My father always told me to study economics. And, now,
finally, here I have taken my second lesson, the first, of course,
with _The Pisan Cantos_, but, like the +Second Amendment+ this is a
lesson in accounting. I can sleep better knowing that
somewhere a man like Robin Hamilton (shirted in White Oxford, straight
drop down black tie) is manning the monitor(s), monitoring the gauges,
making sure nothing blows, getting things done.
> Warning - accounting information
follows - you may fall
> asleep - do not operate machinery whilst reading.
Yo -- I can live with that.
> Cost accounting comprises three main elements: labour,
> materials and overhead.
In this game --labour --well ... Materials, most people have a
printer
anyway. My costing was mostly consumables.
> you have costed material at approximately 40p - did you
> include the paper & toner cost?
Yup -- the pricing was based ON paper and toner cost. Laser
printers still
cost more to buy than inkjets, but they sure-as-hell cost less to
run.
> now add in your labour cost,
If I were pricing in labour costs, it would jump from 50p to £50
> dont forget to add loadings for
> sick leave, holiday pay and insurances, not to mention tax -
> calculate an hourly rate and apply to the time it takes to
> produce one item
The point is that you can DO one item at no more than a run. The
one thing
I have kicking around my study that's maybe non-standard is a
long-armed
stapler.
> then add in your overheads, depreciation on equipment,
> repairs and maintenance, cleaning, consumables (staples)
> utilities, rent etc and divide by the number of items
See above.
> *poke* you still awake?
Barely -- just done a google-search for images of Sappho and Anacreon
to get
pretty pictures for the cover -- admittedly, I didn't cost-in a
wrap-around
160 gm cover, printed by ink-jet (colour) -- that would add at the
most
another 10p.
> then there's VAT, posting and packaging etc
Costed that in -- postage doubles the price, but it still comes in
under a
quid (Brit-money).
I wouldn't mind paying extra for value-added, but I can do layout
better
than they can (at least I know the difference between serif and sans
serif
...)
> and the cost of paying your accounting adviser (cash only
> please)
Still, bottom line, comes to well under £1 as against £2.50.
I had one of those chain-phone-calls on this. The Demon Princess
said,
"Daddy, you're an idiot -- they paid mum £100 for the cover of
_The Coffee
House_." Not that long after, my ex-wife was on the phone
["Do you know
where our daughter is at the moment?"] and I said, inter
alia, DID they pay
you £100 for the cover of _The Coffee House_?" and she said,
"Are you
joking? Zilch."
Ha bloody ha -- current costings seem to be based on runs of 500
in
hot-metal typeset.
> just knew that commerce degree would come in handy
for
> something
Well, if you're so clever, _you_
print dave's b*gg*r*d to b*ts*y Chide 1.
Robin
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