> And do you have the sales figures on (a) what "gangbusters" consists of
> in terms of both units sold and profits realized, and (b) how many of
> these copies were actually sold to SCA members?
Do you? I can ask Ian Stevens when I see him tomorrow. Although I
doubt
that he has such figures at his fingertips any more than I would be expected
to. That I get answers from various publishers who are pleased with their
SCA sales makes me think that we are not a contemptible source of revenue
for them.
>
> Even the larger reenactor markets are not great sales markets. I find
> theatrical costumers to be a much larger, more profitable, and more
> reliable market. They will usually buy a book if they think it will
> facilitate their work; in other words, if they have a real professional
> need for it. Hobbyists usually pay less and are less likely to buy
> rather than borrow, or to not read the book at all.
Considering the less than stellar costumes we have been treated to in
various theatrical attempts this year I'd say that Theater Costumers are
pretty much wasting their time buying these books on costuming. The basic
thrust of all theatrical costume books I've seen and have seem to be far
more interested in creating the "look" than the accurate cut and
construction of clothing. Some renditions are enough to gag a maggot - "The
Tudors" being the worst I've seen lately. The costume library of the
Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon (not a shabby small town effort) is
exactly that; a library meant for costumers, not researchers.
>
That does not mean that the SCA
> is the only or main market of Maney Publishing, or anyone else outside
> the SCA community.
Of course not. They publish a great many journals for many societies to
include the Costume Society. Why in the world would you expect them to
>
> I've lost track of how many members the SCA has, but last time I checked
> it was a few thousand.
Present PAID memberships in the SCA are 29,500. This does not count those
who play but do not pay. My experience both here in the US and in Europe is
that there are between 5 and 10 active SCA players to every paid member.
This is the result of not requiring an actual membership to play except to
hold an office. Therefore we have a large number of college students and
even some quite old members who simply refuse to "pay to play". It is
always amusing to see the professional names of well known SCA members who
are Medieval History professors in their mundane lives.
>
For costume books with patterns, there is a solid if niche
> bread-and-butter market of professional costumers who will buy them
> because they need them, and that's what we really rely on.
Costume books for professional costumers... Certainly there is The Tudor
Tailor, published by ladies who clothe the docents of Hampton Court, but
Film and stage costumers intent on accuracy, or on "the look"
>
> >
> > Any market is better than no market
>
> No, it is not. Unless a market is a certain size compared to the costs
> of book publication, the book is not worth publishing. Unless a
> publisher is subsidized by a nonprofit, they simply cannot lose money
> and still stay in business.
The days of such publishers may be numbered. Those who refuse to
publish,
or publish with no intention of affording the authors of scholarly works
with any type of royalty (Kegan Paul in one incident I know of) may find
that publishing via the internet will become a viable alternative. I have
favorite Science Fiction authors who have had a problem finding a publisher
until lately. I was introduced to their work by a friend and now go to
their website, pay either via Pay Pal or credit card, and download the
books. I then put them on my computer, or my hand held (the Kindle may be
one of my next purchases if they come out with a back-lit screen option for
reading in the dim light of an airplane). Certainly nothing would stop me
from doing the same and printing it off, or sections of it off if I wanted.
The authors would then be assured of receiving at least something for their
efforts. This assumes that the authors aren't doing their publish or perish
thing for academia. For those who really want to put their information out
to the public.
>
> Publishers do not generally publish a book and then find a market for
> it. That is much too risky and expensive. They do considerable research
> to find out how many members of a target market or markets there are,
> where to locate them, and so on, before even beginning work on a book.
Publishers are also sometimes surprised at their market since they never
even thought to look outside a narrow academic field. The existence of
Oxbow and David Brown provides information on that. I spoke to Ian Stevens
today and he mentioned that they are going to be getting some sale books
from Cambridge. He was also interested in what type of books I knew would
be of interest to the several lists I'm on, from Cookery to leatherwork and
beyond. Want to bet the Cambridge books will fit comfortably in someone's
library that the original publisher never surveyed?
>
> Before offering a contract to the author, the publisher does more
> research, extrapolates from the sales volume of their other books, and
> so on. It has to look like the economics will work out from the very
> beginning. Granted, some books are financial failures even given
> extensive marketing research, but not doing the marketing research is
> usually a recipe for a real disaster. And granted, there are some books
> that do not have to be profitable because their publication is
> subsidized by museums or other nonprofit organizations.
And there are some books which are published with no intention of
providing
the author with any kind of remuneration. I call these the publish or
perish where the author practically has to pay the publisher. Then again
there are those that are published at a price that is simply beyond the
means of any but a library audience.
>
> There are many books that would probably be valuable cultural
> contributions that will never be published either because the market for
> them is not large enough, or because their authors did not do enough
> marketing research to convince the publisher of it.
These can now be electronically published. The costs may be computer
time,
one copy of the book in a readily readable format such as Microsoft Reader.
There are already several selling venues for such. The trick is going to be
for the audience to find them.
>
> and a new generation is growing up that
> > will never think to thank us for creating it. They will think that it's
> > obvious that someone would be interested in the grave finds on
> the Isle of
> > Man, or the cut and construction of Spanish clothing in 1578.
>
> As I said, I really doubt the SCA is solely responsible or even mainly
> responsible for supporting most scholarly books on the SCA period.
I doubt that it is solely responsible, but the entire
re-creation/recreation movement has made a market for books that would have
had a far smaller market without 40+ years of SCA and other group influence.
Wanda - book buyer, book gifter, book touter.
>
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