ModdysMoonies/Documents/Volume1/Sales.tex

\chapter{Are you going to sell this?}

This was {\it not} where I thought I was going to go next.  I wasn't 
really sure where I was going to go, but I had no idea that this was 
going to be even here until I was looking at some zines on Etsy, and
thinking back to something that was asked about the journals that
I was making yesterday.

The friend who came over, asked if I was going to sell them, and to
be honest, I have thought about doing so, but really I don't feel that
is something that I really is something that I really am really able to 
do.

There's several factors here.  The journals are basically my own way of
trying to create something that will help make it easier for me to be 
able to do what they are intended for (journaling).\todo{Journaling}

At the time I was creating them, I was tipping in pages to a purchased 
notebook, and that was every week.  It was a significant amount of 
work every week just to prepare things for the week, and honestly, I 
was feeling that was actually {\it easier} than what it was replacing.

I know the current version isn't handling that idea as well as I had 
hoped that it would.  I fully hoped to have it so that I would have 
something, which could end up solving the whole situation with it.

It doesn't.  What it does is gives me a basic replacement of the
purchased notebook, in a smaller (fewer pages and I guess slightly
smaller pages) format.  

It's in a lot of ways still an improvement, as it is closer to what I 
want, and I can just do some printing and assembling, with out having
to search for something that works, and I can customise them as I work
along with new versions.  

What would they give to other people?  Well, as something I have put
together, they would mostly be something that they would be buying
because it's a way to show support for me.  

What I would rather do for people who might get these, is to have
them be supporting me to support me, and I could use this as 
one of the things I might send them on a somewhat regular basis.

Now, this is a little different.  There's something here that I feel is 
of value in itself.  The arguments I've stated above don't fully make 
the, ``I probably won't sell this,'' answer as easy to understand.

There's a lot of other different things about why I can say that I
probably won't sell this.  I'll start with some of the easier answers.

I'm likely to have trouble assembling them into something that I will 
have enough of to really be able to justify selling them.  I just don't
have the physical ability to regularly be doing the 2 hours that it 
takes to assemble maybe 5-10 in a good efficiency time, and I really
also don't have the executive function to manage to sit down and do
that when I do the work when I do have the physical ability to do it.

Which also brings up yet another factor, which would be that I really 
would need to have these (or the journals) be something like \$30.00 
for a 40 page journal, if I was going to consider what I would need 
to charge in order to ``live'' off of the sales.  

Yes, it's a hand made item.  Yes, that might get some people to feel 
that it's really worth it.  But a \$30.00 monthly journal is not 
something I could justify spending myself even if it was perfect, and
I really had access to that kind of money.

This would probably be more like \$45.00 for a print version, if I were 
to do so with the intention of paying for my time.  

That is probably where the understanding ends up starting to diverging 
from the easy to understand reasons, and more into some form of 
cultural differences.

I live in a deeply individualistic society in Canada, where there are
some people try individually to create a more collectivist experience.

This is not as strong as it is in U.S.A. or I think U.K..  But as someone
who would really like to have a more collectivist world, it is difficult
to have people who aren't already there understand that is really even a
thing.

I have spent time in Finland where there's not a speck of garbage 
around, or that was what it was like when I was in Finland.  It's not
that there's all these rigid rules as to what you do with the garbage.
It is that when there's a question of, ``Will this harm others?'' or
``Will this benefit me?'' the balance is more in the not harming others.

The same thing when I spent time in Japan.  My Japanese and my Finnish
are both rather low in being able to use it.  French is pretty low as 
well, and I spent a year in Montr\'eal Qu\'ebec, where there is a bit
of a perception that if you're not speaking French (less so than other
parts of the province) you can be treated rather poorly.

The thing I found in all these spaces, was that by my sense that I
am asking that they understand that I don't understand that well, but
being willing to work with them, I felt way more ``at home'' in all
these spaces, than I have in the vast majority of English speaking
spaces.

In related topic (and this is probably for another time)\todo{Write this 
up}, I was asked where I was from in the city I live in, and have lived 
in now for I think more than 40 years in total (and was born here).

No, it wasn't the, ``But where are you really from?'' type thing that
BIPOC people often report, but it did give me some sense of what that
experience is like.\todo{Where are you really from?}

So...  Let's get back to where I was going...  With a better 
understanding that I'm not really in that capitalistic/individualistic
view that the, ``Will you be selling that?'' question seems to mostly
be coming from, the idea of getting this in the hands of people who can
afford to pay what it's worth, is a bit of an affront to my ideals.

I absolutely want to make sure this will get in the hands of the people
who I feel need to feel seen, and those are people who usually can't
afford to pay what this would be worth, and one way that I have addressed
that in the past (with digital goods), while still charging has been to
have ``community copies,'' which I do wish to continue even with physical
items.  

I certainly want to be able to have this (and the journal), at a price
which feels like it is the price which the version would be fair in terms
of the time I put into it.  I'd also like to say that those prices will
include prices which will allow community editions both in print and 
digital.

Many artists, will sell stuff (even custom stuff), at a price that will
``allow them to continue to do the art,'' and this is very 
understandable, that the main focus is to just be able to do what 
they want to, but I feel it often ends up being a bit misguided.

Why?  I feel it's two issues, but a big one is what I have seen about
how to price your work.  I have attended workshops both for independent
business people (not for people who are in an MLM, or some other form
of contracting with a corporation so you can be an independent person
under their roof), and artists about how to price your work.

Some of this has gone into huge degrees of detail about it, which I have
to say works very well for some people, other situations have gone with
some idea of really very simple things, which also works for some people.

All of this pricing ends up with some sense that things are often priced
at a rate much higher than those that artists who just are trying to 
make enough money to keep doing their art will price things at.

The one thing particularly from the artist perspective, has been that by
selling your work at a rate less than what it's worth, you end up 
devaluing other similar work from other artists.  

I feel this is true, though it feels that you can justify the idea of
giving your work away more easily than you can justify underpricing your
work.  Especially if you are doing both pricing at a fair price, and 
being able to somehow get stuff free.

So, I likely will be listing this as available for people who pay, 
though probably pricing at a premium over what I feel it is worth, 
and providing community copies to anyone who would like them (though 
in somewhat limited numbers).