On Mar 23, 1:24 am, David Babcock wrote:
I know that if I were going to start playing bridge again, I would
read Watson's "Outline of Contract Bridge" first

because you are aware of its existence. Most newcomers to the game of
bridge won't recognize the name Louis Watson any more than they will
the name Kenneth Harkness, and, preferring new books to old as you
note so many people do, my guess is that they will buy the books their
friends or teachers recommend, or they will browse at the local
Borders or B&N and find something there rather than take a chance on
publishers' blurbs on Amazon.

The reviews that will come out in Bridge Bulletin and The Bridge World
and perhaps other magazines (you have sent out or will be sending out
review copies of your titles of course) may help, though a survey
commissioned by ACBL a couple of years back found that the vast
majority of bridge players in the US had never heard of ACBL, so they
would not see the Bulletin review-to-be anyway. Otherwise I'm just
not clear on how your intended customers will encounter your
products. The good news is that the market doesn't much care what I
or any other individual consumer thinks. Only time will tell.

David

Thank you for your helpful suggestions.

The truth is that I never heard of Louis Watson myself until a few
weeks ago. I always thought that Charles Goren was the World's
Greatest Bridge Player. Silly me!!

It was my old friend Richard Laver, a chess master and Math Professor
at the University of Colorado who played as my bridge partner 40 years
ago, who started writing me about these Watson books upon learning
that I had recently restarted my publishing company, The Ishi Press
(that underwent a hiatus of 10 years without publishing any new
books).

Due to the wonders of new print-on-demand technology if I can just
sell around 20 to 30 books I will break even and thus far almost all
of my books have done that with the notable exception with the Kenneth
Harkness book "Invitation to Bridge". I have published 34 books in the
past year and a half. If you ever get to see one of them, you will see
that the print and production qualities are superior to the original
books. (By the way, do not believe my long time detractors such as
"Rob" and "Jeron" who will try to tell you that I make my books at
Kinko Copies. I use a very high quality printer.)

The serious bridge players will know that Louis Watson was a great
player who tragically died in 1936 at age 29 and whose books are still
studied today by all the top players. That is where I hope my market
to be.

Sam Sloan