In November of 2004 I hired Great Circle Books to print a photography book for me called Low Overhead. If you are considering a business relationship with Great Circle Books, I would encourage you to take my experiences into account when making your decision. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me. Since I have been told by the owner's attorney that he they would pursue legal action for discussing my experiences with Great Circle Books, I am not able to discuss many of the specific experiences that I had without hving to worry about being sued. I will simply say that in my opinion dealing with Great Circle Books was a very negative experience and an unreasonably difficult process. As a working, professional photographer for over 17 years, I consider my relationship with Great Circle Books to be the single worst experience of my entire career. It was my understanding that the book would be delivered in March of 2005, and I finally received the unbound printed pages in late July (several important events and a prominent gallery show were cancelled as a result). In my professional opinion, the work was of a quality that made it unusable for my professional purposes. With a book launch and gallery show now re-scheduled for September, I considered it my only option to print a mini-book with another printer. My efforts to get a refund for $9,500 advanced towards printing the book, and for other related costs, has as yet been unsuccessful (despite an email from Great Circle Book's attorney agreeing in principal to a refund of all fees paid to them*). My contract with Great Circle Books stipulated a quality of printing defined by two other books that Rex Weiner presented to me as their work (Brittle Glory and Tibetan Journey). In my opinion, they had wonderful tones, contrast, and great consistency, and are very well printed. I have photographed the printed pages of my book below, and included a gray scale as a reference. The images I supplied had a full contrast range from black to white, and a high level of consistency. Although the book was properly proofed, names were somehow mis-assigned to some of the women in the final product. Great Circle Books has said that they have fulfilled their responsibilities, and that the printing of this book is of a high caliber. Great Circle Books and its attorney were offered the opportunity to correct any errors and/or comment on this posting to insure the factual accuracy of what I have written. Their attorney presented no objections to the factual content (I here note that some wording has been revised since that response), but did note that my contract was with Great Circle Books as a company, and not the owners as individuals. I'd also add that in my view the people involved are two of the most charming people I've ever met, and I was easily taken in by their apparent accomplishments and personality. I hope others can benefit from my experience. Information about Great Circle Books (now partnered with A&I) can be found on their own website at greatcirclebooks.net/contact.asp.
All information presented here is based on my personal experiences, and represents my perceptions and opinions about those experiences. Note; There are several companies that use names similar to Great Circle Books, my complaints are specifically in reference to the company that is based in Los Angeles, California. At the time the contract was signed, Great Circle Books was part of SWC Editions and the check I wrote was made out to The Steven Wayne Company. Great Circle Books is now a corporation. *The exact text of the attorney's email dated August 11, 2005 reads: Dear Mr. Halper: As I stated in my prior email, Mr. Schoenfeld is out of the country, however there has been an acceptance, in principle, by GCB of your demand for a refund of your payments to date. I will be working out the details over the next several days and will forward a draft settlement agreement to you shortly. Thank you for your continued cooperation. Regards, Charles D. Wilbert. I interpreted this as an agreement to refund my money, and responded with acceptance. |
All of these printed pages were photographed and prepared in the same way (these are not proofs). The differences you see on your screen I actually find much more pronounced on the printed page. The book was properly proofed; the text errors were not there at that time. All of the images had a full contrast range.
Will the real Melissa Renee Martin please stand up?
One would think that even the most incompetent printer could catch this printing error, as they were printed on the same sheet:
This is the one proof I was presented at the beginning of the printing process and approved. Had the rest of the printing met these standards I would have been satisfied:
Much of the book I considered to be unacceptably flat:
In this case, images of the same woman were printed not only with differing contrasts, but with differing names as well:
Similar images were often printed with radically different contrasts:
If you'd like to see a better presentation of these images, please visit Low Overhead.
