New Book: Fom the Shadow of an Accordion to Eternity

[Tom]

Has anyone else seen this book on their Facebook stream? Seems to be 722 pages (printed on demand) of interviews and pictures in English, French, Russian and probably other languages. What do you think? I will probably check it out:

From The Shadow Of An Accordion To Eternity. Talking To Accordionists Worth Listening To
ByTimes Square Presshttp://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=1667767

 

[Deleted member 48]

I'd wait for more information, keep your money in your pocket until it's sure this is a real book.

I have a bad feeling about this..., but I could be mistaken.
That title doesn't sound any good.

 

[Tom]

Its a very interesting shop:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=1575919

 

[losthobos]

I have a friend who has two books that are for sale on amazon but they do not physically exist until they are clicked on and then they are just printed on demand.... Saves lot of waste and publishers risk... Just saying for Stephens benefit... It's a changing world

 

[JerryPH]

That book may well exist, how this method of distribution is not one that I really trust.  Sounds interesting, but until its method of availability is appended, Im choosing to hold back.  Also, I recently learned that you can get a lot of acclaim for a well written book (or be the recipient of a lot of derision for a poorly written book), via a review from Kirkus Reviews (sample link where another accordion book was reviewed by them).

 

[Deleted member 48]

I have a friend who has two books that are for sale on amazon but they do not physically exist until they are clicked on and then they are just printed on demand.... Saves lot of waste and publishers risk... Just saying for Stephens benefit... Its a changing world

Maybe I should add a few reasons why I advise to wait for more information.
Print is in decline, and digital scam and fraud are skyrocketing.

Its very easy: just wait until they publish to complete table of contents, and excerpts from the book.

So you can read and control if this is not some hasty artificial intelligence bot copy paste work.

1) why is there no table of contents ?
2) why are there no names of authors on the title page?
3) why would you already put a price on an unfinished book, and put it online for sale?
4) the photo of the title page does not match the subject of accordion or music

The official FAMSPA org website only shows a magazine:
http://www.famspa.org/magazine/

If this book is still a work in progress, they should finish it first before putting it online for sale.

Its possible some smart person wants to make money in the interval between work in progress and finished book.
Be very careful with this, and wait for the table of contents and fragments of the book !

I always have an inside look of a book, and read fragments, do an online check of the authors, etc. etc. before spending money on a book.

I could be wrong, but finally: the price, 34,97 USD for a digital book??
Keep your money in your pocket, and wait for more details.

If they dont want to make public the names of the authors, the table of contents, fragments, ... it smells like a scam or fraud.

So its up to them to give more details.

 

[Tom]

Thanks for the input everyone. Yes, seems like a publish on demand operation. They have published pictures and excerpts of their other books. Seems like a compendium of interviews and bio sketches of accordionists famous in the world of classical, competing and performance, mainly in Europe and Russia. Who knows, it's another world from all of us and could be interesting.

 

[Deleted member 48]

An another way of checking is simply sending an email to the sponsor:
http://www.famspa.org/magazine/

If the FAMSPA is sponsoring this book, at least someone from this organisation should be able to confirm if this book is real, and provide a free pdf copy of the complete table of contents and names of the authors.

Still, I find it bizarre there is no inside view to click on to get a table of contents.
If the book is ready in digital form, then there should be no problem to send a table of contents by email or online.

If this is an honest project, I can see no reasons why they should not publish this table, unless the work is unfinished.

I agree with the benefits of modern digital on demand prints ! Its both beneficial to the publisher, author, customer and ecology ! 
Print on demand is a great thing ! Especially for low numbered copies of old books, a blessing of modern technology !

But as you know, beware of frauds, criminals use modern technology to fool us...
Just wait a few days for the table of contents.

If someone wants to check, the email contact adress is:
 [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]info@famspa.org[/font]

 

[Tom]

It seems they are trying to publish a magazine (not sure the frequency), each edition full color, about 100 pages, $35, and then compendiums of the magazines in smaller format, black and white editions.  Seems legit.  Later I will try to find a mostly English or Italian language one, order and let you all know how it is.

Btw, Sephen, they do show a table of contents for one of the products here:

 

[Deleted member 48]

It seems they are trying to publish a magazine (not sure the frequency), each edition full color, about 100 pages, $35, and then compendiums of the magazines in smaller format, black and white editions.  Seems legit.  Later I will try to find a mostly English or Italian language one, order and let you all know how it is.

Btw, Sephen, they do show a table of contents for one of the products here:

Maybe this is the table of contents for the other FAMSPA publication:
Accordion Starts Illustrated Extra (the worlds 500 fabulous accordionists) (downpage with the fotos of Dr. William Schimmel and others)
http://www.famspa.org/magazine/

There is no indication of a table of contents here, and no page numbers.
So it still is unclear if this publication is the same as your 722 pages digital book with the strange title: From the Shadow of an Accordion to Eternity

Waiting for more info, Im gonna watch the YT teaser of From Here to Eternity with Burt kissing Deborah on the beach, Ill never forget that scene. I never was able to perfect my kissing technique like Burt did. But maybe he was faking, who knows, its Hollywood.

I honestly hope the 722 pages book is real, and I cant wait to read the table of contents !
Thank you Tom for posting this information, but lets wait for more detailed information.

 

[Tom]

Hmmm, I don't know that scene, Stephen, have to check it out! Yes, I suspect the 722 page version is a compendium of all the earlier versions, as you have pointed out, but in a smaller format, black and white edition. Maybe they are still editing it. When I get home from vacation I will research further. I hope that there is viability for an accordionist magazine.

 

[Jim2010]

Hmmm, I dont know that scene, Stephen, have to check it out!  Yes, I suspect the 722 page version is a compendium of all the earlier versions, as you have pointed out, but in a smaller format, black and white edition.  Maybe they are still editing it.  When I get home from vacation I will research further.  I hope that there is viability for an accordionist magazine.

Here is the direct link to the book Accordion To Eternity. Talking To Accordionists Worth Listening To. There is a description of the contents and it is available for purchase.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/times-squa...-listening-to/paperback/product-24180814.html

I have no connection to it, and I have not read it.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Jim!

 

[fjsys]

If you are really worried if the book exists or not you can contact one of the authors via facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/marjorie.lerner.98

There is a nice picture on her feed of accordionist Joe De Clemente with a copy of the book.
I know several of the accordionists that have appeared in the Stars Magazine, and while I really cannot speak to this book (as I am not convinced of the quality of the products the company produces) I can assure you that the products are real.

I have no connection to the book and think it is overpriced, but to each their own.
Ben

 

[stickista]

Why not just distribute as an e-book?
On-demand printing seems silly.

 

[AccordionUprising]

(Disclaimer: My book is print on demand.)

I've learned an awful lot about publishing in the last year. Feel free to ignore this if it's boring.

Print on demand is just one way to produce physical books these days. Some "legit" presses use it for books with low expectations of sales. I think some academic presses are doing this (but I'm not certain). It definitely makes sense if they're only printing a few hundred copies on a specialized topic.

eBooks are another (very) low cost way to make a lot of books. If you produce a good one (I got pro editing and design), then reproduction is basiicly free, just the cost of hosting on the sales site. So, my eBook costs $9 US, while the print one costs $20. The invested cost of writing the book is the same, but printing is a big savings.

The upside of traditional printing is that it is cheaper to print a thousand books at once, but you have to warehouse them somewhere, and if you want to make a correction (I did) you have lots of books with the misprint.

I make no judgement on this book. Haven't seen it. It's harder to judge the quality of the result if they aren't coming from an established publisher. Do they have professional quality editing, proofreading, design, etc? Herd to know without seeing reviews from places you trust.

Trick there is that independant publishers have a harder time getting reviews in big publications (if they don't have a big publisher who advertises in, say the New York Times.) I don't expect my book will get a lot of reviews from places like that. But it's such a niche topic I figured specialty music community magazines and such are more my goal, and they'll review a good indy publication, just like they're review a good recording. Indy record labels have been around for half a century, but indy books, have only begun to gain some respect.

Long story short. I've no say about this book, but I'm interested to hear more about it. More good accordion books is a good thing.

It may be a good sign if they have endorsements from figures you know. Even before reviews on Amazon appear, they may have got some readers to check it out and offer a word of support. I had fun getting some "rock star" accordionist to check out my book, and I hope that will give it a bit of credibility out of the gate.

Right now I'm on a little book tour down the US West Coast to the Cotati Accordion Festival. I hope the producers of these books will be there and I might have a look in person.