It's time to get serious about creating computer programs which can be sold as enhancements to textbooks and also other publications. Contrary to what you may believe, creating programs is not nearly as expensive or time-consuming as it used to be, in most cases.

In today's high-tech society, students are brought up on computers and understand the value of software. They learn better if textbook materials are enhanced with software that saves them the hassles of flipping pages and searching for items within text.

In short, textbooks combined with software are more salable, have more appeal automatically increase the price tag of the book -- and your bottom line -- without much increase in cost.

Not all texts can be enhanced with software, but many can. Let's talk a little about cost, since that's always the first question people ask. There are basically three levels of software: the high-end, complete with animation and graphics, and costing in the $60,000 to $100,000 range. The next level has graphics, and perhaps minimal animation, and runs $30,000 to $60,000.

The lowest level, and the one most suitable for software enhancements to textbooks, is "text only" and costs from $5,000 to $30,000, depending on the complexity. It usually makes no sense to add graphics and animation unless they make pure text that much more appealing. For most textbook authors and publishers, text-only should be sufficient. For most textbook users, software enables them to find things faster and avoid double work. Being pretty is not enough.

The lowest-level program is fully functional, can do searches and calculations and much more. The difference is the lack of fancy graphics and other cosmetics which are typically found in games and multimedia packages.

Now, let's talk about why software enhancements to textbooks makes so much sense.

ONE: You add significant perceived value in the eyes of the purchaser while adding only insignificant production costs. If you own a PC, you know what you pay for quality software. For a good program, you can pay as little as $50 or all the way up to $700 or more. By definition, software translates into value. It transforms a $20 book into a $40 package, easily. That's a 100 percent increase in the retail selling price ... but tossing a disk into the package costs as little as $1, plus a couple of pennies for shrink-wrapping.

TWO: From one basic product you can give people a choice -- book only, software only, both as a package. Different markets will purchase different packages, giving you more of an ability to broaden the potential customer base for the basic Information.

THREE. The profit in software is much greater than books. Since the programs our company produces usually require no manual, the only real unit cost (aside from the original development) is the disk itself, label, duplication and perhaps a small instructor's slip. In small quantities, you're talking about a couple of bucks. For larger runs, you can get the unit price down to $1 or less. If you end up selling the program for $40, for example, your profit can be as high as 97 percent .Even when you package the software with a book your margins will increase dramatically.

FOUR. You don't have to commit or pay for large press runs -- or duplication runs, as software people call them -- to get decent pricing. Publishers always complain about wasted money on print press runs that were too large, but necessary to get unit costs down. Even with printers specializing in short runs, you still need a healthy volume to get a decent unit cost. With software you don't have those worries. You can order the disks as you need them, and reorder based on sales. Duplication turnaround is usually fast, so you don't have to project quantities until you start shipping.

FIVE. You can alter or change the software on the fly to take advantage of the latest changes in text or information which became available after a textbook was printed. Because the programs we create are so easy to modify, you can actually make changes right up until press time. This allows you great flexibility-an obvious advantage over other publishers that don't move as fast. Depending on the topic, you can even create a monthly or quarterly "software update" as a new product and a new income stream.

SIX. You can create a "junior" version of the software to be used as a premium or sample. After the full-blown version of your program is created, a company like mine, Education Information Service, can strip-out certain features and create a useful disk which you can give away free -- to promote sales of your book or to entice people to buy the "senior" version of the program. This sampler disk can include price lists or a catalog of your entire product line. and can even print out an order form.

SEVEN. There are no typesetting, stripping, plate-making, separations, art, fllm or other production costs. If you can provide some or all of the text to us on diskette, our development fee will be even lower. Depending on the number of books sold, development costs can be amortized to a very low cost per book.

EIGHT. You can be on the leading edge of the textbook publishing industry, almost overnight if you jump on this new technology quickly, you can be "the first on the block" to encompass its power. As a result, your company will be perceived to be visionary, dynamic and innovative.

NINE.You can revive an older or out-of-print title by creating a current, state-of-the-art software-based package. This can add more life and profits to a title you've written off. And if you've accumulated a list of buyers of the book, you can test a mailing to sell them the software, with the theme "You've read the book, now try the software." Make sure, however, that your mailing list is not older than two years. If it is, it will probably have some bad addresses.

TEN. Returns are not a problem you can recycle the disks for future use. Nothing goes in the trash -- or to the remainder table. If any disks come back, they can be recycled for office use or future software editions. Although I don't have any real statistics, I think returns of software would be lower than returns of books because the software has continual value since it will be used over and over.

ELEVEN. Lists and checklists can be incorporated into the program, giving it more value and usefulness. One of our proprietary educational programs, How to Plan for College, is actually a collection of 31 calendars and checklists. Many books also have lists, which the user has to copy to use. With software version, the user can input the items right into the computer which will save the responses. The checklist or calendar can then be printed, with the user's answers there. Tests or quizzes on the material can be incorporated, so students can use the program to test their comprehension of the material. This turns a book into a real learning too.

TWELVE. You can build in a feedback section to generate comments about the book and software. Opening up an easy dialogue with your adopters leads to the creation of good will. It's an excellent way to generate testimonials, uncover problems you don't know about and learn new ways in which people are using your product. The easier you make it for people to correspond, the more input you'll get.

I've referred to profits in several places. Let's look just how dramatic profits in software can be. This example is for a software-only package, consisting of two disks, a small manual and a nicely designed and printed box. Of course, if you ship the software with a textbook, you can do away with the box.

If your program is really superb, you can command $80 or even more. At $80 gross profit zooms to 93% percent.

Let's look at it another way. Suppose you have a $13 book which costs you $4 to produce. Let's add a disk and shrink-wrap the entire package. Assume the disk increases the retail price to $40, and adds only $2 cost, including 50 cents for the development fee amortized. Look what happens to the numbers:

• Gross profit on book alone: 69 percent.
• Gross profit book plus disk: 84% percent.

That's an increase of 21 percent. And remember- $40 is relatively cheap for software. We can help you decide what the best price is to charge for the software alone, and for the software/book package.

Someday soon, software/book packages will be commonplace. Now is the time to differentiate yourself from the public and take advantage of technology that is now reasonably priced.