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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Fri Nov 6, 1998 4:02 am Subject: Cheaper SW Books? | ||||||||
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November 5, 1998 Another question asked recently... "Your publications are too expensive...where can I buy SignWriting publications cheaper?" The answer is....If you desparately want SignWriting publications, but can't pay for it all immediately, write to me privately and we can work something out together - perhaps we can set up a payment plan. No matter what, I appreciate your interest :-) You see, at present, the Center For Sutton Movement Writing, our nonprofit organization, is the sole publisher of SignWriting publications. I print every book myself, page by page, on my own computer. I then bind the books myself, do the lamination, and prepare the orders and ship them myself. I also do all the layout and design, and I do all of our catalogs and literature, and I do all the web design. That is the truth. The reason for this? At this time publishers can't make money on SignWriting publications, because so few people are using it at the moment, so it doesn't pay for other publishers to invest and take the risk. Do I want it this way? No...I am hoping that school systems will start using SignWriting, and when that day comes, then schools will start purchasing books. And when that day comes, there will be money in publishing our SignWriting books. And then other publishers will begin to invest in producing them themselves. For the past 25 years this has been the best way to go - In the beginning we made the mistake of printing too many copies of books at one time, and then the writing system improved and the books were out of date within two months after their printing, and we lost money. So I save our organization money by printing no more than ten books at a time. And since we donate books, videos and software to schools now, we are most definitely a nonprofit! When you purchase a book or video from us, you are helping us pay our Deaf consultants, or helping us pay for the color ink or paper that it takes to print the books. You are helping SignWriting continue. You are also receiving "hand-made" books - like hand made clothes. That will not continue forever...but one thing you should know ...I feel personally in touch with everyone who purchases a book because I prepare it specially for you when you order. So the reason our books are not cheaper is because we cannot print thousands of copies at one time. When the day comes that we can do that, then the cost per book goes down. Of course if there is a publisher who wants to take the risk to publish SignWriting literature, I will do all I can to provide you with beautiful colorful originals. We can make an arrangement, where we shoulder half the burden, to see if it sells. Meanwhile, we are starting to receive orders of five dictionaries at a time from Amazon.com! That was a surprise. If this keeps up, I will have to start printing more than ten at a time! So you can see that this has been a labor of love for the past 25 years, but well worth it. And the system is stabilizing now....there are fewer and fewer changes to be made to the documents...so I am hopeful that other publishers will get involved soon. So write to me if you want to pay on a payment plan, and I truly appreciate your support - Have a great evening - Valerie :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Valerie Sutton at the DAC Deaf Action Committee for SW SignWriting https://www.SignWriting.org Center For Sutton Movement Writing an educational nonprofit organization Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | ||||||||
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