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This kind of gets my goat -- some companies seem to think that somehow,
documentation is not part of their product, so they can charge extra for it. If
their product does not need documentation, they shouldn't provide it. If
documentation IS needed, they shouldn't charge for it! Remember, they are
competing with other software companies which don't charge for THEIR books.
That being said, some companies (mine included) are hoping to save money but not
giving away a whole bunch of paper doc with their products. For this reason, we
are moving toward providing mostly online doc. (Most people make online doc into
.PDF files using Adobe Acrobat Exchange. These files are readable with Adobe
Acrobat Reader, which can be distributed for free.) In our case, if the customer
wants a hard copy of this documentation, they will need to pay the printer and
distribution costs for the books, plus a little more to cover the labor for
making them. Of course, this will vary, depending on how much it costs to
product the book.
However, we will provide a hard copy of doc which the customer will need to get
started in using the product, or which the customer will need if the computer
crashes.
Hope this helps!
Becky Palmer-Scott
Tech Writer
Invest Learning
bpalmer-scott -at- investlearning -dot- com
_______________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Charging Clients for Documentation
From: Carole Dossing <Carole -dot- Dossing -at- SODIUM -dot- CRS -dot- COM> at Internet
Date: 9/5/97 11:27 AM
I've just started working for a software company and I am the first
technical writer that they've had. I'm going to be putting together a
documentation set. I was asked today if there is an industry standard
for charging clients for documentation. I have absolutely no idea.
Does anyone have any insight into this issue?
Carole Dossing
Technical Writer Phone: 512.472.0191
BRC Health Care Fax: 512.472.5245
E-mail: carole -dot- dossing -at- emstat -dot- com
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