Freshwater Press

Discussion board focusing on Great Lakes Shipping Question & Answer. From beginner to expert all posts are welcome.
Guest

Re: Freshwater Press

Unread post by Guest »

guest wrote: September 12, 2022, 11:29 pm basically the same thing happened in 2016 when skip gillham passed away. no new books published so if you find a used one snap it up pronto

The biggest difference is that due to the mentioned distributor print run, the Freshwater Press titles are far more abundant and therefore caution should be exercised when making a purchase decision. That being said, the rarest Freshwater Press titles are likely the early namesakes follow-up titles Greenwood published in roughly five year intervals following the 1970 publication of the first book of the series. These would be The New Namesakes of the Lakes, Namesakes of the 80's, and Namesakes of the 80's Vol. 2. Of these, The New Namesakes of the Lakes appears to be the most uncommon. An original 1970 Namesakes of the Lakes in excellent condition can also be difficult but not impossible to find but bear in mind the book was reprinted on at least two separate occasions, once in 1980 and again in 1985, so it is important to establish the correct edition while purchasing a copy as the later editions are normally in much better condition but not worth as much as they are not a first edition. In my original post yesterday I forgot to add it may be possible that three volumes of Great Lakes Ships We Remember have also been reprinted as part of the deal with the distributor as these titles appear to be widely available as new copies. It is also possible that the original production runs of those books were in excess of what was actually sold at the time they reached the market. The titles would be Great Lakes Ships We Remember (Revised), Great Lakes Ships We Remember II, and Great Lakes Ships We Remember III. As I said, I'm unsure as to whether or not these titles were part of the Freshwater Press/Distributor deal as I cannot recall whether the owner of the latter mentioned these titles during our conversation about this some ten years ago.

I do agree, however, that any Skip Gillham title should be purchased if it is desired to add to a collection as there will likely never be another run on these titles. In addition, many of his later titles were produced in early short-run digital formats of somewhat lower quality and have not held up very well over the years unless they have been properly stored and maintained.
guest

Re: Freshwater Press

Unread post by guest »

basically the same thing happened in 2016 when skip gillham passed away. no new books published so if you find a used one snap it up pronto
Guest

Re: Freshwater Press

Unread post by Guest »

Freshwater Press has been gone for a number of years. After John Greenwood died in 2004, I don’t believe the book company produced any further titles. His primary business partner in the company, Michael Dills passed away earlier this year (2022), but I don’t believe he had actively participated in any further works after Greenwood’s death. Several years ago (2000-2010 period) a Michigan distributor entered into an agreement to produce many of Freshwater Press’ publications that were authored by Greenwood along with a few other titles that the company published such as those, I believe, by Dwight Boyer and Dana Thomas Bowen. The distributor misread the potential market for these books as the popularity of the subject matter entered a serious decline beginning around the same time. As a result, there are many brand new copies of these old titles still available on the market from book resellers that acquired them when the before named distributor went out of business about 8 or so years ago. These are easy to find online at reasonable prices (usually lower than the cover price of the original books some 20 to 40 years ago not even accounting for the normal rate of inflation during that period) and I have been able to buy spare copies for nearly all of my Namesakes and Fleet History books at a very modest cost. For the immediate future, this would likely negate any licensing and reprinting agreement for these titles.

Throughout its existence, Freshwater Press was probably the premier publisher of Great Lakes shipping oriented books. Although it is sometimes hard for us interested in the hobby to comprehend, the current, and likely future, market for these types of books is extremely limited in both size and geographical demand. For the most part, such a limited sales model will preclude the publication of Great Lakes shipping titles by any major publisher or even many larger specialty publishers. Major publishers are looking for titles they believe can achieve minimum unit sales of around 100,000+ while larger specialty presses are likely to be looking at 10,000+ unit sales. Consequently, the Great Lakes shipping book market is normally served by smaller cottage industry type publishers as the sales numbers of most Great Lakes shipping titles are likely to number under 10,000 units with possible exceptions being works related to subjects such as the Edmund Fitzgerald, etc..

John O. Greenwood, who was once a vice president at Interlake Steamship prior to its sale by Moore-McCormack Lines to James R. Barker, was very knowledgeable about the shipping industry with very few inaccuracies appearing in his works. He was also a very interesting person to converse with and he could provide quite a bit of background information on the construction of the James R. Barker and other proposals that remained only on paper. One such interesting example involved the idea of attaching the stern of the Elton Hoyt II to the forward and cargo section of the John Sherwin which was apparently floated within the company’s engineering department during the early to mid-1980s.
Guest

Re: Freshwater Press

Unread post by Guest »

If looking for books, an excellent resource is bookfinder.com They will search used and new over multiple used book networks and give prices on both ranked lowest to highest, including shipping.
Tom
Denny

Re: Freshwater Press

Unread post by Denny »

Sorry to say but, fairly sure and certain they are no longer in business and also No as far as any other titles being reprinted other than Greenwood’s Guide. I know the feeling though as I miss them too and wish they were still here. Maybe someday, possibly a new version of their Namesakes book could be reprinted? I for one would love to see that as I’m sure many others would too! With the new Mark W. Barker along with the Equinox Class for Algoma and the Trilliums for CSL, seems the perfect timing for Harbor House or somebody to do an updated version of the Namesakes book.
BigRiver
Posts: 1090
Joined: April 28, 2010, 6:37 pm

Re: Freshwater Press

Unread post by BigRiver »

Freshwater Press is long gone. None of the titles are being published currently by anyone.
Guest

Freshwater Press

Unread post by Guest »

Does anyone know if Freshwater Press is still in business?

They used to publish a number of the Namesakes series, Fleet series, Lakeboat guides and Greenwood's Guide to Great Lakes Shipping. They also republished several older Great Lakes books over the decades.

I know that the publishers of Seaway Review now publish the annual Greenwood's Guide to Great Lakes Shipping, but what about the other titles? Are they still being printed?

Thanks,

Brian
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