I know Anthony Sheridan very well, in fact the IZES distributes his book, i can assure ANyhuis that all the maps were printed with permission.I do hope with regard to your book ANyhuis that the next edition will include rather more forthright opinion rather than veiled diplomacy..for all the effort to be diplomatic about these things it seems zoos did not support the project as ive only ever once seen it in a zoo shop in over 50 zoos visited in the u.s. since the book came out.Vanity publishing has a definite advantage there.
Annual Attendance Of The Top 30 European Zoos
- Thread starter snowleopard
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ANyhuis
Well-Known Member
First, note that I wasn't accusing Sheridan -- in fact I was wondering about what CGSwans said, hoping that he didn't do anything unauthorized.
I totally understand your points, Tim. I don't know if we used "veiled diplomacy", but your are right that we did try not to purposedly offend anyone in the zoos we wrote about. To be honest, of the 60 zoos we wrote full reviews of, we actually did like all of them, so there was no need to be overtly critical. Yes, we liked some of them better than others, and I hope that became clear through the extra complements we gave them, plus ranking them in the "Best" lists in the back of the book.
My "probably unauthorised" comment was based on just how bad the images are. They looked like they had been copied and pasted from the various zoo websites. I'm glad to hear that is not the case and withdraw the suggestion, though it further leads me to feel that Sheridan has been badly let down by his publisher.
Hmm,obviously i support the Sheridan book..after all what other European zoo book is there? But it isnt without its faults..i would have prefered much more narrative on the zoos and the book could have been designed much better.ANyhuis...do you think there will be a second edition of your book? And why did these guides to zoos in the u.s. not appear until about 20 years ago...or am i wrong?
ANyhuis
Well-Known Member
I forgot to address this comment before. You are correct that this was a major disappointment to us, and it severely hurt our sales. Back in 1994, when my first, similar zoo guidebook came out, it was sold in almost every zoo gift shop in America. I remember seeing over 50 copies of it for sale at the San Diego Zoo. But this time, things were different, and I'm not certain why. Obviously the horrible US economy kept gift shops from wanting to invest in anything but a sure thing. Secondly, I've heard that -- since 1994 -- most zoo gift shops have become private enterprises, not specifically affiliated with the zoos. I've literally talked to a few zoo directors, asking them if they can help me get our book into the gift shop, and they've told me their hands were tied.
There will be no second edition as long as the US economy remains bad, but hopefully once it starts to recover, things will happen. In fact, when the economy starts picking up, there may be a few new books coming out by Yours Truly.
As for why these guides don't appear more often -- because there's not all that much money to be made from them. First, we authors write these books mostly for the love of it. Sure, there are a few perks, such as getting into (most) zoos for free, but believe me, I've spent a LOT more money than I've made from my books. Secondly, since these books only sell to a limited market, there are very few publishers (like ours) who are willing to publish these books.
1959 1,955,355
1960 1,833,938
1961 1,887,088
1971 1,794,400
That's all I have at the moment.
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At the risk of sounding like a book snob all the attendance figures Cat-man requires are in the International Zoo Yearbooks.The internet has changed many things for the better but the reluctance to turn to the traditional vehicles for zoo information by a younger generation is rather worrying..or perhaps people are no longer even aware that these things exist.And to ANyhuis...the book game has changed markedly[i should know ive written and published five of them],today it is possible to print very small quantities of books at not much more unit price than a big run.IF you have any good ideas for zoo books that wont make you any money[ie just for the love of it in other words] then put it to me by all means.
I totally agree with this, I love books and it does seem like a lot of younger folk don't even know what a book is -- but in this specific case the IZYs are very expensive and it's quite possible that Cat-man doesn't have access to any libraries that hold them (or maybe he does but has the typical modern habit of wanting information immediately at no trouble to himself).Tim Brown said:
However it is interesting how almost nobody ever references the IZY volumes on Zoochat! With the subject matter and general high knowledge content of the site you'd think these books would be being mentioned constantly!
In the U.K. the British Library holds ever edition of IZY.
My library were pretty good at obtaining them. The council in an attempt to save money closed it in March 2011. The nearest library which is in Stoke itself took 7 months to obtain a copy for me, my local library (Fenton) averaged 2-3 weeks.
To get the volume I had to give them several reminders, and then I got a complaint that it costs £20 for each book borrowed from the British Library.
One of the excuses I was given was that the Document Supply Centre of the British Library was undergoing restoration work, including the removal of asbestos, and the books were not available.
I asked the British Library how long the work would take, and they seemed very surprised with the library's answer. The building was undergoing renovation, but no books were off limits and the service was functioning normally.
I now use the County Library Service who can obtain IZYs in 2-3 weeks.
There is a happy ending to this story. By closing two of the nine libraries in Stoke-on-Trent, the council have saved so much money that they can afford to award themselves an above inflation pay rise.
devilfish
Well-Known Member
One of my favourite features of having institutional access to online journals is the wealth of scientific zoo and animal-related literature I can browse with ease. Obviously a definite highlight are the IZYs, and a growing number of complete older volumes are being made available online.
Apologies for continuing to go off topic but having never seen a recent volume of IZY I'm curious what makes it so expensive? Is it quality of printing, low print run, payment for articles, payment for editor, something else or some combination of the aforementioned?
Well,first thing to say is that a subscriber can halve the price to 70 quid or so.Secondly that Wiley Publishing now produce the IZY on behalf of the ZSL and they are there to make a profit...after that i really couldnt say.It should cost no more than a tenner to print and i dont think they pay for articles.However there is a full time editor and other staff involved as well,so my guess is that the cost soars there.