The Life & Work of Alister MacKenzie

[Brian_Ewen]

I seem to remember Mr Doak saying it would never be re-published? 


The Life & Work of Alister MacKenzie

We are excited to announce that we are reprinting this wonderful book that Tom had published in 2001 with Sleeping Bear Press.

The printer had lost the files and had searched for years...and thankfully, finally found them.

This book is nearly impossible to find, so I would recommend getting your orders in quickly. We have a pre-publication price of $95 plus shipping.

Shipping late April '23

[David_Tepper]

Brian -

Is Sleeping Bear Press publishing the re-issue or is it being done by another publisher?

DT

[Tom_Doak]

Brian -

Is Sleeping Bear Press publishing the re-issue or is it being done by another publisher?

DT

It's being re-issued by me, since Sleeping Bear Press doesn't exist anymore.  [But the former publisher, Brian Lewis, works with me on my books.]


The original printing files had been lost for years at the printer.  There was enough demand that we told them we were ready to cannibalize my original copy of the book so they could scan it all and publish from that . . . but somehow during that process they found the lost file, so they didn't have to tear up my original copy.


I wish there had been an easy way to update the book a bit without starting over, but there really wasn't, and I don't have time to rewrite a book right now . . . so, we have just gone ahead and reprinted the original.  Apparently the demand was real, they are about half gone in the six hours since we sent out the announcement!

[Tim_Cronin]

Ordered! (And glad I checked this website today.)

[Charlie Goerges]

I wish there had been an easy way to update the book a bit without starting over, but there really wasn't

I'm wondering if someone in the more technical side of publishing could explain why this would be the case. Because I've resurrected old manuals by just scanning them, using OCR and then pasting the results into my editor of choice (Framemaker in those cases) and then cropping and re-importing the images to give a nice, clean file. If there weren't a lot of images, it might be 8-hours work for 100 plus pages. I might be remembering with slightly rose-tinted glasses I suppose, but it wouldn't have been that hard a decade ago, when I last had to do something like that.

[Tim_Cronin]

In this case, with the original files, it's just a matter of time for rewriting and was Tom stated, he doesn't have it.


If those files were still missing, it would be a matter of rescanning the photos (if those were available) and effectively designing the book all over again. For a book with a wealth of color photos, a lot more complicated than a manual, that would be a major pain in the behind. The next option, as Tom mentioned, is rescanning a copy of the original book, which brings more technical gremlins into the room with the photos and sometimes with the text.

[Jeff Schley]

Ordered and already on backorder according to the website.

[Pete_Pittock]

There goes a cornerstone of my estate.

[Tom_Doak]

Ordered and already on backorder according to the website.

That just means we don’t have them from the printer yet, so we can’t ship it yet.  I think they’re due around the first of May.  (We just start taking orders early so we can print shipping labels and be ready to mail them when they arrive.)

[Tommy Williamsen]

I just used it as a resource on the Maxwell and Dr. Mac thread. It’s a good resource. 

[Pat Burke]

I seem to remember Mr Doak saying it would never be re-published? 


The Life & Work of Alister MacKenzie

We are excited to announce that we are reprinting this wonderful book that Tom had published in 2001 with Sleeping Bear Press.

The printer had lost the files and had searched for years...and thankfully, finally found them.

This book is nearly impossible to find, so I would recommend getting your orders in quickly. We have a pre-publication price of $95 plus shipping.

Shipping late April '23

I would love to purchase a copy

[Niall C]

There goes a cornerstone of my estate.

Likewise. But I have a cunning plan, I ordered about half of the available copies of the new edition which I will dispose of to keep up the value of my original copy 


Niall

[Tom_Doak]

There goes a cornerstone of my estate.

Likewise. But I have a cunning plan, I ordered about half of the available copies of the new edition which I will dispose of to keep up the value of my original copy 


Niall

I might keep a few of them myself this time!

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

There goes a cornerstone of my estate.

Likewise. But I have a cunning plan, I ordered about half of the available copies of the new edition which I will dispose of to keep up the value of my original copy 


Niall

A weird take on a share buy back scheme. You would have done well during the financial crisis. A cunning plan as Baldrick might say 

[Ronald Montesano]

Well, this IS a reprint, so the original edition should have some value, if humanity survives and still uses money to assist in trade and commerce ... and people still have time to read books ... and ChatGPT and GoogleAI don't create books in the style of Tom Doak.