Opinion on Publishers

[Uncle Joe]

Andy, don´t bet your life on this but I believe "trade paperback" is used to differentiate better quality "normal" sized paperbacks from pocket sized "mass market paperbacks".

[Commissar D, the Evil]

Yes Jukka, it's sort of like the difference between a "graphic novel" and a "comic book"...

Bestens,
~D, the EviL

[Paddy Keating]

A trade paperback is simply a soft-covered version of the hardcover edition and tends to be larger than the books we generally describe as "paperbacks". The pages are usually of the same quality of paper and the printing is also the same. The saving lies in the soft binding. Some publishing houses skimp on production costs by using "perfect binding", which is fine for magazines and other short-life publications but unless done well with good quality glue of the right flexibility when dry, will result in broken spines, loose pages and inevitable disintegration of the book in quite a short time. The best softcover books are sewn together like their hardcover siblings. However, this is more expensive than perfect binding and publishers who see no reason to hire skilled editors and translators to finesse texts are unlikely to spend money on stitching let alone good quality perfect binding because most customers are unlikely to return a book to the retail outlet or the publisher demanding a replacement or a refund. Publishers produce books in order to make money. Some publishers are honest and offer value for money. Others are complete shysters but remain in business because their authors are too stupid to refuse the ludicrous "contracts" proposed and because many of the customers, particularly in our area of interest, continue to buy any old shite that's offered, as long as it has swastikas and runes on the covers. These are, by and large, the same idiots who keep eBay and its crooked vendors in business. Those of us with brains and functioning logic don't buy garbage. And those of us who live by writing don't work with certain publishers. It's really that simple.

PK

[Uncle Joe]

Paddy, the last two sentences were pretty much designed to raise furor out of me. And by the way, writing for a living does not guarantee any quality for that writing...

Just one note: perfect binding is sometimes used e.g. for doctoral dissertations from university presses. But they must be dishonest crooks as well.

[Paddy Keating]

Actually,I expected the fifth sentence to annoy you, Jukka. As a commissioning editor, I would have to agree with you that writing for a living does not guarantee good writing. In fact, it often ensures quite sloppy writing on the part of people churning out copy against deadlines. We call it hack journalism/writing. But that wasn't really the point I was making. Many doctoral theses lack form and quality and would not merit expensive binding. I wasn't suggesting, by the way, that publishers who use perfect binding were dishonest crooks. It's a question of nuance in the language. I was suggesting that some publishers cut corners where finish quality is concerned in order to chisel some extra bottom line out of the deal, which is dishonest if the wholesale and retail prices lead buyers to presume that the product they are buying will last a reasonable length of time.

Your mate's 1. FJD books do not seem to be doing very well, by the way. I suppose it must be a result of the sub-prime credit crunch. Highly-priced hardcover books are more of a unaffordable luxury these days. Jean-Yves tells me that he hasn't sold a single copy. Maybe they should produce a "trade paper" edition to suit people's reduced budgets.

PK

[sniper1shot]

I am not sure if you guys are joking at trying to get to each other but would appreciate it if it stops.

Aberjona is doing well in their sales of all of their books so I assume that people know a well priced and well produced product when they see it. As for Hardcover vs Softcover.....well, that is a matter of opinion and cost for the person buying the book.

Let's leave it at that!

[Uncle Joe]

Sniper, that is just a habit of mine and Paddy´s. No need to worry:) BTW Paddy, I checked some softcovers by our favourite publisher and they do have proper sewn binding, not just glued. H&C books could benefit from a sturdier binding (Heimdal is better). Axis Europa´s book Hitler´s Belorussians has extremely poor binding.

[Paddy Keating]

Absolutely! We actually have a lot of respect for one another, even if we do take take the mickey out of each other sometimes. Think of it as a couple of blokes in a pub, having a spirited debate and grinning when they think they scored a point. There is no rancour there at all.

H&C need more than just good binding, Jukka! I mean, check out some of their English language output. And as for the uniform reference books full of fakes from a certain Paris dealer... Regarding our favourite hit-and-miss publisher, I don't think I have ever slagged off the quality of the product in terms of materials and binding. Their books are usually superbly made, which is what renders the dodgy quality of the content in some of them even more annoying. Why waste money and effort on materials and binding if you're delivering content that cannot be described as print-ready? It's a bass-ackwards way of doing things.

Servus!

PK

[Rodger Herbst]

My biggest disappointment was a hard copy of British Battleships of WW2. The fabric has worn thru at the cornors, the gold lettering has faded to nothing, the binding has broken, what a disaster on such an expensive book, i pride myself on my library and take care of my books, I'm not a collector and i will buy used books through Amazon and have never been disappointed. Have any of you tried the books from Stackpole Military History Series ?
I'm just reading "The Path To The Blitzkrieg" Doctrine and Training in the German Army, 1920-39 by R.M. Citino , really facinating, but i'm a von Seeckt admirer, also have his book"The German way of war" ,Stackpole lists about 70 titles many are paperback versions of expensive and hard to find titles.





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[John W. Howard]

Hey Rodger!!
Great to see you here on Feldgrau and posting again Welcome back!!

[Rodger Herbst]

Thanks John, missed my Feldgrau, can't be as active i once was, but i just like reading the posts. Feel i should pay my way for posting and watching, a very small price to pay.

[Commissar D, the Evil]

Hi Rodger--very good to see you posting again!!!!

My biggest disappointment was a hard copy of British Battleships of WW2. The fabric has worn thru at the cornors, the gold lettering has faded to nothing, the binding has broken, what a disaster on such an expensive book, i pride myself on my library and take care of my books, I'm not a collector and i will buy used books through Amazon and have never been disappointed.

Umm, I had this problem with a very expensive ebay purchase once. This was back when I had the money to buy rare books! Luckily, I found a small local bookbinder who was able to rebind the book at a minimum expense. Rebinding, of course, depends in part upon the internal borders of the text. In this case, the book had fairly large margins on the interior of the text, so the rebinding didn't lose any text or graphs. The book was restored to near mint condition because the bookbinder could also reprint the gold title as on the original. Anyone who hadn't seen a copy of the original, published in 1948, wouldn't notice the difference, but the pleasure in it to me was simply adding a very rare book to my library with a brand-spanking new binding that should last another 60 years!

Of course, the down side of this all is that when I'm a 120 years old, I probably won't be able to have it rebound again......

Very Best,
David

[Rodger Herbst]

Hi Evil One, glad to see many old friends still on FG. I was thinking of having my book rebound, the text and photos are in perferct shape, it's the damm binding, i don't understand it, they use first class paper for the text then use crap for the binding.

[Commissar D, the Evil]

Hi Rodger, well, this is a thing that I've never quite understood either. At least, in the case of my book, it was bound by the U.S. Government at a time when hard bindings were almost uniformly good. My book suffered from hard usage, nothing more, not a lack of effort by the publishers.

I think that some publishers believe that if the pages themselves are slick enough, the buyer won't actually be worried about the binding or simply won't use the book enough to break its binding. There is a certain truth in this, as I know that I, like many others, treat an expensive book with "kid gloves" and will do just about anything to preserve the binding, even down to refusing to have the book either xeroxed or scanned out of fear of ruining it.

Very Best,
David

[Uncle Joe]

I once (few years ago) had a copy of that Raven&Roberts book and in that book the binding was still as new. I got the book second hand. Perhaps I and the previous owner treated the book with kid gloves:)