by Guest » June 10, 2021, 7:39 am
Woodtick wrote:I have all of his books, they are well written, it is hard to find good books written about the Great Lakes shipping industry
Unfortunately, there is not a large market for such books, and as such larger publishing houses will shy away from pursuing titles of this genre. Great Lakes shipping is a very regional subject based on a relatively small market group. As the shipping industry has shrunk over the past several decades the market for books on this subject has also declined. I know some people will argue that certain social media groups have thousands of followers and that every time a ship goes through the piers at Duluth there is a large crowd to greet them as signs that there is a huge interest in this hobby. However, the fact is that regardless of this apparent popularity, how many of these people are interested in buying books on the subject? It is like saying that everyone that attends an air show is an enthusiast rather than a good percentage of the crowd being casual observers. For instance, my son follows some of the Great Lakes shipping Facebook pages primarily because he grew up going with me to the river to take pictures of the boats. He is, however, no enthusiast and has no interest in reading about them.
I don't know what the current practices are but at one time most of the well-known publishing houses and their subsidiaries would not touch a title if there was not a potential market to sell 100,000+ copies of a book. From my experience, most Great Lakes shipping books fall mostly into a category of 5,000 copies or less. There are some subjects, such as the Edmund Fitzgerald, that have the potential for larger sales volume but these would still likely fall far short of the volume large publishers would deem as worthy of pursuing. That being said, the emergence and growing trend of digital short-run and POD books have opened up opportunities for a larger number of titles and a more diverse range of subjects. This has allowed consumers access to books that they would not otherwise have had an opportunity to purchase.
[quote="Woodtick"]I have all of his books, they are well written, it is hard to find good books written about the Great Lakes shipping industry[/quote]
Unfortunately, there is not a large market for such books, and as such larger publishing houses will shy away from pursuing titles of this genre. Great Lakes shipping is a very regional subject based on a relatively small market group. As the shipping industry has shrunk over the past several decades the market for books on this subject has also declined. I know some people will argue that certain social media groups have thousands of followers and that every time a ship goes through the piers at Duluth there is a large crowd to greet them as signs that there is a huge interest in this hobby. However, the fact is that regardless of this apparent popularity, how many of these people are interested in buying books on the subject? It is like saying that everyone that attends an air show is an enthusiast rather than a good percentage of the crowd being casual observers. For instance, my son follows some of the Great Lakes shipping Facebook pages primarily because he grew up going with me to the river to take pictures of the boats. He is, however, no enthusiast and has no interest in reading about them.
I don't know what the current practices are but at one time most of the well-known publishing houses and their subsidiaries would not touch a title if there was not a potential market to sell 100,000+ copies of a book. From my experience, most Great Lakes shipping books fall mostly into a category of 5,000 copies or less. There are some subjects, such as the Edmund Fitzgerald, that have the potential for larger sales volume but these would still likely fall far short of the volume large publishers would deem as worthy of pursuing. That being said, the emergence and growing trend of digital short-run and POD books have opened up opportunities for a larger number of titles and a more diverse range of subjects. This has allowed consumers access to books that they would not otherwise have had an opportunity to purchase.