I received a $252 book today that was casebound, print-on-demand, with cheap quality paper. The binding was already starting to come apart! That is just plain wrong. It's bad enough charging $252 for a book, but to do it as a print-on-demand is insulting...
Amen! Thankfully there are still publishers out there that (a) keep their book prices reasonable, and (b) publish books with quality binding! Like Eisenbrauns!
ReplyDeleteThanks! The two biggest offenders are Oxford and Brill—you can't afford not to carry them! But, you feel bad for the customers.
ReplyDeleteJames
James, I'm on the verge of tears at reading this.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've seen a Brill book that isn't sewn...though they prices are painful. I recently received a massive 1300 pager from Oxford with a straight clean cut across the glued spine, cheapo paper, and casebound. It was painful to look at.
Cambridge is pretty bad too. They sew their first printings and then glue everything else after that. Can you imagine 1800 pages of the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language with notch binding? Its terrible. I keep it flat on its side on my desk. I'm scared to let it stand up on a shelf.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteThis was a Brill book :( They've started using print-on-demand. It was pretty pathetic looking.
James
Oh man. That's the worst news of the day.
ReplyDelete