Ant. On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 7:12 PM, Ant McWatt <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 7:48 AM, ARLO JAMES BENSINGER JR <[email protected]> > wrote: > > [DMB] > > http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/books/the-truth-about-art-reclaiming-quality-by-patrick-doorly/2016268.article > > The reviewer finds things to criticize and things to praise about Patrick > Doorly's book. (Any press is good press?) > > [Arlo] > "The book is printed on low-quality paper with dense text in double columns, > which do not make for pleasant reading." Ouch. > > Dan Glover stated October 19th 2014: > > > [Dan] > If I had purchased a book "printed on low-quality paper with dense > text in double columns" I would have promptly sent it back for a > refund. Not only is this information the reader needs to know before > they buy the book (there is no free preview available on Amazon as > most books have) but it is something that can (probably) be remedied > in the next edition. This is constructive criticism... something the > author can use to improve his work. > > I have published a number of print books using CreateSpace, a division > of Amazon... basically a POD (print on demand) publishing house. The > prices for customers are reasonable (there is no cost to me as the > publisher), the quality is there (paper-wise as well as the > illustrations), and I have the ability to go back any time and make > changes should I deem them necessary. The point is, there are options > out there so that an author does not have to settle for low quality, > especially when his book is about reclaiming quality! > > Ant McWatt comments: > > Dan, all, > > Remember that Patrick Doorly (the author of TTAA) was primarily aiming his > book towards an academic audience (I guess fine art critics and philosophers > mainly) so a vanity publisher such as CreateSpace (whose academic credibility > is basically zero) was not an option open to him. It's the finely honed > arguments in Patrick's book which give it, its intellectual quality and its > these arguments that I ask the reader of this post to be primarily concerned > with.
Dan: In other words (and forgive me if I am translating this wrongly), folk like me have no reason to be reading Patrick Doorly's book. Only those who are academically trained in the fine arts and philosophy would have any use for it. It is a text book. Ah... that makes sense. So I can cross the book off my wish list. I was actually tempted to purchase the paperback version but you have saved me $25 that can (doubtlessly) be better spent elsewhere. Just for your own edification, CreateSpace is NOT a vanity publisher. I thought I made that clear. It is a print on demand publisher. A vanity publisher is one where an author (and there have been many classical authors who published that way including Nietzsche, Proust, Daniel Webster [if you can call him an author] and a whole host of others too numerous to mention here) pays to have their work published, usually a set amount of copies which they then try to sell themselves. Daniel Webster actually mortgaged his home in order to print 3000 copies of his first dictionary and that at 70 years of age. I guess he didn't realize vanity publishers have zero credibility at least academically.. CreateSpace is different than a vanity publisher in that no upfront purchase is necessary. When someone buys the book CreateSpace prints and ships it within a matter of a few days. In fact, if an author purchases their own ISBN there is no reason why anyone who might be in the habit of academically judging books would need know it is a CreateSpace book. I'd be willing to bet one of my books against Patrick's that a good number of text books are being published just that way even as we speak. >Ant: > Different horses for different courses I guess... Maybe Patrick and/or his > publisher will arrange to have a deluxe version of TTAA published one day (on > high quality paper with full colo(u)r photographs; etc.) but (without editing > the main body of text) this would still be a very expensive purchase. For > instance, check out Genesis Publications (who publish gorgeously hand crafted > books) whose books often sell for £500/$850 plus: > > http://www.genesis-publications.com/book/i-me-mine-george-harrison/deluxe Dan: Okay. As I said I will cross it off my wish list anyhow so no worries. >Ant: > You also have to remember that Patrick is very much a pioneer (certainly as > the UK is concerned) and things can only improve in this regard > (hopefully!!!). Dan: One can always hope. Thank you, Dan http://www.danglover.com Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
