Out of the Nutshell
The publication of John McCamus’s
There had always been hesitations about recommending specific texts on Canadian contract law (there being nothing with the clear stature of Anson on Contracts or Sir Gunter Treitel’s monograph); of course Waddams was scholarly (though one might end up wondering what the law was), Fridman was a bit formalistic (though with helpful footnotes, especially for smaller jurisdictions) and Jean Côté’s An Introduction to the Law of Contract (Juriliber, 1974) was stimulating but short and badly dated. With McCamus, it looks like we have a treatise in English Canada to match Baudouin and Jobin’s work in the civilian tradition.
And we should celebrate Irwin Law, for striking out on its own path, recognizing that there are markets in Canada for reasonably priced, practical overviews. The series from the start blended the academic with the black letter needs of the profession, and if at times the overviews seemed a bit breathless (Canadian constitutional law in 600 pages, anyone), the level of the scholarship has generally been high.
Given the pricing of the competing books, it seems almost miraculous that Irwinlaw can price McCamus at $70 for 1100 pages of text. That equates to 6.3 cents per page, compared to fully 20 cents for Waddams, and 15.6 cents for the six year old text by Fridman.
These are similar publications competing within the same market. Are the production values so much lower for the paperbacked McCamus that explains why it’s less than a third of the price per page?
The economics of Canadian legal publishing will always have a certain inexplicable element. But Jeff Miller and his colleagues at Irwinlaw need to be saluted. As they say: Books on law do not need to be difficult, dull, and costly.
Thanks for the review, Simon. I’ve been waiting for this for ages. I’ve just placed my order.
Well done for Irwin. Well done.
My experience as an author with Irwin Law was quite different than with other publishers (and much more productive and enjoyable). Irwin Law had a draft of my book reviewed by three (anonymous) lawyers who each provided critical comments and led me to adjust an entire chapter and resulted in a much improved book. For both editions, Irwin also provided good proof readers who checked citations and grammar. As such, I don’t think it can be assumed that Irwin’s lower prices are a result of less editorial work, at least in my experience. In addition, while I was at the law school teaching, law students simply love the direct approach taken in most Irwin Law books. In addition, Irwin took a leading role in making their books searchable in full-text (on Quicklaw).
Simon Fodden may have additional comments as well.
Thanks for this posting, Simon. I’m also a big fan of Irwin Law. It is my practice at UVic to buy everything produced by Irwin, for all the reasons enumerated, but more so because they represent a unique and significant Canadian voice in a multinational publishing world.
Actually at the time that Hugh Lawford sold QL to Reed-Elsevier, Jeff Miller led a leveraged buy-out of Irwin Law, thus ensuring the survival of that independent voice.
Many thanks to Simon for this posting and his very kind words about John McCamus’ text in particular and Irwin Law in general. And thanks to Rob, Ted and Neil for their kind words as well. As it happens I am at the London Book Fair right now. Yesterday I ran into a chap from Abbey book shop in Paris who pleaded with me to remove the series brand “Essentials of Canadian Law” from the covers of our books because he thinks he could do well selling some of our books in Europe. I have also had meetings with most of the independent legal publishers in the UK. As you may be aware their numbers have been dwindling. The latest news is that Cavendish has been sold to Taylor and Francis (who recently merged with Informa). A couple of years ago Oxford University Press took over Blackstone and more recently OUP bought Butterworth’s academic law list. I was told by John Simkins, the owner of Wildy’s bookshop in London that OUP is now their third largest supplier after Sweet and Maxwell and Butterworths (the English book sellers still refuse to call it Lexis Nexis).
There are a couple of new independents, one that has been set up by Jeremy Stein, formerly of Cavendish and Blackstones, called Law Matters. They have launched a series that is remarkably similar to our Essentials Series and have priced their books in the 20-25 pound range which is about the same as the prices of our books. Our Australian partners, Federation Press, also have managed to offer their books at reasonable prices. Perhaps we are able to keep to keep our books affordable simply because as independent publishers we do not have as high overheads nor do we have hareholder expectations of high margins. Or maybe we’re simply naive. Beats me.
It’s raining in London, the fair is now over, and I believe I will go and have a pint.
Cheers
Thanks Jeff – you’ve earned your pint.
I’m reminded of the old Belloc line: “When I am dead, I hope it may be said: ‘His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.’.”
Cheers to competition
Thanks for the lovely “state of the industry” note, Jeff.
Cheers!
And finally the circle is complete: http://www.irwinlaw.com/books.cfm?pub_id=111&series_id=1