I know the press runs for many scholarly Twain books, and although I cannot 
divulge those numbers without the permission of the publishers, I can make 
the observation that scholarly presses are generally printing about half as 
many books as they did 20 years ago, as ebooks become a bigger proportion of 
total sales. Publisher's love ebooks: They don't have to be "shipped" or 
"warehoused" and they don't get damaged by dust or vermin, or lost in 
transit, or incur taxes as unsold inventory at the end of every year. But as 
those hardcopy (both hardback and paperback) editions get smaller, the unit 
prices rise steeply because the up-front overhead costs are still the same 
and must be recovered from a smaller number of units. This general trend in 
publishing is a huge threat to scholarly publishing and has caused mass 
market publishers to pull back as well. Most scholarly presses depend 
largely on library sales, so I'd urge anyone who wants to read any expensive 
scholarly editions to lean on their local public or university library to 
buy a copy, and then borrow it. Have your friends and family ask for the 
book too. Libraries frequently make purchase decisions based on reader 
demand.

The Salem Press book on HF is not the only expensive book out there. Here's 
a link to the entire Salem Press Critical Insights series. It's quite a 
list, and you'll notice that they all sell for the same price. Judging from 
the length of that list and the fact that they are constantly adding to that 
popular series, it's obviously they are selling those books to somebody (ie, 
libraries).

http://salempress.com/press_titles.html?series=32

I say all of this so that nobody blames scholars, editors, booksellers, or 
even publishers. It might be tempting to blame publishers but they are 
obeying the laws of economics, and I can't think of anyone who has made a 
fortune as a writer, editor, publisher, or seller or scholarly books. I've 
made a few dollars as an antiquarian bookseller and I've spent untold hours 
writing on scholarly topics. I prefer the latter, and if I ever figure out 
how to make scholarly writing pay, watch out! First, though, I need to 
figure out how to make drowsing in a hammock pay.

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
Member: ABAA, ILAB
*************************
You may browse our books at:
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com


-----Original Message----- 
From: Clay Shannon
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2017 7:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Use of the N-word

I will chime in and say the book is no doubt worth every penny, but I also =
understand the "sticker shock" some may feel.
I wrote a couple of computer programming books years ago, and had the same =
experience: the books sold for around $40 (and were not "fancy" at all - ju=
st text), and I got $2 for each book sold. I think I calculated once that I=
had made a couple of dollars per hour or some such amount.
So in these cases both the author[s] and the consumer[s] suffer "disadvanta=
ges" but there are sometimes benefits that go beyond the time or money you =
invest.=C2=A0- B. Clay Shannon

      From: Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2017 4:27 PM
Subject: Re: Use of the N-word
  =20
I'm entirely sympathetic. If you look through reviews of recent scholarly=
=20
books in the Mark Twain Forum you'll see that the hardback editions are=20
expensive. Unlike mass market books, scholarly books are published in small=
=20
editions; consequently the unit prices are much higher. Also, scholarly=20
books seldom get picked up for movie rights. The scholars who contribute to=
=20
these books are paid "modest" one-time fees for their writing, which, if=20
divided by the hours consumed in researching and writing, would fall well=
=20
below the minimum wage. Sometimes you can buy a paperback or ebook version=
=20
for much less than the hardback price. This is the brutal law of economics=
=20
at work, and I'm afraid I don't have a solution.

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
Member: ABAA, ILAB
*************************
You may browse our books at:
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com


-----Original Message-----=20
From: ANTON & SUSAN VERHULST
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2017 2:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Use of the N-word

>
>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 On January 4, 2017 at 3:06 PM Kevin Mac Donnell=20
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 How about a shameless promotion of a book to which I contrib=
uted a=20
> chapter
>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 that discusses this topic? The book is a collection of essay=
s by=20
> various
>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 folks, edited by R. Kent Rasmussen, called CRITICAL INSIGHTS=
:=20
> ADVENTURES OF
>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 HUCKLEBERRY FINN. It's due out any second from Salem Press.
>


At US$105.00, I'm afraid that I'll have to pass on this -=20
http://tinyurl.com/gt9e6tx. sigh.


Tony=20


  =20