Maritime Books

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I found myself looking round a large Watestones bookshop today, and sought out the "Transport" section. Not a single book about ships was there, No Merchant Navy, no Royal Navy, no R/C, no Model Ship Books – nothing – not even the once "obligatory" Cutty Sark, Titantic, Bounty and Victory! Plenty of railway, aircraft, buses, trucks, helicopters, tanks etc. Dreadful really, when you consider we were once the largest maritime nation on earth!

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Bob

Totally agree regarding books on shelves, but if nobody buys them they won't stock them ! But as we are now a specialist interest there is plenty online, this little soft cover book of Thames Tugs in Colour has just arrived from Amazon and is a gem full of colour pictures which are great for us model makers

Regards Ray

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

There's still a bookshop in your town?

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Yes, we have Waterstones and two private booksellers (Halewood's 2 shops) in Preston, plus two or three "end of range" bookshops. The public are "not allowed" to get interested, because generally, bookshops do not want anything to do with ships (or"boats" as they take a delight in calling them) End or range shops generally have piles of Cutty Sark, Titantic, Bounty and Victory books, yet still more are produced every year! Since self-publishing, and self production of e-books became quite cheap and easy, I have been doing very well with my own publications, and have sold 17 ship model e-books in the last two days, so there is interest in them. Also currently 3/4 way through another maritime book manuscript, that will be printed shortly, but nothing to do with building model ships.

Bob

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All

If only Harry Potter had been a Wizard ship's captain !! things could have been so different, I'm sure Thomas the Tank engine has saved model railways and heritage steam lines for at least another 75 years my 6 year old grandson is already programmed

Regards Ray

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

High street bookshops will only stock books that they feel will readily sell. This does rather rule out niche interests such as the Merchant Navy and indeed modelling in general. Usually plenty of military history though. They cater to established demand as they must in order to remain solvent.

You can find interesting books in specialist outlets such as the Museum of the Royal Navy and Nauticalia although these do tend to be warship orientated.

There is a good selection of non naval titles advertised in magazines like Ships Monthly as it is from the readership of such magazines that customers are most likely to be drawn.

Just the way things are these days.

Colin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

High street, or other book sellers are non-starters anyway for the self publisher. They usually want to purchase them for less than they cost to produce!. On several occasions, I was foolish enough to hand over a number of books on "sale or return," to several book shops. I watched them disappear slowly off the shelves, but never got paid "We can't remember accepting them – we have no record etc!" was the cry! That was over 30 years ago!

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 04/07/2017 19:14:05

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