[Smt-talk] Jonathan Kramer's "The Time of Music"

[Robert Judd]

A couple of comments on this thread run counter to what I've
experienced at the AMS.

1) Cal Press (prints and distributes JAMS) no longer does a "print
run" in the old sense. If we run out of an issue, they now print up xx
copies more. No inventory to maintain; never goes "out of print."

2) I've been approached more than once by vendors eager to print "out
of print" AMS-published books and sell them, quite reasonably priced.
E.g. the AMS publication of Joseph Kerman's book _The Elizabethan
Madrigal_ (1965). They would publish and distribute for something like
$15. (AMS still has a few copies, and we have put it up at Google
Books for free, so we don't really have a need to pursue this.)

3) Schirmer Books is now owned by Macmillan; there may well be a
logistical hassle locating the people who would have the authority to
get the Kramer book into "publish on demand" mode.

4) Google Books indicates that they have a scan of the Kramer (U.
Mich. copy). If the right people from Macmillan talked to Google, they
could get Google to sell a reasonably priced print-on-demand version
with a bit of profit for both mediaries. In my dealings with Google
(and to some extent Macmillan) it's been a bit difficult to get their
ear. We are pretty tiny bits of revenue stream, from their
perspective--not worth the effort. But it may be worth asking, and
maybe even the SMT administration might facilitate.

Regards,
Bob Judd
rjudd at ams-net.org