You are right that my intention was to make a complete work about Dinos. But I can tell you from my experience from the last years that you can not just make a book as you as an author maybe would do it. There are several interests which you have to follow: -You have to convince a book company to produce your and take the risk of selling it. -The economy crisis hit consumers behaviour badly and a lot of people saved the money they would normally spend in things like books. -The first book company who wanted to produce the book had to stop this due to that. -I was able to convince the biggest book company in Germany, but was clearly told that a book with 1000 pages and 2000 pictures is not acceptable for the market. -I was limited to 500 pictures and 400 pages and got a target price. -For below 50 euros you can not just add more and more costs. -The MAIN Dino book buyers are NOT the experts as you are, they want get easy to read information with nice looking pictures. -Due to that marketing advice I was forced to leave some of MY personally important chapters with all the restauration details and insider tips out of the book. -Pictures of corroded bodies or technical differences were not what mainly wanted.. -I have a chance to do a follow up book like a service manual with the removed chapters. On other points it is my personal opinion to have done it like it is. For example to not include the 308GT4´s . I founded in germany the only club which includes all the cars with the Dino V6 engines as the Fiat Dinos and the Stratos. The "heart" is what we share and this doesn't work on the GT4. This cars were even during the production renamed away from Dino and has nearly nothing in common, sorry. Nothing against the car, but for me the Fiat Dino driver is more my brother than the 308 guy with the same emblem on his car. It is also funny that you as the profi photographer are missing historical pictures from Dino race cars?? I have lots of them, but not taken by myself. It is strictly forbidden to use them without copyright as you should know. I don´t want to spend the 2,50 Euro I get for each book for the lawyer and court fees. Also to cut out the license plates is usual as a lot of Dino owners do not want to get their home adress identified due to that and found an empty garage some day. So, there is always a reason behind ;-)
Nico, I agree with you in some points - not in the point regarding 208/308 GT4. But this all does not explain the mass of mistakes in your book, I've told you some via pm. It is no problem that an author does not have the knowledge for every detail. But it is a problem that an specialized author as you does not ask experts if he is not sure - or do you think that the chapter belonging 206/246 is without mistakes? That indeed would be a real pitty.
Well, again, so you had the choice: Either to give the book a more accurate title like "Dino - the V6 road cars", or to publish the book on your own! Not an impossible thing to do in times of the internet that grants you great direct marketing opportunities. Nico, such a book isn't meant to make money on. It's meant to make the author become legend! Seriously: As an author of a very special interest book, you always pay on top for the glory! No author has ever retired on a book about one specific car model. All the money you spend on the purchase of historical photos and the right to publish them is your own money, the publisher usually doesn't want to get involved. As a writer, one doesn't publish to make money out of it. One does publish to share one's view and one's knowledge with others, and sometimes there might even be a "greater good" to achieve. Disagree (although I am aware that this is probably what the publisher told you)! The Dino 246 GT is a popular model that was built in significant numbers, so there are many potential readers out there who actually do NOT want just another coffee table book, but an authorative compendium on the topic! For the sheer coffee table readers, you can still include plenty of nice photos, as you've done in your book. No? Aren't those quintessential?? That's good, and it could be an opportunity to revise the interesting chapter on the colours etc. If the follow-up is meant to be a pure buyers' guide, it shouldn't be a problem to include the chapter on colours and options in that book again. And what about the photos of corroded bodies and the technical differences then? Again, your personal taste and your very own preferences don't absolve you from covering the 308 GT4 topic if your book has the aim to be the authorative source! Ferrari launched the 308 GT4 as the successor of the 246 GT, using the Dino label. Nuff said! The fact that they switched the designation to "Ferrari" for the last two years of the 308 GT4's production run for marketing purposes doesn't turn the 308 GT4 into an "unworthy" car! It's history. If the book is named "Dino", then the GT4s HAVE to be covered in there. It's mandatory. I didn't miss anything. I wrote that there are "hardly any historical photos", which is correct. The chapter "Dino in motor racing" features 37 photos. One (!!!) of them is a historical black and white photo! Any questions? Nico, you're totally missing my point. Didn't I write that I am well aware that historical photos and their publication are costly things? Nevertheless, the majority of good automotive books comes up with loads of historical photos! I am pretty sure that some of the photographers who were active in the old days would be willing to have you publish their photos at a low cost rate, if not for free. It just takes research and communication to find them. Who asks shall receive! Well, your book is the very first one I've read that includes photoshopped registration plates, so I don't know whether this is actually the "usual" way to deal with that. I thought this was done by the publisher without you knowing, but apparently it was your idea. It's not a big issue anyway, but it simply looks awkward, especially since the letters were removed from the plates while the stamps remained. I don't want to kick-start a pissing contest here, I think I can prove everything that I mentioned and overall I am glad that you published this book to fill a long-time gap. I would appreciate your comment(s) on the often very, very poor photo quality, however. Abi
By the way, Nico, are you allowed to tell us about the number of books produced in this first print run? How many did they make of this first edition?
There were some proposals for the title, finally the publisher named it "Dino". What is wrong with that? When I read "Germany" or "Bayern Munich" I don´t expect 1000% everything what ever happend around the title, I expect to read something about it. In my book I explained a lot about "Dino": most of the differences between the Dino Series are shown in pictures , Dino scale models are the first time included and completely listed, unknown pictures and actual links and so on... Your title proposal "The V6 road cars" would also not fit because there are Dino prototypes, race cars, modells.. My comment that the book price limits the content means that book company will not produce it to loose money. That is the reason why pictures have a small format or why they declined more than 600 from my submitted 1200 pictures. If this is easy in the economy why couldn´t you fill the whole Ferrari world with the Dino article? ;-) Yes that was told me by the publisher and as he is my customer. If I don´t follow his needs he will not produce my book. And it is better if the sold volumes are under expectations it is his fault and not mine. Andreas, you added an "I" in my sentence which was originally not there, see my text. My comment that pictures of corroded cars is not was MAINLY is wanted was also told me by the publisher and is not MY opinion. I have very good chapters ready about that and this could come out in the second book. The content would fit for a buyers guide. I will see what content I can use a second time in a corrected form. In this case your addition "V6" would help. The GT4 is no unworthy car (maybe I buy one) but I stay with my opinion that is has nothing to do with the Dinotheme I wanted to write about. Maybe I should have mentioned the car in a small chapter just to explain the differences. If I would have used the old black & white historical pictures I´m sure that somebody would come up with "these were shown before or just copied" or "poor quality" etc. I found it better to show pictures which were not published before and in color. I guess it would have been easy for you with your contacts to your colleagues but I ´dont have any acess. There were several owners who required that. I can only forward the feedback to the publisher. I forwarded each picture in the highest available resolution. Some were in 4-5 MB each, some only available lower ones.. PS. I don´t know how many books were produced, but I can find out
I agree with Abi's comments. About the 208/308 GT4 absence, it's a pity because there is no book, to my knowledge, that is a reliable source of information for that model. Even the good JP Gabriel "Dino-book" has only some little information about them, but there is a chapter about them (I may be wrong because I don't have the book right here but am pretty sure of that). As a GT4 owner, I would have been disapppointed if I had bought the book without knowing this "detail", given that the general title means the GT4 should be in there. But about 246 stuff, I'll make my opinion reading the book, it's of course the better way to judge ! Olivier
Got my copy and like it a lot. Here's my other yellow Dino starting the journey home. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Jim, Great to see the car is finished! Looks great , more pictures are welcome! Journey home? Will that be the USA or will it stay here in Europe? Best, Maarten Ps , will be looking out for the book tomorrow at the Schloss Dyck Classic days , book still not available in the Netherlands... .
I received this book today and I think my copy is the first one that arrived to Thailand, I really like it so many nice pictures. Do not miss it into your collection! Ohme
Thank you Ohme. Maybe there is a chance on collecting the chapters I was not allowed to put in that book and make a kind of a "buyers guide" out of it. There is a lot of usefull stuff and restoration documentation which is still unpublished. Nicolai
Sawasdee ja p'Ohme, Welcome to FerrariChat Dino section, sanook dee gwa! That is a very nice profile photo - Wat Pra Kaow mai na ka? Scott
Sawasdee Krab Khun Scott and my profile picture is The Loha Prasat(meaning "metal castle") Wat Rajanaddaram krab it was located on Ratchadamneon Avenue not far from Wat Pra Kaow so i am very surprise that you can post in thai language and have you ever been in Bangkok? Ohme
