sympathies for your plight, Jim. Publishing in a limited market is always a problem. I produced a book of photographs of my village last year - stuff I'd taken over the past 30 years or so - with descriptive text. 78 landscape, A4 pages containing 300 photographs, perfect bound with a flexible thicker paper cover. I paid for the total production.

My initial run of 100 cost me £760 - £7.60 each, and I sold them for £10 each. A profit of £2.40 for most of them. (I say "most" because some were sold by the village museum, and I donated £1 per copy sold by them to the museum funds).

I managed to get a better price for the next 100 - £680 - which means I make a little more when they get sold. The first 100 sold out very quickly; the second run is selling, but more slowly. So - £10 for an A4 78pp paperback... value for money? Anyone's guess!

No real comparison with proper publishing, I know, but unless you can get reasonable quality bulk publishing at a reasonable price, print costs can seem ridiculously high. I suspect the Roud book has a limited marketplace in terms of subject matter.

My s/h copy of "The Italian comedy" (£12, reasonable condition) came through the door the other day, by the way - just starting to have a good read of it. Thanks again for the heads-up.