If you compare content $70 is like stealing, I mean stealing for the purchaser. Anyone that has poured their lifetime of knowledge like Mark has is practically giving it away for $70.
I think $70 is dirt cheap considering the info, which can't be found anywhere else! YMMV
Sorry for crowding this thread so much, but I know books (I collect photography books and I'm about to start publishing them) and while MOJOE is right, there's really something more that needs to be said here. YOU NEED TO GET THIS BOOK WHILE YOU CAN. Here's what I mean:
Publishing is structured for books that have high demand that quickly tapers to nothing. A friend of mine had a book commercially published and was told that if the book hadn't paid for itself in 7 months, the publisher would remainder it. The publishing industry is structured for best-sellers...the industry publishes ten books for every one that turns a profit, and the reward comes when one catches fire and earns ten or twenty or a hundred or a thousand times what it cost to produce. Those best-sellers can earn millions and pay for all the "duds" that earn little or nothing. The hits pay for the misses, as they say.
Photo books (and I mention them because I'm 90% certain Mark's book will be similar) are different. There, the demand "curve" is a straight but low line. That is, there's a low but steady AND CONTINUING demand. It used to be possible to serve this type of market, because some publishers (especially academic ones) were content to print a lot of books and keep them in a warehouse and let them trickle out slowly. (The legend is that Oxford University Press once had NOS--new old stock--printed over 100 years ago that it was selling as new!) But Reagan changed the tax code in the U.S. and now publishers have to pay tax on stock. The result is that it's no longer economically feasible here to commercially print books that sell slowly but steadily. (Printing on demand and e-publishing are changing that now, but we don't need to get into that.)
In the photography field, what happens is that books are printed in low numbers (in photobooks, 1000 to 3000 is the norm) published for a certain price--say, $70. They might sell slowly. They might even be remaindered (cleared) at a loss (say $20). Then they're gone. But AFTER they're gone, that low but steady demand is still there. First it sucks up all the remainders. Then it scavenges the used copies sold by people who bought it but don't want to keep it. Gradually the copies for sale become scarce. That low but steady demand is still there, though, and it works on the market just as you expect it would--the price for used copies steadily goes up. Before long, the price for a used copy passes what the book sold for at new retail. If there's enough demand, then the price can even skyrocket. I've seen many, many examples of out-of-print books selling for very high prices (go to Amazon and look up "Winogrand 1964," a book I dearly wish I had bought when it was new in 2002. If you don't want to look, the prices for used copies on Amazon right this minute--I just looked--range from $360 to $2000, for a book that was probably published at around $40).
THEN, if the price goes high enough, what SOMETIMES happens is that the publisher will see that the demand is still there, and reprint the book. The price then drops to that initial retail $70 again (but in photography, the earlier editions still cost more, just not as much more). Or something near it.
The trouble with this is that you never know if there's going to be a reprint. Some classic books have been reprinted as many as five times, and the earlier reprints are now collectible! E.g. Robert Frank's "The Americans." Availability and accessibility then depends on whether there's a reprint that's current or not. Or, other factors might intervene--for instance, with my website's "Book of the Year" for 2012, Pentti Sammallahti's "Here Far Away," published by Dewi Lewis in England, the first printing sold out quickly, and the price for used copies rose above new retail very quickly, but the planned reprint was delayed for almost a year. The reason was that Pentti wanted to be on press for the second press run as he was for the first, and he was experiencing health problems.
Here's what I think is going to happen with Mark's book. He will sell out the initial print run of 1000, in some number of months or years. He will then be faced with a decision: whether to do another press run. The decision isn't entirely economic: it's possible he might look back on all the work of the first printing and decide he doesn't want to go through it again; he might (god forbid) be experiencing a health change; he might have a new job that takes up all his time. He might also think there's just not enough demand to warrant a second printing.
My bet is that this book will go into a second printing (probably in paperback). Reason: word of mouth. As pool people realize what a great book it is, word will get around. That takes time, but it will happen with this book.
BUT, eventually, there will be no more copies. BUT PEOPLE WILL STILL WANT THE BOOK. That translates to scarcity and high price, just as in the photo book field. My guess is that the process with Mark's book will take longer than it does with photo books (where it can happen in a span of literally months)--a few years, maybe. And I bet the used prices probably won't go so high, because (unlike in photography) there are no (or few) rabid collectors of pool books (although I'll bet there are a few), and people can enjoy pool without ever buying a book. But my opinion is that EVENTUALLY a number of people will still want this book and there won't be that many copies out there. I just have no crystal ball on the time frame.
Right now it's available for new retail, direct from Mark, first edition, first printing, signed by the author (mine has a signed plate and I assume they all do). For only $70. My semi-expert advice: if you're interested or think you might be in the future, nab one while you can. I don't think you will ever regret it. Or rather, I think the possibility of regret is higher if you don't buy it now than if you do buy it now.
(I should add that I don't know Mark and have no stake in the book except as a purchaser and a student of the game.)
Man, I just talked myself into buying a copy. Too bad I already have one, I'd go buy one.
Mike
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