Telescope Reviews: Binocular Astronomy, Second Edition

I've been thinking over this thread for about a month, and there are a couple points I would like to add to what I said earlier. This discussion does not deal simply with the dispute between an individual author and a single publisher. It involves larger problems which directly affect the quality of the books and magazine articles which are presently available to amateur astronomers.

I think that it would come as a surprise to most amateurs (and in fact to most book-buyers in general) how little control an author has over his or her texts and royalties. An author sends manuscripts to publishers believing, or hoping, that the publishers will not show the text to a rival author. But this is only an act of faith. In my case, I sent the manuscript of a Milky Way book to a publisher (who shall remain nameless: at the moment I have enough troubles with the pseudo-2nd edition of "Binocular Astronomy"), who, without my knowledge and consent, not only showed it to a rival author, but encouraged him to rewrite it! Now, this writer's specialty was computers and telescopes, so, not unexpectedly, he did an awful job on his rewrite of my text. I pointed out all the errors this fellow made to the publisher, but the publisher brushed me off. I appealed to one of the senior astrophysicists at the University of Minnesota, a man who taught Galactic astronomy. He confirmed my criticisms. But the publisher blew him off too, and continued to attempt to force me to be the unpaid editor and corrector for the pirating of my own book.

That particular episode did have something of a happy ending (though it cost me plenty of time): the pirated version, with all its inaccuracies and errors, never made it to the market; and I later adapted much of the text of my Milky Way book for "Sky Vistas." Nevertheless, there are in fact two book-length texts of mine which are illegally in print in America. I don't feel free to reveal where they are printed (as I said, I have enough other problems at the moment); but it further illustrates how little control an author actually has over his or her text. Thus in their turn book purchasers cannot really be one hundred percent sure that the book they are buying is really by the person whose name appears on the front cover or that the stated author has been able to check the printed text for accuracy. I know of at least two major authors--the Assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer and the biographer Roger Lancelyn Green--whose publishers pushed semi-popular level books into print without giving those authors the chance to check the accuracy of material added by secondary co-authors. Kramer went so far as to publically condemn his publisher for this.

The only power an author has to enforce his or her rights is legal action. But this is the same as to have no power at all, because legal costs are so high. The same applies to royalties. An author signs a contract expecting (or, again, hoping) that the publisher will honor it. But if a publisher unilaterally decides not to honor the contract, few authors have the financial resources to force them to do so. The danger in this situation to buyers and readers is that, if an author's royalties are confiscated by a publisher willing to risk bad publicity, that writer will stop writing.

And basically this is what I have done in astronomy. During the past three years, since the first of my "Binoc Astro" royalty checks was withheld, I have concentrated on the editing and writing of books, articles, and lectures about the ancient and modern Near East. It is not fair to my wife, who works hard for our financial betterment, for me to continue writing texts that will merely line other people's pockets. (My recent article in "Astronomy" was not an exception: I wrote it at the request of my "Sky Vistas" co-author Gerald Rhemann, a man of great honor and integrity.) Moreover, my client list has grown to include the Oriental Institute of the University of Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and even a former Austrian Ambassador to Iraq, the journalist Gudrun Harrer. It would be foolish for me to "continue kicking against the pricks" by writing for American publishers when I have such interesting alternative literary work.

Some interest was expressed in this thread about the constellation history book I have been working on. And I have indeed already published some of the results of my researches--but in a scholarly journal, not in, say, "Sky & Telescope," because, given my editing clientele, is in my best interest to publish in the academic, not the popular, press.

"Sky Vistas" itself is another example of what can happen to readers when author's rights are not respected. That book is published by one of the top academic publishers in Europe, Springer-Verlag, Vienna (who have been not merely honest with me, but generous). It is a high-quality, well-produced book that costs a great deal to ship to America. This cost is borne by the American buyer. The text in the book has material nowhere else available: if you really want to be informed about Milky Way astronomy, stellar associations, stellar evolution, and even local galaxy clustering, you need this book. But because the American publisher I had chosen for the original Milky Way book attempted to steal it, I had to publish this material abroad and American amateurs find themselves footing the bill for an American publisher's (actions).

I do hope to complete and publish both the contellation history book and the authentic 2nd edition of "Binocular Astronomy" sometime in the future. But whether or not these books are published in America, or in costly European editions, depends upon the publishing situation in America in the future.

Craig Crossen

Edited by EdZ (09/23/08 05:44 AM)