Rupert's Book??

[RRMarshall]

I tried ordering Rupert's book A Statistical History of Pro Football today on Amazon only to find it was out of stock. Checking some other sites there were notes that it would not be available until mid-March? Has the release date been pushed back or were the initial pre-sales so good that they were sold out before the January 17th release date? I haven't noticed any discussion on the board regarding this much anticipated release from such a distinguished longtime member of this organization, so perhaps someone can shed some light on the subject?

[RichardBak]

It looks like it hasn't even gone to the printer yet. Undoubtedly the virus has affected the usual production chain. Who knows, it could be anything. Since Rupert passed unexpectedly, it could be something as simple (but time-consuming) as gathering written permissions for photos or arranging for their payment, tasks the author is supposed to handle. Or gathering blurbs for the jacket or doing an index, which again are the author's responsibility. Whatever the hold-up, I can't believe a publisher would release a football book in mid-March---a few weeks after the 6-month football season has ended and just as baseball spring training starts. Then again, McFarland's print runs are very low---maybe 500-600 copies, which accounts for the high prices---and their main clients are libraries, so I suppose in their view any time is a good time to get a book out the door. It's not like there's going to be a massive marketing campaign or even a formal book launch.

Should be an interesting book.

[JuggernautJ]

I had an interesting experience recently...

I ordered a 400+ page textbook from Amazon (it was over $50) and it arrived a day or two later than usual.
When I got it I looked through it and on the last page it said it had been printed in Nevada on the day I ordered it.
I wonder if "print on demand" like that is the future of most/many reference books...

Print, bind, ship the next day.
We've come a loooong way since Gutenberg's Bible...

[RichardBak]

I'm thinking another possibility for the hold-up is that, far from running out of stock, the publisher hasn't yet received enough pre-orders from individuals and libraries to have an initial print run make sense economically. In this particular case Rupert's passing poses a big problem. Like many small houses, McFarland spends next to nothing on promoting its titles beyond sending out their Fall and Spring catalogs and buying ads in niche publications like CC. Instead, it heavily encourages its authors to buy up a bunch of books at a discount, which can then be sold at author-arranged bookstore signings and other personal appearances (Canton 2021 would be an obvious venue for Rupert's book). Arcadia and History Press do this, as well.

All of this is just speculation on my part. Perhaps Ken can weigh in, since he's worked on Rupert's manuscript and undoubtedly has dealt in the past with McFarland with the Great Teams series. But if Rupert's book has indeed been published, even in a limited print run, it's very strange that nobody has commented on it, on Amazon, here, or elsewhere.

[lastcat3]

I imagine if it had been published then someone at this board would have picked it up. I think the chances of it just not having enough preorders yet to go to print sounds likely as from what I have heard of it it was mainly a stats book and people can simply pull up webpages these days to get their stats.

[Ken Crippen]

I am checking with McFarland. I will post if I hear anything.

[Ken Crippen]

Mark Durr said that he will be meeting with some of the senior editors and will post a reply.