Wes Crone ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Robin Newton wrote:
>
>>If I remember correctly, the last edition of Grove took something like 5
>>years to break even, let alone make a profit.
>
>If that figure is correct, and I do not doubt that it is, then I
>underestimated the production costs dramatically.  Another poster relied
>with a similar message about the production costs and while I had figured
>some costs into the overall cost of releasing the set I never estimated it
>to be so high.  I would like to say that once a printed version has been
>completed it should only be a matter of transforming the volumes into ones
>and zeros.  ...  Now that that product is complete in printed form the
>costs of creating a complete reproduction on CD-ROM should be a very minor
>challenge compared with the initial task of obtaining and translating all
>the information.  I don't expect production costs would be too astounding.

But, but, but......

Firstly, I rather imagine that the original text will be in electonric
form - I can't imagine something that size today being produced in any
other way.

Secondly:  make the CD-ROM cheap and who will buy the book? So how do you
amortise the cost of all that work?

Still, be grateful you're not looking to buy the Grove Dictionary of Art.
I recently had a special, 50% offer and it was still $6,600 (Cdn).

Deryk Barker
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