Straw Poll

Realistically, how much would you pay for a spanky new up to date Caves of the Peak district.

With piccies and up to date info up to £20

I think 20 quid would be reasonable. It would be nice if it came with a cd with surveys and pics on it...dream on! :jump: - i like this irrelavant emoticon! te, he, oh har

CD with surveys is a good idea but could equally be served via a website.

Any guidebook these days should be backed up with a website to provide corrections/updates and up to the minute access info.

bubba said:

Any guidebook these days should be backed up with a website to provide corrections/updates and up to the minute access info.

Click to expand...

well lets see.

Here - Hitch n Hike site (with online guide), DCA website for latest access situations.

People always prefer to go to one place for all their info though - get yourself the cavesofthepeakdistrict domains bought up....

I think 20 pounds is reasonable for a guidebook which after all will never be in the best seler charts. Hopefully it will be up to date and have a good binding.

As to suggestions re websites/updates etc. you have to bear in mind that the guidebook will be a DCA project (as with the previous one) and any expense in production will hopefully be recovered.

The DCA produce various publications at the moment (a book on Jug Holes for example) and the price you see on their covers is not an attempt to earn money but to break even.

Is a paper guide the best way to go?

I'd prefer to see something like a ring-bound folder filled with laminated pages.....then you could pop a page out and take it with you - sort of like the laminated rigging guides you can get already.

I suppose this would push production costs through the roof though :?

i think most people SHOULD be willing to pay up to twenty quid, so many people seem to want the book but forget that some people would have to put in lots of time and effort to make it possible. I think those that would make it possible for us to have a copy should be rewarded. The new guide to County Clare is £20 and i think it is a pretty reasonable price considering if Bristol didn't do it, we wouldn't have any guide at all. Thumbs up to a new guide and a thumbs down to those too tight to pay for it.

To tell you the truth, although I voted £15, I've not bought a guidebook for donkey's and really, £20 is a more realistic price these days.

I'd rather pay a bit more for something well made and nice to look at than pay less for something that's nowhere near as sexy coz it's been "built to a price".

bubba said:

People always prefer to go to one place for all their info though - get yourself the cavesofthepeakdistrict domains bought up....

Click to expand...

One place - ukcaving.com + links = no problems

It is needed though because any guidebook WILL be out of date by the time it hits the streets - fact of life. Don't let that put you off though.

The Caves of the Peak District Guide is a DCA publication, any royalties are collected by DCA. At least this means the money gets ploughed back into caving. I dont think the profits are anything to write home about anyway, COTPD is a pretty specialist topic.

As for website updates, if its a DCA book then DCA will have to handle updates. There are several sites that cover Peak updates and I dont think another one is needed. Its something that is bound to happen with printed but I think in the caving world, the effect is not too great. E.g. the white river series, titan, JH, sidetrack have all been discovered in since the last guide, however, just about every caver knows of their existance, has seen surveys, knows the location and may even have been down them.

I think for now, we just need to get the publishers to commit, and see where it goes from there.