>>>>>I personally never did buy any VFP book myself, never subscribed to a VFP magazine, never visited a conference, yet I do regard myself as a reasonable VFP developer.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>And, to some extent, then, it's people like you who make it unprofitable to publish VFP books. Do you really believe that you wouldn't have gotten US$50 value from, say, KiloFox? How much would you have to learn from a book to have it pay for itself?
>>>>
>>>>Tamar
>>>
>>>I personally do not work to make it profitable for authors to publish. Your comments seem to be an admonishment for not buying books. You publish and hope that they are purchased, but we do not need to purchase them. There is nothing wrong with the way Walter chooses to exists as a developer. His choice, not yours.
>>
>>Understood. But some people are complaining about Whil's decision to publish no more new VFP books.
>>
>>I write for a number of reasons. Getting paid is only one of them and fairly far down the list, since as Marcia pointed out, the hourly rate for writing a book is extremely low. But there is value to me in doing the writing, even for very little money.
>>
>>However, for a publisher, there's no value in publishing books that don't sell.
>>
>>The point I was trying to make with Walter is that it's hard for me to imagine any serious VFP developer picking up just about any Hentzenwerke book and not getting more value from it than the cost. Nonetheless, there are a lot of people out there who don't think they need to own (or even read) books in their field.
>>
>>Someone else in the thread complained about $129 for a monthly 16-page newsletter (FoxTalk). If that person bills at $50 per hour (which I think is low for a VFP developer), he only needs to save a little more than 2 hours from something he learns in those 192 pages. There's never been an issue of FoxTalk yet (and I have every issue here in binders) where I didn't learn something.
>
>My point was that $129 for a tiny monthly newsletter ... as a matter of principle ... is a ripoff. Gee maybe this framework I paid $499 for should of cost me $40,000 because over the years its saved me $100,000 of development hours?
>
>
Good morning Victor;

I understand your point and it has validity. Such reasoning is up to the value system of the individual.

Everything for sale has an attributed and relative value.

I think that there is a reality to doing business. One has to survive and that requires taking into consideration how to pay the bills! Some products and services seem out of line or expensive according to the perceived value. In reality, the cost of production as an example is a complex issue and may be the reason that you to go out of business.

As long as someone is paying you enough to continue what you are doing then you are “successful”. I saw something on television nine years ago about a man in Hawaii who makes straw hats. He charged $380 for each hat, and it took 8 hours to make one. People (tourists) were standing in line waiting to buy them and he could not keep up with the demand. At that time I could buy a similar hat at Sears for $10, made in China. I would have been a contributor to his going out of business.

If there is a need for what you do you may succeed in business. There comes a time when you have to admit reality and make some tough decisions.

By any chance do you remember the S-100 magazine? It went belly up when the PC was introduced. I continued to use my S-100 computer (IMSAI) for several years with the realization that the S-100 community was no more.

Nostalgia and blind support are not always profitable! :)

Tom