Well...let's cross that bridge when it comes time. I thought the first one would swamp us with submissions, yet we only got 20 in the end (started out with like 30+ people wanting to be involved). It's easy to over-estimate interest...a lesson I learned personally the hard way several times over. People lose interest fast when it comes time to actually do something (I'm not excluding myself from this group!).
I think that if we stick to the one deadline plan, and make sure the contributor sends the appropriate funds, that we'll probably be ok. The minimum post rules (whatever they turn out to be) will also help a little bit.
The thing is, really, that even if we get 50 contributions, I can probably cram them onto 3 CD's. The first compilation actually could have fit on 1 CD but the enhanced stuff pushed it over the limit (it was VERY close). Maybe we should say...the song limit has to be 5 minutes?
Also, I'm learning a lot by seeing how fast this first batch actually sells. Of course it hasn't been properly advertised so it's too soon to get a good feel for how things "could" be in a perfect situation. But as long as we require a high enough "entry" fee to cover most of the initial costs of having enough CD's made (maybe one for each contributor + 50 or + 75), then this technically shouldn't even be a problem.
In fact, the more contributors, the better off we may be financially!
This first CD set broke even just recently....that was after ~20 CD's. Now, only about half of the contributors actually kicked in their money. If we'd have done the one deadline thing initially, then we never would have had a problem getting the necessary funding! In fact, with the pre-orders from non-contributors, we'd have started out ahead...or I simply would've had 100 sets made instead of 75...something like that.
BTW, I'd like to announce that as of about 4:00AM this "evening", all 75 sets have been finished, so those that haven't already sold are ready to ship! I can ship orders within say 7-10 days of receiving your payments! (e.g. if I'm expecting several checks I like to wait and do the mailings all at once)
Slackmaster 2000