Cocoa Nuts started when a group of computer programmers, and one financial analyst, decided to pool their talents to start a new venture. Originally, we planned to be a software vendor. This means we aimed to create boxed titles which a person could purchase and install in their computer. Many of us remember the days when software came with a well-written printed manual. Sadly, nearly all boxed titles purchased today neglect to include a manual in printed form. What you get instead is a compact disc with a manual in it which you must first print on your printer or read on your computer screen. We decided at the onset to be different. We wanted to include high quality printed manuals with our software. Thus the research began and the stage was set for us to become a book publisher.
In our initial studies, we contacted over twenty different printing bureaus to figure out pricing for a 150 page paperback manual. We found that, on average, we must print a minimum of 5,000 copies at about $5 per book. If you do the math, that comes out to be a $25,000 investment. This is okay if we could know for sure that we would sell most of those books, otherwise we'd have a wasted investment. Though we had high hopes for our software, we didn't want to have such a high initial investment in printed manuals; especially since we would be making numerous updates causing our previously printed manuals to become obsolete six months later.
The reason why traditional printing bureaus require such large runs is because there is a great deal of manual setup involved in their presses. They must first create "plates" for use in printing. This can be done by hand using film and light tables, or it can sometimes be done in a special computer-to-plate device. These plates are like fancy cookie cutters. Each plate absorbs ink before it stamps it on a page. The production and management of the plates as they go through the press is what forces a traditional printing bureau to require large runs. By doing so, they lessen the impact from the expense and time of managing the plates.
Using a traditional offset press (the kind with plates) was not a good fit for our application. Cocoa Nuts looked into the feasibility of the Book-On-Demand (BOD) approach. This would entail using laser printers to produce books which totally negates the need to manage plates.
One of our cofounders, Aaron Rosenzweig, decided to test this concept by writing a book using the BOD method. The book is titled the "Old Fart's GuideTM to the Macintosh." It is geared towards people who are over fifty years young who are interested in computers and have an open mind. Due to the success of this book, and the fun we had creating it, we found that book publishing must be our calling — what we were meant to be doing all along.
For a time, Cocoa Nuts was focused on book publishing. We used our technical talents to build a great way to publish books in small runs with no financial risk to the author. We were able to accept more manuscripts from authors and focus more resources on marketing so that potential readers can find our books. Unfortunately, we discovered that while many "wanna be" authors exist, few had the passion and technical fortitude to self publish their works in a professional manner. Cocoa Nuts worked hard to bring to light several wonderful manuscripts, the most notable was an African folk-tale of Igbo origin. But in each case, the authors took advantage of our free editing and layout services but never intended to publish their books with us.
"White man fool Indian once. Shame on White man.
White man fool Indian twice. Shame on Indian."
We no longer look at manuscripts. Our "Author's Guide" is still available as a free download from this web site, because it contains useful information for the aspiring author, but the prices and services offered through Cocoa Nuts no longer exist.
Our future is uncertain. Our next step has not yet been determined. However seeing as we are still alive and kicking, expect a strong comeback. What we do moving forward will be a practice of "Principled Entrepreneurship." This means we will only attempt projects that are mutually beneficial — to our customers / clients as well as Cocoa Nuts.