Re- printing out of print publications

Post by **Dave Wooley** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:09 am

Which useful publications now out of print would you like to see re-published. For me the Manual of Seamanship from the turn of the 19th century. I have many of these very practical books but they are becoming harder to find. Janes Dictionary of Naval Terms originally compiled by Joseph Palmer first published in 1975 I have a copy but a little dated and would be good to be brought up to date ? Another book I would like to see re-printed or from a personal point of view, up dated is Practical Construction Of Warships by RN Newton. This was first published in 1941 and republished almost every year into the late 50s . There are many more but what's your first choice
Dave Wooley

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:35 am

Probably speaking for a lot of people here........RA Burt's series on RN battleships.

Rob

bengtsson · Post by **bengtsson** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:52 am

Although I already have copies, I think the ManO'War and Ensign series on Royal Navy ships would be a big seller! Also the Warship Profiles seem to be sought after. Also the four Fukui books "Japanese Naval Vessels Illustrated". I doubt that reprints will happen though, as I can't see the volume of sales being worth the re-print costs. Books are printed to make money, not please us naval enthusiasts

Bob B.

Werner · Post by **Werner** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 1:22 pm

I think a reasonable solution for low-volume books would be on-line sales of electronic copies in PDF format

Post by **Dave Wooley** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:19 pm

Werner wrote:I think a reasonable solution for low-volume books would be on-line sales of electronic copies in PDF format

Werner that's a interesting solution
Dave Wooley

mike mccabe · Post by **mike mccabe** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 2:03 am

Werner wrote:I think a reasonable solution for low-volume books would be on-line sales of electronic copies in PDF format

I think that is a great idea

Mike

Laurence Batchelor · Post by **Laurence Batchelor** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 3:36 am

Can't see the authors and publishers agreeing though

Werner · Post by **Werner** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:56 am

Lozza1981 wrote:Can't see the authors and publishers agreeing though

Why not? With the cost to publish cut to a few pennies per copy, the distributor could afford to pay nearly the same royalty per copy. The cost to manufacture, warehouse, distribute and so on are cut to zero. Each sale is almost 100% profit.

Laurence Batchelor · Post by **Laurence Batchelor** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:01 am

Its a question of reputation and integretity having asked a few this question many times before.

Also many of the naval authors which people would put forward, wanting their work republished, they are often now semi-retired or have lost interest or things in the past preclude this from happening or the publisher would not agree to it etc etc.

With modern technology the way it is and selling in electronic format you have far less control over copyright and many of the original sources who gave permission for their work to appear in printed form 30years ago may now decline it to appear in electronic format, if they can of course be tracked down!

Terry Pottle · Post by **Terry Pottle** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:59 pm

I am sure I could think of many a title that deserves reprinting, two spring immediately to mind :

Buxton - Big Gun Monitors
March - British Destroyers

but I doubt that the Publishers have much interest. Pity

Terry

Laurence Batchelor · Post by **Laurence Batchelor** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 1:09 pm

Terry Pottle wrote:I am sure I could think of many a title that deserves reprinting, two spring immediately to mind :

Buxton - Big Gun Monitors
March - British Destroyers

but I doubt that the Publishers have much interest. Pity

Terry

I think Edgar J March is dead and Seeley Publishers I think are gone also.
Dr Ian Buxton told me republishing his masterpiece is very unlikely ever to happen! shame also I think its initially printed by the World Ship Society who have the finances I'm sure

bengtsson · Post by **bengtsson** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:38 pm

I guess it's just a dream that many of the old classic warship books will see a reprint. As a guy who has been collectioning naval and warship books since I was 12 years old back in 1963, I wonder how much longer the interest in the WW I and II era warships will last? Are there really so many new young people coming into an interest in what are fast becoming warships of ancient history? I feel lucky to have been able to get so many of what are now hard to find books on warships. If anyone here in America should try and get reprints going it would be the USNI Press. They printed Buxton's book here in the USA and Burt's British BB books. They have the resources and experience to do reprints maybe a little pressure via emails to them might give them an idea there is enough interest out there to make them some money. But one has to get rights to the books, and it is true many of the great authors are getting old or have already passed away. What do our members think is the MOST soughyt after book about warships? I say the Burt British BB volumes.

Bob B.

Laurence Batchelor · Post by **Laurence Batchelor** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 8:16 pm

Bob I agree Ray A. Burt (1993) British Battleships 1919-1939 would be in my opinion the most sought after as with all his books a low print run makes these OOP books pricey to the extream.

There is one on ebay now where the seller is asking �260 buy it now! he put in on at a slightly higher price a few weeks ago and didn't get any buyers so he's back to try his luck again.

I've still to this day not been able to track down Ray A. Burt, and don't think I ever will.

bengtsson · Post by **bengtsson** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:11 am

Lozza1981 wrote:Bob I agree Ray A. Burt (1993) British Battleships 1919-1939 would be in my opinion the most sought after as with all his books a low print run makes these OOP books pricey to the extream.

There is one on ebay now where the seller is asking �260 buy it now! he put in on at a slightly higher price a few weeks ago and didn't get any buyers so he's back to try his luck again.

I've still to this day not been able to track down Ray A. Burt, and don't think I ever will.

I wonder why the Biritish Battleships 1919-1939 is so popular? I bought the Arms and Armour edition of British Battleships of WWII and that book gave a very good coverage to the interwar years. With the other three volumes, I guess I don't get why the interwar period is so popular. But as to Burt, I haven't a clue about who his is even. But what an author

I have been reading his book on the early predreadnought Battleships in conjunction with reading A. Marders book on British pre-WWI naval policy. I couldn't ask for two better books to cover the policy and the actual ships. To get Marders book, I had to pay over $100 US. I had all his others, but not this first one. I would expect my daughter will get rich when I die, selling off my naval and warship book collection. I told her to put them all up on ebay and let the bids roll in

.

Bob B.

Laurence Batchelor · Post by **Laurence Batchelor** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:36 am

The Interwar book is popular I would say from a varierty of reasons:-

1) Its the only book to go in detail on a non-wartime timeperiod
2) It was printed in lower numbers compared to rest so I'm told.
3) Nearly all of the RN's capital ships underwent refits and reconstruction in that period so people wish to know about this.
4) He takes a slightly different approach to Raven & Roberts where he makes sketches of bridges etc which most other authors don't do.

From what I know Ray A. Burt had health issues so I was informed and he has since lost interest in writing and publishing RN naval material, shame really!

Arthur Marder in my opinion is one of the greatest naval historians ever, his ability as a classically trained Oxford historian shines throughout his work.

Post by **Dave Wooley** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 4:56 pm

There are many naval books published 70 years ago plus and thus technically out of copy write, which could be electronically published. I have quite a number of the original and wonderfully detailed Brassey Naval Annuals some reprinted in the early 1970s so who holds the present copy writes considering many are beyond 70years old some over 100years
Dave Wooley

Werner · Post by **Werner** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:02 pm

Beyond the Guttenberg Project, it might be possible to create a two-tier system. In the lower tier are page images in PDF format. You could view the pages but you could not cut and paste text or images. The upper tier at a higher price could be either hardcopy or a more accessable PDF where text is actually composed into pages which include separate pictures as appropriate. These more expensive documents would allow cut and paste of text and pictures.

Post by **Dave Wooley** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:43 pm

Werner not knowing that much about electronic publishing are there any other examples were out of print books are published in this way?.Once the copy write for any such publications are clarified then this method has great merits.
Dave Wooley

Laurence Batchelor · Post by **Laurence Batchelor** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:48 pm

Dave Wooley wrote:There are many naval books published 70 years ago plus and thus technically out of copy write, which could be electronically published. I have quite a number of the original and wonderfully detailed Brassey Naval Annuals some reprinted in the early 1970s so who holds the present copy writes considering many are beyond 70years old some over 100years
Dave Wooley

The Brassey's naval annuals are something I have yet to collect, I got to see inside some of the ones John Roberts had and that sold me on the idea

I would like to get as many for the 1905-1914, 1918-1940 periods as he tells me the censor-shipped ones are not as good. I think there is a 100 year rule on copyright in the UK.

Post by **Dave Wooley** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:06 pm

[quote
The Brassey's naval annuals are something I have yet to collect, I got to see inside some of the ones John Roberts had and that sold me on the idea

I would like to get as many for the 1905-1914, 1918-1940 periods as he tells me the censor-shipped ones are not as good. I think there is a 100 year rule on copyright in the UK.[/quote]
Hi Lozza I.m not to sure but I was informed that 70 years is the limit. I'll
have to look that one up.
Dave Wooley