Leaving aside all the personal stuff, I reckon the main reason its coming out now is that you have done all the donkey work with the re-equipping and he sees it as the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the fact that the crags are all now in good nick gear wise. Pretty parasitic attitude
3 try and tie up distribution outlets. The welsh scene must have a fairly close relationship with the local shops and you might be able to use this to get them to stock your guide exclusively. Also, can you use DMMs database to contact shops outside the local area to send them some sort of communication about the guide, its ethos, the reequipping that it will fund etc and the positive contribution it would make if they stocked it exclusively (no potentially libalous comments , just the positives). I am sure this would work for a fair few.
One thing people seem to be missing from my posts above is this: When the alternative guide was announced, it was happy to pit itself against our dedicated 234 page guide, the A55 guide and the NWR selection). So now the competition is minus one dedicated guide, plus one more selective. Alan.
Even if you were under the impression as seems to be being claimed, when announcing the alternative book, that we were going to produce a 76 page guidebook (when did Rockfax last produce a 76 page Rockfax?) then the competition is at least the same now as it was when entering the arena ( in reality actually much smaller)..
We then withdrew plans for our full guide and announced the NWC guide with clear plans which are exactly the same as the ones we are now re-announcing.
As I also stated above, I would be totally confident of publishing this other definitive guidebook in the proposed current market and, without wishing to pll rank here, I do know a bit about guidebook sales patterns.
So we took the decision to drop that book (NW Lime) - http://www.rockfax.com/news/2011/01/31/change-of-plans-for-north-wales-limestone/ . This was based on pure economics, we didn't think it was worthwhile producing a second book to an area that was a low-selling area that appeared to be getting a definitive guide anyway in the near future.
With Jack living there though and keen to get involved we started putting together a fully definitive guide in 2010 (I can't remember when exactly). Jack did loads of work on Upper Pen Trwyn, LPT, and the Diamond.
This is actually a pretty offensive post (in reply to a poster suggesting a Alan has a grudge with me) and completely untrue. I will not discuss this matter on the forums but plase email me directly if you wish to.
One redeeming aspect is if they stopped work on the guide at the start of 2011 their info is a couple of years out of date. e.g. Wall of Evening Light is still down as 50m long but there are a couple of pegs now! `There are 16 bolts plus some old pegs so you shouldn't get lost`, you wont get lost is probably correct now its been fully rebolted, also there is still a route called liquid amber at LPT, i'm sure there are lots of other examples. There is still a lot of work to do before publication I feel unless they go to press with junk info ?, who's going to do the checking now this has blown up, you'd think mr geldard wouldn't be too popular if he showed up.I see there linking to doylos blog on an orme news item, cant that be blocked ?
Nothing to do with guidebooks but in business i really do believe in never trying to sell your services/product/ideas by slagging off your competitors or pointing out there mistakes and inadequacies. Concentrate on telling your potential customers what your service/ product/ idea does, and why it does it, then let them ask the questions of your competitors. It works for me.You will end up a bitter and twisted individual if you waste time bad mouthing the competition. Accept there there, focus on what your doing, make sure its much better than theirs and tell everyone how good it is, not how bad there is.Make yours the best and people will buy it.
I could do some facebook type stuff to help the cause
We've got a webpage Dave but it's blank and tbh I can't see me having time to make it look like anything.