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[ARSCLIST] Discographia--was: regurgitators
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Miller" <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Re: Bonner's book...
>
> I don't know if they offer a discount. I will add that David was quite
frustrated that they wanted to charge so much for it. He had hoped it would have
some popular appeal, and actually sell to people and not just libraries.
>
> I should add that we still hope to reissue some of the discs. The estate is
divided between the three children and one has been very slow to respond.
>
> And also on the subject of plugging publications...I had mentioned, almost a
year ago, that I would be issuing on my label, Pierian, some of the Ampico
popular music rolls of people like Edgar Fairchild and Adam Carroll...they are
at press and should be available at the usual places like amazon in time for
your Christmas giving! The discs are titled, "It's De-lovely ! (not suprisingly,
all music of Cole Porter) and "Let's Face the Music and Dance," music of Kern,
Gershwin, et al. We have another disc ready to go, devoted entirely to
performances of Grofe, but don't have the cash on hand...
>
One of the harsh inevitabilities of publishing discographic reference works
is the unfortunate small size of the market therefor...! This results in
a choice between two harsh options...(1) maximize the sale to individual
collectors/discograpers, by keeping the price as low as possible; however,
this usually results in a non-hard-cover binding of some type...OR (2)
have the work published in hard-cover format...which increases possible
library sales (an important market for reference works...!) but, at the
same time, drastically increases the sale price, often beyond what collectors/
discographers can afford...or want to...pay!
With my "Dating Guide," I have taken the former approach...the book still
sells (via Kurt Nauck, the publisher) for under $20...but uses a "Cerlox"
binding, which means that library sales are minimal...!
Keep in mind that I would doubt that we obsessed collectors of ancient
shellaciana probably number under...perhaps FAR under...10,000 total...!
Steven C. Barr
(and that in another three decades give or take there may be at best a
dozen shellacophiles bidding on those 10,000(+/-) collections of 78's...?!)