770912 - Letter to Ramesvara from Tamal Krsna

Bhaktivedanta Manor,

September 12, 1977

From: Tamal Krishna

Los Angeles

My dear Ramesvara Maharaja,

Please accept my most humble obeisances at your feet.

Following our telephone conversation I spoke with the sankirtana leader here at the Bhaktivedanta Manor. I got the following information: The London temple purchases medium books from the BBT for 20 pence and sells them for 35 pence. Small books are purchased for 10 pence and sold for 20 pence. The Trilogy is purchased for 50 pence and sells for 90 pence. The records are purchased by the temple from the BBT for 38 pence and they sell them for 38 pence. The selling price indicates the minimum which they have to get in order to donate the book to the person whom they give it to. Generally their average donation for selling a record is L1.50. So for this donation they can give out more than one trilogy. In fact for 90 pence they can give away a Trilogy for which they receive 33/4 points in the Sankirtana Newsletter. The pound is not valued at about U.S. $1.70. So for about $1.50 they can get 33/4 points. Pretty good - in America we’d have to get a lot more money to get 33/4 points. In America in our zone, the sankirtana men still have to get $5.00 for a big book. That was the means originally of establishing this point system, $1 per point, but here in Britain you can see that for $1.50 you can get 33/4 points. Is this fair?

In a week or so they are going to have soft abridged Gitas printed in England which will cost approximately 55 pence to the temple from the BBT and for which they will sell it to the karmis for maximum L1. For this they’re going to get 3 points in the Newsletter.

For your further information the temple distributes about 5,000 records a week. Although they don’t make any profit in selling them, the BBT does make a profit in selling them to the temple. There are 34 distributors here in London.

Hoping this meets you in the best of health and Krishna consciousness.

Your servant,

Tamal Krishna Gosvami

Secretary to Srila Prabhupada

His Holiness Ramesvara Swami

c/o ISKCON LA

/tkg