Virginia Tech 2014 Calendar: To Print Or Not To Print?

June 07, 2013 • 4 Comments

OK, Folks!... Moment of truth... This is the time of year when I prepare my annual Virginia Tech calendar for publication... Unfortunately, this year the Collegiate licensing Company has decided that they will raise their administrative fee from $250 to a $1000. In other words I am at the crossroads. I do not license any other product with VT besides the calendar. Perhaps, for a company that produces thousands of VT products such an increase is not a big deal, but to my small "operation" it is. About a month ago, when I received letter from CLC informing me about the increase, I was SO disappointed with CLC that I thought about completely "sunsetting" the calendar and walking away from it. However, by then, I had already done most of the work. Since then I've added a few tweaks to the design and replaced a few photos with new ones...

but the question remained... What should I do? Should I stop the process and walk away from production and added expense ... or should I add 50-75 cents per calendar and go to print?

Anyway, take a look at the design and a few inside pages and let me know what you think. I am not a business major and find myself in an unfamiliar territory. Making these calendars has always been a fun experience for a nominal return but with such a licensing fee increase it is quite a bit of a risk of running into red ... I still have a few days to sit on the fence, though.

Virginia Tech 2014 Wall Calendar

2014 Virginia Tech Wall Calendar | Front and Back Covers

2014 Virginia Tech Wall Calendar | February Virginia Tech 2014 Calendar (February)

2014 Virginia Tech Wall Calendar | April Virginia Tech 2014 Calendar (April)

2014 Virginia Tech Wall Calendar | May Virginia Tech 2014 Calendar (May)

2014 Virginia Tech Wall Calendar | August Virginia Tech 2014 Calendar (August)

2014 Virginia Tech Wall Calendar | September Virginia Tech 2014 Calendar (September)

So... What should I do? To Print or Not To Print?

Comments

Colin(non-registered)

This is such a bummer. I love buying your calendars every year. Whatever decision you make, I will understand and respect. Just had to write and give you a vote of support and thanks.

Ivan Morozov

@ Atlee, no, $.50 will not cover the new licensing fee, not even close. It is not VT who has raised the licensing fee. VT makes a contract with a licensing vendor such as Licensing Resource Group (LRG), Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), or Strategic Marking Affiliates (SMA), etc. Once a licensing company secures a contract with a University, I guess they can do whatever they want to licensees. I think their intent is not to discourage smaller folks, like myself but rather get more out of those who can pay the raise in fees. Smaller folks are not making or breaking CLC bank, they don't care what it will do to us, they are going after bigger fish. To CLC, if small folks pay - it's a plus. If small folks fall out and don't come back - to CLC it is like *meh, oh well* they make up the difference from those who will pay.

@ Dan, preorders could help but it would depend on volume. But even with pre-orders it is very much a *guess*timation of a print. In order to keep the price low for everyone, I usually make a single print run and I base my numbers on years prior (I've published these calendars for the last 10 years). Furthermore, regarding pre-orders, I don't like to flood people's email boxes with unsolicited pre-order offers. Publishing-on-demand is also out of question, because it is prohibitively expensive.

Atlee(non-registered)

Will $.50 additional per calendar cover the huge increase in licensing fees?

It's a shame the university has increased the fees in such an exorbitant manner.

One guess for the huge increase is to discourage smaller folks, like you, from bothering the licensing arm.

Dan(non-registered)

Any way you can take preorders and only print them if you get enough preorders?

No comments posted.

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Virginia Tech 2014 Calendar: To Print Or Not To Print?

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