Post by b***@robertweinberg.netJohn wrote--
I just wish that the
publisher would pay some degree of attention to presentation as well
as to the content. Sadly, these could have been real showpieces
without increasing the cost if a little commonsense had been used in
the book design...
-actually, the publisher has paid more attention to presentation on
books published since the de Grandin set. dustjackets on more recent
volumes such as The Compleat Adventures of Bill Brent are quite nicely
printed and produced.
And that's a *good* thing! ;-)
Post by b***@robertweinberg.netThe problem with the de Grandin set was that the printer Battered
Silicon uses was not equipped at the time with a large enough color
press to print the oversized jackets. There was no lack of commonsense
involved. It was merely an effort by Battered Silicon to provide
jackets that otherwise would not have been included at all. Despite
the assertion of not increasing the cost, at the time of publication
these jackets if printed by another printer would have significantly
raised the price of the set.
Maybe I'm being unduly harsh, maybe not. Let me first say I like
George, I've helped him on projects and expect to do so in the future.
Asking your printer if they can do the kind of project that you have
in mind is displaying "commonsense". As to my assertion, I submit that
George could have used a genuine leather binding (like Night Shade did
with the Wellman set) at a cost only slightly higher than the cloth
binding and produced a very attractive set of books.
Post by b***@robertweinberg.netAnyone unhappy with the jackets is free to remove them from their set.
Blasphemy. ;-)
Post by b***@robertweinberg.netPlease realize that George is a one-man operation and that publishing
is his hobby. He is a full time doctor. These books are done in very
small print runs, usually under a hundred copies, and everything from
the typesetting to layout to shipping is handled by him. And he does
pay royalties. These books might seem expensive, but if you calculate
how much reading material you are getting for the price, you will
realize that the price is much more reasonable than most people
realize.
bob w.
As I said, they are a good value by any calculation. I will not
apologize for nor excuse George's careless shipping methods. Let's
see, as an example; I ordered books from you on at least a bi-monthly
basis for the better part of a decade and I think *once* had a book
damaged (and it was a paperback I added to the order as a reading copy
to make the discount total). In twenty years, we've had two books
damaged in shipping and neither was our fault. There's simply no
excuse for just dumping a $250.00 set of books in a box without any
protection whatsoever. To me, that's just inexcusable. Hopefully that
has been corrrected as I know that Jim Rockhill, Mike Chomko, and I
all gave George plenty of grief over the subject.
I'd love to see BSD succeed, George is willing to take on projects
that even I in my most Quixotic moments wouldn't touch. He's mentioned
plans to publish all of Arthur Morrison's detective tales at some
point, a terrific idea, but that's a book that might sell 200 copies
(over time). I know he wants to do the complete Seabury Quinn at some
point; a project that is simply staggering... I hope these projects
come to fruition, but I worry that ignoring some of the basics like
careful shipping of expensive books will decrease what is, by
definition a pretty small market to start with.
Cheers,
John