Lynx Edicions - What Next ? (2 Viewers)

[Mysticete]

Aim having a really hard time making any sense of the direction that Lynx Nature Books (as they are called now) is taking. They claim there is no economy in publishing field guides as publication costs and demands have made it unsustainable.

At the same time they are announcing second editions of field guides published just a few years ago? looking at some of their new releases I can't help but thinking that many of these titles must have very limited sales numbers so where is the economy and logic in that?

There is a forthcoming edition of Birds of Spain but it is only available in Spanish (just as their recently published mammal guide to Catalonia and Andorra) despite the fact that Spain is a very popular tourist destination. I think an overhaul of the HBW project is very unlikely given that we have BoW now.

Most of the cost of a new field guide comes from the writing of text, art (most of which comes from the HBW project?), editing, and layout. Once that is done I imagine it costs very little to publish further editions, as long as they are not complete overhauls

 

[Andy Adcock]

With what to me, seems like an unambitious 'to do' list, I predict a slow, lingering, death for Lynx, perhaps we've seen the halcyon days of paper, field guides?

 

[njlarsen]

perhaps we've seen the halcyon days of paper, field guides?

Two answers: electronic, where sound and perhaps videos can be combined in does have some advantages.
Secondly, Helm/Princeton still seems to be able to make money producing them?

From what we have heard, no-one else have taken on the challenge of making the remaining 2+ regional guides for Brazil, that might be a place where Lynx could do something that would make sense?
Niels

 

[Andy Adcock]

Two answers: electronic, where sound and perhaps videos can be combined in does have some advantages.
Secondly, Helm/Princeton still seems to be able to make money producing them?

From what we have heard, no-one else have taken on the challenge of making the remaining 2+ regional guides for Brazil, that might be a place where Lynx could do something that would make sense?
Niels

Totally agree Niels but as I said above, they seem to lack ambition, limiting themselves to squeezing the last drops of income by re-hashing, existing titles and producing the occasional coffee table book.

 

[Mysticete]

One kind of wonders if Lynx's hesitance with field guides might simply be a result of financial issues. They might not have the ability to invest significantly in the production of new guides as they did before.

 

[Andy Adcock]

 

[Andy Adcock]

So, apart from the stunning, front cover, how can the purchase of this 2nd ed be justified, have there been so many, taxonomic changes?