July 1977 RAIN Page 23 Rann Dnops An Important Nore: The RAINbooks finally came (at long last!) Many, many thanks to our patient friends who sent in checks several months ago. However, one that we sent out (book rate June 3) came back rnarked "insufficient address." Its label had fallen off. So if one of you hasn't yet gotten the RAINbook yo:u paid for sometime before June lst, please let us know. It is waiting for you. Recently, RAINpeople have been asked to be on several boards and panels around the broad issues of appropriate technology. Tom was in D.C. for the first meeting of the Appropriate Technology Task Force put together by the Office of Technology Assessment to help them provide advice to Congress. Tom and Lane were part of a "Business and Right Livelihood" conference in California that may be the beginning of some important networking among "new age" entrepreneurs, a.t. inventors DISTRIBUTION Have you ever wondered why you can rarely find RAIN in stores? We've tried and tried to set up a real distribution system like CQ or East West Journal, but we just don't seem to be able to get it going. Twice it has gotten bolixed up because it was low on our priorities and kept falling between the cracks of everyone's spheres of responsibility. And even when we got a system together to ship out 100 or so to three places on the West Coast, the return was so low that we weren't even paying our shipping costs. Most magazines admit that the main reason for newsstand sales is exposure. There are too many cuts taken out of an already low price (the regional distributor takes 6o% from you because he/she has to give 4OVo ro the store). Mostly you want to catch people's eye and get them hooked so they'll subscribe. ' But in order to catch people's eye, you have to have L snazzy cover to compete with all the other eyecatchers on the newsstand. Since people rarely buy things they haven't heard of, you have to put a lot of effort into getting the work out. Our general experience has been that it takes two hits before it clicks-any two-a review, a sample mailing, seeing it on a friend's coffee table . . . It is even important that the bookseller feels kindly towards it; otherwise it tends to get lost behind the Rolling Stones. At any rate, for whatever reason, RAIN just does not sell well on newsstands. So we've given up trying to get it into every store in the country on the off-chance that one or two people in a year will walk in asking for it. We hated driving to UPS to ship the boxes, and we'd rather do a good job for our subscribers. But all is not lost if you're a bookstore (or know of a store) somewhere who would like to carry RAIN (particularly if you also carry RAINbortk via Schocken Books). We will send them to you direct each month. We'll give you a 4O% discount and You PaY the postage. Minimum order is 5 Per month. At the end of the month You either send back the title blocks of unsold copies. make arrangemcnts to give them away, or pay for them as You can sell back issues. All this is rvritten up in detail if you're interested in knowing more-either as a bookstore or another publication rvho wants to see exactly how we do it. -LdeM ;;l'( SUBSCRIBE! SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ! Regular, $1O/year - l0 issues ! Living Lightly, $5/year - 10 issues (income less than $5,000 . . . ?) Foreign Postage Extra: Inquire for rates. Canadians add $2.80 for postage. I New Subscription n Renewal D Change of Address PLEASE ENCLOSE PAYMENT: RAIN Magazine 227O N.W. Irving Portland, OR 97210 Subscriptions begin with next regular issue. Order back issues separately. Name Address zip The Post Office won't deliver magazines without zip codes. or $5 billing fee will be added. Occupations/Preoccupations' Interests/ Co n cern s : Where did you hear about RAIN? Publications $ Subscriptions $ Donation $ TOTALAMOUNT ENCLOSED $
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