As a relative newcomer, I have been bingeing on CP books, and McPherson's are some of the best, esp. for field reports, though I like the D'amato/Slack style ones for cultivation info. But they're really different styles of books so that's a moot point.
But I agree that the proofreading was really bad in the Sarracenia books... the latest ICPN review by Dr Rice is what brought me searching for this topic.
Oddly, in Pitcher Plants of the Old World it is perfect, and as good (from what I've read) in the New Nepenthes, especially given how complicated some of the concepts are (for me anyway)... it might be nerdy of me, but the arguments in the scientific papers (e.g. Robinson on the splitting of N. lamii or the commensal spider paper by Rembold) were like science-detective-come-botanist artwork... crystal clear writing and an exciting logic flow that really made me feel enthusiastic.
But... while the information in the Sarr books is great, the errors are all over the place rather than occasional, despite what McPherson claims in his above post (as a reader, to me errors include grammar, repetition, stilted English, not just typos, and they are all over rather than hundreds of pages in between), often basic (and thus careless) and the writing was not as flowing in other books... I don't have the books to hand but surely the different titles must have had different editors or review processes.
It looks to me like slowing down (slightly even) and keeping the same editorial review process (as for the pitcher plant book) for the best quality books where possible would seal Redfern as a premium publisher. The company seems new, so in my mind i think they're doing really well all considered, and prices are actually really good for a "boutique" independent publisher.
That said, the issues with the Sarracenia books are a permanent stain which the publisher should not have allowed and could easily avoid. I worked in children's publishing for a spell and have seen this before... a solid review process is critical and the balance hard to establish for a new publisher... if you can't get your reviewers and editors of choice, wait, or be very picky about and research your alternative till you're blue in the face. If its a money-timeframe worry, still wait as your choice will affect your long term reputation. Your editors should be the last people to touch any work... a perfect book is forever, but unfortunately so is a poorly finished one.
To the price campaigners, I think these books are still amazing for what you get... Amazon has clout to sell and freepost books for less... no one can challenge the power of megastores, and certainly not small publishers. In fact, assuming nothing has changed, Amazon will sell Redfern books with a considerably reduced return for Redfern. So while they seem like a bargain, if you can order direct it'd probably ensure more books to come.
Night night,
J.
