1saintmelville
Easton has added:
https://www.eastonpress.com/whats-new/the-book-of-genesis-3766.html
4 monthly installments of $72.00
https://www.eastonpress.com/whats-new/the-book-of-genesis-3766.html
4 monthly installments of $72.00
2HugoDumas
>1 saintmelville: Do you think there will be a DLE for each of the 73 books of the Bible?
4saintmelville
>2 HugoDumas:. Wow!!!....I didn't think about that or perhaps don't want to think about it. A major DLE list in its own right. Some of the DLEs might prove popular sellers, illustrator and text dependent of course. I have been expecting the (2) volume Dore illustrated Holy Bible, item 2848, to return. At (800) sets, there should be plenty remaining of the limitation.
5jroger1
I own two DLE Bibles that I bought back when I was into big, impressive-looking books — the 1611 edition and the 2-volume Gustave Dore edition. I wouldn’t buy either one today because they are too humongous to actually read. Smaller, nicely illustrated editions of several individual books might be attractive, but most are not important enough from a literary standpoint to justify a DLE treatment.
6jroger1
All of my previous DLEs have stated on the copyright page “Printed and bound in the United States,” but the web page for Genesis says “Bound in the USA. Imported materials.” I presume this change means that it might have been printed elsewhere. Has anyone noticed a similar statement on other recent books?
9treereader
>6 jroger1:
There are so many pieces to one of these books, it would be hard to pin down just exactly what got imported. Any one or more of the moire fabric, ribbon, leather, cardboard, boards, gold stamping, gilt, pages, or thread could be in play.
I remember someone spotting this phrase in another thread within the past year but I'll be darned if I could remember which book.
There are so many pieces to one of these books, it would be hard to pin down just exactly what got imported. Any one or more of the moire fabric, ribbon, leather, cardboard, boards, gold stamping, gilt, pages, or thread could be in play.
I remember someone spotting this phrase in another thread within the past year but I'll be darned if I could remember which book.
10jroger1
>9 treereader:
DCloyceSmith (David), a manager at Library of America, recently posted this note on their LT forum detailing the difficulty of finding an American printer who is capable of doing large jobs.
“ Here is the message I wrote a few years back, regarding the size of LOA volumes:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/150158#3926995
As I’d mentioned, the problem is not with the first printing, when our usual press run ranges from 7,000 to 15,000 copies, but with subsequent printings of a many of our titles. In many cases, a few years after a title’s initial publication, a three- to five-year supply can be as low as 500 copies. The cost to set up the book (called “make-ready” in the industry) is so high that the printing/binding cost per book is far more than most readers would be willing to pay. To “break even” on some of these titles, we’d have to charge $100 or more in bookstores, which would decrease sales even further. As it is, we subsidize those volumes with donations and with sales of other books.
In addition, since I wrote the above message, the number of *American* printers that can print large books has decreased by two—bankruptcies, both of them. In fact, there are only two firms remaining in the U.S. that both have the presses to print on thin (30# to 40#) paper *and* that can do sewn bindings of books of 1,200 pages or more.
Most (and perhaps all) of the books mentioned above, published by Taschen and IDW and other larger commercial publishers, are printed abroad, which one can do more affordably if you have a much larger staff and print enough books to negotiate substantial contracts with printers in Europe and Asia (especially in China)—and if you are able to work in the extra four to eight weeks of delivery time. This really is not an option for us; we simply don’t have the volume or the bandwidth.
An anecdote you might find interesting: the Obama biography, which ended up being around 1,400 pages, was split into two volumes not simply to make more money—although I’m sure that was a consideration—but because the number of American binderies available to bind millions of copies of a book that large was simply not sufficient. They simply couldn’t have done it as one volume in 2021 even if he or they had wanted to.
Another recent nail in the coffin, by the way, is the closing at the beginning of this year of the last paper mill in the U.S. that produced high-quality literary opaque paper. A number of publishers were left high and dry with that announcement and several of us worked together through a broker *during the pandemic* to find a mill in Finland (!) to produce our paper.
All in all, the last few years have been particularly challenging for smaller presses—not just Library of America—who are dedicated to publishing physical books. Here’s hoping the recent, substantial increase in book sales ends up turning things around and encourages American printers to expand their capacity.
--David”
DCloyceSmith (David), a manager at Library of America, recently posted this note on their LT forum detailing the difficulty of finding an American printer who is capable of doing large jobs.
“ Here is the message I wrote a few years back, regarding the size of LOA volumes:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/150158#3926995
As I’d mentioned, the problem is not with the first printing, when our usual press run ranges from 7,000 to 15,000 copies, but with subsequent printings of a many of our titles. In many cases, a few years after a title’s initial publication, a three- to five-year supply can be as low as 500 copies. The cost to set up the book (called “make-ready” in the industry) is so high that the printing/binding cost per book is far more than most readers would be willing to pay. To “break even” on some of these titles, we’d have to charge $100 or more in bookstores, which would decrease sales even further. As it is, we subsidize those volumes with donations and with sales of other books.
In addition, since I wrote the above message, the number of *American* printers that can print large books has decreased by two—bankruptcies, both of them. In fact, there are only two firms remaining in the U.S. that both have the presses to print on thin (30# to 40#) paper *and* that can do sewn bindings of books of 1,200 pages or more.
Most (and perhaps all) of the books mentioned above, published by Taschen and IDW and other larger commercial publishers, are printed abroad, which one can do more affordably if you have a much larger staff and print enough books to negotiate substantial contracts with printers in Europe and Asia (especially in China)—and if you are able to work in the extra four to eight weeks of delivery time. This really is not an option for us; we simply don’t have the volume or the bandwidth.
An anecdote you might find interesting: the Obama biography, which ended up being around 1,400 pages, was split into two volumes not simply to make more money—although I’m sure that was a consideration—but because the number of American binderies available to bind millions of copies of a book that large was simply not sufficient. They simply couldn’t have done it as one volume in 2021 even if he or they had wanted to.
Another recent nail in the coffin, by the way, is the closing at the beginning of this year of the last paper mill in the U.S. that produced high-quality literary opaque paper. A number of publishers were left high and dry with that announcement and several of us worked together through a broker *during the pandemic* to find a mill in Finland (!) to produce our paper.
All in all, the last few years have been particularly challenging for smaller presses—not just Library of America—who are dedicated to publishing physical books. Here’s hoping the recent, substantial increase in book sales ends up turning things around and encourages American printers to expand their capacity.
--David”
12EPsonNY
>8 GOBOGIE: I understand most of artists aren't going to take risks with biblical imagery or attempt to make them more modern, but I find these particular illustrations off-putting and lacking depth. All the faces are nearly identical with same droopy eyes and puffy noses. One can venture as far as to say they are a crude auto-portrait of the illustrator...
Curious choice by Easton Press and a definite pass for me. I'll stick with Dore-illustrated Bible...
Curious choice by Easton Press and a definite pass for me. I'll stick with Dore-illustrated Bible...
13GOBOGIE
>12 EPsonNY: I’m going to have to agree with your assessment of the illustrations.
14hamletscamaro
>12 EPsonNY: I don't think it is odd at all that EP did a DLE for Genesis. Folio Society has one right now, and we oftern see both of them publish the same title within months of each other. I think this is no different.
15jroger1
>14 hamletscamaro:
EP has already done one ancient text — Gilgamesh — in this DIE series, so Genesis is not a stretch.
EP has already done one ancient text — Gilgamesh — in this DIE series, so Genesis is not a stretch.
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