Breaking news! Maxwell's have another conference!

[Lillybee]

Their next product should be the Maxwell Family Cookbook. They could publish the taco recipe, the yogurt recipe and the secret sweet pizza recipe.

[Phyllis Styne]

Ah please. These awre the same peole who falgged down a UPS truck to get their package from it and of course it was the wrong ups truck. They're stupid. As to Terri being hot, I totally expected her voice to be all mincing babytones like Jchelle and instead she has a very firm, very c lear and level voice. Which makes me think she would b e a great dominatrix. Yeah I can see her in the black vinyl trench coat with the suitcase containing the paddle and whip. I don't want to think about it any farther though!!!!

[Koala]

Too bad that there are several copies floating around the US public library system then. And that their 'copyright' statement is about as binding as a tblsp of castor oil. SOTDRT=/=law school

:lol:

[gardenvarietycitizen]

WTF.

Last time I checked all the books in the library (any library in any part of North America and probable other parts of the world too) are copyrighted. They just don't want people to get their information without them getting any money.

They're saying you can't go photocopy their exact forms, as given in the book, without sending in your registration form. I have no idea if that's in any way enforceable or not, but it really doesn't matter all that much, because it's trivial to take the information given in the book (the IDEA of a chore pack) and make your own, by hand, with your OWN materials and then photocopy your own individual homemade thing when you need more of them.

That's the thing about MOTH - the ideas are interesting, if you've not thought about it yourself, but once you've gotten the organizing bug, you don't need the Maxwells anymore. Heck, for a lot of it you don't need the book even, all you need to do is read a review of the book because the idea of making up a schedule isn't exactly rocket science. In fact I think what they're REALLY selling is the idea that you can live this regimented life and be Godly - it's the scriptural bits people want. You can schedule your baby, and that's okay (in fact this is one of the more controversial parts of the book). Same with the homeschooling one - the main idea for sale is the reassurance that yes, you can use textbooks (which a lot of the more touchy-feely religious homeschoolers eschew in favor of Charlotte Mason and "living books" and the like) and it's okay. Because the Maxwells, of all perfect families, give their approval. Yes mom, you can homeschool, even if you can't manage to give your kids undivided attention during the whole process (due to depression, or lots of kids, or whatever it is).

Back to MOTH and ChorePacks, a normal company selling to normal people would have some side business of printing and selling the ACTUAL forms (the same way planner companies around the world do) so that lazy consumers can just order up professionally printed, 100% always the same, planner paper that fits in the brand name planner books. That way you have people continually paying you (if your papers are good quality) without having to cling to crazy oddball "copyright" shenanigans.

But the Maxwells don't do that - they don't want to (or have the resources to) run a print shop, I suspect they know their target market is cheap, and they hope their market isn't cheap enough to blow off their "copyright" stuff.

That and of course you get membership on their super-controlling forums, where you are forbidden from making personal friendly contact with any other posters and must suffer having your words edited but your signature left on the now changed content. Sign me right up. :roll:

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Rather than obsessing over the small number of (potentially) lost sales due to libraries, used book sales, and unauthorized copying, he would far better serve his family's interests by focusing on the next product--the next fresh, new thing nobody's seen a hundred times before--they can offer.

Indeed. Without actual NEW books, with NEW content, the money stream is going to dry up, no matter how many crazy copyright notices he cooks up. Their latest offering is Teri's "Sweet Journey," also there was a new Moody book out this year. I'd like to see sales figures for those, but still, that's a pretty good year for them I guess, with two books. Are they working on more books now? They should be, unless they're hoping to switch over to the OneTonRamp for family income (but that's Nathan's gig, isn't it?).

As for this being a used book conference, I suspect they're just going to show up at the thing, do their usual spiel, and offer new books for sale. They probably don't care too much about people buying other books used, but it does make me wonder what they'd do if they saw a MOTH book there.

It's also interesting to speculate how their message will be received. As I've posted before, when they go to these types of conferences (as opposed to revival meetings or their own special weekends) or even when their own special weekends are advertised as "homeschooling conference" (as they were in Florida) I have to wonder - it's a complete bait and switch really, when you look at the content. They have what, ONE talk that really deals with the nuts and bolts of homeschooling, and that's the session that sells "Managers of their Schools" (where the message is, it's okay to homeschool with textbooks and workbooks). The rest of their stuff is all about extreme sheltering of children or how to lead a family cult, er, church, which isn't quite on topic. Plus huge heaping helpings of death talk.

[FJismyheadship]

Imma buy a copy of this book and donate it to my library... After i send in the registration form in my libraries name lol.

[kpmom]

It's also interesting to speculate how their message will be received. As I've posted before, when they go to these types of conferences (as opposed to revival meetings or their own special weekends) or even when their own special weekends are advertised as "homeschooling conference" (as they were in Florida) I have to wonder - it's a complete bait and switch really, when you look at the content. They have what, ONE talk that really deals with the nuts and bolts of homeschooling, and that's the session that sells "Managers of their Schools" (where the message is, it's okay to homeschool with textbooks and workbooks). The rest of their stuff is all about extreme sheltering of children or how to lead a family cult, er, church, which isn't quite on topic. Plus huge heaping helpings of death talk.

I had posted this link awhile back, but thought I'd put it here again. This is reaction to the Maxwell's conferences by homeschoolin', God fearin', conservative women. Some like 'em, but the majority did not agree with much of what they said.

Steve especially seemed to turn these women off (surprise, surprise). This is the Maxwell audience, and if many of them don't care for their message, no wonder their conferences are drying up.

welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150618

[Daenerys]

Imma buy a copy of this book and donate it to my library... After i send in the registration form in my libraries name lol.

DO IT, the post in response would be gold.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I had posted this link awhile back, but thought I'd put it here again.

Ooh. Much thanks. Yeah, I'm obsessed... love this kinda thing! :D

[snickerz]

I wonder what Stevie's comment would be if someone wrote on his blog something like "I was so blessed to have found a copy of your MOTH book at a thrift store this week. It was an answer to prayer!"

[treemom]

Copyright is a beast and I am sort of an expert on it (from my prior life, not my IT career).

It is my opinion, that if you bought this book used and made copies you would be ok. If you checked it out from the library and made copies perhaps not so much. any real lawyers with copyright experience want to weigh in?

[clibbyjo]

Indeed. Without actual NEW books, with NEW content, the money stream is going to dry up, no matter how many crazy copyright notices he cooks up. Their latest offering is Teri's "Sweet Journey," also there was a new Moody book out this year. I'd like to see sales figures for those, but still, that's a pretty good year for them I guess, with two books. Are they working on more books now? They should be, unless they're hoping to switch over to the OneTonRamp for family income (but that's Nathan's gig, isn't it?).

As for this being a used book conference, I suspect they're just going to show up at the thing, do their usual spiel, and offer new books for sale. They probably don't care too much about people buying other books used, but it does make me wonder what they'd do if they saw a MOTH book there.

It's also interesting to speculate how their message will be received. As I've posted before, when they go to these types of conferences (as opposed to revival meetings or their own special weekends) or even when their own special weekends are advertised as "homeschooling conference" (as they were in Florida) I have to wonder - it's a complete bait and switch really, when you look at the content. They have what, ONE talk that really deals with the nuts and bolts of homeschooling, and that's the session that sells "Managers of their Schools" (where the message is, it's okay to homeschool with textbooks and workbooks). The rest of their stuff is all about extreme sheltering of children or how to lead a family cult, er, church, which isn't quite on topic. Plus huge heaping helpings of death talk.

I would see 2 books as a slow year in the homeschool world. My sister has a homeschool business and they usually get out at least 5 new books a year. Of course my sister's stuff is more curriculum based, but still. People stick with their favorite homeschool curriculum people and will buy anything new they put out if its similar in terms of stuff they have used. Teri's new book is basically about depression, so since most fundies aren't allowed to believe that is real, I can't see them buying it unless they are fans.The Maxwell's cannot make very much on either of their new books once you figure in costs and materials. Why they are not working the big conventions is very puzzling to me.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Yeah, I can't help but wondering just how many copies of those two books they sold.

What is the maximum number of books they've done in a year? Like you and others I still wonder just where all their money actually comes from - they're clearly not TOO poor, they live in a very nice house, have very nice electronic equipment and kitchen gadgets. They don't have a cable TV bill (nor do I!) but they do have internet access sufficient to run webinars from home, so they're certainly paying a nice chunk of change monthly for internet (possibly to the cable company, even). Someone has an iPhone, the bills for that aren't cheap either.

The main family business umbrella "Communication Concepts" puts out all the books, and we've seen some of their shipping photos, but just how much are they moving?

How much do they tend to rake in per conference, considering all the upkeep and gas for Uriah? How much is the OneTonRamp pulling in?

And yeah, why not work the big conventions? (Well, most likely because they can't control the whole agenda and do their very well rehearsed stage show, and if they have to apply for the conferences with some synopsis of the content, they might be rejected for being off-topic. But you'd think they'd at least want a booth in the dealers' room??)

It almost makes me wonder if Steve, master debater, er, saver that he is, is still living off savings from the days when he worked, but that's 15 years ago now. Do they own rental property or something? Did he get some giant legal settlement somewhere?

[helloemi]

Oh this is funny!!! The wife of a quiverfull friend of my husbands (if that makes sense) was selling a used copy of this a few days ago on facebook to fund her son and husband's mission trip. We have a love hate relationship on there. I kind of want to rub this in her face.