I write to confirm our interest in this project. Both the publisher, Mr. Bagherzade, and I strongly feel that this is an important and original contribution to the field. We would, of course, need to have the manuscript carefully read by our external academic advisors — experts in the field — who may have some helpful suggestions to make. In principle, however, we remain committed to taking up this very interesting book for our list.

As you know, there are some serious issues relating to publication costs that we must address. As I mentioned when we spoke on the phone, no academic publisher can afford to publish serious books on serious subjects (as yours) without some form of subvention. Not so long ago we could have expected to sell a good 2000 copies of your book to the libraries of the Anglo-Saxon world. As it stands today, the library systems both here and in the States are so impoverished that we can only expect a few sales in that field. However good your book may be, we cannot hope to recoup our production, distribution and marketing costs from its sales receipts. It is with this in mind that 1 write.

At a rough guess, the production (and marketing) costs of your book (with its tables and diagrams etc...) will work out somewhere between £22,000 and £24,000. This includes not just the manufacturing, but all the pre-production costs of editing. copy-editing, typesetting and all the post-production costs that involve getting the book advertised and into shops. I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd will pledge to take on around half those costs. We would therefore be looking for a subsidy of between £11,000 and £12,000.

Both Mr. Bagherzade and I fully support this project. I am sorry that we have been forced into discussions of commercial matters before being able properly to address the material of the book. I look forward to working with you on that once we have established how to fund this project.

I look forward to hearing from you on the above matters.

Yours sincerely

Turi Munthe