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Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 16 January 2012
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| It was nice to actually see and handle a POD title in the New Nats series at the Bird Fair at Rutland Water over the weekend. The general quality was very good, the dust wrappers to a standard only to be expected for this wonderful series. The spine binding lies flat in comparison to the usual rounded spines of all other editions in the series, will this unduly affect the general uniformity on the bookshelf I ask. However, I have one major concern that I mentioned to Alex at Collins stand; the total lack of any printed titles on the spines - including the iconic NN logo!!! My concern was readily accepted by Alex and he stated he would discuss this with Collins. I firmly believe that ommitting the titles (primarily on the grounds of printing cost's?) from the spines compromises the integrity of the books. It would be interesting to have other views on this subject.
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Supreme Being
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Last Login: 08 December 2011
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| Dear Wilrow, I appreciate you instinctively feel the print on demand editions should be identical to the originals, but as discussed these are not facsimiles but digital prints, produced differently to the first editions, and to the editions we continue to print in a conventional manner. (We are clear on the points of difference in our article describing how the books are made). Although with the New Naturalists Collins have pioneered the first print on demand service ever to offer produce hardback colour books - something to be celebrated - there are limits to the technology I'm afraid. The cost implication of printing a book on demand with the title on the spine - which would involve a further supplier in the production chain - would compromise the main drive of this initiative, which is to bring the content of the books to a wider audience by publishing out of print titles at an affordable price. I hope you can now understand we would love to accommodate, but don't want to raise the price any higher than £50. Alex
Collins
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Forum Newbie
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Last Login: 16 January 2012
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| Thank you for responding Alex. I along with the vast majority of New Naturalist collectors/readers believe it's an absolutely superb initiative by Collins to provide the PoD service and it most certainly is something to be celebrated. I also accept most of the reasons you state regarding keeping the costs down, however I stand by my concerns about the lack of spine titling, even the cheapest produced hardbacks have spine titles...it's disappointing that Collins did'nt manage to go that extra mile with the PoD books.
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Supreme Being
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| I agree. Surely if you look at the book edge on sitting on your bookshelf then it needs to show the title of the book on the spine of the book?! Surely not too much to ask? Could Collins post a photo of the spine of a POD version? POD is a great & affordable idea but I would have thought the books title on the spine would have been obvious? What are other forum members thoughts on this?....Lee.
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Forum Newbie
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I don't think the lack of a spine title matters, at least not to me. I love the idea of PODs and have some on order (I live in the USA so mine won't be in my hands as fast as UK residents), they are not to fill gaps in my collection, but I shall use them as living breathing copies that I can read and use and even recommend as text books to my students.
OK my main collection is safe in it's vault and doesn't get read anymore. I think my POD freshwater fish will have a tough life, but that's what it's there for and when it's worn out and falling to bits I'll buy another POD to replace it.
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Forum Member
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Last Login: 02 February 2011
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| The lack of a spine title doesn't seem like a big deal to me - given that the dustjackets are part of the appeal of the series, are there many people who display them on their bookshelves "naked" as it were? Furthermore, although I haven't seen my copies yet, if the dustjackets have the laminate coating on the outside for POD editions as has been suggested, there wouldn't even be the need to take the jacket off to avoid fingerprints while reading.
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Forum Member
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Last Login: 28 January 2012
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| Can you imagine if Collins do decide to start printing the titles on the spine for POD in the future. Then the price of these prototype unmarked ones would skyrocket!! I'm sure most of the orders so far have been for POD copies of the Golden 13 or maybe Dragonflies 41 not far behind., but think about it, in the future there may turn out to be only one unmarked POD copy of "Man and the Land" for example. Peter Marren will have a whole chapter in in his updated 82 v3 about the mythical 2009 early PODs, the unmarked rarities!
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Junior Member
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Last Login: 08 January 2012
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| Whilst I am not too sure about the future collectability of low volume PODs: it would be interesting to collectors if HarperCollins were to publish (say annually) the statistics on numbers ordered for each title. Any chance of this happening: or even a league table on popularity?
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Supreme Being
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DavidGarnett (10/14/2009)
WhilstI am not too sure about the future collectability of low volume PODs: it would be interesting to collectors if HarperCollins were to publish (say annually) the statistics on numbers ordered for each title. Any chance of this happening: or even a league table on popularity?
Why on earth would a company allow such commercially sensitive material to enter the public domain? Not a snowballs chance in hell, I imagine!
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Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 08 January 2012
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| Not sure what is so commercially sensitive: we have figures on the volumes of books printed by HC. So another publisher learns that HC serviced 287 Ladybird PODs: what are they going to make of that? Seems to be similar to the Health and Safety industry: dont do or allow anything just in case!
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