[lbo-talk] Wall Street downloads

jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net
Sat Apr 9 10:54:10 PDT 2005



> Brad DeLong wrote:
>
> >Meanwhile, I've been getting complaints that the kerning on the
> >_Wall Street_ pdf is not up to snuff...
>
> Hmm. It was produced by an old version of PageMaker (which was very
> cranky at times about turning it into a PDF). PageMaker's type
> control isn't as good as InDesign's. But the Acrobat looks to me like
> a very faithful replica of the book, so I'm curious to hear what the
> complaints are.

There were a few kerning issues with the version I downloaded to view. Nothing that kept it from being readable and it wasn't evident on every page. It also didn't seen more likely on pages with graphs which is a problem I have run into before. Since I assume you used the automatic kerning feature in PageMaker that is the source of the problem. With PageMaker you always have to go through and edit out the errors with that function. At least that has been my experience in the past. Since it's a free download I wouldn't expect someone to take the many hours necessary to remedy such a minor issue but some people expect perfection, free of charge, delived to their home.


> >And how's the paypal button? Any evidence that the horizons of
> >bourgeois right have been crossed and that something new has been
> >inscribed on our banners?
>
> About 1% of the downloaders have contributed, in amounts ranging from
> $2 to $30. And the haul so far is equivalent to the royalties I would
> have earned on the sale of about 200 copies (vs 2100 downloads) - a
> purely notional amount, though, given Verso's royalty payment
> practices.
>
> By the way, I got an email from someone who refused to use Paypal,
> because of some unspecified "policies." Any one else have any prob
> with Paypal? Seems to work pretty well, and with a small commission,
> to me.
>
> Doug

1% makes me kind of sad. I had hoped you might get closer to 4% or 5%. No way to tell how however many people bought the book many years ago and so didn't feel compelled to pay for the download. Quite a few I'd imagine in the first few weeks. I wonder how many LBO subscribers downloaded it?

John Thornton



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