Questions about Cicerone
How do you decide which guidebooks to publish?
As we only cover outdoor activities and are walkers and trekkers ourselves, we hope we have our ear close to the ground.
Ideas can come from requests from enthusiasts, retailers, magazines and other media, and specialist groups. Our authors both existing and prospective are a fertile source of ideas and we work closely with them to develop a range of ideas, as well as our own opinions and plans!
Out of all this, plus a little more formal thinking, comes a broad plan of what we will be doing over the next few years. We tend to be scheduled about 3 years ahead, but have a rough plan that keeps us thinking up to five years in the future.
You are welcome to Suggest a Guidebook if you have a great idea that we may not have thought of. If you are an author and want to make a proposal, please read our Prospective Authors information.
Does the paper you use come from environmentally friendly sources?
Absolutely. All Cicerone guidebooks are printed on FSC certified paper. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification gives public reassurance that timber products originating from a forest are managed in a responsible and sustainable way – something that is becoming increasingly important.
What other areas and countries are you planning guidebooks to in the future?
We are always working to improve our range of guidebooks, even in the areas we already cover in depth.
We will continue to publish guidebooks for the world’s best walking, trekking, mountaineering or cycling areas, as well as doing our best to respond to emerging trends. If we’ve missed anywhere that you think is important, let us know!
You can see the guidebooks that we will publish in the next three months here.
Why are only some of the guidebooks covered with PVC?
Books currently with PVC covers or sleeves benefit from additional protection against hard use and the weather, to help ensure that the guide remains functional in challenging conditions. However the cost to the planet is something that is of growing concern. We want to ensure that all our guides remain as robust as possible, but without continuing the use of PVC. We realise that Cicerone's use of PVC is relatively insignificant, but if all companies think that way, the world would make little progress. It’s a question of balance, and we are doing our best to get this right. To find out more on this subject, please take a look at this article on Extra.
Accordingly, all new guidebooks published after March 2021 will no longer use PVC, but will have the benefit of flaps both front and back. Flaps provide considerable protection for a book, and have the additional benefit that they can mark your place in the guide for easy access, as well as providing space for key information referenced frequently such as an overview map and map key.
Why are some of your very old guidebooks still for sale?
Because we are a specialist publisher, some of our guides will never be best-sellers. There are steady sales, but no amount of marketing is going to sell more.
Specialised guides, especially to new and emerging areas, are an important part of the service we offer to walkers, trekkers and mountaineers, but may only have a limited and highly specialist appeal.
Inevitably this means that some of our guides take a long time to sell. We carefully look at them to be sure that they are still relevant and provide important and useful information, even if the details of accommodation and facilities (and sometimes even the route) may have changed.
If the guide still serves a useful purpose, we continue to keep it available. If it does not, then we withdraw it from sale.