The significance of this screenshot is two-fold. 1st it shows that Ken Whitman is selling Hardcover editions of the KODT: 20 Years of Covers book.
Why is this significant?
Well, as part of the original Knights of the Dinner Table: Live Action Series Kickstarter, Ken Whitman offered (after we pledged $450) "Any backer purchasing a $200 or more reward package, will receive a FREE copy of the Hardback Limited Edition Book!!!" The accompanying graphic for that offer, still visible as of today, clearly states that this book.....the book, not a specific version of the book, is "only available on Kickstarter, Not available after February 5th!"
It is important to note that the Kickstarter specifically mentions that production of the hardcover is "limited to 250 copies". This fails to take into account the 25 copies also printed as part of the payment to the author of the book, Barbara Blackburn. She put her books up on eBay and noted that there were at least 275 copies printed.So at this point we presumably have more copies of the book printed than promised and sold well after the promised cut-off date AND we have an additional book format in that "premium" edition.
But wait!!!!! There's more!
Hmm....let me see if I get this right.....in October 2014 there are 32 of 40 available copies of the premium book available because 10 are being reserved. This means you sold 8 for a sum of $2,000 (8 x $250 = $2,000). Fast forward to April 5th of 2015 and it seems that there aren't any books being held back for the D-Team (Jolly & the D-Team is redundant) and you've got 29 left, meaning you've sold 21 books for a sum of $5250.
As far as I know Ken Whitman has has absolutely no oversight on these books, so the numbers could actually be higher, but just with what we've seen here today we are talking about roughly $38, 627 in books. To break that down we have 23 softcovers (although who knows how many were already printed and sold) for $1127, 250 hardcovers (I'm not counting Barb's 25 copies) for $25,000 and the 48 "premium" Hardcovers for $12,500.
Holy crap! That is a lot of book money! Now I cannot fathom the costs for these books, but just looking at the hardcover for an example and looking at the closest comparison at Lulu.com I get a unit price (with a volume purchase of 300) to come out to $62.75. Now I also think it is safe to assume that since the quality was poor (that was my opinion) and the fact that Ken worked in the POD industry (maybe even still has his setup?) that his costs would be below this unit price.* At this price his margin was 37.25% Yet another assumption is that the margin would be less for the paperback and more for the "premium", but for the sake of simplicity this means Ken Whitman should have at least profited roughly $10,000 off of the sale of these books AFTER accounting for the free books sent out to those backing KoDT:LAS at $200+ AND the 25 books he sent out to Barb.
*2015.08.10 UPDATE According to a Kickstarter comment made by Ken Whitman on August 7, 2015, the hardcover books cost less than $40 each to make: "25 hardcovers that cost d20e almost 1000". That changes the number significantly because that means his margin on the hardcovers is over 60%!
