a generous offer?

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

Mouton de Gruyter writes to make a generous offer to those who have
purchased The Atlas of North American English or A Handbook of
Varieties of English: "for a small additional fee, you can purchase
the online versions of these products".

these are expensive reference works: list price for the Atlas seems
to be $749; for the Handbook, $720 (though Amazon offers it for
$597.60).  (i did buy both, but at significantly reduced pre-
publication prices.)

what is this small additional fee? $125 per volume per year.  ouch.

well, the offer is really designed to provide the service to
libraries/institutions.  that is, you're invited to buy the service
*for* your library/institution.

i don't recall having seen this sort of offer before -- made to
individuals who qualify by virtue of previous purchases who are then
asked to subscribe on behalf of a library/institution.

arnold

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