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Originally Posted by ApK
You keep separating fiction from your precious Chinese history masterpiece as if fiction takes no time, effort or research . . .
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Do you have a quotation where I said that?
If you do, and I agree that's what it says, I'll be glad to retract it.
As for the phrase "Chinese history masterpiece", I take it you are not going to read that kind of book. Then you shouldn't care how much it costs. Problem solved. (True, it's not solved, for me, if the publisher goes bankrupt due to overpricing, or underpricing, or mistreatment of authors. However, so far, the publishers seem to be managing the transition to digital reading without much product quality deterioration -- and, from a balance sheet standpoint, better than Amazon.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
At least until we go to my system of grants, crowd funding or patronage.
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There are lots of books published by academic publishers who pay a pittance of an advance (often way under US$1,000) and where the research was funded by grants supplemented by a university salary, or visa versa. With -- like everything concerning books -- exceptions, they tend to be dry. And the big publisher books, in my experience, tend to be better. I believe the most plausible reason for this is because the big publishers do a better job of improving manuscripts.
The alternative to big publishers is not necessarily cheaper. Here is an academic title, and its almost-big publisher popularization, as an example:
Deterrence and Crime Prevention: Reconsidering the Prospect of Sanction by David M. Kennedy (Routledge, 2008, $39.46 for Kindle edition, recently available as rental)
Don't Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America by David M. Kennedy (Bloomsbury, 2011, $9.48 for Kindle edition; would be more if newer)
I haven't read the first one above, but the Bloomsbury title is quite good. And if Amazon is squeezing Bloomsbury, I hope Amazon loses.