We receive some wonderful questions and comments from Art of Eloquence customers each month. Since many of them have incredible insights and bring up quite interesting ideas, I thought I would begin sharing them with you all about once a month or so. Here’s this month’s question:
“Why don’t you sell hard copy books any longer and what are the advantages of an eBook?” -Dianne
Dianne,
In November of 2008, we became aware of the Child Protective Services Initiative Act (CPSIA) that was passed under the radar and remained unknown to most small business owners until that time. This law made it very difficult and quite expensive for small business owners to continue selling products manufactured for children under 12. It requires them to test each batch of product (each lot) for lead and other substances which are not normally found in books anyway. Small business owners who buy inventory in smaller quantities would be hardest hit along with those crafters who produce one of a kind or make inventory one at a time. In addition to this, the rising cost of postage for both domestic and international customers made it difficult for us to continue to offer our hard copy studies, games and other products.
Rather than close our business as some did at that time, we decided to rewrite all of our hard copy studies as eBooks. It’s taken us several months to complete four out of the five studies. In addition, we had to discontinue production of our fabric board game, and other hard copy shippable products.
As long as we were rewriting our studies, we thought we’d make them even better by taking advantage of the inherent features of the technology. Some of these benefits are common to all eBooks and some are unique to Art of Eloquence!
1. We added embedded links to various resources, articles and information that enhances each study, making them clickable and easy to navigate to the additional information that rounds out each eStudy!
2. eBooks are delivered instantaneously upon purchase! No waiting for delivery, even if you are an international customer!
3. No shipping costs! This can be a HUGE savings for our international customers who would now have to pay as much as $54 for shipping in a reasonable time frame.
4. No extra student fees! Art of Eloquence recognizes that times are financially uncertain for so many. Since Art of Eloquence no longer has to spend money on inventory, we’ve decided to pass along our savings to our customers in a fresh new way by offering them the opportunity to download our eStudies to be used by EVERYONE who lives in their household. So there is no need to purchase an additional eBook for each of your children or for husband and wife to have their own copy as in the case of our eBooks for adults. That’s a HUGE SAVINGS for families right there! Most other publishers will NOT allow you to do this with their eBooks!
5. Lastly, if you are planning to teach a co op class, you can SAVE BIG with the Art of Eloquence license fee for co op classes. Instead of paying full price for each student taking a co op class, Art of Eloquence charges a very small license fee for increments of 10 students. AND it caps at 30 + students which means you could conceivably teach a co op class of 100 students and pay for only ONE BOOK plus a small license fee! Think of the savings for each family member there!
So now, not only are Art of Eloquence studies the most fun way to learn Speech Communication, but they offer , embedded links to even more resources and information, instantaneous eDelivery, no charge for additional family members living in your home and an economic way for co ops to teach communication skills the fun way to as many students as they wish with minimal cost!
Homeschoolers and Christian parents love Art of Eloquence products for all ages including adults! Check out a few of the comments from this month’s Art of Eloquence’s eMailbag!
(Links were added for reference for those who would like more info on what products or free resources the comments are referring to.)
“JoJo! Your show is HALARIOUS!!!!! And I learn things too! What could be better???!!!! Thank you for all you do! Have a great day!” -Dana
“I have to tell you that my daughter and I are using your FIMMOLOGY as the basis of our communications and creative writing class this year. I can’t begin to express to you just how much she enjoys reading the stories of FIMM. Her assignments center around how she can re-write his difficulties to get and keep him out of trouble. She really, really is enjoying it. Do you offer something like that as a course? Maybe consider doing it as a webinar? Know that she and I are huge fans of yours!!” -Trudy
“By the way, I’m going to recommend your “Play What You Mean” [The Play Book] as therapeutic help for children with RAD. It contains many attachment type activities. :>) Communication is mega-helpful in attachment!” -Becky Joie
Thank you Dana, Trudy and Becky Joie for your comments. We are so very happy your families are having fun with Art of Eloquence! And thank you to Dianne for your question about eBooks!
If you have a question about communication skills or Art of Eloquence products, post them here as a comment on this blog post. I will answer all questions individually and then pick one per month to post here so that my readers can benefit from your question as well!
