MORE ON PRESS RUNS OF NUMISMATIC LITERATURE

I've followed with interest the discussion on the print run of numismatic titles. Here are a few further thoughts on press runs of numismatic books.

But before that, let me introduce myself. I am a professional working in the publishing industry, in a domain which has nothing to do with numismatics. I have also been an enthusiastic collector of fourth century coins for twenty years. Last year, these two facets of of my life coincided when I published a book on fourth century coins - more info can be found here: www.lateromanbronzecoins.com.

I am absolutely convinced that the future of numismatic publishing lies in print-on-demand. Traditional publishing of numismatic books is a risky business. Numismatics is a niche market and apart from a few general titles, most numismatic books are a niche within a niche. Because the best-case scenario sales figures for most titles is at best a couple of thousand (and even then, a lot of titles will sell at most a couple of hundred copies), print-runs are fairly low.

A low print run means more expensive titles. More expensive titles means that within the limited set of people who potentially interested, people are more likely to hesitate before buying, which drives the numbers further down.

Another aspect is that books need to be stored and stocked. In an uncertain market, they might have to be stored for a long time before they are sold. This further drives prices up.

So, enter the print-on-demand book. It is stored as a computer file or set of files. Every time someone wants to buy the book, a copy is printed. Most big companies have deals with distributors and printers throughout the world, which means that your book gets printed locally before being sent to you. No decisions to be taken about print runs, no stocks to deal with, very little risk.

I think that the publishing industry needs to take a good hard look at itself. In order to survive, traditional publishing houses are going to have to review many aspects of their publishing model in order to keep costs down and to ensure that books don't go out of print - I truly think that digital print-on-demand is the way to go, as there are no stocks to keep and the publishing file is available indefinitely. It's sad that an important company like Spink can't even maintain a full set of the Roman Imperial Coinage in print.

The reason I published my book is that I was keen to revive a title (Guido Bruck's Die spätrömische kupferprägung that had faded into obscurity after it went out of print. So much information is being lost to the general public in this way. I'm happy to say that it has sold as many copies as I thought it would, that I haven't lost any money, that I'm not sitting on a pile of unsold books and that a classical title has been rescued and will never be out of print again.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
QUERY: PRESS RUN FOR A NEW BOOK ON NUMISMATICS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n40a19.html)
THOUGHTS ON PRESS RUNS OF NUMISMATIC BOOKS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n41a07.html)
MORE ON PRESS RUNS OF NUMISMATIC BOOKS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n42a08.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web