Questions & Answers
Questions about the Norwegian Cruising Guide
Why is the printed book in two volumes?
What areas does each volume of the paper book cover?
What area does the eBook cover?
Why are you offering the paper book in black
and white as well as colour and what is the difference?
The colour book at a total price of €99 for both
volumes seems expensive?
How often will you be updating the paper book? How
about the eBook?
So many options, which book would you buy?
What took you so long to offer a paper book?
Questions about ordering books
I don't want to join PayPal, so how can I buy your
book?
Where are the paper books printed and shipped
from?
Can I order the paper books from Amazon or
a book store?
Can I have my book shipped by express mail or courier
service?
How secure is my information and credit card when I
buy from your site?
I don't like buying over the Internet. Can
I send you a cheque or pay by bank transfer?
My country doesn't appear in the shipping list when
I try to add my purchase to the shopping cart?
Can I sell the paper books in my book or marine store?
Questions about the
eBook
Is the eBook digitally rights managed (copy protected)?
When I pay for the eBook, what rights do I get?
I have a question about installing or using the ebook?
What's the meaning of life?
Why is the printed book in two volumes?
The Norwegian Cruising Guide is close to 600 pages long, which makes for a mighty tome as one volume. Also, if your cruise is going to be confined to the volume 1 area, as many are, you can save some money by not buying volume 2.
What area does each volume of the paper book cover?
What area does the eBook cover?
The whole works for just €20.00. How cool is that?
Why are you offering the paper book in black and white as well as colour and what is the difference?
Notwithstanding what we say here, print on demand of full colour books is still more expensive than traditional offset printing, resulting in a total price of €99 for both volumes. So we thought it would be a good idea to offer the black and white books, which we can sell at €55 for both volumes—a great deal for 570 pages of content.
Both books have exactly the same content, so the choice comes down to whether or not full colour maps and photographs are worth €44; a choice we think you should make, rather than us making it for you by offering just one option.
The colour book at a total price of €99 for both volumes seems expensive?
Remember that each volume of the Norwegian Cruising Guide is the size of most other guides. Together they cover 863 ports and anchorages, with more detail than many guides. Keeping this in mind, €99 is reasonable and €55 for the black and white books is a veritable steal. For the truly parsimonious (like us), there is always the eBook, which gives you the whole Guide in full colour for just €20.
How often will you be updating the paper book? How about the eBook?
All three types of books—black and white, colour, and eBook—will be updated together on the same cycle. In fact, they all come from the same master file, an achievement that was not trivial and that we are very proud of. Right now we are planning another new edition in 2011 so that we can incorporate some great new content and improvements to the chapter layouts that we have been planning for some time. After that, we will go over to a two to three year edition cycle so we can get our lives back!
So many options...Which book would you buy?
Well, we have always really liked the eBook: It's inexpensive, saves trees, and is really convenient to look things up in and search on. It can also be read on hand held devices, like smart phones. Having said that, paper is nice too: You don't have to wait for a computer to boot up, you can make notes on it, and it's much nicer to curl up with and dream than a computer.
So, we would buy the black and white book and the eBook to get the best of both worlds—saving €34 (when buying a super bundle) over the colour books.
However, if we did not have a computer screen constantly running and handy in the cockpit, as we do because we navigate with it, we would go for the full colour books.
What took you so long to offer a paper book?
The problem has always been the comparatively low volume of sales (by book standards) of this and other cruising guides, coupled with the requirement to print several thousand copies to get a decent printing price. Several thousand Guides would take five to ten years to sell. This has always been unacceptable to us, since we believe that the essence of a good cruising guide is that it's up to date.
In the last couple of years print on demand technology has got to the point where the price is competitive and the quality is good, with strong bindings, water resistant ink and good quality paper. Our books are printed on demand by Lightning Source so we can update the Guide as often as necessary.
I don't want to join PayPal, so how can I buy your book?
No problem, you do not need to join PayPal, you can just pay with a credit card.
Where are the paper books printed and shipped from?
Books are printed in, and shipped from, the United Kingdom.
Can I order the paper books from Amazon or a book store?
Yes, of course:
Amazon UK: Vol
1
For now, the cost of printing the colour books makes it impossible for us to sell them at a competitive price through the retail channel and so they are only available directly from this web site.
Can I have my book shipped by express mail or courier service?
If you are in a hurry, you can always buy the eBook and get it immediately to use while you wait for your paper books. If you buy a super bundle the eBook will only cost you €10.
If you are really in a hurry for the paper book, contact us with your address and the books you wish to order and we will send a quote for fast shipping. Please note that the books are printed on demand, which takes up to ten business days so the fastest time possible, even with overnight shipping, is 7-11 business days. We are working on shortening this time.
How secure is my information and credit card when I buy from your site?
We use PayPal as our payment processor, which is part of eBay and very secure. We will not see your credit card or billing information.
We have been buying stuff over the Internet for 10 years and have never been (touch wood) ripped-off. In fact, we feel a lot more comfortable giving our credit card information to PayPal than handing it to some waiter in a restaurant.
I don't like buying over the Internet. Can I send you a cheque or pay by bank transfer?
Sorry, we are just not in a position to take on that level of administration; however, you can open a PayPal account and pay us from your bank account through them without having to use a credit card.
My country doesn't appear in the shipping list when I try to add my purchase to the shopping cart?
Please contact us and we will fix the problem.
Can I sell the paper books in my book or marine store?
Yes, please, that would be great! The black and white books will are distributed through Ingram and other wholesale distributors and appear for ordering from their catalogs. If you are in Scandinavia or Germany you can order the black and white books through Skagerrak Forlag AS, our Norwegian distributor, and the publisher of the very fine series of Havneguiden pilots.
Norwegian Cruising Guide, B/W, Vol 1 ISBN# 978-976-952043-1
Norwegian Cruising Guide, B/W, Vol 1 ISBN# 978-976-952045-5
If you have any trouble sourcing the book, please contact us and we will arrange to have them shipped to you.
At this time, the cost of printing the colour books makes it impossible for us to sell them at a competitive price through the retail channel and so they are only available directly from this web site. We plan to have this problem solved in 2011.
Is the eBook digitally rights managed (copy protected)?
No. However the eBook is marked on every page with your name and sales receipt number.
When I pay for the eBook, what rights do I get?
In exchange for your payment, we grant you limited rights to the Guide for your own use, and reasonable use by your crew, only. You may use it on as many computers or hand held devices that you own as you wish.
You may not make copies of this Guide for other people or resell the Guide.
You may sell or assign your rights to one other person but in so doing you give up all of your rights to the Guide and must destroy all copies of the eBook, both electronic or paper based, in your possession.
By downloading the Guide you are specifically agreeing to
these terms.