67A Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Hi all, I was wondering if anyone could advise on a suitable railway book publisher who may be interested in taking on a photographic style book of BR in the era 1960's-1970's. I am currently scanning several thousand mainly Black & White negatives of the period and there are some cracking images among them. I have no knowledge of publishing and any help would be welcome. If this topic is against the rules (which I can not see any mention of) then please remove it and accept my apologies. Regards Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Nevard Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Ian Allan? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold JohnR Posted August 14, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 14, 2011 The alternative is to consider publishing a book yourself. Nowadays its not as hard as you'd think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 14, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 14, 2011 If you can find a publisher you would normally get 25% or less of the selling price. I would suggest that you need to write and typeset your book first so that a publisher can look at it as a semi finished product. Publishing it yourself can be done but requires capital. All you need to find is a printerwho you can trust, but it is best to have the book in as finished a state as possible. The cost of the printing will depend on 5 things. 1. The number of pages. 2. The number of illustrations. 3. The amount of design and preparation that the printer will ahve to do to get it ready for printing. 4. The print run. 5. The quality of the paper and printing which is vitsal for an illustrated book. Once you have your books you will need to find somewhere to store them and then you need to ditribute them. Amazon want a 60% discount for them to stock it. There are some railway book wholoesalers and if you PM me I can give you the details of one of them, they would want at least 45% discount on the cover price. Most of the book sellers such as ian Allan shops, MDS etc buy from the wholesalers. However if you ahve the capital and a good product the rewards can be substantial. A society that I am part of is funding the restoration of a horse tram with the profits from a self published series of books. I hope that this is of some help. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium spamcan61 Posted August 14, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 14, 2011 I suppose the easy way is to write to / email the likely publishers giving a synopsis of what book you would like to create, and see what they say. Kevin Robertson is actively seeking new material for one:- http://www.kevinrobertsonbooks.co.uk/wanted.htm Other than that there are various alternatives for the DIY route JohnR suggests, one is to use this service:- http://www.lulu.com/uk/publish/index.php?cid=en_tab_publish Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyC Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 I don't know anything about book publishing, but in George C. O'Hara's 'BR Diesel Traction in Scotland' there is a footnote saying the publishers would like to contemplate companion volumes, and that anyone who knows of railway photo collections is encouraged to contact Clyard Novella Ltd or the Transport Treasury, Logie Shannoch, Drumrossie, Aberdeenshire. I've no connection with any of these companies, just noted the comment in the book above. Jeremy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Nevard Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Many transport publishers are all ears for good ideas that will sell well having been approached by a couple in the last year (I'm too busy currently). Don't expect to be able to give up the day job though because there isn't a huge amount of money in railway publishing. Good luck in your quest - if successful it will be very rewarding. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Endacott Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 If you can find a publisher you would normally get 25% or less of the selling price. You would normally get less - much less. Paperbacks typically earn royalties of 7.5% of the publisher's net recepits. If you factor in the 60% discount that Amazon want the author is left with 7.5% of 40% which is just 3%. Geoff Endacott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Flynn Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Hi Mike I know a couple of people that have written books and i know its not all about making money but to cover costs and make it worth while you need to finance this project yourself otherwise everyone else will benifit from your hard work? With so many photo,s i think you could end up with about four good books. I would be very interested in 1970,s period diesel books. But please if i can give you any bit of advice my pet hate is great books coming out with poor quality paper and poor quality photos i just put them down. Best of luck ,have a go? Hugh Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
67A Posted August 15, 2011 Author Share Posted August 15, 2011 Hi all, Well as suspected a wealth of information from fellow rmweb members, its refreshing to know people will help in whatever way they can. The advice above is very welcome and I know the money is not great but its something worth doing as I do have some absolutely fabulous views (and some absolute garbage) don't we all. I will take on board the above comments and perhaps the idea of compiling the book in order to show prospective publishers is the way to go. I did note the mention of poor paper which is one of my pet hates' however where do you source quality paper which can be printed from your home computer printer, I got hold of some glossy 100gsm and tried printing on it, it was a disaster, I'm best sticking to cutting wood perhaps. Anyway, I am undeterred and will begin compiling said book very soon, I still have several thousand negatives to scan first. Many thanks to all to helped me make the decision. Mike. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 15, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 15, 2011 Hi all, Well as suspected a wealth of information from fellow rmweb members, its refreshing to know people will help in whatever way they can. The advice above is very welcome and I know the money is not great but its something worth doing as I do have some absolutely fabulous views (and some absolute garbage) don't we all. I will take on board the above comments and perhaps the idea of compiling the book in order to show prospective publishers is the way to go. I did note the mention of poor paper which is one of my pet hates' however where do you source quality paper which can be printed from your home computer printer, I got hold of some glossy 100gsm and tried printing on it, it was a disaster, I'm best sticking to cutting wood perhaps. Anyway, I am undeterred and will begin compiling said book very soon, I still have several thousand negatives to scan first. Many thanks to all to helped me make the decision. Mike. Decent paper for photos is called art paper and you need about 140gsm for decent reproduction. A good printer will also apply varnish. The book I was involved in is called "Leeds Transport" by J Soper. Volumes 2 to 5 are all on the same quality paper and done by the same printers. In our case they bought the paper (6 tons of it) and the varnish was applied during the printing process. 16 A4 pages on each side of the sheet. Very interesting to watch. But s the poster above says too many books are spoiled by poor paper and poor quality reproduction. Pictures need to be at 300 dpi for a printer. Good luck Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Nevard Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 If you want to have a bit of fun in the mean time, you can always make up a 'promo' with Blurb http://www.blurb.com/ - the quality is very good indeed. It wouldn't be cost effective for proper publishing but a bit of fun to get you into the spirit and something you could send to a proper publisher to promote the idea. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
67A Posted August 20, 2011 Author Share Posted August 20, 2011 Hi all, Sorry its taken me a while to reply, ended up in Hospital and wife imposed the 'not to be moved' order for a few days. I don't think I would try to publish on my own but I like the idea of putting something together to show prospective outlets. I still have a fair way to go with the scanning as I am only up to the early 1970's and all that is in B&W. I am just about to commence on the colour collection - can't wait! Cheers, Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galtee More Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Undoubtedly, your best bet, especially considering the type of book you envisage, is Book Law Publications (inc Santona, Foxline, Runpast, etc). They will give you all the advice you need and always use arguably the best printers in the UK for our sort of material: Amadeus Press. Quality is important to both Book Law and Amadeus and things like paper quality is something they never skimp on, unlike some publishers ! I suggest you contact David Allen. If you're interested, PM me and I'll provide contact details. In addition, if you wish, I can talk it through with him at our weekly pub meeting. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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