Timson printing press at Edwards Brothers Malloy in Ann Arbor, one of only three locations in the United States that meet Library of America’s rigorous production standards. [All LOA books are now printed at Edwards Brothers Malloy.]

As I’d mentioned, the problem is not with the first printing, when our usual press run ranges from 7,000 to 15,000 copies, but with subsequent printings of a many of our titles. In many cases, a few years after a title’s initial publication, a three- to five-year supply can be as low as 500 copies. The cost to set up the book (called “make-ready” in the industry) is so high that the printing/binding cost per book is far more than most readers would be willing to pay. To “break even” on some of these titles, we’d have to charge $100 or more in bookstores, which would decrease sales even further. As it is, we subsidize those volumes with donations and with sales of other books.

DCloyceSmithEdited: Mar 23, 2010, 12:22 pm It's a closely held secret: There is in fact no scheme to the color scheme. I can't speak for my predecessors, but I've "chosen" the colors for the last ten years, and the primary considerations have been (1) break up the colors for contiguous authors/titles when the volumes are alphabetized on the shelf (and try to keep additional tan volumes away from all those Henry James volumes), and (2) balance the collection as a whole. A couple of times, an author's son or daughter has specifically requested a cloth color, and of course I'll accommodate their decision. (And sometimes, the colors do pick themselves, like green cloth for the American Earth volume.)For the record, here are the color breakdowns through the Emerson volumes (not including the Twain Anthology and the Lincoln Anthology, when we used unique colors):Red -- 52 Blue -- 51 Green -- 48 Tan -- 50 (counting the Franklin as 2 volumes)David