Subject: [removed] Digest V2008 #112
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 5/3/2008 8:30 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
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                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2008 : Issue 112
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Scarecrow Press                       [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
  The Price of Books                    [ "Robert Birchard" <bbirchard@earthl ]

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Date: Fri, 2 May 2008 09:14:45 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Scarecrow Press

Randy Watts commented:

Well, to be fair, Libraries and academia are Scarecrow's primary market,
notthe general public. Same with publishers such as McFarland and
[removed] companies tend to deal in titles that mainstream publishers
aren'tinterested in. They do small press runs and tend to assemble their
booksusing more durable, higher quality bindings that are designed to hold
upunder heavy library use. Those are the reasons why their prices run
higherthan those of the books you'll find on the shelves at Barnes & Noble.
These publishers are all more than willing to sell to individuals, but that
justisn't who they're primarily in business to sell to.

Randy hit it exactly.  This was one of the two reasons why after submitting
two books to McFarland, I stopped submitting books.  Sad part is (for the
author) is that every time I get a royalty statement every six months from
the publishing company, I discover that the total number of sales for the
past six months (both books combined) is WAY less than the sales of any ONE
book I have written for anyone else.  I have always suspected their high
price figures was the cause of lack of sales.

College and University libraries are used to paying that high a price and I
have always suspected that if the price of a book was $20 or $30, they
wouldn't feel the book is worth having on their shelves.

Martin

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Date: Sat, 3 May 2008 10:25:43 -0400
From: "Robert Birchard" <bbirchard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Price of Books
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

As Randy Watts mentioned, libraries are the primary market for a publisher
like Scarecrow, which got into publishing books on media primarily because
they had published some scholarly dissertations on such subjects and found
they sold somewhat better than the average dissertation that was their raison
d'etre.

Neither Scarecrow nor McFarland nor Greenwood offer the sorts of discounts
that would make their books attractive to carry in retail bookstores, nor
will many bookstores order these companies' books on special order, because
the retailer cannot make any money in doing so.

It is, to be sure, a chicken and egg type of argument.  Several years ago
Sally Dumaux published a book on early silent film star King Baggot through
McFarland.  I don't recall exactly, but I seem to remember that Sally's first
statement at the end of the first year the book was in print stated that
something like 69 copies had been sold.  Would they have sold more if the
price had been cheaper?

High price may well have put potential buyers off, but was it even worth
printing at any price as far as the publisher is concerned if there was such
a miniscule market?  There is a reason that McFarland priced the book the way
they did--to recoup their costs over a relatively small number of books.  The
book listed at $45 when it was published, and the current asking price for
new copies is over $60--but you can pick up a used copy on Amazon for as
little as $9, so even though the "new" reatil price is high, there is
certainly no price barrier if you want to purchase the book.  As valuable and
interesting as the book is, it may just be that there aren't many  people
interested in buying this book at any price.

My own book, "Silent Era Filmmaking in Santa Barbara," published by Arcadia,
has sold over 1,000 copies in its first six months in release.  The retail
price is $[removed], but available new on Amazon for $[removed] and with used copies
available from $[removed]  Price may well be a factor in its (relatively) robust
sales--but the fact that it is a largely a picture book with strong
geographic appeal  to a community that has an interest in its own history may
also be a factor.

I wrote some entries for "The Encyclopedia of Early Cinema," edited by
Richard Abel, and the retail price of this is $300.  Amazon sells a Kindle
electronic edition for $240.  I doubt that the hardcover will sell more than
a few hundred copies worldwide--and the Kindle edition isn't likely to sell
much better.  "Swining' on the Etherwaves: A Chronological History of African
Americans in Radio and Television Programming, 1925-1955" is exactly this
same sort of encyclopedia.  At $406 it is indeed beyond the price range of
many, but at something like [removed] cents a page it seems a bargain.  It is
likely that the future for this sort of reference encyclopedia will be online
on a "pay-per-view" basis.

    Years ago I saw a gambler with a book on gambling interviewed on TV.  Ben
Hunter, the interviewer, finally asked: "How much is your book?"  The gambler
replied: "$300."  Remember, this was a bout 1960 when $300 was real money.
Hunter was astonished, and realized that most of his audience would not be in
the market for this book and he had just wasted a good cunk of air time.  He
said:  "$300 is a lot of money for a book."  And the gambler agreed.  "You're
right," he said, "$300 is a lot of money for a book--but it's a very small
price for an education."

    So perhaps you might think of the $406 asking price for "Swining' on the
Etherwaves: A Chronological History of African Americans in Radio and
Television Programming, 1925-1955" a very small prive for an education.  ;-}

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