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Dewey B. Larson
755 N.E. Royal Court Portland, Oregon 97232 |
Dec, 19, 1983
Dear Jan:
I see no objection to placing an ad in Science and Culture if the price is as low as you indicate. We can't expect any direct financial return from this ad, as the Indian scientists apparently have no money for buying books. But the publicity from the ad is worth something. It may help get some reviews of the new book. Also, as you say, many of the university libraries in this country subscribe to that journal, and we may get some benefit from this exposure.
If I remember correctly, you told me that you had checked with some of the science teachers' journals other than School Science and Mathematics, and found them out of our price range. Please let me know what rates were quoted by the Journal of College Science Teaching and The Science Teacher, if you have these. What I have in mind is that although the ISUS will have to watch the advertising costs very closely, I may be able to persuade my associates in the NPP to gamble a little more heavily. If the rates quoted by these people are not too far out of our range, we could probably work it out so that the ISUS would pay the same amount that they did in the case of SS&M, and NPP would pick up the check for the remainder. I would like to see what an ad in one of these would do. Other things being equal, I would prefer The Science Teacher, as they have given us a couple of reasonably good reviews.
The error you located on page 115 of the advance publication of Vol. II is one of a number that will need to be corrected in this text. Since this reproduction of the manuscript was not intended for general distribution, my final draft was reproduced without corrections, on the assumption that the necessary corrections would be made before publication in book form. In the meantime I have gone over the text to locate any errors and have accumulated some tips from readers. The reason why I have not sent these to you is that I did not expect that you would be doing anything more with Volume II for a while, since you have tackled Volume III. However, I am enclosing a list of all of the corrections in the first eight chapters, except for three pages (63 to 65) that will be completely rewritten. I will send you the revised pages later. It will not be advisable to do anything with Chapters 9 to 11 until after I have finished the remaining chapters on electricity and magnetism (probably 9 or 10). I don't think that there will be many (if any) substantive changes, but I may want to alter my way of saying certain things, and I may juggle some items from one chapter to another.
With respect to the advance announcement of the new book, I see no objection to your idea of making it an issue of ISUS News. It is desirable to get this out as soon as possible, but we will first have to take care of some preliminaries. Gde will have to make some final arrangements about the financing. I am working these out with Rainer, and I will let you know when this hurdle is out of the way. Then there will have to be an agreement on the price. I have not heard from either you or Rainer as to your reaction to my latest suggestion: a $19.00 list price and a $4.00 discount on the advance orders. Finally, there is the question as to what changes you or Rainer want to make in the draft of the announcement. If the three of us can agree on these points, I do not believe that it will be necessary to consult any of the other ISUS people. The authorizations already voted by the organization should be sufficient.
One of the unfinished items in connection with Volume III is the preparation of the illustrations. I have drawn some of the diagrams that appear in my books, but I am not very good at this job, so unless they are very simple I have had them prepared by a professional (or at least a semi-pro). I will have to do this again, as I feel that this book deserves something better than I can give it. Would it be possible for you to locate someone in your vicinity that can handle this job -- either a professional illustrator or someone at the University that knows the business? I don't like to load any more chores on you, but there might be some advantage in having more of the strings in your hands, as long as you are doing the main job. It won't be necessary to shop around for the lowest price. The amount of work to be done is not large enough to make the price very significant. I can supply the instructions and the data to go with the rough diagrams that I sent with the manuscript.With this information, just about anyone who have the drawing ability can do the job.
As to the comments on Hoff’s review, I agree that we should not pass up any opportunity to keep the pot boiling, but I would like to soften the response somewhat. I will revise it and send it back to you shortly.
I will also see that you get a list of the recent direct mail customers of the NPP in time for mailing the announcement of the new book. It will be delayed a bit, because I will probably have to prepare it myself. The volunteer personnel available to carry on the operations of the NPP fluctuates up and down, and at the moment it is down, so I can't call on them for any extra chores. But it will be coming along.
If you will take my IOU for this and the other items that I have promised to send, I believe this brings us up to date.
