A new timber tech book. Would you buy it?

[Cheshirechappie]

Agree that £50 isn't that expensive as technical textbooks go. As a regular user of such texts in the field of mechanical engineering design, there are a couple of things that make a general text a good first 'go-to' for me - clear and simple explanations of a concept, and good references to more in-depth information. The first is often enough, but when specialist information is required to substantiate a design, the second is utterly invaluable, saving hours of searching.

For those who say the internet is the source of all knowledge - oh no it isn't. It's a good source of superficial information, but for real detail and for documents such as Design Codes, British and International Standards, authoritative and legally recognised data and the like, the internet falls way short as yet.

Looking at the synopsis and contents, I'd say you've been collecting and collating data for many years, Richard. There's a LOT of work there. Please publish - it'll not make your fortune, but it will be of great service to the woodworkers of the world.

 

[Baldhead]

£35 - £50 is a lot of money for me, however it appears from your index it is crammed full of everything the modern woodwork needs to know, just a thought but could you not do this in a series of volumes? Although more expensive in the long run it would prove cheaper in the short term.
FWIW I would buy one, just don't put the price anywhere inside so SWMBO wouldn't find out what I had paid. :wink: :wink: :wink:
Very best of luck with this venture, and if it goes into print let us all know (I want mine signed though) :lol: :lol: :lol:

Baldhead

 

[MMUK]

A lot of money indeed. However, my subscriptions to trade journals cost more than that each year. Also factor in certain engineering handbooks I've paid anything up to £400 each for and then it doesn't look too bad

Not for me though I'm afraid, I don't depend on timber to make me a living so I don't need such a resource.

 

[marcros]

Not for me though I'm afraid, I don't depend on timber to make me a living so I don't need such a resource.

That might be a common issue. Whilst (for example) engineering standards are hugely expensive, they are necessary for engineers, and are bought by an employer, or used in the course of self employment and thereafter written off as an expense.

On the forum, there are a vast range of users (of the forum), some self employed/trade but many weekend warriors. A timber based book, for many people would be a luxury/discretionary item.

That said, the more that I have read on the post, I would go from "probably at £35, not at £50", to "yes I would". I think it would be the technical equivalent of joyce, as in a go to resource when you need to know about how something is constructed (assuming that it is similar to explanations you have given to posts on the forum).

 

[riclepp]

As has been muted by a few £50 is nothing compaired to the text books I need to buy for my work....just wish all my text books were that cheap. Yes I would buy this book as I have the aformention Hoardley and I tried to read it cover to cover, but found it all american ised. So it is sitting on the shelf gathering dust. Not that I have anything par sey against the yanks, but it is always " we have this, that and the other oh and by the way we started the groth of trees..blah blah. So a book that is stuffed with basic tree stuff and from tree speices from around the world written in plane simple english would be a boone.

If you do publish and soon ( we hope), will you be selling some copies??? If not no worries I will be having one

 

[bernienufc]

i did marine fiskkeeping and purchased over a couple years a series of 4 reference books at £90 ea. It was a **** of a lot of money but the payback in the knowledge i gained and the ability to keep difficult creatures was pay back every time, so what i am saying to have a book with this amount of material would pay for itself in no time for the likes of me and i would see it as an investment.
My wife does all her reading via ebooks etc whereas me.......i just love to have a book or magazine everytime. I would purchase one and good luck

Bernie

 

[MMUK]

i did marine fiskkeeping and purchased over a couple years a series of 4 reference books at £90 ea. It was a **** of a lot of money but the payback in the knowledge i gained and the ability to keep difficult creatures was pay back every time, so what i am saying to have a book with this amount of material would pay for itself in no time for the likes of me and i would see it as an investment.
My wife does all her reading via ebooks etc whereas me.......i just love to have a book or magazine everytime. I would purchase one and good luck

Bernie

Similar for me with catfish. I'm a friend of Ian Fuller (anyone seriously into tropical fish, and catfish or corydoras in particular will know the name - he's internationally renowned as THE expert on corydoras), I've purchased all of his books as they came out. I reckon I must have spent in the region of £1000 over the last ten years or so on Ian's publications alone during the time I kept and bred catfish.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Thanks for all the feedback. It's very useful to me. I realise that a new book on any topic can't satisfy everyone for a large range of reasons, e.g., price, content, their need to know, interest in the subject(s), etc.

I have made the manuscript international in appeal as much as possible through such strategies as giving equivalents in different systems of measure, e.g, inches converted into metric, and ºF converted to ºC, etc where appropriate, and generally being sensitive to different systems in different continents-- Hoadley's Understanding Wood for instance is markedly American centric, and some of what he discusses doesn't transfer readily to other places. For instance, he talks about board feet as a system of measure for selling wood, which no other continent really uses, and sticks to Fahrenheit, psi, lbf, feet, inches, etc for all his measurements.

In response to a point raised by a couple of contributors there isn't a section that discusses in isolation and detail Australasian timbers. Rather, information is provided that readers can apply in general to a wide range of timbers, including Australian and Kiwi timbers. Another point mentioned has been following up what I've said in the text through the ability to go to further sources of information, and I've been careful to do this through attributed quotations and paraphrasing that a reader can follow up in the References at the end of each section and the bibliography at the end-- the draft manuscript is an academically formatted text using Harvard Referencing, i.e., it conforms to accepted academic standards of page layout, Headings, paragraph formatting including 1.5 line spacing, referencing conventions, etc. If the manuscript goes to publication I am sure it would retain the ability to check references, etc, although naturally I suspect the layout would change significantly to one suitable for a book format.

Self publishing has been mentioned as a route I might consider. I have converted all fifteen sections into PDF format which include all the images and text. The original text was created in MS Word which is very poor at handling images, but there are programmes that do work for image heavy documents. I suppose, in theory, I could offer all these sections for sale individually via a website or similar, or I could put them all together as one text. However, I really would prefer a good editor to work on my behalf to pick up all the typos, repetitions, and other mistakes that my numerous proof reading efforts have missed-- I usually proof read printed copies of text five or six times before I'm happy with it, but even after all that I miss things! In addition, an editor is part of a publishing house, and publishing houses have marketing arms in place to help drive sales, negotiate contracts with wholesalers, etc, something the lone operator, inexperienced in the field (that's me) really struggles with. Slainte.

 

[deema]

Looks like a really good reference. I would certainly pay £50.
Hope you publish

 

[skiskool]

I'd buy it, without a second thought. Sounds like a fantastic reference work. I often find I enjoy reading about a subject and preparing for it more than actually doing it. So please publish

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

It costs nothing and is always "up to date".

... and often inaccurate of course, or worse, because the work may not be peer reviewed or otherwise checked for factual accuracy, safety, best practice, etc, which you didn't mention, ha, ha.

Sorry to pour cold water on the idea because you've clearly put a lot of effort into it :-( But I guess you want people to be realistic to help make the call.

What you say may be right, but I'm trying to avoid self publishing and perhaps sales via the internet, or going down the e-publishing route, bot of which might be possibilities. Slainte.

This thread has proved quite a telling read. For the purposes of your decision.....this is my take (after having read all the feedback).

Your idea is endorsed almost unilaterally by the people who work with wood professionally. Those who teach and make. Their requirement is of a deep, technical nature because they're pushing the boundaries of what can be done to transform wood not just into furniture but where the latter crosses over into art. That's challenging. I think the weekend warriors needs are much more basic and a more immediate (and cheaper) resource like the web often satisfies the requirement. Because of that segmentation, those two groups value the content differently. Ergo one group will find the price good value whilst the other won't.

I think if you took a business case to a publisher you would need to be aiming your knowledge at that clearly defined market. Knowing that in advance should help direct some research at its potential size and therefore value. That could inform the publishers return on investment thinking and might tip them towards the idea assuming their costs aren't too high. It might also inform which publishers you approach. For example the "Oxford University Press" type environment are familiar with marketing text books and that might be the appropriate route to take. I think it's interesting to note that the forum professionals would happily pay a premium price. Extrapolate that to the whole of the UK....Europe.....whats the size of the market? I have no idea but I suspect that's where you need to be pitching because they would derive demonstrable benefit from the knowledge you suggest will be in the content.

So in short...know what the boundaries of your market are....size it....value it....make the business case to an appropriate publisher. I wish you luck

 

[MIGNAL]

Probably the largest market is the US.

 

[Mr T]

As I said in another place I would by it Richard, looks like you may need a second impression!
Chris

 

[sawdust1]

Richard, post the same question on ARB TALK, lots of guys on their would be interested in buying a copy , i would but the other half would not speak to me for a few days if i spent £50 on a book but hey thats normal. Yep count me in for £35. Been in this game for 26 years but still have a thirst for knowledge.

 

[rdesign]

Im a teacher! and if it has actually good images and information about the make up of timber (the cells)
hard wood and soft wood and the strength properties and movement of wood! would be an excellent resource. also like to have good information on the steaming, bending, workability and characteristics of wood!
Regards Richard

 

[AndyT]

It sounds really interesting from the contents list. I would not want something that was just a botanical treatise but if it keeps relating back to use and selection of timber in constructions, it would be more valuable.
One difficulty in selling such a book at a highish price point is that prospective buyers are not going to be able to flick through it in a bookshop. So I would give you another nudge towards print on demand publication which I think has several advantages for specialist titles like this.

The quality of the finished book can be really high.
You have no upfront cost for a guessed at print run.
You can offer hardback and paperback options.
You could customise to include or exclude Australian timbers (for example).
You could let people download as many samples as you wanted so they would know what they were getting.
It need never go out of print.
You can adjust the price whenever you want.
You could publish as a set of smaller parts instead of just offering one big fat book.
You could supply an ebook alongside the paper.

Will it be out in time for Xmas? ;-)

 

[Sgian Dubh]

So in short...know what the boundaries of your market are....size it....value it....make the business case to an appropriate publisher. I wish you luck

What you say makes much sense, and the issues you mention regarding the potential market are being worked on by both myself and the publisher that's considering the manuscript. Both of us concluded the main potential market is with professional woodworkers of one sort or another, along with a range of students studying a woodwork subject, so libraries come into the equation. The number of amateur woodworkers that might buy a published version, whatever form that might take, I accept is likely to be limited, for the reasons you say. Certainly the international market is one that I've borne in mind as I wrote, particularly the North American one.

Anyway, the feedback from this discussion has been useful, and I can use the information here, and elsewhere to discuss the subject further with the publisher. Slainte.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Will it be out in time for Xmas? ;-)

Er, no! Certainly not the one at the end of this year anyway.

But I appreciate your thoughts on the print on demand option. Actually, I'm trying to avoid self publishing and other options until all options involving an established publisher are exhausted. Slainte.

 

[djwalsh]

A very comprehensive looking contents, I would buy, especially if it came under the £40 mark.
Best of luck

 

[n0legs]

Get it printed and you've got yourself one customer.