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181 lines
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Plaintext
181 lines
9.7 KiB
Plaintext
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Ä Area: Local ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
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Msg#: 3050 Date: 02-21-94 09:08
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From: Allen Dietz Read: Yes Replied: No
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To: All Mark:
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Subj: CD-ROM Review Opport 1/
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ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
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I came across an opportunity last year to write reviews of CD-ROM
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software through an outfit located in Milford, Texas. (Milford is
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between Austin and Dallas, up by Carl's Corner.) Jan Schwenk, the
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owner of Resource International Publishing has put together a team
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of writers who review CD-ROM discs. The reviews are sold to major
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publishers and are included on a disc called the "CD-ROM of CD-ROMs"
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published by Resource International Publishing. Reviewers get to
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keep the discs they review, and a prolific reviewer can quickly
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build an impressive collection of discs. Over the past year, I've
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reviewed about 50 discs, and have had a number of my reviews
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published in "CD-ROM Professional" and "CD-ROM World."
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Because of the success of the project, Jan has more discs coming in
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than he has reviewers to review them. (Since my involvement in the
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project, I have been able to get discs to review as fast as I can
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turn out the reviews.) Jan is actively looking for new reviewers to
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participate in the project. If you are an excellent writer, have a
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CD-ROM, and are interested in a way to get published and to build
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your CD-ROM collection, you might want to take a look at this
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project.
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By the way, there is a $100 deposit required to participate. Jan
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found that some people who initially joined never wrote a review and
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never returned their discs. The deposit is refundable, and is your
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assurance that you will return either a review or the disc. To put
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the deposit in perspective, the discs I have received for review
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have included MapExpert ($300), Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
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($595), Library of the Future, 2nd Edition ($295), New England
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Journal of Medicine ($295), Business MarketPlace ($895), and so
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forth. In all, I've received well over $7,500 in discs for the
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reviews I've written.
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If you're interested, here's a description of the project:
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----------------------------
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Subject: CD-ROM Review Project
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Date: 13-Dec-93 at 07:42
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From: Jan R. Schwenk, 70053,1702
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We are ready to re-activate our CD-ROM and CD-ROM hardware review
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project. However, this time, it will have to be run a bit
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differently from the way it was last time.
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Since starting the CD-ROM of CD-ROMs (CoC) project, I have spent
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$16,390.75 purchasing CD-ROMs which were sent out to reviewers. I
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had also obtained a substantial number of CD-ROMs from publishers,
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and sent them out to reviewers. To date, I've paid for approximately
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one half of the CD-ROMs sent out for review. Mail charges alone
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have come to over $6,713.78 to mail 1,220 packages. Of the over
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three hundred plus people that received discs to for review, about
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half have not returned either the review or the disc(s).
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Some of the reviews received have been published in magazines (we
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are trying to compile this list so you will know where your
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article(s) went). I have received $2,988.00 from the magazines for
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the reviews printed and the color photo CD-ROMs supplied (which
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amounted to approximately two thirds of the revenue).
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Unfortunately, while a magazine publisher may be willing to pay $300
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for a single review, the same publisher drops the price to $15-$20
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per review when the reviews are supplied in bulk.
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While we are publishing the reviews on CoC, it is difficult to put a
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price on what the reviews are worth to the disc (or to the buyer of
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the disc, more appropriately). Sales of CoC are picking up
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gradually, but at the rate we are going, it will probably be six
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months or more before we break even. I am committed to the project
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and have decided to press on, partly to provide an honest, objective
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source of information to CD-ROM purchasers (and, hopefully, help
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improve the breed), and partly due to the fact that a few other
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publishers that have seen CoC are interested in our authoring
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software. It appears that there might be a chance to sell or
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license our software.
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If you are interested in joining (re-joining?) our project, I ask
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that you make a deposit of $100 to us via check or credit card.
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Upon receipt of your deposit, I will inform you what titles we have
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on hand for review. You may select as many as you like, however, we
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will ship only one title at a time initially, will invoice it to you
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at the list price, and will not ship a second title until the
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review(s) for the first are received here in the proper format.
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Upon receipt of reviews due within schedule, we will void the first
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invoice, and will then ship and invoice the second title, and so on.
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If you do not return a review due against a disc sent within 30 days
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from the date of our shipment, we will off-set your deposit against
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the outstanding invoice, and take what ever action we feel is
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necessary under the circumstances. If you decide to not submit a
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review against a disc we send you, you may inform us, return the
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disc, and either ask to be dropped from the program and receive your
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deposit back, or to receive another disc.
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Your complete and total payment for the reviews you submit will be
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the right to retain the disc received from us. That disc will be
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your property, you may register it, give it away, or sell it.
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Additionally, we will credit your account at the rate of $0.05 per
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word, on reviews received from you that are acceptable to us.
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Depending on the quality of your reviews, we may increase that rate
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at our discretion. Funds will be accumulated in your account until
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you have enough to purchase various CD-ROM hardware that we will be
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offering for review at a later time. If you want to purchase a
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specific item of hardware that we list, you will receive it, even if
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we have to go out and purchase it -- that is, hardware will not be a
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"first come, first served" arrangement. If you write acceptable
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reviews against discs that we send you, when you accumulate adequate
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credits in your account, you will be able to get the hardware we
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list that you want. You will be expected to submit a review on that
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hardware, however, failure to do so will not jeopardize your
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standing as a reviewer of discs with us, nor will we off-set against
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your deposit. The hardware is yours to keep. If, after a
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reasonable time, you don't find any equipment listed by us that is
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interesting to you, you may elect to "draw down" your credits in
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cash. Depending on how prolific a writer you are, and how well you
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write (we may increase your "word rate"), your account could amount
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to a significant amount of money. We will be offering hardware at
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wholesale prices, however, and if you took the cash to buy your own
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hardware, you would find that your credit will likely go much
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further within the program than at retail. In any case, credits
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will probably not be available for draw-down for at least several
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months, as it may take six or more months for a range of hardware to
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be listed that you may accept or reject. We will be offering sound,
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full motion video boards, CD-R, high speed CD-ROM, and so on.
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We are now preparing a new format for submission of the reviews.
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Details will be sent upon your entry into the program -- that is,
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upon receipt of your $100.00 deposit.
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I want to emphasize that your $100.00 is a deposit. It belongs to
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you so long as you return acceptable reviews against discs we send
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you, and it will be returned to you in accordance with the above
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stated terms. One other thing it will allow us to do is to
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immediately start the review project again. With the expense of
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developing CoC, and our authoring tool, and in setting up marketing
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for CoC, we cannot afford to absorb the kinds of expenses we have
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incurred in this project in the past.
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When CoC (or the licensing of our software) becomes profitable, and
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we are able to do so without straining our finances, we will pay
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reviewers that have stuck with us for their reviews at rates
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comparable to current magazine rates. That day may never come in
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spite of all our efforts. We are working very hard to get to that
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point, but for the time being, your doing reviews for this project
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will have to be based on your own reasons, and you will have to
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accept the disc (and any hardware) as payment in full for all your
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efforts. Your $100.00 deposit will help us fund this review project
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>>> Continued to next message
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* OLX 2.2 *
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Ä Area: Local ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
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Msg#: 3051 Date: 02-21-94 09:08
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From: Allen Dietz Read: Yes Replied: No
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To: All Mark:
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Subj: CD-ROM Review Opport 2/
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ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
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>>> Continued from previous message
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for a period of time and will make the difference between our
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beginning it right now, or waiting until we can afford it. I hope
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you understand and appreciate our situation, and that this deposit
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will not be an unbearable burden to you. We look forward to working
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with you. Your efforts can help us make CoC a success, and, we hope,
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make some positive impact on the industry as well.
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IF YOU ARE NOT A CoC REVIEWER AND WOULD LIKE TO BE: Please contact
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me via internet: jschwenk@delphi.com, CIS: 70053,1702, voice
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telephone at (817) 582-7373, or FAX: (817) 582-7377.
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Best Regards
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Jan Schwenk
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* OLX 2.2 *
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