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For those unaware, get saving your euros/pounds/dollars: now posted as available for pre-order, the Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World is due in the next few months (800 pages!):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/toc/0...8&n=266239
On the subject of substantial forthcoming titles, is anyone aware of a new series published by Profile on the history of the ancient world (possibly something akin to the Blackwell and Routledge series), due sometime in 2014 I think?
Thanks & regards,
John
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I don't think any of these expensive curates' eggs will be asking me to contribute again in a hurry.
Mike Bishop
You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles
Blogging, tweeting, and mapping Hadrian\'s Wall... because it\'s there
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Quote:I don't think any of these expensive curates' eggs will be asking me to contribute again in a hurry.
Bravo! Also mildly horrific - do they not expect to sell to anyone but the contributors?
£200 is a stupid enough price for a generic reference work in any case. Not a chance I'll pay out even half that much for the Oxford work (poverty prohibits) but can even that be worth £105? If the pay was as bad as mcbishop's proposal, I might as well commission the most interesting authors to write me a personalised extract (which I would certainly print off and send back to them free of charge).
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Ivor
"And the four bare walls stand on the seashore. a wreck a skeleton a monument of that instability and vicissitude to which all things human are subject. Not a dwelling within sight, and the farm labourer, and curious traveller, are the only persons that ever visit the scene where once so many thousands were congregated." T.Lewin 1867
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Wow! not even a fraction of a percentage in a royalty, even?
Cheap beggers...
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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I knew things were getting bad when I was sponsored by a goat herder from the Sudan!! 
It is common too for an artist not to get a free copy of the publication they produce artwork for. At least in the digital age it is no longer a requirement to send the original artwork to the publishers as well or even the copyright. I keep most of mine now for display or reuse but most of my older originals have been lost along with the copyright. Back in the old days I was young, broke and stupid. Now I am older!
Robert Matthew wrote:
£200 is a stupid enough price for a generic reference work in any case.
That is cheap compared to the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Roman Army RRP £350.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Encyclopedia-Rom...596&sr=8-1
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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Quote:That is cheap compared to the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Roman Army RRP £350.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Encyclopedia-Rom...596&sr=8-1
*head explodes* Without even a contents list it's hard to assess the quality of the submissions... 1800 words for £350 works out as £35 for a 180 page book, which isn't too unusual, but the total makes no concessions for printing in bulk. Think I'll stick to library books...
Quote:At least in the digital age it is no longer a requirement to send the original artwork to the publishers as well or even the copyright.
A colleague of mine submitted a piece of her own original artwork for use as cover art for a book we have been editing. She didn't seem to mind handing over an original picture but I did think it was a shame.
Given the standing of your work I'm sad to hear it doesn't earn necessarily earn you a free copy. Such illustrations are help make the book marketable after all!
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Wow! I'm glad I offered you at least a free copy for your work in the Centuria Special, Mike!
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Quote:Wow! I'm glad I offered you at least a free copy for your work in the Centuria Special, Mike!
You should see me when I'm riled and sarcastic ;-)
Mike Bishop
You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles
Blogging, tweeting, and mapping Hadrian\'s Wall... because it\'s there
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Quote:Graham Sumner post=326338 Wrote:That is cheap compared to the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Roman Army RRP £350.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Encyclopedia-Rom...596&sr=8-1
*head explodes* Without even a contents list it's hard to assess the quality of the submissions... 1800 words for £350 works out as £35 for a 180 page book, which isn't too unusual, but the total makes no concessions for printing in bulk. Think I'll stick to library books... ...snip...
Quote:Given the standing of your work I'm sad to hear it doesn't earn necessarily earn you a free copy. Such illustrations are help make the book marketable after all!
That Blackwell magnum opus was the last of these I contributed to, simply because they did offer me a freebie. However, as I pointed out in my letter, the model is broken and unfixable and they are squandering (and insulting) a target audience by going for the academic jugular. The list of contributors was good (at least I'd heard of them, unlike the earlier flaccid, expensive, and equipmentless Companion... volume) but I was uneasy at the intent behind it.
Most of my forthcoming work will increasingly be self-published; at least I can trust that particular idiot publisher...
Mike Bishop
You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles
Blogging, tweeting, and mapping Hadrian\'s Wall... because it\'s there
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Thankfully I do get a free copy whenever I work for Jasper! I really appreciate the Edge of Empire publication!
Mike, if ever you need a stupid illustrator!!
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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That's because Jasper is a civilized publisher.
Nearly $700 for a book -- Yeowza!
Wonder if the E-Book is any cheaper ...
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Narukami
David Reinke
Burbank CA
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Quote:That is cheap compared to the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Roman Army RRP £350.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Encyclopedia-Rom...596&sr=8-1
The price already dropped to £297 - maybe it will be affordable when it actually becomes available. Le Bohec told me in january that it was to be published 'in 2012', but I'm afraid it will be next year.
Quote: The list of contributors was good (at least I'd heard of them, unlike the earlier flaccid, expensive, and equipmentless Companion... volume) but I was uneasy at the intent behind it.
I contributed to that one as well because they asked me to write a bit about my pet subject (plumbatae). That was back in 2008!
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Quote:That was back in 2008!
The wheels often turn slowly. In spring 2010, the editors of The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World asked me to "urgently" step in and write a chapter on Roman arms & armour, as they had been let down by a previous contributor. The book is not due to appear until next spring!
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Hi Mike,
I actually feel a little better now as I was beginning to think it was just this particular publisher that annoyed you. Have you received your six free copies of the reasonably priced Handbook to Roman Legionary Fortresses yet?
Graham, did I ever send you your complimentary copy of the Roman Conquests volumes you worked on? I would have put in one of those emoticons here, but I couldn't work out which one was meant to be a guilty expression.
Phil
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