Dang it. Im getting impatient! Lol. Ok, thanks guys.
Release date?
- Thread starter J.huff23
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I know it's rude to answer your own postings, but this seemed to be the best way to deal with the issue.
When I called Barrons this afternoon they told me that the release date had been pushed back to February 26 - - - tomorrow! Apparently they're having some trouble getting them in from China, but the lady in Sales couldn't elaborate.
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Wow, so now it's that far that in the western hemisphere we can't even print books anymore...
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No, no, no! We can still print books, and actually do print a few, even today. The problem is that the Chinese (first it was the Japanese right after WWII, then it was South Korea, then Hong Kong and Jakarta, then ...) pay their workers next to nothing compared to $35 an hour or more here in North America. As a result, Barrons, TFH and a lot of other publishers can sell a 386 page book like TKG for less than $20 instead of the $50+ they would have to ask if it were printed here.
[Beginning of rant!]
A little history lesson explains that. (Please Moderators, don't nix this posting quite yet.) America (and to a lesser degree, Canada) were almost the only industrialized nations on planet Earth that were not decimated during the Second World War. In the following few decades we had a virtual monopoly on almost all high tech manufacturing processes. At that point the labor unions could institute a walk out at some factory and it might bring an entire industry to its knees. As a result, and to placate the unions, most industries ultimately gave the unions what they wanted, at least eventually. Because there were few or no overseas sources for the products we bought, it really didn't matter. There was no competition. Once the strike was over it was business as usual. Wages increased, consumer goods' prices increased, wages went up again, etc, etc, etc. We inflated our economy to the point where we were living in some economic fantasy land that amazed even Walt Disney!
But, all of a sudden the rest of the world began to catch up. However, because they were starting out with almost serf laborers, they didn't have to pay anywhere near as much to manufacture equivalent items. The result was that they could compete very aggressively with American manufacturers on their own soil. And, because the American manufacturers and the American economy are now locked into this vastly overinflated state, the American manufacturers can't compete and can't change fast enough.
So, when the financial bubble bursts, they have only two options:
1. Go down the tubes.
2. Beg for some massive bailout from the government. (And, you don't want to get me started on this either!)
And that's where we are now. Suddenly, we're about to become a second or third world nation. If we had had sufficiently wise politicians and if we had listened to the economics chrome domes like we should have (but who wants to read a doom and gloom story where our side never wins?) we could have foreseen this state of affairs and stifled it before it became a crisis. But people like that don't get elected. The only ones who get elected are the ones who keep pointing to that "pie in the sky," because nobody wants to be told that the party's over.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, is why you can buy the Tarantula Keeper's Guide for about $20 in a pet shop --- on your way to pick up your last unemployment check.
[End of rant.]
Now, Moderators, kindly shut this thread down before it gets too far off topic.
(I will continue to update the status of TKG at http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=145600 until it's finally released in North America.)
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but you are sure it will be printed in English?? my Chinese is a bit rusty....
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Not my problem!
I know someone who got a book published in China - and someone at the Chinese end of things decided that the pictures of a particular species of flower (an important one in the book) must be upside down and "corrected" the error. And the "correction" wasn't caught until after distribution.
While it sounds like Stan and I share some views on world economics, I will mention that there are other options for printing at reasonable costs, but the Chinese market is the more widely known and utilized.