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Subject:Fair Price for a Tech Manual From:STaylor <sntaylor -at- STARTEXT -dot- NET> Date:Sat, 20 Dec 1997 17:30:27 -0600
I really don't have enough information here...how many hours were spent
creating the documentation? What was the cost of producing it? What is the
perceived value? A marketing guru might be of better help.
We had the same problem, but since the manual came with a very expensive
software package, we had to decide how much to charge for extra copies. We
guessed, would be the best way to put it...
>Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 22:05:50 -0600
>Reply-To: Nancy Kaminski <nancykam -at- PIONEERPLANET -dot- INFI -dot- NET>
>Sender: "Technical Writers List; for all Technical Communication issues"
> <TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>
>From: Nancy Kaminski <nancykam -at- PIONEERPLANET -dot- INFI -dot- NET>
>Subject: Fair Price for a Tech Manual
>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>
>I'd like some advice from the list, please. Here's the situation:
>
>One of the writers where I work wrote a user guide for some commercial
>software that is being used at our company. We didn't use the documentation
>that came with the software because it was so poorly written, and our users
>didn't understand it.
>
>The vendor saw the book and said they would like to purchase it to
>distribute to their other users---a nice complement to our little writing
>unit, indeed.
>
>Here's the problem---we have no idea how to price this book. All our
>documentation is of the photocopy-and-put-in-three ring binder variety.
>We've always written just for our in-house audience. (I work for a hospital;
>the software is a program that does staff scheduling for nurses.)
>
>Any ideas on how to approach this problem? Your input would be vastly
>appreciated.
>
>Nancy Kaminski
>Fairview Health Services
>Minneapolis, MN
>nancykam -at- pioneerplanet -dot- infi -dot- net
>
>
>
>
>
Steve Taylor
staylor -at- breakawynet -dot- com
sntaylor -at- arlington -dot- net
