I've been altogether way too quiet on this blog, and it definitely has not turned out to be what I envisioned, but I guess I'll keep you posted on the pamphlet.
The pamphlet, as you may know, is about a quarter piece of paper folded such that it has forty pages, four on each side of five different sheets of paper, and a piece of cardstock cut in half and folded over, printed on one side. It's a little funky but it has served St. Louis well for years and has also been sent out a couple of other places.
The price I came to, 80 cents each plus postage or a dollar a piece (I worry about postage) for domestic US, was based on price of paper and ink, price of going and getting it, etc. I found myself putting in an enormous amount of time for nothing or for very little remuneration (sp?). I justified this as fine with me as an ongoing contribution to Quakerism, but it meant that often dealing with the pamphlets got shoved behind other money-making enterprises in my household, or behind my writing, which was more fun but which sucked up infinite time. In other words, I'm not as aggressive as I could be in getting them out there and getting lots of buyers. It takes me about ten minutes to make a single pamphlet and often the problem is dealing with ink for my tiny printer, or going out and buying more paper or staples. I just tried to make sure I didn't lose money on it, and I didn't. But I didn't really succeed with it either.
When I moved to Galesburg I took it around to several printers in town. One gave me a quote of about $1.60 per pamphlet. It was probably a competitive quote. Another got all confused about what I described; I couldn't seem to explain, even showing it to him, what I wanted. A third I never actually tracked down, and I finally gave up and went back to doing them myself.
It's called Beginner's Guide to Quakerism, and it's a classic. It needs to be maintained.
