HFQ snippet request

kbus888 wrote:=2015/02/05=
I check the profile for runsforcelery and if he has not been on the forum since last I checked, then I know there are no new snippets on ANY of the forums.

Quick and easy ...

Just say'n

R
.

Hmmm. Didn't he say something about having internet problems with the last snippet? Maybe they or ongoing. Or he could be just really busy.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Whaaaaaaaaaaaaah Snivel Snivel
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Henry Brown wrote:

kbus888 wrote:=2015/02/05=
I check the profile for runsforcelery and if he has not been on the forum since last I checked, then I know there are no new snippets on ANY of the forums.

Quick and easy ...

Just say'n

R
.

Hmmm. Didn't he say something about having internet problems with the last snippet? Maybe they or ongoing. Or he could be just really busy.

If he had internet-problems at home, he could simply go into the town of Greenville. There are some hotels and internet-cafes there with free internet access via wlan- and you needn't much time to upload some prepared snippets into the various conferences of his forum. Copy and past will serve you just fine, don't you think?

No, I think he's just really busy (be it with writing, be it with family life, be it with something else).

The bottleneck, as I understand it, is actually the binding, not the printing. The bindery is also where a lot of "printing" errors actually happen, which is why no one is happy when the binder is being pushed for fast turnaround.

I haven't been in a printing plant for decades, and have never had a good look at the kind of high-volume operation a publisher hires, so I'm guessing a bit here. Interestingly, the actual print time for 100,000 copies isn't hugely longer than for 10,000 - an extra couple of days or so at most. The reason for that is that actually setting up the presses takes a significant amount of time: tearing out the last set of plates, cleaning them and the presses, setting up the new plates, adjusting everything, getting the stacks of paper lined up, making a test run, and pushing Go can take as much as 2-3 days. Stopping it and figuring out what went wrong - usually paper or ink storage - sorting everything out and pushing Go again might add another. Actual printing time for the 10,000, on modern presses, I think is on the order of 5 hours. The exact time will vary with the size of the book and the level of service purchased - a long book needs either more press lines or multiple tear-down/set-up cycles. You'll notice immediately why a) 100,000 copies only adds a couple of days to the time and b) why it's not worthwhile for a major publisher to do a run of less that 10,000.

So, my best guess is 3-5 days plus the time to make the printing plates, which i think is about a week. I count that time separately because as long as you aren't fixing typos the plates are a one-off expense. They are stored and reused if you're lucky enough to make it into a second printing. Binding is about another week: my understanding is that it's a slower process but requires much less set-up since books are standard sizes. Only the number of signatures would change from one book to the next. OTOH, since there is less set-up, the time needed increases more directly with the length of the print run, so the 100,000 copies could take closer to a month in the same plant. All these times are in-plant, and don't count the covers, which are printed separately, often by a different printer. Total turnaround from typeset to shipped is generally much longer. I'm not sure about Tor, but I think Baen generally allows 8-10 weeks from the final proofs for printing and binding. [and, by this point, the book is carved in stone - it would take something far, far worse than a missing m in 'center of mass' to halt the process once the typeset file has gone to the printer]

Highjohn wrote:

< snip >


Also, random question. How long does it take for a printer to print say ten thousand copies of a book? For instance, the most popular first edition I know of was Harry Potter 7. How much lead time would the printers have needed for that.

"The book sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of release, breaking down to 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US" Wikipedia

"No, I think he's just really busy (be it with writing, be it with family life, be it with something else)."
*****
Something is going on, no RFC posts on any forum since Feb 22.

Steve

RFC last visited the forums Sun Feb 01, 2015 6:38 pm

His last post January 22

Hope it is a looming deadline and Sharon is not havingback trouble again.

Poker

Thanks Louis R.

pokermind wrote:RFC last visited the forums Sun Feb 01, 2015 6:38 pm

His last post January 22

Hope it is a looming deadline and Sharon is not havingback trouble again.

Poker

And we now know it was Sharon having a respiratory problem, and not back problems. It is now completely understandable why he wasn't able to post a snippet on time.

I know that it has only been a week since our last fix. However, I have gone through the first six books again and am now on LAMA as part of my twelve step program for my Safehold addiction. September can't get here fast enough. Please Mr. Pusher, give us a new fix not later than 10 days after our last. (Sad, begging face.)

(But only if things are well at home. If House Six is still having problems, just ignore us.)

One of the Honorverse books suffered a "e-book lapse"
and many got a far too early read of the novel.

Did this have an actual effect on the sales of that book. I know that I was given a copy on the strict understanding that I would purchase the hardcopy when it was available (which I did - as well as the official e-ARC)