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Pages: 1 | 2 | (show all) Tony Flanders Postmaster Reged: 05/18/06 Loc: Cambridge, MA, USA Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: GeneT]       #4977349 - 12/21/11 08:36 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: Maybe S&T should at least give a listing of important books, and put the reviews on their web site. Umm ... My family needs to eat! In addition to taking up space in the magazine, book reviews are extremely time-consuming -- after all, you have to read the book first! I don't think we're about to start giving them away for free on the web. Nor do I think enough people would pay for them to cover even 10% of the cost of writing them. Tony Flanders Associate Editor, Sky & Telescope Post Extras:       beatlejuice scholastic sledgehammer Reged: 04/05/11 Loc: Hamilton, ON,Canada Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: Tony Flanders]       #4977462 - 12/21/11 09:48 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   OK, I get the picture! Go elsewhere for my book reviews. Eric Post Extras:       okieav8r Carpal Tunnel Reged: 03/01/09 Loc: Oklahoma! Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: Rick Woods]       #4977605 - 12/21/11 11:17 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: S&T doesn't publish very many books any more. They cleared out all their titles a couple of years ago, and now it looks like they pretty much only market the ones they actually write or have a hand in writing. Roger Sinnott's involvement in so many titles is responsible for a lot of their offerings. It's too bad; you used to be able to get all sorts of great books from SkyPub that were hard to find otherwise. But, bidness is bidness, and ya gotta do what ya gotta do. (You can quote me if you like. ) One of the S&T guys can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think that's the story. I agree. I miss products like the Millenium Sky Atlas, which I would love to have, and the University of Arizona lunar quadrant maps they used to carry. Post Extras:       Stellarfire Pooh-Bah Reged: 07/10/11 Loc: Switzerland Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: okieav8r]       #4977644 - 12/21/11 11:35 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: I miss products like the Millenium Sky Atlas, which I would love to have, and the University of Arizona lunar quadrant maps they used to carry. Yes, me too. I think a lot of stargazing folks and star/moon map addicts would be very happy to get the opportunity to buy reprinted editions of both. Stephan Post Extras:       Jim Cook member Reged: 06/19/05 Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: Tony Flanders]       #4986345 - 12/27/11 12:24 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: Quote: These days it seems like a book review is just a filler when nothing else is available. There's never "filler" in the magazine -- the hard part these days is figuring out which of the many worthy subjects to omit. Book reviews disappeared, together with many other things such as Southern Hemisphere coverage, due to lack of space in the magazine. Which, in turn, reflects few advertising pages. There's a more or less fixed ratio between advertising and editorial pages -- a matter of economics. This is true across the entire magazine industry. So, I have to ask: If the cost of paper/printing/postage is the problem, can we do something about offering additional content in the digital version? That is almost free. I mean, are we actually turning away content? At the least, you could bring back coverage of the Southern Hemisphere in the digital version, no? If the cost is people, then this suggestion is not a panacea, but was worth making. Comments? Post Extras:       Tony Flanders Postmaster Reged: 05/18/06 Loc: Cambridge, MA, USA Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: Jim Cook]       #4986621 - 12/27/11 09:14 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: If the cost of paper/printing/postage is the problem, can we do something about offering additional content in the digital version? It's hard to say exactly how the costs break down; it depends how you do the accounting. But you can figure that it's roughly half paper, printing, etc. and half labor. The editorial staff of Sky & Telescope is now less than half as big as when I first started working there in late 2003. And the art department has been cut even more drastically. If you have any old magazines, you can count for yourself -- all the employees are listed on the masthead. Contributing editors and photographers are in a different category; they're paid by the piece, not on salary. Tony Flanders Associate Editor, Sky & Telescope Post Extras:       desertstars Reged: 11/05/03 Loc: Tucson, AZ Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: Jim Cook]       #4987241 - 12/27/11 04:55 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: If the cost of paper/printing/postage is the problem, can we do something about offering additional content in the digital version? That is almost free. If book publishing is anything to go by, this isn't true. Electronic publishing may eliminate the overhead associated with printing, storage, and shipping, but it does have costs of its own. Whether or not these costs are comparable to the price of paper, I don't know, but it's a good bet such services are not given away for free. And of course, the costs of writing and editing remain the same. Even if digital publishing overhead WAS that much lower, I can't help wondering how far S&T, or any publication, could go added content to digital issues before they lose print subscribers? I'm thinking of readers who would drop the magazine because they were offended that the digital subscribers got extra content. If this happened, would the magazine be able to pull in digital subscribers fast enough to offset the drop in circulation? That's some kind of juggling act magazine publishers are trying to maintain these days! Post Extras:       sarastro professor emeritus Reged: 08/12/04 Loc: Seattle Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: desertstars]       #4990332 - 12/29/11 03:02 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Loss of book reviews was one of the reasons I didn't bother to renew my subscription. Cost wasn't really a factor. Post Extras:       Rick Woods Postmaster Reged: 01/27/05 Loc: Inner Solar System Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: sarastro]       #4990746 - 12/29/11 06:29 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   It's strange, seeing complaints about the lack of book reviews, and then turning around and seeing other people say they never read books anymore except on kindle or other e-readers, or else they get their information from the web rather than books. Who are S&T and others supposed to listen to? Post Extras:       beatlejuice scholastic sledgehammer Reged: 04/05/11 Loc: Hamilton, ON,Canada Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: Rick Woods]       #4990797 - 12/29/11 06:55 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: other people say they never read books anymore except on kindle or other e-readers Of course the value of a book review has nothing to do with which method you choose to read it. Eric Post Extras:       Rick Woods Postmaster Reged: 01/27/05 Loc: Inner Solar System Re: S&T Book Reviews: What happened? [Re: beatlejuice]       #4992720 - 12/30/11 06:57 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: Quote: other people say they never read books anymore except on kindle or other e-readers Of course the value of a book review has nothing to do with which method you choose to read it. Eric Not all titles are available in all media. Post Extras:       Pages: 1 | 2 | (show all)

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