Re: The cost of producing printed documentation

["Elna Tymes" <etymes -at- lts -dot- com>]

renee -at- e-sim -dot- co -dot- il wrote:

>    What does it cost a company to produce a standard user manual for a given
>    product (complex/simple) (time/cost)?
>    What does it cost a company that specializes in the production of manuals to
>    produce a user manual for a given product (complex/simple) (time/cost)?
>    What is the dollar size of the international, annual market/industry for the
>    following components of the user manual industry:
>       writing of manuals
>       printing of manuals
>       translating manuals to other languages

Somebody could probably do a doctoral thesis answering these questions.  And no, I
haven't heard of any such study.  However let me take a stab at telling you why the
answers aren't simple.

The cost to print a given set of manuals to accompany a particular product depends
on the following:
1. The availability of dependable source material.
2.  The availability of dependable SMEs to explain what the source material
doesn't.
3.  The stability of the product: How many "oh darn we forgot to tell you"
revisions will there be while your document is in preparation?  How many changes in
features will pop up while you're working on a review? The more changes that occur
to the product while you're creating the manual(s), the more costly the document
preparation period will be.  (One of my favorite mental images is of a set of
manuals -finally - making it out the loading dock and onto a truck, and the truck
driving away with a string of programmers running behind it yelling "Wait! Wait! We
forgot to include something!")
4.  Adherence to the agreed-upon process, in particular a minimum number of
reviews.  Nothing adds cost to production of a manual like multiple iterations of
the review process.
5.  The skill of the writer(s).  Unless the task is relatively simple and
straight-forward, a junior writer will usually take longer to produce a quality
manual than a more experienced writer.
6.  The relative cost of experience in a writer, and that varies greatly from
geographic area to area.
7. And finally, the cost to print the manual, and that varies greatly from
geographic area to area. Many of the larger companies send their manuals offshore
to be printed (of late, companies in China and SE Asia seem to lead the low-cost
competition).
And others on the list will probably add other factors.

To answer your questions as best I can, there is no "standard user manual" for
products.  What gets included in a "user manual" varies greatly - in some companies
it's a reference manual; in some it can be a short little guide.  Therefore there's
no standard cost to produce.

There is no huge standard difference in the cost to produce a manual in-house vs.
by contract. There are *some* cost savings that can come from having a contract
house do the manuals, but for the most part these are in process and facilities
areas.  Andrew Plato's experience negotiating the BlackICE contract may be
beneficial here.  Our own experience is that, when *all* cost factors are
considered (including indirect costs like facilities and employee benefits), a
properly managed contract house can produce a manual for less than an in-house
documentation department.

There are no studies that I know of that reliably measure the dollar size of the
writing and printing of manuals.  There may be a study that estimates the dollar
size of the "localization" industry, since there are a number of companies that
specialize in doing translations - I would contact some of the leading supplies of
translation services and see if they know of any.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Develop HTML-based Help with Macromedia Dreamweaver! (STC Discount.)
**NEW DATE/LOCATION!** January 16-17, 2001, New York, NY.
http://www.weisner.com/training/dreamweaver_help.htm or 800-646-9989.

Take XML and Tech Writing courses online!  Our instructor-led courses
(4-6 hrs/wk) give you "hands on" experience at your convenience. STC members
get 20% off!  http://www.online-learning.com/index.html.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.