Publisher Wanted

[ole man]

I've have just read The Great Central railway (then and now) by Mac Hawkins, and was wondering how hard it would be to follow in his footsteps?.
The book is from the 1980's published roughly 12-20 years after the line closed.
Nobody has done a similar book since as far as i'm aware, that would give a timespan of 25 years plus, it will of changed a lot, just like his book shown, would publisher be intrested in this kind of book?.
Who would i approach?

 

[YorkshireBear]

Sorry, do you mean you want to publish a book? Or your trying to republish i didnt quite get what you said?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I think he means a modern edition done by himself...

The Nostalgia Collection already have a 60-strong book collection covering most of Britain's rail network past and present.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Fair enough, then while im not sure a publisher would want it. That doesnt mean you shouldn't do it anyway! if you got the time.

Maybe instead of doing a redo 25 years on i'd suggest trying to put a more modern slant on it. Maybe trying to get it before HS2 covers some fo the trackbed.

 

[ole man]

I was thinking of walking his footsteps, with the same picture location's, so that would have three pictures from 1960's/1980's and the present day, i'm asking if a publisher would be intrested in this kind of book again?
Sorry if i did'nt make it clear

 

[Flying Snail]

I've have just read The Great Central railway (then and now) by Mac Hawkins, and was wondering how hard it would be to follow in his footsteps?.
The book is from the 1980's published roughly 12-20 years after the line closed.
Nobody has done a similar book since as far as i'm aware, that would give a timespan of 25 years plus, it will of changed a lot, just like his book shown, would publisher be intrested in this kind of book?.
Who would i approach?

Anyone and everyone that publishes railway books would be a good bet however assuming you have not had anything published before, without something substantial to show them (several completed chapters for instance) you won't get anything more than general encouragement and pleasant fob-offs if you get any reply at all. Nobody would commit to a book from an unknown based on nothing more than a one-line premise so basically it would be up to you to put the work in without any guarantee that anyone will show interest in it.
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I was thinking of walking his footsteps, with the same picture location's, so that would have three pictures from 1960's/1980's and the present day, i'm asking if a publisher would be intrested in this kind of book again?

Well if you wanted to specifically use the previous author's work and photos you would also have to get permission (and pay rights) to use that work in your book.


TBH it sounds like it may be a rather depressing read: Here is a picture of a well engineered mainline in use, here is a picture of it 20 years later overgrown and abandoned and here is a picture of an identikit apartment block built on the former trackbed after some short-sighted planning office gave permission for the railway to be built on destroying any chance of re-use.

Don't get me started on Leicester City council having large parts of the GC viaducts through the city torn down in recent years. I suppose keeping a largely intact grade seperated corridor through the heart of their city was not considered a valuable asset for future transport planning by those muppets?

 

[Oliver]

There's very little money in publishing a book, and it sounds like you quite fancy the challenge of retracing the route. Why not publish it yourself as a website or an on-line photo gallery? You still won't make any money, but you'll have fun and there will be something for the world to see.

 

[Wyvern]

There's very little money in publishing a book,

Definitely not. Apart from blogs and websites, if you really want to publish a hard copy, there are various ways of doing it if you can typeset and produce the artwork yourself. There are printers that will do runs of as little as 100 though the larger the run the cheaper unit cost, due to setup. Or there is what is called "Print on Demand". Even with a publisher you will still have to market it. Beware of so-called "vanity publishers."

Have a look at the Writers and Artists Yearbook

 

[djo]

One decent one is blurb, I am beginning to put together a photo book of my own. First instance it will be a present for my Dad but then see what develops...

David

 

[atillathehunn]

Dear the OP: I have a contact who owns his own small publishing company in London. I can dig out his contact details, but as far as I am aware he doesn't specialise in anything in particular and I'm not certain if this is exactly what you are looking for. I know my cousin certainly used to own a printing business if you could find an editor and self-publish.