The Life of Honinbo Shuei

[Time]

[admin] Personal attack removed. -JB [/admin]

[Zengarden]

Having bought the complete Shuei series on iPad kindle, I'd like to join other fans in congratulating John Fairbairn on a magnificent achievement- the equal of his volumes of Go Seigen matches and a much needed addition to Western Go literature.

I had been fortunate in finding a copy of the Chinese complete games of Shuei when on a trip to Shanghai, but the traditional Asian display of 100 moves per diagram was in the end exhausting and confusing, so the book remained on the shelf! (However, as it cost virtually nothing being sold in a Chinese bookshop, I was still glad to have the book on the shelves ...)

Having a go book on kindle rather than smartgo is, however, something of a disadvantage, not least because of the clumsy display of a kindle compared with smartgo.

I wonder if Mr Fairbairn might not consider publishing the Shuei surveys as an Amazon printed book? Jonathan Hop has published 4 books of go instructional material and the general quality is very acceptable. I would have thought many go players would be happy to pay £20-30 or $50 for an excellent survey of a great figure of Go history (even if, like me, they already have it in electronic format. I cannot be the only one who has several smartgo books as well as their paper equivalents!?) But in the meantime, at least we now have a great book on a great player, even if it means we have to carry an IPad or similar. More please, Mr Fairbairn. How about Jowa or even Dosaku?

[logan]

Hi John,

I was wondering when your final volume of the Honinbo Shuei trilogy in supposed to be released, "The Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei"? I believe "The Life" was released in May of last year, followed by "The Games" vols. in June, July, September and November.

Also, if there's anything I may be able to do to help out, please let me know : )

Thank-you very much,
logan

[John Fairbairn]

I was wondering when your final volume of the Honinbo Shuei trilogy in supposed to be released, "The Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei"? I believe "The Life" was released in May of last year, followed by "The Games" vols. in June, July, September and November.

I am writing this between proofreading sessions, which will not take very long in this case as I have decided to trim the book somewhat. Sales of Volume 4 were ridiculous - eight, last time I looked, so it's not worth putting much more effort in. I therefore stopped after 12 commentaries instead of 16. I have also decided that I will do no more go books with diagrams for the current generations of Kindle. I think this is the source of the problem.

I have offered Shuei to SmartGo and Slate & Shell but met with resounding silence. I have too much on my plate to get involved with conversions or selling paper versions myself, and no doubt they are likewise burdened.

On the plus side, Slate & Shell say that while the paper market remains in the doldrums, my paper books are still ticking over nicely and so they can consider a new book if not too large. I have one lined up already, in the style of Go Consultants, which has proven to be the most popular title after Kamakura (though all the books about Go Seigen have done well - and when you look at Black 11 in today's 1001 GoGoD Games (12 Feb 2013) it's not hard to see why!

[lobotommy]

I was wondering when your final volume of the Honinbo Shuei trilogy in supposed to be released, "The Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei"? I believe "The Life" was released in May of last year, followed by "The Games" vols. in June, July, September and November.

I am writing this between proofreading sessions, which will not take very long in this case as I have decided to trim the book somewhat. Sales of Volume 4 were ridiculous - eight, last time I looked, so it's not worth putting much more effort in. I therefore stopped after 12 commentaries instead of 16. I have also decided that I will do no more go books with diagrams for the current generations of Kindle. I think this is the source of the problem.

I have offered Shuei to SmartGo and Slate & Shell but met with resounding silence. I have too much on my plate to get involved with conversions or selling paper versions myself, and no doubt they are likewise burdened.

On the plus side, Slate & Shell say that while the paper market remains in the doldrums, my paper books are still ticking over nicely and so they can consider a new book if not too large. I have one lined up already, in the style of Go Consultants, which has proven to be the most popular title after Kamakura (though all the books about Go Seigen have done well - and when you look at Black 11 in today's 1001 GoGoD Games (12 Feb 2013) it's not hard to see why!

I think SmartGo version would sell better than eight... Maybe lack of advertisement cause this low sales? But most of all I think sales are low because it is divided into too many parts. Even if someone bought previous two or three volumes they probably need to go through them before buying another one.

And a price. Not everyone are living in US/west Europe "Eldorado". For me it is quite expensive to buy all 4 books. I'm from east/central Europe, which means I need to multiply a price by 4 to get a "real" price I need to pay (salary in Poland is 3 to 6 times lower than in western countries, and still we have higher prices on almost everything...). So I could afford only two volumes before feeling guilty . But if all four books would come at "two volumes plus $5" price then I will be more than happy to pay.
Or maybe it is a time for me to emigrate to the "better world"...

[bobmcg]

I was wondering when your final volume of the Honinbo Shuei trilogy in supposed to be released, "The Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei"? I believe "The Life" was released in May of last year, followed by "The Games" vols. in June, July, September and November.

I am writing this between proofreading sessions, which will not take very long in this case as I have decided to trim the book somewhat. Sales of Volume 4 were ridiculous - eight, last time I looked, so it's not worth putting much more effort in. I therefore stopped after 12 commentaries instead of 16. I have also decided that I will do no more go books with diagrams for the current generations of Kindle. I think this is the source of the problem.

I have offered Shuei to SmartGo and Slate & Shell but met with resounding silence. I have too much on my plate to get involved with conversions or selling paper versions myself, and no doubt they are likewise burdened.

On the plus side, Slate & Shell say that while the paper market remains in the doldrums, my paper books are still ticking over nicely and so they can consider a new book if not too large. I have one lined up already, in the style of Go Consultants, which has proven to be the most popular title after Kamakura (though all the books about Go Seigen have done well - and when you look at Black 11 in today's 1001 GoGoD Games (12 Feb 2013) it's not hard to see why!

I see that I am a member of an elite community, purchasers of all four volumes of the games of Shuei. It was a shock to learn how few people have bought these books, how few people care about one of the very greatest players in go history. These e-books are quite inexpensive compared to books on paper and you don't have to have a separate device to read them. You can download Kindle for PC from Amazon for free; that's what I did and it works fine.

[aconley]

Wow, that is stunning -- and saddening. Apparently I am also one of the elite few who own all four. I finished playing through all of them about a month ago -- quite enjoyable.

[SoDesuNe]

I have to admit, I haven't bought the second volume of his games, yet, but I can especially recommend the last two volumes (three and four). I've now played through the fourth volume a second time and started the third volume for the second time today and you can learn so much from Shuei's moves, even more so since the commentary is really good and educating!
A further point on the plus side is the price: Less than 10€ for one book. Each book has more than 15 commented games! People buy Yi Se-tel's book for about 40€ and he just explains three games.

It really is sad that the sales are so low. But it is also (even more?) sad that I know enough Go players who close their eyes (and mind), telling due to outdated Fuseki and Joseki there is nothing to learn from games of ancient masters.

But yes Kamakura, Final Summit and 9-dan Showdown are also on my to-buy-list. It makes me really happy to know what's still coming : )

[logan]

Thank-you for the timely reply John. I'm sad to learn about the trimming of the book, and would be willing to wait for the additional games; however I understand your position so expect you to do what you feel is right.

----------------------

I think the fact that the book was only a digital and Kindle book hurt the sales. Also, is it surprising that most of the buyers (and those aware of the books) seem to be on the forum where most of its advertising has been?

I think there's something of substance to be said about books being listed on a [Go] publisher's website and how that impacts sales. Accessibility and advertising to those who aren't specifically looking for the book, and so on...

I'm proud to be one of the few 'elites' along with you others here : )

[oren]

I guess I'm one of the 8 buyers of volume 4. I really hope you don't go down the smartgo books route only, since I don't want to go downgrade to an iOS thing.

[skydyr]

For myself, I purchased the first couple volumes of commented games, but was holding off on the last two until I've gotten through these, though I do intend to purchase them at some point. If there is a large discrepancy between purchasers of the first volume or two and the last, perhaps this is why?

[lobotommy]

Offtopic on

I guess I'm one of the 8 buyers of volume 4. I really hope you don't go down the smartgo books route only, since I don't want to go downgrade to an iOS thing.

If having an access to best mobile go software is a downgrade for you... Any OS is just a terminal for apps. As an owner of iOS and Android gadgets I can clearly tell that android is absolutely inferior to iOS in a go apps area.

Offtopic off

SmartGo version would be an instabuy for me. Of course I would prefer to have one book gathering all that content instead of four or five (six?)...

[oren]

Offtopic on

I guess I'm one of the 8 buyers of volume 4. I really hope you don't go down the smartgo books route only, since I don't want to go downgrade to an iOS thing.

If having an access to best mobile go software is a downgrade for you... Any OS is just a terminal for apps. As an owner of iOS and Android gadgets I can clearly tell that android is absolutely inferior to iOS in a go apps area.

Offtopic off

SmartGo version would be an instabuy for me. Of course I would prefer to have one book gathering all that content instead of four or five (six?)...

I won't take the topic any more off topic, but I have used iPad before plenty and going from ny nexus 7 or 10 to an iPad would definitely be a downgrade for me. It's sad that some go app producers want to develop for iOS platform exclusively, but smartgo books is not enough of a driver to want to switch to an overall platform that is worse for me.

[Xyiana]

SmartGo version would be an instabuy for me. Of course I would prefer to have one book gathering all that content instead of four or five (six?)...

Same for me. I think SmartGo books are mobile standard now and i dont want to downgrade to kindle books.

[palapiku]

I have used iPad before plenty and going from ny nexus 7 or 10 to an iPad would definitely be a downgrade for me.

I think SmartGo books are mobile standard now and i dont want to downgrade to kindle books.

Clearly, locked down formats are the way to go - no matter which one you pick, you will have grateful users!

By no means should anybody publish using standard formats that work on every device. People must be punished for buying the wrong $500 gadget.