Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Shareware. (and forking over the dough....) Message-ID: <54010@sun.uucp> Date: 20 May 88 19:47:19 GMT References: <8805201655.AA26232@jade.berkeley.edu> Sender: news@sun.uucp Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 67 In article <8805201655.AA26232@jade.berkeley.edu> (Jonathan Crone) writes: > Hi all.... > I was talking yesterday to the author of Handshake, and i received one > hell of a shock..... he has been distributing the program through > shareware for at least a year. > > He has received about 40 registrations. He has actually done pretty well for himself. When I was investigating the shareware concept I talked to a *lot* of shareware authors and the average number of registrations seems to be about 12. Shareware is not an option for those people who wish to make enough money to eat or pay the rent. It may get get you dinner now and then but don't count on it. I have speculated at length with some of those authors about why this is, and while no one knows for sure, I personally think that people aren't conditioned to pay for something they already have. From the first time we get a nickel to put into the bubble-gum machine until we work 80 hour weeks to keep the bank from repossesing the house we are constantly giving people money in exchange for some immediate benefit. Most shareware programs don't use this model, you already have the program why give up the money? I don't think many people conciously think that way but it is ingrained in their subconcious "If I give some money to this person, they will give me something I want." When they aren't going to give you anything (except maybe a registration number) then you don't trigger the spend reflex. > so why is Eric Habenfuiler sitting there with only 40 registrations???? I don't use Handshake so I don't know what the $25 gets you, I suspect it doesn't get you anything (except peace of mind which most people learn to manufacture through subtle selfhypnosis by the age of 6). > We have some fantastic software on the shareware scene for the amiga, > but no one seems to support the authors of it.... Allan Hastings, Wolfgang Von Reichart, Dan Silva, Bill Hawes, Charlie Heath, there are more. I think everyone on the net knows my feelings on shareware, the authors listed all have commercial packages out and are making money from their creations. If you went to the average publisher and gave them your typical 'shareware' (not all of them of course) package, they could turn it into a product and sell it. They would have to do a lot of work and would probably agree to something like giving you 3% royalties or maybe $3-$5 a disk. > (OH yes... I DO know that no one in their right mind can expect to > LIVE off the procedes from shareware, but it is nice occasionally > to get a check in the mail once in a while) If it were a perfect world such would be possible. As a shareware author one has to treat each registration as a sign that another fifty to a hundred people are using your program and accept it. If you spend your time worrying about the 49 to 99 people who aren't paying you for it then you just aggravate your own stress level. Don't expect any money from shareware, then when you get some you can be pleasantly suprised. NOTE: This being a philosophical discussion I have completely glossed over the techniques one can use to enhance shareware revenue, these include the PC-Pyramid scheme, missing docs scheme, bug fix scheme, etc. We will leave those for a different time. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.