May 20
Dear Morgan and others,
After my prior experience with discussants on this
list, I had vowed to quit. But I have not yet done
so, though it will take only one more bullying, ad
hominem outburst for me to do so now. As an
academic, I am accustomed to a modicum of civility.
Clearly, others are not.
I am coediting a huge, three-volume VOCABULARY FOR THE
STUDY OF RELIGION for Brill. The project will take
at least three years to complete. The result will
be both a print volume, which will be hardback only,
and an online version. I don't know what the cost of
either will be.
I do know that the costs of producing the work are not
inconsiderable. Brill is paying the coeditors and
contributors and enlists a fulltime, in-house editor,
one of whose main responsibilities is managing the
VOCABULARY. I have no idea what the cost of
printing the work or putting it online will be, but
the amount will not be small.
Brill turns a profit. Otherwise it would cease to
exist. But other publishers, especially
non-scholarly ones, are more focused on making money
than Brill. More commercial publishers who turn out
cheap paperbacks are not charities. How naive can
one be? The nature of the product, not of the
motive, accounts for the price.
If Brill, which does not operate blindly, concluded
that it could make a profit by selling its
publications more cheaply to get bigger sales, it
would do so. Publishes do not set book prices to
deter sales. How naive can one be?
Brill publishes works that might well otherwise not be
published. I cannot imagine what other publisher
would undertake to publish the VOCABULARY. And the
VOCABULARY is for academics, and academics affiliated
with libraries. It is not aimed for the self-taught,
who can readily find elsewhere sources for their more
popular needs.
At the same time Continental academic publishers
generally charge lots for their books. But then some
also charge subventions, as do some US
publishers. To my knowledge Brill does not.
Furthermore, Brill is not like Reed Elsevier, for
which I once coedited a journal. Reed Elsevier,
together with Springer, publishes journals, especially
in medicine and the sciences, that academics simply
must read. These publishers regularly double or
triple their prices. They offer packages of journals
to induce libraries to buy everything--on the grounds
that individual journals thereby cost much less. A
library can still purchase a single journal, but the
cost is so much higher that libraries tend to give up
and take the package.
I am not aware of anything comparable with Brill. As
superb as many of its publications are, no one MUST
read them. And the prices do not go up geometically.
I am honored to be coediting a major reference work
for Brill, which should be respected rather than
castigated for what it does.
Robert Segal
University of Aberdeen
________________________________________
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic [
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On Behalf Of Morgan Leigh [
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Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2012 12:46 AM
To:
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Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Looking for a
publisher for translation of al-Buni's Great Sun of
Gnoses
I had a big rant on the Pagan Studies list about this
issue recently, so
here I will just say...
They all 'say' they are largely unconcerned with
making money, and many
deny they make money when they are raking it in. See
here for info on
this and to sign the boycott of Elsevier!
http://thecostofknowledge.com
Regards,
Morgan Leigh
PhD Candidate
School of Sociology and Social Work
University of Tasmania
On 20/05/2012 2:15 AM, HUMBERTO MAGGI wrote:
> Brill's price are an insult. How that connects to
they being "largely
> unconcerned with making money" is a mystery for
me.
>
> HM
>
> --- Em *sáb, 21/4/12, Christopher I. Lehrich
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escreveu:
>
>
> De: Christopher I. Lehrich <
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> Assunto: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Looking
for a publisher for
> translation of al-Buni's Great Sun of Gnoses
> Para:
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> Data: Sábado, 21 de Abril de 2012, 14:53
>
> If it's a sufficiently scholarly translation,
you might try Brill.
> They publish a lot of important texts within
Islamic history, and
> they're largely unconcerned with making
money.
>
> Chris Lehrich
>
> On 4/20/2012 11:36 AM, N.W. Azal wrote:
>> The current Beirut printed edition of
al-Buni and its reprints
>> runs over 616 pages (not including index
and table of
>> contents/fihrist). The 2004 Turkish
annotated translation and
>> edition was divided into two massive
volumes of over 2000/3000+
>> pages per volume. Serializing al-Buni is
totally unfeasible, if
>> one were to do it properly, that is.
There are four books here
>> with over 50+ chapters and numerous
sub-divisions (as of the
>> printed edition, although no consensus
exists on the chapter
>> divisions or its sub-divisions. All of
these were added later).
>> Plus there are countless diagrams, graphs
and pictures. A project
>> such as this would have to to be done
much like (and even better
>> than) how Llewelyn did Agrippa's /De
occulta philosophia/ -- and
>> al-Buni's /Great Sun of Gnoses /is twice,
three times Agrippa's
>> size. The daunting scope of this project
is what, I suspect, has
>> scared off a few publishers I have been
speaking to over the years.
>>
>> N.W. Azal
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 5:20 PM, Karen
Gregory
>> <
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>> wrote:
>>
>> Hello all:
>>
>> I passed the email to a friend at CUP
and their response was:
>>
>> "I've been finding that even books on
Islamic science are
>> rather specialized. The British have
done more in your
>> friend's area. Kegan Paul (whom we
used to distribute) and
>> Brill would be worth trying.
Alternatively, the translation
>> could be serialized in the journal he
mentions. Or even
>> excerpts, which might generate more
interest among presses.
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Karen
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 10:51 AM,
Daniel Harms
>> <
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>> </mc/compose?to=
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wrote:
>>
>> I’ll add that a request for the
Shams al-Maarif in English
>> is one of the top trending and
most commented posts on my
>> blog, so there is substantial
interest.
>>
>>
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>>
>>
>> Dan Harms
>>
>> Bibliographer and Instructional
Services Librarian
>>
>> SUNY Cortland Memorial Library
>> P. O. Box 2000
>>
>> Cortland, NY 13045
>>
>> (607) 753-4042
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:*Society for The Academic
Study of Magic
>> [mailto:
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*On
>> Behalf Of *Dr Dave Evans
>>
>>
>> *Sent:* Friday, April 20, 2012
10:37 AM
>> *To:*
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>> </mc/compose?to=
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>> *Subject:* Re:
[ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Looking for a
>> publisher for translation of
al-Buni's Great Sun of Gnoses
>>
>>
>>
>> one of the many reasons i love
this list : )
>>
>> Dave E
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 5:08 PM,
mandrake
>> <
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wrote:
>>
>> On 20/04/2012 13:57, Lil Osborn
wrote:
>>
>> many thanks for plug
>> - yes would certainly be
interested personally and
>> professionally
>> mogg
>> contacted Nima off linst
>>
>> Hi Nima, Have you tried Mandrake
I know Mogg is on the list.
>>
>>
>>
>> Much love
>>
>> Lil
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone so please
excuse the spelling.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 20 Apr 2012, at 11:59, "N.W.
Azal"
>> <
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wrote:
>>
>> My attempt to find a
reputable publisher for my
>> translation of al-Buni's opus
magnum, the /Shams
>> al-Ma'arif al-Kubra/ (The
Great Sun of Gnoses), seems
>> to be going nowhere.
Generally speaking, even though
>> there is now a journal
dealing with occultism in the
>> Islamic world, most
Anglophone publishers seem to be
>> uninterested in publishing a
translation of the most
>> comprehensive Islamic
hermetic text, claiming it to
>> be, in the words of one
outfit, "too arcane an area to
>> prove a lucrative
investment"; this, while there seems
>> to be huge demand from a
market of non-Arabic readers
>> for a translation of this
specific work.
>>
>> I am open to suggestions as
to who to talk to if
>> anyone has any ideas or
contacts.
>>
>> N.W. Azal
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Karen Gregory
>> PhD candidate
>> Department of Sociology
>> The Graduate Center
>> City University of New York
>>
>>
>
> --
> Christopher I. Lehrich
> Assistant Professor of Religion
> Boston University
>
--
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