The Ship Model Forum

I was just browsing the naval titles and stumbled across the great news that the classic work by Ian Buxton on Big Gun Monitors is being re-published by Pen & Sword Books. Priced at £28 if you take the pre-order offer available at the moment. If you missed the original edition (now spectacularly over priced secondhand) like I did then this will be a great addition to the naval library. Link is here http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=1588

Good that I only paid 45 pounds for my version... This is a must-have publication if you're into monitors.

According to the publisher's website (see earlier link) this will be a paperback. Surely not.

I guess if you are a collector of naval books I can see why a hardback might be desirable, but if its just the information inside that matters, as in my case, I cannot see any problems with a paperback.

Doesn't bother me either, I want the information, not the cover.

Mike

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Starling Models

http://www.starling-models.co.uk

Looks like it is available now at Pen & Sword

Somebody heard me! This has now been magically transformed into a hardback.

I would like to have the book, too. Do you think Pen & Sword holds our previous kerfuffle over ISBNs against me? Do they ship outside the UK? I'd hate to have to ask my ex-Wife to get it for me... then I'd owe her something.

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If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.

-- "A Nation at Risk" (1983)

I've just ordered from Pen & Sword, £28 in the UK and it is listed as hardback though I'm not that bothered. As a footnote, I had the book on order at Amazon since last September, when I checked last night the book had been published on the 20th march, but Amazon said on my order that the book was now out of stock and they didn't know when they would get more. This is actually the third time this has happened to myself or my partner, a book is pre-ordered then not delivered when it comes in stock then you are told within a few weeks it is unavailable. Well Amazon won't get the chance to let me down again, really an absolutely terrible company, I don't recommend anybody uses this utter waste of time.

I'll wait and see how long the delivery from Pen & Sword takes.

Mike

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Starling Models

http://www.starling-models.co.uk

Got my copy today, just four days from ordering - pretty good! I have to say this is an excellent volume all round, a quality large format hardback binding and clear layout with very well reproduced photographs. I could never afford the 1978 volume second hand as it was just too expensive so I have no idea what the quality or content of the original was like. This edition has 15% more text, 50 new photographs, some new drawings and others modified. There is an interesting section on the preservation of M33 which now resides in a dry-dock in Portsmouth in an almost fully restored state - must get to see that ship some day! Overall I am very happy with this volume

Mike - totally agree on Amazon UK, they are rubbish now! A great shame as they used to be my first port of call for books in the early days of the company when they could obtain just about anything and have it shipped to you next day. Now they are just trying to cover everything and seem to have been taken over by very poor top level management who are hell bent on ruining a once good company for shareholder profits.

Werner - they do ship internationally. It is £7.50 for international shipping - contact them here http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?page=contactus

Mark

I've had my copy on order from Amazon UK since November 2007. At £23.10 including shipping I'm happy to wait a few extra days before they get their consignment.

The problem with Amazon is their availability estimates for new titles, which tend to be optimistic and confusing. They quote publication dates - presumably supplied by the publisher - as soon as they list a new title. But those dates inevitably slip. Sometimes Amazon will update their dates, sometimes not. So it appears that Amazon are delaying shipping or are have trouble obtaining copies, when in fact the book is not yet available anywhere. Once you understand these foibles Amazon are no worse than anyone else.

My main gripe with Amazon is their £1.99 "sourcing fee" for titles from smaller publishers. In those cases it's worth looking elsewhere, since Amazon seem to be the only merchant adding this surcharge.

Linux
I don't agree, it isn't a question of not having a book in stock yet, it is a question of presumably placing sufficient orders to cover those already placed, or not sending out the stock to those who have an order in place for some time. The reason I have cancelled is exactly the same thing happened before, except I waited months for the new stock to come in but it never did, in the end the book was listed as out of print, although it was easily available elsewhere. I would be interested to hear if your wait turns out to be in vain.

Mike

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Starling Models

http://www.starling-models.co.uk

Hi Mike,

It's possible that what you've experienced is what I've just experienced with Friedman's "Naval Firepower"; that Amazon gets its information wrong and then fails to correct its mistakes.

Last year Amazon UK listed Friedman's book twice, first by Chatham Publishing, and then by Seaforth Publishing. But as it turned out both listings had the wrong ISBN. Eventually one of the listings was removed and the other could no longer be ordered from. But Amazon didn't cancel pending orders from either listing; I had to do that myself when I discovered the mistakes. So even though "Naval Firepower" is now available elsewhere, pending orders from those two listings will never be fulfilled and customers will wait in vain.

In the case of Buxton's book, Amazon's ISBN does agree with Pen and Sword's website, so I presume they will deliver. I'll report back what happens.

That might be it, but it wasn't the explanation I got, to be honest I couldn't really understand their explanation. It's just very frustrating when it appears the book is out, they have had it in stock, but I haven't received it although it's been on order six months. I wish you luck, you have more patience than I do!

Mike

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Starling Models

http://www.starling-models.co.uk

My copy from Amazon UK arrived today, so I'm happy. Time to dispose of my 1st edition perhaps.

I do seem to have a problem with Amazon US though. The 2nd edition of Ken Macpherson's "The River Class Destroyers of the Royal Canadian Navy" has (reportedly) just been published, but it can no longer be ordered, and the pre-order I placed 3 months ago no longer shows an estimated delivery date. My guess is that because the original publication date of February 2008 had slipped, Amazon US decided to stop accepting pre-orders.

Something similar happened with Amazon Japan and the recently published IJN battleship bible; they accepted pre-orders up until the original publication date, but then listed it as unavailable until the book actually started shipping.

Mine arrived from Pen & Sword yesterday, five days after ordering. It seems Amazon do have it in stock then, though their ridiculous shipping system has lost them an order, even if I did have to pay slightly more elsewhere. On the positive side the book is superb, more later.

Mike

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Starling Models

http://www.starling-models.co.uk

Linux - you can get that new edition of the River Class Destroyers book here http://www.nauticalmind.com/River-Class ... 78793.html

Mark

Hi Mark, thanks for the tip. I'll stick with Amazon for the time being since both the book and shipping (across the pond) work out a lot cheaper.

I do wonder if Amazon are being temporarily embargoed by some of the smaller/speciality publishers in order to help traditional booksellers. Or whether Amazon are just losing interest in those publishers; they list nothing from Vanwell Publishing later than February 2008.

Linux, if Nautical Mind doesn't work then there is Chapters (either .ca or perhaps .com). I ordered my copy from them last summer. It is well worth the price about $20 and shipping was reasonable.

Thanks George. I was able to buy a copy from amazon.co.uk last year for 13.16 GBP and free shipping! It was worth the wait.