Assimil Hardcover?

[Peluche]

Is your Assimil course book hardcover?

I have a copy of Portugiesisch ohne Mühe, and it is semi-hardcover.
I purchased another copy of the book, because, I must need it, yeah, and this copy is full hardcover.

My German with ease. however, is softcover.

[Speakeasy]

I am under the impression that, up until the late 1960's, a good portion of the textbooks and course manuals, whether destined for schools and universities or for home-study, were published as hard-covered editions. It would appear that, beginning in the early 1970's, inflationary pressures* drove many publishers to print soft-covered editions in order to remain competitive. You can see this trend pretty much across-the-board in the publishing industry. Assimil, Cortina, Linguaphone, and many other publishers of home-study language courses made the switch during this period. A number of publishers continued with hard-covered books for a few years by subcontracting the printing/binding operations to Southeast Asian printers. Coming back to Assimil:

I have several older copies of Assimil course manuals for German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and Russian, all of which were published before 1970 as hard-covered editions. My subsequent copies are all soft-covered, except for my copy of Assimil l'allemand des affaires, which was published in 1979 as hard-covered book.

Is your edition of Assimil Portugiesisch a recent publication or is it from an earlier era?

https://www.amazon.de/ASSiMiL-Selbstlernkurs-Deutsche-Portugiesisch-Multimedia-Classic/dp/2700510798

https://www.amazon.com/Methodes-Assimil-Portugais-Sans-Peine/dp/B000YPDH6U

Addendum: 1970's Inflationary Pressures*
In the early 1970's, several factors combined to create a "perfect storm" of inflation. Wage and price controls were instituted (and thwarted) and these might have been one of the reasons why the publishing industry moved from hard-cover to soft-cover printing.

As anecdotal evidence, I recall attending the RCN Fleet School during this period as a young officer and, needing to make a few photo-copies, I walked down the hall to where the photocopier was located. Although I was surprised to see an Corporal standing guard by the photocopy machine, the thought immediately occurred to me that he must have been posted there so as to ensure that classified documents were not duplicated without the proper authority to do so. Nope! The Corporal was merely recording the number of copies per department so that this information might be reported to the Budget Officer as part of the Fleet School's cost control measures. The Corporal's salary was a "fixed cost" that was incurred irrespective of the work he performed. The photo-copies were a "variable cost" dependent on the number produced. In the logic of the RCN (which had suffered an almost 50% reduction in manpower), it was more cost-efficient to "spend" the Corporal's salary in an effort to control a variable cost than it was to have him perform other duties (despite the reduction in manpower). During the same period, if I wanted a new pencil (I was a ship's Navigating Officer and I needed these implements for use in marking the vessel's position and track on maritime charts), I was obligated to surrender the stub of an existing pencil whose length was not to exceed 2-1/2 inches.

In this context, I can well appreciate why Assimil switched to soft-covered course manuals.

CHART BELOW: Inflation and Interest Rates

[Peluche]

The semi-hardbound copy was printed in 2000 in France. The full hardbound seems to have been printed later in Germany (it has whiter pages).

The semi-hardbound copy has pages sewn, the full hardbound has pages glued like a softcover book. Both books have an integrated flat red thread which acts as a bookmark.


Your inflation argument is incorrect. It costs only marginally more to produce a hardbound book than a softcover book.

https://greenleafbookgroup.com/learning ... -your-book

https://www.millcitypress.net/author-le ... ting-costs
At the above link, a 500 page 6x9 inch book costs about $9 for softcover, and $16 for hardcover to produce, which seems quite reasonable.

Another example: Unseen Academicals
Hardcover list price: $26 https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Academica ... 061161705/
Softcover list price: $18 https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Academica ... 1783191945

Noting that the margin for harcover books is usually higher, the additional manufacturing cost for a hardcover Assimil size book should be around $5 given their volume.

For Linguaphone size a bit higher, around $8 per book.

[DaveBee]

I have a New French with Ease, printed in 2006, in France. (ISBN: 2700502299 / 2700520130)

The pages are glued like a paperback, the cover is a glossy card. Red ribbon book mark glued in too.

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The retail prices of Assimil courses don't suggest they are trying to compete on price. Teach Yourself, Langenscheidt and Livre de Poche (Methode 90?) are all substantially cheaper.

[Speakeasy]

... Your inflation argument is incorrect. It costs only marginally more to produce a hardbound book than a softcover book ...

I suppose you're correct. Assimil must have joined forces with the nefarious Small Book Publishing Cartel in the 1970's. Since that time, members of the cartel have managed to reap obscene profits and to reduce the choices available to the beleaguered consumers. Robber Barons, one and all!

[Peluche]

I have a New French with Ease, printed in 2006, in France. (ISBN: 2700502299 / 2700520130)

The pages are glued like a paperback, the cover is a glossy card. Red ribbon book mark glued in too.

-------

The retail prices of Assimil courses don't suggest they are trying to compete on price. Teach Yourself, Langenscheidt and Livre de Poche (Methode 90?) are all substantially cheaper.

Is the size of the cover the same size as the pages? or is it slightly bigger (like how a hardcover cover is larger)?

[DaveBee]

I have a New French with Ease, printed in 2006, in France. (ISBN: 2700502299 / 2700520130)

The pages are glued like a paperback, the cover is a glossy card. Red ribbon book mark glued in too.

-------

The retail prices of Assimil courses don't suggest they are trying to compete on price. Teach Yourself, Langenscheidt and Livre de Poche (Methode 90?) are all substantially cheaper.

Is the size of the cover the same size as the pages? or is it slightly bigger (like how a hardcover cover is larger)?

Slightly bigger.