Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see a select book for Pinnacles but I would be surprised to see SuperTopo publishing it.
I'd be surprised to see anyone publish it for two reasons. First, in essence it already exists. Second, there aren't too many publishers/authors out there who are able and willing to lose money in making a guidebook (and that is an almost certain result unless they use really crappy materials).
Of course, a "select" guidebook in the normal sense doesn't really exist. But many, many climbers nowadays don't buy guidebooks at all. Instead they simply take cell phone photos of the parts of a book that interest them (while at the store, or from friends' books) and then use their own, personalized "select" book while at the crag. This is theft of course, but the people doing it don't/can't see it as wrong - they believe that they are entitled to anyone else's intellectual property at any time they want, and at no cost. It's the new normal now of course. The music industry has been dealing with this issue for a long time.
And don't read the above as sour grapes please. I spent a huge amount of money publishing the current book and didn't care a damn about the expenditure. As of about a year ago (seven years after the book came out) I had actually broken even (gotten back my actual cash out of pocket), but it never mattered to me much if that happened (and I'm almost certain I won't break even on the SPH book - but I don't care). My goal in making books is to try to put good quality information (I hope) out there for the climbing community.
And any "normal" publisher/author who expects even a small profit from any type of future Pinnacles guidebook will almost certainly be disappointed. I don't think there are even remotely enough sales possible at such a small climbing location to break even on a physical guidebook again.
How about a select guidebook that's only a PDF? At least that has no physical components that cost money to make. Maybe that would work. But (as other climbing guidebook authors are finding out) how can you get modern people to pay for something they can get for free (and they can and will get a PDF for free)? And why a select PDF when they can get the whole book for free (by taking photos) or use online information that's also free.
I'm afraid there's little future in selling climbing guidebooks in this day and age. These are, of course, the exact reasons that Steve and I are wondering whether we'll ever do a second edition to our Pinnacles guidebook (I'm leaning toward it - but this time it'd be done knowing with certainty that it'll lose money).
