundling
contracts, free or low-cost mass distribution opportunities, cross-licensing
and sales agreements with other shareware authors, overseas marketing agent
contacts, and more.

There are no up-front fees for this service for programmers. Instead, Ostrander
takes a 4%-10% commission on contracts which his service sets up.

I would hesitate to recommend such a service if anyone but Bob Ostrander were
doing it, but Bob has 8 years as a leader in the shareware industry during which
time he has become one of the most respected men in the industry.

Programmers wanting more information can contact Bob Ostrander at
5437 Honey Manor Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46221 or by calling 371-856-6052.

Deals like the following are a little more questionable.



===Would You Sell Your Program For $.40?

There was a big ruckus on the ASP forum on CompuServe a few weeks ago.
Programmers were complaining about a company who offered only pennies (in
effect) in royalties to market their registered shareware programs as
Low-Cost-Retail software.

I just got a letter from a different company, Software Concepts, with the
same type of offer. They want to market my CardShark Hearts program as LCR
through stores for $9.95. This must be a fully registered version with "no
mention of shareware or registration fees on the program disk."

That is the retail price that the store gets. Software Concepts only gets
$4 per disk and the author (me) only gets $.40 per copy sold.

The letter says (without mentioning specific programs or people) that "some
of these authors received more than $2,000" in the first month of
distribution. (In talking to someone from SC, it seems that this was really
an amount earned by one company who had several products in the rack, not
for just one program.)

CardShark Hearts won $3000 in prizes in a WinTech Journal programming
contest. I got a $5000 advance to do a modified retail version for a major
game publisher. The shareware version continues to pull in a pleasing
number of registrations each month at a registration fee of $25 (plus
shipping).

Given the success CSHearts has had thus far, does it make sense for me to
accept $.40 for the same program that I'm getting $25 for from other
customers?

The answer is "Yes" if this is money that I would not have gotten
otherwise.

But what if someone who was thinking of registering saw the product in a
store and bought it there instead. If that happens les than once for every
70 times someone buys it in a store without having seen it before, I still
come out ahead (70 x $.40 = $28 versus a "lost registration" of $25).

What if a customer sends me $25 plus $4 shipping and then sees the same
program on a rack for $9.95? Experience tells me that the customer will
either get mad and not do business with me (and PsL) any more, or they will
call up and demand a refund of the difference. If that happens less than
once in 40 times, I come out ahead (if I refund the $15 difference).

Ironically, the more successful this company's marketing is, the more
likely it is that one of the above scenarios will actually take place.

So I called Art Christner at Software Concepts to ask about giving them a
limited version of CSHearts and putting an offer in an "About" box for
customers to call me for an advanced version. (Essentially, I would drop
back to version 1.0 in features for their racks, but without the version
1.0 bugs. <grin>)

Art resisted the idea a little because they don't want a really crippled
version, but he ended up saying that it would be ok to offer a more
advanced version as long as their version is fully functional and
worthwhile.

Since Apogee software invented the idea of "give away the first level and
sell the higher levels" and has gotten rich with it, it seems like this is
a good way to go with these kinds of offers.

As soon as this month's PsL News and CD are done, I'm going to look at
modifying CSHearts to send to Software Concepts.

So what if the deal bombs and I don't get $2000 a month? If I just get $50
that I would not have gotten otherwise, I will use it to go out to dinner
and toast the wonders of shareware which let you make "money for nothing".