
Ä Area: Local ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
  Msg#: 3050                                         Date: 02-21-94  09:08
  From: Allen Dietz                                  Read: Yes    Replied: No 
    To: All                                          Mark:                     
  Subj: CD-ROM Review Opport  1/
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
I came across an opportunity last year to write reviews of CD-ROM
software through an outfit located in Milford, Texas.  (Milford is
between Austin and Dallas, up by Carl's Corner.)  Jan Schwenk, the
owner of Resource International Publishing has put together a team
of writers who review CD-ROM discs.  The reviews are sold to major
publishers and are included on a disc called the "CD-ROM of CD-ROMs"
published by Resource International Publishing.  Reviewers get to
keep the discs they review, and a prolific reviewer can quickly
build an impressive collection of discs.  Over the past year, I've
reviewed about 50 discs, and have had a number of my reviews
published in "CD-ROM Professional" and "CD-ROM World."

Because of the success of the project, Jan has more discs coming in
than he has reviewers to review them.  (Since my involvement in the
project, I have been able to get discs to review as fast as I can
turn out the reviews.)  Jan is actively looking for new reviewers to
participate in the project.  If you are an excellent writer, have a
CD-ROM, and are interested in a way to get published and to build
your CD-ROM collection, you might want to take a look at this
project.

By the way, there is a $100 deposit required to participate.  Jan
found that some people who initially joined never wrote a review and
never returned their discs.  The deposit is refundable, and is your
assurance that you will return either a review or the disc.  To put
the deposit in perspective, the discs I have received for review
have included MapExpert ($300), Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
($595), Library of the Future, 2nd Edition ($295), New England
Journal of Medicine ($295), Business MarketPlace ($895), and so
forth.  In all, I've received well over $7,500 in discs for the
reviews I've written.

If you're interested, here's a description of the project:

               ----------------------------

Subject: CD-ROM Review Project
Date:    13-Dec-93 at 07:42
From:    Jan R. Schwenk, 70053,1702

We are ready to re-activate our CD-ROM and CD-ROM hardware review
project.  However, this time, it will have to be run a bit
differently from the way it was last time.

Since starting the CD-ROM of CD-ROMs  (CoC) project, I have spent
$16,390.75 purchasing CD-ROMs which were sent out to reviewers.  I
had also obtained a substantial number of CD-ROMs from publishers,
and sent them out to reviewers. To date, I've paid for approximately
one half of the CD-ROMs sent out for review.  Mail charges alone
have come to over $6,713.78 to mail 1,220 packages.  Of the over
three hundred plus people that received discs to for review, about
half have not returned either the review or the disc(s).

Some of the reviews received have been published in magazines (we
are trying to compile this list so you will know where your
article(s) went). I have received $2,988.00 from the magazines for
the reviews printed and the color photo CD-ROMs supplied (which
amounted to approximately two thirds of the revenue).
Unfortunately, while a magazine publisher may be willing to pay $300
for a single review, the same publisher drops the price to $15-$20
per review when the reviews are supplied in bulk.

While we are publishing the reviews on CoC, it is difficult to put a
price on what the reviews are worth to the disc (or to the buyer of
the disc, more appropriately).  Sales of CoC are picking up
gradually, but at the rate we are going, it will probably be six
months or more before we break even.  I am committed to the project
and have decided to press on, partly to provide an honest, objective
source of information to CD-ROM purchasers (and, hopefully, help
improve the breed), and partly due to the fact that a few other
publishers that have seen CoC are interested in our authoring
software.  It appears that there might be a chance to sell or
license our software.

If you are interested in joining (re-joining?) our project, I ask
that you make a deposit of $100 to us via check or credit card.
Upon receipt of your deposit, I will inform you what titles we have
on hand for review.  You may select as many as you like, however, we
will ship only one title at a time initially, will invoice it to you
at the list price, and will not ship a second title until the
review(s) for the first are received here in the proper format.
Upon receipt of reviews due within schedule, we will void the first
invoice, and will then ship and invoice the second title, and so on.
If you do not return a review due against a disc sent within 30 days
from the date of our shipment, we will off-set your deposit against
the outstanding invoice, and take what ever action we feel is
necessary under the circumstances.  If you decide to not submit a
review against a disc we send you, you may inform us, return the
disc, and either ask to be dropped from the program and receive your
deposit back, or to receive another disc.

Your complete and total payment for the reviews you submit will be
the right to retain the disc received from us.  That disc will be
your property, you may register it, give it away, or sell it.

Additionally, we will credit your account at the rate of $0.05 per
word, on reviews received from you that are acceptable to us.
Depending on the quality of your reviews, we may increase that rate
at our discretion. Funds will be accumulated in your account until
you have enough to purchase various CD-ROM hardware that we will be
offering for review at a later time.  If you want to purchase a
specific item of hardware that we list, you will receive it, even if
we have to go out and purchase it -- that is, hardware will not be a
"first come, first served" arrangement. If you write acceptable
reviews against discs that we send you, when you accumulate adequate
credits in your account, you will be able to get the hardware we
list that you want.  You will be expected to submit a review on that
hardware, however, failure to do so will not jeopardize your
standing as a reviewer of discs with us, nor will we off-set against
your deposit.  The hardware is yours to keep.  If, after a
reasonable time, you don't find any equipment listed by us that is
interesting to you, you may elect to "draw down" your credits in
cash.  Depending on how prolific a writer you are, and how well you
write (we may increase your "word rate"), your account could amount
to a significant amount of money.  We will be offering hardware at
wholesale prices, however, and if you took the cash to buy your own
hardware, you would find that your credit will likely go much
further within the program than at retail.  In any case, credits
will probably not be available for draw-down for at least several
months, as it may take six or more months for a range of hardware to
be listed that you may accept or reject.  We will be offering sound,
full motion video boards, CD-R, high speed CD-ROM, and so on.

We are now preparing a new format for submission of the reviews.
Details will be sent upon your entry into the program -- that is,
upon receipt of your $100.00 deposit.

I want to emphasize that your $100.00 is a deposit.  It belongs to
you so long as you return acceptable reviews against discs we send
you, and it will be returned to you in accordance with the above
stated terms.  One other thing it will allow us to do is to
immediately start the review project again.  With the expense of
developing CoC, and our authoring tool, and in setting up marketing
for CoC, we cannot afford to absorb the kinds of expenses we have
incurred in this project in the past.

When CoC (or the licensing of our software) becomes profitable, and
we are able to do so without straining our finances, we will pay
reviewers that have stuck with us for their reviews at rates
comparable to current magazine rates.  That day may never come in
spite of all our efforts.  We are working very hard to get to that
point, but for the time being, your doing reviews for this project
will have to be based on your own reasons, and you will have to
accept the disc (and any hardware) as payment in full for all your
efforts.  Your $100.00 deposit will help us fund this review project
>>> Continued to next message

 * OLX 2.2 *

Ä Area: Local ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
  Msg#: 3051                                         Date: 02-21-94  09:08
  From: Allen Dietz                                  Read: Yes    Replied: No 
    To: All                                          Mark:                     
  Subj: CD-ROM Review Opport  2/
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
>>> Continued from previous message
for a period of time and will make the difference between our
beginning it right now, or waiting until we can afford it.  I hope
you understand and appreciate our situation, and that this deposit
will not be an unbearable burden to you.  We look forward to working
with you. Your efforts can help us make CoC a success, and, we hope,
make some positive impact on the industry as well.

IF YOU ARE NOT A CoC REVIEWER AND WOULD LIKE TO BE: Please contact
me via internet: jschwenk@delphi.com, CIS: 70053,1702, voice
telephone at (817) 582-7373, or FAX: (817) 582-7377.

Best Regards

Jan Schwenk


 * OLX 2.2 *
