Writing Railroad Books

If you think that selling railroad books these days is difficult, trying writing them.

No one is going to become wealthy writing railroad books, you are lucky if you can even recoup your expenses. The $$$ I received for the K-36 book did not cover the costs of doing the research and acquiring photos and materials. Same will be true with the K-28 book. The T-12/168 book will be a donation so my expenses are out of pocket.

Most of the writing I have done (over 25 magazine articles) has been for free. Got some $$$ for articles in TRAINS and RAILFAN & RAILROAD, but all writing for the Rio Grande Modeling & Historical Society Prospector Magazine (17 articles) was a donation. Most of those who write railroad books do it for the love of the history. But I think there will be fewer and fewer books in the future as the cost of doing the research is increasing (museums are now charging fees for access to their collections).

I had planned to do a number of book projects, but selling books is becoming more and more difficult with COVID and hobby shops and book stores closing left and right. Research on the following projects is complete but will never be published.

1. Two volume history of D&RGW/RGS snow fighting equipment and operations.
2. History of the D&RGW Crested Butte, Floresta, and Anthracite branches.
3. History of the D&RGW Orient branch.
4. D&RGW standard and narrow gauge work cars.

Writing and producing a book or article is hard work. Some of the historic photos that will be in the K-28 and T-12 books take many hours in Photoshop to remove the dust and dirt spots, coffee stains, etc.

I hate to say it, but many folks want it all for free, all online, and will not buy a book or a magazine. There is going to be a lot of history that never sees the light of day, that is a shame, but that is where we are now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2020 10:22AM by Jerry474.