trumpetman

Hello, Let me tell you a story. Manfred Selchow published a wonderful bio of Edmond Hall ten years ago. The 500 copies sold well and now the very few copies on sale on internet amout 450 dollars! I cannot even buy it for myself! He then printed 1000 copies of his Vic Dickenson bio. And now he has several hundred copies left. When you plan to publish something as edgy you have to be very careful, because it is your money and you want to get it back someday... to make another book! The "market" for such books is about 500 for the whole world. Imagine we sold 1 in Brazil, 3 in Spain, nothing in Italy, nothing in Asia, mostly Europe... some in Toronto and the US, not as many as should be (Europe is still the memory of jazz, as it started there). This is why no publisher will take a chance. A european publisher will not publish a book in english of course not. An english publisher will certainly publish the twentieth book on MIles, Louis, or Duke, not Ladnier or Oliver. Most of the books in this category are normally presented, in black and white, with very few images, and cost 35 dollars+shipping. Some of them are really bad in lay-out, printing, engraving. Here is a first class work, one of the most beautiful books in this category. Why not 1000 copies printed? Just think a minute: because WE did not have the money to invest!!!! 30.000 dollars, do you have it? If you do, please help me for the next book, you'll get a free copy! So much about Tommy, he'd be glad the poor fellow. When you come to the end of the book, you'll see that I found his "grave" and that I designed a marker for him. We payed him homage, as he influenced me very much in my trumpet playing and he deserved something great, first class, no monkey book. With the great swedish historian Bo Lindstrom we did it! And that's it. This work has no price. Passion has no price. The price is just to pay the printer, the paper, the boxes. Now I'm working on the other jazz pioneers. An eventual next book will be faced with the same economical problem. Any jazz lover can communicate directly with me at jazzedit@sfr.fr Swingingly Yours, dan vernhettes

You bet! Hello Boys, I just found out you had a long (too long) discussion about Traveling blues, Bo Lindström's book (and I). To inform you: this is a several decades research, bringing out all the facts and recordings that could be found about Ladnier. It would be impossible to count the thousands of hours that Bo spent on this research. I can say that I too spend thousands of hours on this work. After we decided to work out this project, it took us 7 years to bring the text together and one year of graphic work. We invested our own money (lot of money) in a non-profit association. This money represents only the cost of the printing and engraving. I did the layout without counting my time. We did not count the photos we purchased. We did not count the proof reading that an american friend did, graciously. According to my friends who work in the publishing trade, this book should amount to at least 60 euros. The CD contains now 191 tunes, the equivalent of 8 CDs for 15 euros. On this CD there are 9 euros of rights for the Sacem!!! So you get 8 CDs for 5 euros: who can do best? This is merely a gift that Bo and I are offering only for jazz nuts. We should sell this CD at least double. So now you see that this is a ridiculous price: 40 euros for one of the most beautiful books in the field of classic jazz (that's what most of our readers say). Now about the postage: I buy books every month on the net. I just bought a postcard: 5.94 dollars to send it to France, more than the price of the card!!! The postage is often more expensive than the books that I purchase on ebay or amazon. There is also the carboard box to protect the book. And the Paypal 4% charge. Now friends, just shake all these elements in your head and the conclusion will come out: this is (too) cheap. Now why does it look expensive to US buyers, as we do not have this discussion in Europe? Very simple: the US government keeps the dollar very low to boost the exportations and resist a very very low chinese currency. This policy is good for exportation but it turns the countrary when you come to import something from Europe or if you want to travel to Europe. This would be a long discussion. Europe is in a bad situation as most of its industries are now going abroad (Eastern, China, even US) as the euro currency is too high. Every time a european customer buys something from low currency countries... he puts one man out of work. This si the reason why I insisted to have the book printed in France. Of course we could have gone to China and diminish the price of the printing by 30%. Well, but if everybody in the world thinks like this we are going nowhere... or better say that we are going to an international social mess. Let's go back to our book. The book weighs 1,5 kilo and the post office do not want to allow us to send it as a book, which would be cheaper. Imagine: to send it as a book, they want us to have a transparent protection box!!!! Now guys you have all the elements about this book. This is a book that every jazz lover should read because it is a reference book, whith the difference that it is presented in a very different way than the usual academic works (which I respect very much for their contents). In french we say that it is a "beautiful book", meaning that it is unusual. You have excerpts to be seen on the site www.jazzedit.org and you can email us any time through the site. You can also read there the reports of some of the buyers. I wish you all a Happy New Year, keep swinging, Dan Vernhettes PS. My friend Manfred Selchow published some years ago the iography of Edmond Hall. The 500 copies are sold out, I could not even find one for myself... and you can buy a few copies on ebay now at the cost of 300 euros, that is 450 dollars! So hurry up boys!!!