#OED
4 messages in this thread
Richard Day (70521,2167)
I bow to your experience in the publishing industry. I have none, so
I don't know what the costs of printing and distribution really are. Since
I am acclimated to paying $13 to $30 for quality printed softbound books,
and ridiculous prices for hardbound books like $45 for "The Way of the
Dream" by Marie-Louise Von Franz, (a book with limited circulation because
it is on the subject of Jungian dream analysis,) I had assumed that the
multi-volume set of the OED on the University Library shelf had cost a
couple of grand. Perhaps the U of Washington actually DID pay a couple of
grand for the work. Reading your posting, it seems possible.
While I am writing this, at 1:30 a.m., 05-01-1992, in downtown
Seattle, outside my window, the police, in cars, helicopters, vans, on foot
in riot gear, and on horseback, are patrolling the streets in force. I
just took the elevator down to the street level, and stood outside with the
manager of my apartment building, and several other of my fellow tenants.
Walking down the streets are groups of young (mostly black) people, wearing
the uniforms of various street gangs. Street-gang uniform in Seattle
consists of jackets marketed by the National Football League, each gang
choosing a favorite team. The largest street gang, the BGD's, wears
emblems of the of L.A. Raiders, black shiny jackets with the team insignia,
(football helmet and cross-bones) emblazoned on the back.
What I just saw in the street was this. These people, who have
stirred up a large police presence, and the fear in this community are
mostly 13 to 17 year old kids. I hear, outside my window as I write this,
a police bullhorn ordering a crowd to disperse. Thank God I don't own a TV
set, because with these sources of fear in the street outside my building,
I don't need the added source of fear, the sensational video from the TV
news. How is it that we have come to fear so much, the children of our
neighbors? But I digress.
Allen,
FWIW, the Britannica, a similar mass and quality of paper is sold
profitably for under $1000, even with an expensive direct marketing
operation.
Also FWIW, a couple years ago Britanica was showing exactly the
snobbish attitude described–Comptons was ok for electronic distributuion,
but the crown jewels, the Britannica itself was only to be available on
paper for the forseeable future. There seemed to be both snobbery and a
desire to protect the high markup paper edition involved.
Frank
Frank/Lisa – exactly! The "tragedy" of the OED is I suspect rooted as much or
more in the "snobbery" side of the equation as in the markup side. Having had
a young brother and an uncle at Oxford itself, I have seen enough of that
great institution's emphasis on "tradition" to be quite convinced their
thinking is still rooted in the last century. In England, unfortunately, the
dividing line between traditional values and the snobbish values of the elite
is so blurred as to often be quite invisible. And I think they see their
great dictionary as a product for the elite …
Regds Ric
Allen – There are some good reasons for high hardback book costs – most book
sellers return for refund what they have not sold, so a special interest book
such as the Jungian analysis one you mention would probably justify a fairly
high markup, especially if it were likely to be superseded by some more
recent work on the same topic. But the OED is one of those "beautiful beasts"
of the industry: it has no real competition, so in effect the publisher can
let existing stock run down before replacing it with a newer edition, while
spreading costs over that same, prolonged shelf life. Each new edition has a
very substantial volume of "guaranteed" sales (eg, pretty much every college
and city library will feel compelled to acquire it). I would love to manage
that business for a while – bring the print price down to allow a larger
market; schedule regular (perhaps as often as every five years) new editions;
then go looking for more ways to re-package the information (eg, the Oxford
Dictionary of Asian language borrowings) … re-packaging in publishing can
be hugely profitable because your acquisition costs are already accounted
for. Oh well…
I do have a TV and have been watching … I live just up the road from you,
in Vancouver, and get many of your stations. Depressing stuff. I lived in
various parts of Africa in the 50's and saw firsthand the winds of change
there, from the Mao Mao in Kenya through the Congo to Nelsom Mandela's ANC in
South Africa. Have since lived through some "interesting times" in Asia for
the past two decades. Have not yet seen anything to convince me that random
violence gets things changed in either democracies or near-democracies, other
than more polarization of groups and their behaviors. It has been a long few
days here, trying to help my two kids make some sense of what the broadcast
media is showing them.
Regds Ric