Mike Gardner wrote: > There should be a concerted effort to change > this but the railfan market is quite small and the larger publishers > could easily live without doing our books. This is mostly a marketing problem. Many people I know that are not 'railfans' are interested in quality pictures and books on trains, but we keep marketing in a narrow band, mostly just in the fan magazines and the hobby shops. Places these other prospective customers don't look. Until bookstores, book catalog outlets and even Internet book sellers like Amazon mail order books start carrying these books, these problems will persist.
Think this isn't a problem? Go ask a non railfan friend to find a particular railroad book without telling him where to get it, and see what happens. And if a source can be found, is it 'in stock'? Authors and publishers: Can't afford to market your books? Then you haven't finished them yet. And why do you almost always take the first publisher that you can find that accepts your book, no matter how small they are or regardless of the quality of their other publications? Don't you shop around, or are you just afraid that the quality of these books are bad that you must just take anything that you can get? Here's a simple equation for you: No quality + no competition + no marketing = no sales. Draw your own conclusions. You say you just got into this for a hobby? Well I have news for you, as soon as you start selling something, you are in a business. Successful book sales revolve around quality and marketing. Quality is needed to sell books in volume. Volume is needed to make a profit. Most of the best RR books I have found and purchased, I had just 'stumbled upon'. If the quality is there, why keep these books a secret? Dave Cohen Photographer ASMP Member [EMAIL PROTECTED] --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects
