Seawatch Books outside of the US

[cog]

Yes it will absolutely be available in the UK direct from Seawatch as are their other titles.

What's the place/shop/store where Seawatch books are sold in the UK?

 

These posts were split from the HMS Winchelsea scratch build log.  this model is the subject of a book that will be coming out in the future and published by Seawatch books.  Seawatch books is one of our sponsors and they offer folks many such books on ship modeling and naval history.  Many are authored by other MSW members.

[Chuck]

...all books are sold through the Seawatch site from the US.

 

Chuck

[Model Mariner]

They are not...all books are sold through the Seawatch site.

 

Chuck

 

 

I guess it would be a good idea if Seawatch books would have a European publishing company to print and distribute their books in Europe. Shipping their books to the EU (plus customs duty) makes the books extremely expensive.

 

I suppose there are a lot of Europeans who would appreciate this

 

Klaus

Edited February 23, 2013 by Model Mariner

[tkay11]

I am in total agreement with Klaus. There are bookshops in the UK that would handle this )for example, the Model Dockyard, or Pen & Sword). I am fairly sure model shops such as Cornwall Model Boats would also sell them. I would have bought books from Seawatch, but have been put off by the huge expense of the posting.

 

Tony

[cog]

The shipping cost and import duties in the Netherlands are killing. I pay twice the price I would have to pay in the US. It ain't fun no more after you've received the book(s)

[Modeler12]

The shipping cost and import duties in the Netherlands are killing. I pay twice the price I would have to pay in the US. It ain't fun no more after you've received the book(s)

Common Carl. Why don't you simply come to the States, visit Carl, see what he is like and buy his book. That would be fun, right? 

Ik weet zeker dat zijn boek prachtig zal zijn, dus geen negativa posting meer, alst-u-blieft. Or however you want to say that.

[prodas]

fortunately have stores in Europe, I all I have to pay double for shipping

[amateur]

Common Carl. Why don't you simply come to the States, visit Carl, see what he is like and buy his book. That would be fun, right? 

Ik weet zeker dat zijn boek prachtig zal zijn, dus geen negativa posting meer, alst-u-blieft. Or however you want to say that.

 

No negative on the book (which undoubtedly) will be great, as other seawatch-books are.

But I have to agree with Carl that the import- and transport fees to be paid on US-imported books are rather high.

And as to visit the US, the amount of paperwork needed for that is killing any fun of going.....

 

Jan

[keelhauled]

Can't wait to see the book!  It sounds like they could get quite a few pre-orders on the book.  I know I'd be one.

[cog]

Modeler12,

 

It's as Jan (Amateur) says ... Not negative about the book, for Seawatch Books has some titles I would love to buy (e.g. EdT's), but if I pay $70.- in the States, I'd pay at least another $70.- here before I get it in my hands. I've seen 5 titles I would like to by, each around $70.- You can do the mathematics ...

 

Visit the States ......... If I would visit another continent and I could choose ... first Japan, second New Zealand/Australia, third Mongolia/China

Edited February 24, 2013 by cog

[Trussben]

Hey Chuck,

 

Don't forget from MSW1.0 that I was among the first to express interest in building the Winnie along with Rusty, but I'd really like an autographed copy.

 

Ben

[Modeler12]

Ok how about this?

You pick the book you want to buy, let me know and I buy it for you in the US. I receive it and open the book and look through it, put it in a postal box and send it to you in Europe as 'used book' estimated value $8. Postal rate priority mail $12.35. What and where do the import duties come into play? Would your postman collect?

 

I know this is rather naive, but could it work?

[bobcat]

Hi,

 

I have been reading this thread. I am sorry for the high postal costs but there is not much I can do about them. All shipments to Europe are priced according to weight. A sinlgle book, weighing 3.5 pounds costs over $30. I only charge $25. For orders up to 4 books I can use the post office's flat rate box that is charged at $60. I only am charging $50 at the present. Also, books ordered in Europe are charged to the customer in Euros. The exchage rate against a dollar is .76 Euros which is quite a favorable rate. The rate against the English Pound is even better.

There are two people in SeaWatchBooks, my wife and myself,  and we price our books as fairly as possible. There has to be enough money to pay the printer's bill for the next book. I hope I can continue to be of service to this hobby.

 

Bob Friedman

[slagoon]

Just a thought, but if these books are so great, and hard to acquire overseas, maybe the book could be made available in a secure electronic format like Kindle books? You could still charge and make a profit, but it would make it so that those who don't want to double the book's price by shipping it could still have the ability to benefit from the contents? I still like paper books for research and learning better than e-books....but still worth thinking about?

[Model Mariner]

Hi,

 

I have been reading this thread. I am sorry for the high postal costs but there is not much I can do about them. All shipments to Europe are priced according to weight. A sinlgle book, weighing 3.5 pounds costs over $30. I only charge $25. For orders up to 4 books I can use the post office's flat rate box that is charged at $60. I only am charging $50 at the present. Also, books ordered in Europe are charged to the customer in Euros. The exchage rate against a dollar is .76 Euros which is quite a favorable rate. The rate against the English Pound is even better.

There are two people in SeaWatchBooks, my wife and myself,  and we price our books as fairly as possible. There has to be enough money to pay the printer's bill for the next book. I hope I can continue to be of service to this hobby.

 

Bob Friedman

I appreciate that there has to be enough money to pay the printer's bill and that there should also be a profit in it. The problem with the end price for European customers is aggravated by the fact that custom duties are not only charged for the goods but also for the relatively high shipping cost.

 

Maybe I am completely wrong, but I think if you get somebody to print and sell these books in Europe to a price (including an appropriate profit for Seawach books) which is reasonable for the publisher as well as for the customer) the safing in shipping and customs duty (including customs duty for shipping) would be more than enough to cover a profit for this publisher and Seawatch book and to bring a considerable advantage for European customers. I suppose also that a lot more books would be sold in Europe. I am obviously not the only European who would like to buy one or the other of these awesome books but is reluctant to do so because of the end high price (within only a couple of hours after I mentioned this idea yesterday for the first time there were already several people who were in agreement).

I could imagine that companies like Conway Maritime Press of Chatham Publishing would be interested in acting as European partner for Seawacht books.

 

Just a thought, but possibly worth to follow .......

 

 

Sorry Chuck to misuse your log!

 

 

Klaus

Edited February 25, 2013 by Model Mariner

[amateur]

Just a thought, but if these books are so great, and hard to acquire overseas, maybe the book could be made available in a secure electronic format like Kindle books? You could still charge and make a profit, but it would make it so that those who don't want to double the book's price by shipping it could still have the ability to benefit from the contents? I still like paper books for research and learning better than e-books....but still worth thinking about?

 

In the Netherlands there is 'Uitgeverij Van Wijnen' (http://www.uitgeverijvanwijnen.nl/) they have the the book on Valkenisse already in their list, and they have the Dutch version of the Hoving-book on the Utrecht.

A second one firm is Lanasta (http://www.lanasta.com/), developping a nive portfolio of modelling and maritime books for the Dutch market.

Would either of these two be an option as 'import-partner' for the Seawatch-range?

Importing in bulk (or as Klaus suggests even printing the books here), might be a method to lower the relative effect of the import and tax on the bookprice.

 

Jan

[Modeler12]

I would like to add one more thing 

 

To print and even import these kind of books to Holland or even all of the Euro countries (in order to reduce the shipping and import costs) requires VOLUME. These books are not what you see on the New York Times best seller list and I would venture to say that a maximum of ten copies (maybe twenty) of any one of them would be sold in a year. You pay, let's say, 50 euros for one. That is a gross income of 500 or 1000 euros for the publisher. That is peanuts and would not even cover his costs.

 

I am still interested, Chuck, what your estimated completion date is and perhaps Mr Friedman can let me know when I can buy a copy.

[Model Mariner]

I would like to add one more thing and then be quiet and let Chuck enlighten us with his superb craftsmanship.

 

To print and even import these kind of books to Holland or even all of the Euro countries (in order to reduce the shipping and import costs) requires VOLUME. These books are not what you see on the New York Times best seller list and I would venture to say that a maximum of ten copies (maybe twenty) of any one of them would be sold in a year. You pay, let's say, 50 euros for one. That is a gross income of 500 or 1000 euros for the publisher. That is peanuts and would not even cover his costs.

 

I am still interested, Chuck, what your estimated completion date is and perhaps Mr Friedman can let me know when I can buy a copy.

 

 

Well, it's obvious that these books do not sell like Harry Potter but I don't see why they (at least some of them) should not sell as good as for instant the books of Conway's "Anatomy of the ship" series if promoted accordingly.

 

Klaus

[Chuck]

I split and moved the discussion to its own topic...I hope I dis this right and didnt lose any in the process....anyway

 

Hope you guys dont mind but it was getting near two pages of discussion on the log.

 

Please continue.....

 

Chuck

[Mcdood]

Hi Guys, just to throw a large stone into the pond, today I received my copy of HMS EURYALUS volume 2, via my nice postman (John). There was no customs charge levied on this package by H.M.Customs, the same with all books i have ordered from Seawatch books (7 in all) . So all I have had to pay is postage and I cannot complain about that.

I doubt if this helps in anyway but thought I should state the case in the U.K. as i have found it.

Regards 

Martin.

[Padeen]

From personal experience, it is neither hard nor to costly to order Seawatch Books books from Europe. I bought my 4 copies of David Antsherl's Swan Class books through an English bookshop in Paris for a reasonable price (and no paperwork...). Internet ordering is not the only option...

And ordering a few books at the same time helps reduce the shipping costs, that's for sure.

[slagoon]

Thanks for moving it over Chuck - sorry for the Hijack.

[Neill]

Ordering three books helps reduce the cost.  Whilst a Europe based distributor would be great if it saved money, the service from Seawatch and the quality of their books is well worth the price - I remember paying a small fortune in the 1970's for a volume of Boudroit's book on the 74 gun ship at the bookshop in Greenwich (sadly gone the way of Maritime Models which was opposite), that was then only available in french and I was buying it for the drawings.  Taking inflation into account, Seawatch books are great value even with the shipping cost.

[cog]

First: Chuck well done, and thank you. It shouldn't have turned up in your build log, for which I do apologise.

 

Second: I don't mind paying Seawatch Books, I'd rather pay them the price increased with duties, so the authors could get a little more. However, I do mind paying taxes and duties, for if I would go to the States and bring them back I wouldn't have to pay a penny!!! If I have them sent by mail my limit is €22 before taxes/duties are calculated, whilst playing personal transporter (fetch them myself) my limit is €430. That difference is a bit - if not very - strange/odd/weird/peculiar/queer (whatever). At least it confirms the incomprehensible logic of a Dutch civil servant's mind ...

[amateur]

From personal experience, it is neither hard nor to costly to order Seawatch Books books from Europe. I bought my 4 copies of David Antsherl's Swan Class books through an English bookshop in Paris for a reasonable price (and no paperwork...). Internet ordering is not the only option...

And ordering a few books at the same time helps reduce the shipping costs, that's for sure.

 

I did ask this at a couple of bookstores around, but what they do is: go to the website, order the book, and ask me to pay book price, taxes, fees and other legal stuff taht I would pay by ordering through internet myself, and a 'handling fee' for themselves on top of this.

 

As far as I have discovered by now, there is no way to circumvent these high imports (and if someone knows how, please give a response....)

 

And yes, ofcourse amazon is available, but in principle the package will only be cleared by customs after paying the legal amounts. (tax free import by mail is, as Carl mentioned above: 22 euro).

[edit] And : check the proices of the Swan series on Amazon: you can almost buy all seawatch books for that amount....

 

 

Jan

Edited February 27, 2013 by amateur

[Padeen]

Jan, I guess I was lucky with my choice of a bookshop then... I don't think there is a way to avoid paying taxes on goods from the US in Europe: they are not in the Schengen area...

 

For Amazon, I can't see the point: rather order directly on Seawatch Books website...

[Matrim]

Shipping from the US is quite reasonable and I dont think books are currently VAT registered in the UK so no tax either. I don't see a problem myself and if we do have to pay 'more' shipping costs then so do the Americans when ordering from Ancre..

 

Joss

[tkay11]

We still haven't had a reply about the possibility of pdf versions of books (or even e-books) whether or not they are published in Europe or America. The world is changing in the way we use books. A huge amount of my reading, research and study (even for my mainline job and for medical research) is online now. I don't think we'll get over high costs of shipping of heavy books (in fact I'll be waiting for an American friend or colleague to bring me books I may want from the USA). Printed medical textbooks are now in decline, but of course there is still a large market for them in countries with low internet access. I should imagine a high proportion of people involved in ship modelling are in countries where internet access is very high.

 

More important is whether or not people who publish books about model ship building can focus now on a more economic format online. The quality of the pictures would in fact be better on line than in a printed book (screens have a higher dynamic and colour range than is possible with printing). This site has itself shown the redundancy of a lot of printed books. The books I am really interested in in relation to ship modelling are the 'how to' books. Not expensive paperweights that will essentially remain on the shelf once looked at. The SeaWatch books fall into the category of 'how to' books. Why they should not be in a cheaper online format defeats me. The costs of publishing would be lower, the number of people who purchase potentially greater, the profit margins left substantially the same or even greater since there are never any publishing re-runs to fund.

 

I do understand I may be naive about the costs of online publishing, but then the point of my post is to understand why it may be difficult to switch to this form of publishing.

 

Tony

[cog]

Tony,

 

My work is in software development. You could say that all of the references I can use are available as modern media (e-book/pdf/etc). Actually they are. However, I HATE TO READ A LOT FROM SCREEN. I'm plain and simple a paper person. Screen format is wrong, layout is wrong, colour is wrong, font is wrong (anything else I can think of ... no not just jet). Most modelers are not youngsters whom grew up with the new media. We are used to books. Besides: I love the feeling of a book in my hands. I love the feeling of turning a page. I love it becoming mine whilst reading it (the latter you will never feel with the modern media ...)

[cog]

Joss,

 

Books in the UK are at VAT 0%, always have been (I know as I started work in the largest book store in Holland). That doesn't mean there are no import duties to pay. I don't know the English customs regulations