Would getting a grant-loan to produce a bunch of copies at once (which would be significantly lower cost than a create on demand service) with pickup at something like EAGs or EAGxs be potentially viable to reduce costs or allow this to operate at current prices without a permanent subsidy?
ETA: The minimum viable trial for this idea might be stickers—produce a few hundred at once at half(?) your current cost, set them on a table at a conference (with organizer permission), and post a sign asking people to Zelle/Venmo/whatever an amount somewhat higher than the bulk production cost. I’m not too concerned about a mass sticker heist (or even other merchandise heist), and studies of honor-system payment (eg on mass transit systems) suggest the amount of payment evasion would be acceptable.
Would getting a grant-loan to produce a bunch of copies at once (which would be significantly lower cost than a create on demand service) with pickup at something like EAGs or EAGxs be potentially viable to reduce costs or allow this to operate at current prices without a permanent subsidy?
ETA: The minimum viable trial for this idea might be stickers—produce a few hundred at once at half(?) your current cost, set them on a table at a conference (with organizer permission), and post a sign asking people to Zelle/Venmo/whatever an amount somewhat higher than the bulk production cost. I’m not too concerned about a mass sticker heist (or even other merchandise heist), and studies of honor-system payment (eg on mass transit systems) suggest the amount of payment evasion would be acceptable.
Will look into this