Re: Extremely Limited Editions

From: Jeff Richard <richaje_at_...>
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 12:29:09 -0000

Here's the simplest reason why only very few of these books could ever be printed - the production value is so extremely high that they were extremely expensive to print. Claudia used some pretty remarkable techniques to give Our Great Empire the feeling of an old bible - exotic paper, unique typesetting, and so on. This stuff really wasn't cheap and as a result the finished product is exquisite.

Sure, the content of the text may get reprinted in some other form (or maybe not - I don't really have any idea), but the real value of this book as a remarkable piece of art of which only 5 hard copies and 10 soft copies have and will be made. If all you are interested in is the substantive text that Greg and I wrote, don't worry - the "masses" will get their text. But if you are interested in the book as a work of art, then this is it and I have no problem with being elitist about the number of copies in existence. Personally, I value the artistic value of Claudia's formatting and production far higher than I value the substantive text that Greg and I wrote - but then again, I love books. Reasonable people can differ reasonably on this.

And of course, this does have a Gloranthan angle. Just ask Nick Brooke (we had some fine Borgesesque discussions along this line at Tentacles).:)

Jeff