4 ms·

This hits close to home. When Grayson's _Traditional Archery from Six Continents_ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1662236.Traditional_Archery_from_Six_Cont

This hits close to home. When Grayson's _Traditional Archery from Six Continents_ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1662236.Traditional_Archery_from_Six_Continents https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1662236.Traditional_Arch... went out of print, I actually found it more palatable to buy the rights and re-print it. Since then, I attempted that with Tolkien's _Old English Exodus_ but was rebuffed on the grounds that I was a "Tolkien Nut" and not an academic --- that text has since been reprinted by Harper Collins in a #2 box set, which I anxiously pre-ordered and waited for, only to find that from the Select Bibliography to then end of the re-set poem (22 pages) there were almost as many typos (20) on a quick first reading: https://old.reddit.com/r/OldEnglish/comments/1vyly9o/could_someone_check_if_the_following_are_typos_in/ https://old.reddit.com/r/OldEnglish/comments/1vyly9o/could_s... really wish all authors did as DEK and offered a bounty on typos... I could use a check for $51.20 even if it wouldn't fully offset the cost of the boxed set (though arguably, I should sell the other 4 books as dupes of texts I already own).

philips 10d ago
Wow! Good on you for finding the rights and republishing! I would love to read more about the process.
- WillAdams 10d ago
  There wasn't much to it --- I contacted the Univ. of Missouri Press, they set a price in terms of initial fee and on-going royalty payments, I returned a signed copy of the contract and they sent a DVD w/ the files. The only wrinkle was I failed to communicate clearly that I wanted to do a hardcover reprint and they assumed I was doing a softcover (apparently rights are different?) but they decided that the modest quantity I wanted (100) was okay for hardcover (within the variance of unprinted copies from first run?) and allowed it. I contacted a (sort of) local printer with a digital press to send the files, proofed them, then once approved and printed, I drove in my truck and picked them up (should have parked closer, a couple of boxes took a tumble), stored them in my entry closet and sold them over the course of a couple of years, sending a statement and check each year until the last copy I was selling was sold and I closed the books. The notable afterthought was that I should have bought used copies at the price that they were then set at by my re-issue and re-sold them after, but I couldn't bring myself to be quite that mercenary.
  - philips 6d ago
    Thank you for writing up your story. Could you break down the costs at each step? Did you break even on royalties and printing costs? I am always fascinated by the whole tension of copyright, publishing costs, and the lost knowledge due to the gap between the two.
    - WillAdams 5d ago
      From uncertain organic memory royalty was a set percentage (7%? came out to a $1,000 check plus a fee $500?). Print $3,500 as two checks. Books sold for $70 ea. and if sold on Amazon had $12.83 for their fees. Sold a few in person, handed out too many for marketing, and did okay on shipping 'cause I re-used packaging. In the end, came out ahead, and would be willing to revisit this sort of thing in the future.
pseingatl 10d ago
Not so fast...typos are now proof the content wasn't AI generated. AI doesn't make typographical mistakes except when languages are mixed.
- WillAdams 10d ago
  Most of the typos were linguistic, a couple of German words in the bibliography, Old English in the poem.
poulpy123 10d ago
I think that even for a shopping list from the hand of Tolkien they would give publishing rights only to big editors
- WillAdams 10d ago
  That was not the impression I got from the Tolkien Estate and Oxford University Press when I asked.

philips 10d ago

Wow! Good on you for finding the rights and republishing! I would love to read more about the process.

WillAdams 10d ago
There wasn't much to it --- I contacted the Univ. of Missouri Press, they set a price in terms of initial fee and on-going royalty payments, I returned a signed copy of the contract and they sent a DVD w/ the files. The only wrinkle was I failed to communicate clearly that I wanted to do a hardcover reprint and they assumed I was doing a softcover (apparently rights are different?) but they decided that the modest quantity I wanted (100) was okay for hardcover (within the variance of unprinted copies from first run?) and allowed it. I contacted a (sort of) local printer with a digital press to send the files, proofed them, then once approved and printed, I drove in my truck and picked them up (should have parked closer, a couple of boxes took a tumble), stored them in my entry closet and sold them over the course of a couple of years, sending a statement and check each year until the last copy I was selling was sold and I closed the books. The notable afterthought was that I should have bought used copies at the price that they were then set at by my re-issue and re-sold them after, but I couldn't bring myself to be quite that mercenary.
- philips 6d ago
  Thank you for writing up your story. Could you break down the costs at each step? Did you break even on royalties and printing costs? I am always fascinated by the whole tension of copyright, publishing costs, and the lost knowledge due to the gap between the two.
  - WillAdams 5d ago
    From uncertain organic memory royalty was a set percentage (7%? came out to a $1,000 check plus a fee $500?). Print $3,500 as two checks. Books sold for $70 ea. and if sold on Amazon had $12.83 for their fees. Sold a few in person, handed out too many for marketing, and did okay on shipping 'cause I re-used packaging. In the end, came out ahead, and would be willing to revisit this sort of thing in the future.

pseingatl 10d ago

Not so fast...typos are now proof the content wasn't AI generated. AI doesn't make typographical mistakes except when languages are mixed.

WillAdams 10d ago
Most of the typos were linguistic, a couple of German words in the bibliography, Old English in the poem.

poulpy123 10d ago

I think that even for a shopping list from the hand of Tolkien they would give publishing rights only to big editors

WillAdams 10d ago
That was not the impression I got from the Tolkien Estate and Oxford University Press when I asked.