Does anyone have a copy of the Ruff book, "Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform..."?
  • AOZ
    Posts: 369
    Are you interested in a swap? I probably have a few titles that would interest you...
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    Do you need to own it? (It's here at the GTU Library.)
  • AOZ
    Posts: 369
    yes, I was looking to own it...at least temporarily. :)
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    I have one, but I rarely give up books, especially when I haven't read them yet.
  • AOZ
    Posts: 369
    I'll see if I can get it from the University library here.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    I find it...amazing that a person would write a book for the people and price it at $95.

    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    Authors have little or no say in the pricing of their books. My last book was $110 in hardback ( fortunately it came out in a much more affordable paperback within a year).
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    The pricing for Fr. Ruff's book probably reflects the textbook market, in which $95 is moderate.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,945
    Academic publishing in many ways is a joke. The cost of books is one. Books would sell better if people could afford them, but they don’t do what they can to make them sell beyond a few classes, if that.
  • AOZ
    Posts: 369
    well, it's too pricey for this humble servant. The library it must be!
    Thanked by 1matthewj
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    Have you tried contacting Fr. Ruff directly and told him your desire to see his book? He probably knows who you are and might have a few copies with "defects" that the publisher/printer has sent to him (i.e. the cover is on backwards or something). A friend of mine often sends me books that have issues that make them unable to be sold, but are fine to be used.
    Thanked by 1Heath
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Authors have little or no say in the pricing of their books.

    10 years ago that was true, but not today. Major publishers and editors are finally dwindling in influence and control over the market.
  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    I suppose I should have spoken more precisely. Once you decide to go with a particular publisher, you have little say over the price. Once can always shop a manuscript around and see who would charge the least for it. I think most authors would like their books to be priced reasonably, since the whole point to to get people to read what you have written. But for academics, at least, who you publish with can be very important when it comes to promotion and tenure. I'm a full professor with tenure, so these considerations matter to me less than they once might have, but I can't fault my junior colleagues for deciding to go with the prestige academic publisher who charges $200 over a scrappy start up outfit that would charge only $20.
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    The overpricing of books can get even worse if a book people still want to read goes out of print. As a few of my local musician friends know, I am also a painter and one of the books I would dearly love to own is Mastering Atmosphere & Mood in Watercolor by the Australian painter Joseph Zbukvic. Though a far slimmer volume than Fr. Ruff's tome, as of yesterday the asking price for an unused copy was $764.75. (To place this in perspective, painters tend to be even worse off financially than musicians.) I know of no person or library willing to pay such a price. Who then profits?
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,945
    What I really cannot fathom is people asking for close to or over $1,000 for a used book which can be had for far less new (even if that is still $100+).

    I wonder where they get their prices. Market value clearly isn’t worth much if no one can afford it.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    but I can't fault my junior colleagues for deciding to go with the prestige academic publisher who charges $200 over a scrappy start up outfit that would charge only $20.


    Unless your field is economics and you know that AMAZON's Createspace exists as well a 48hourbooks if it needs to be hardcover.

    Norton's publishing An Organist's Handbook and charging a textbook price instead of a music publisher's has cost the author profits and kept a valuable book from many organists.
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    www.lulu.com
  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    I'm sure that rank and tenure committees would be thrilled with candidates who had published all their books via Createspace. I'm not as snooty as some, but even I would look askance at that.
    Thanked by 2JL Adam Wood
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,945
    You really do need professional editorial review. That is far worse than a small firm publishing it, IMHO.

    Sometimes the small people come in handy. Would you believe that there is only one comprehensive primary source book of the Reformation for students, published by a family in TN? Of course, they are Protestant so we still need a comprehensive Catholic source book too.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,150
    Playing devil's advocate here, does this mean we need a comprehensive Protestant source book on the effects of Vatican II on the Catholic Church?
    Thanked by 1MBW
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    I'm sure that rank and tenure committees would be thrilled with candidates who had published all their books via Createspace. I'm not as snooty as some, but even I would look askance at that.


    Askance. Snooty. Rank. Tenure.

    Not part of the real word, that's all. If rank and tenure committees rely on expensive binding and professional editorial review by others...to make decisions, they do deserve their own little individual ivory towers...and made of real ivory, just to show how special they really are and important to the entire survival of the human race, screw the elephants.

    [oh, that felt good. Though I deserve a quick reprimand in the form of a fast delete key by our moderators, who do deserve what thanks we give them...]
  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    Is the scholar of Renaissance English literature really supposed to pretend to be competent to pass judgment on the self-published book by someone in the Math department?

    But to steer this back to the topic of sacred music: tenure may be a boondoggle, but at least it is less of a horror than the post-Vatican II triple alleluia.
    Thanked by 3ryand Adam Wood MBW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    And you haven't heard a sextuple alleluia? It is worse.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,150
    And you haven't heard a sextuple alleluia? It is worse.

    Then I suppose that makes my own (eightfold) Alleluia in E a real disaster, although it worked rather well before the Gospel in the mid 1980s at a university parish that was dominated at all masses, save one, by folk music and bongos. We also used a (heaven forbid!) a triple Alleluia of mine. Back then, there were no mass propers at all, save for several Entrance and Communion Antiphons that I composed. Until they got Worship III, there were no hymnals, either. Oh, and I served without pay. After all, I only became a Catholic in 1982.

    Ah, well, to each his or her own.


    F11-Alleluia in E.pdf
    60K
    Giffen-Alleluia-ED.mp3
    3M
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    And you haven't heard a sextuple alleluia? It is worse.


    In (post)modern academe the worst would have to be the hetero/cis-normative sextuple alleluia.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Just in from the Philippines:

    I finished all chapters in my thesis yesterday and had it printed, distributed it to 5 faculty members for the review and validation stage. That was the first full draft. Printing them was very expensive because I could not have them photocopied. After the review and validation stage will be the revision, and then reprinting for the final defense. Whoa! Always keeping the budget tight.


    God forbid that 5 faculty members would have to lower themselves to read...photocopies of a first draft. Ah, the humanity!
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    This sort of nonsense will continue until there is an ARMED UPRISING of would-be academics who refuse to deal in the [equine manure] that is required for career advancement.

    But since most academics are ill-qualified to do anything other than be academics, they cannot make good on any threat to leave (Lawd! To whom shall we go?!). Additionally, since there is a never-ending avalanche of people who want to not be required to do anything useful become academics, any move to the exits by those who refuse to swim in the [equine manure] play "the game," will hardly be noticed.

    Of course what we really need is FREE COLLEGE FOR ALL and ARBITRARY STUDENT DEBT FORGIVENESS, because that definitely won't result in more young people wasting other people's money on [equine manure] an over supply of the over educated.

    I'm not sure what color font any of that should be. What were we talking about, again?
    Thanked by 5CharlesW MBW janetgorbitz ryand matthewj
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,767
    What were we talking about, again?
    High priced textbooks seems like a perfectly sensible plan to encourage more folks to take up welding.
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