Bob Spaulding, the modeler of layout described in the August issue “Railfanning Coast to Coast” article passed away before the article was published. The bio also says that the layout has been dismantled.
Makes me wonder why MR would be soliciting articles (Steve Otte’s Uncle MR Wants You post, which no longer exists) if it has so many articles that it may take a decade to print?
Is MR articles looking for articles on particular topics?
As I understand it, MR tries to fit articles into certain themes for each issue. If an author happens to get lucky, an article might appear within a year after it was accepted (bearing in mind that MR’s staff is probably working on Thanksgiving and Christmas items about now.) More usually, the item will have to wait to be tied in with some manufacturer’s production schedule (an article on superdetailing a loco tied to availability of product) or a specific issue theme (Maine 2-footers, salt pond tramways…)
I seem to recall a John Allen jab at MR’s then editorial staff - a building labeled for same, with a side note, Ancient Manuscripts. I gather this isn’t a new phenomenon.
Chuck (Occasional author modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
It happens all the time. It can be months and sometimes years between the time the pictures are taken and the article is published. Many issues may arise causing delays.
When somebody dies the family has the option of publishing the article. Some choose not to and others look at it as a honor for their departed family member.
LOL… That is how it works folks! I have a very dear friend who is a prolific and very well known RR author that has hundreds of articles published. One of his recently published articles he waited for 17 years to see in print! When the editors see an article they may sometime want to print, they buy it, pay for it, and file it. When the magazine is looking for a particular kind of article they think will work, they go back in the files and if they have one there, they print it. Generally that author tells me it will take around a year on average before it is printed.
It is not just Kalmbach, but most magazines in all areas but particularly hobbies. They buy it which effectively keeps it from being published in a competitors magazine as well and save it for some time in the future. Just good business sense and the wirter has already recieved payment.
And I’ve also seen identical articles by the same author published in saparate magazines at the same time, which tends to indicate that some authors submit articles to more than just MR or whatever.
And so the spiral continues downward. We ask why so few articles. The common response is that if people don’t write 'em, they can’t publish 'em. Yet then articles are held for years. What incentive does anyone have to write anything if the deck is so stacked???
Yeah, MR bought–paying advances, of course–several articles from me back in the SEVENTIES that were never published. They were HO construction articles, using stuff that’s no longer available, so…
I remember the late, great, John Allen had a beautifully built structure on the G&D with a sign twitting Linn Westcott (who bought those articles from me that were never published) on just this subject. It was called “Linn’s Archives,” with further signage that said he sold “Old Books”–and “Ancient Manuscripts.” Linn got a kcik out of it and explained it in the article. “It was ever thus…”
I once approached MR about writing an article concerning a narrow gauge diesel kitbash and I was turned down. I ended up writing it anyway and it appeared in a different magazine. In a two year period, I wrote 3 articles for that magazine and all were printed fairly quickly. Not sure if I’ll ever try MR again.
Is it for the money? is it to see their name in print? or is it to share ideas which this forum seems to serve so well
Do magazines provide that much better quality information than forums such as this which can provide timely and direct answers to specific questions? Consider the fate of RMC.
To be honest, there is not a model railroading magazine around that is really worth much. Gone are the days when you could look forward to someone kitbashing something or, I almost hate to say it, scratchbuild something. Too many of the articles cover stuff that involves taking a pre-built whatever out of the box, adding a little weathering, and plunking it on the layout. No fun in that. The only reason I resubscribed to MR is because of the magazine archive. I thumb through the magazine in less than 5 minutes, and odds are good that will be the only time its looked at.
It sounds like they have a backlog of some articles and not enough of others. A suggestion to MR is to announce what type of articles they are in need of.
You are making me wince as I read this thread because there are some comments that aren’t correct. Indeed, Bob Spaulding died before we published his story. Sadly, it happens.
These comments are true:
– It sounds like they have a backlog of some articles and not enough of others.
– When the editors see an article they may sometime want to print, they buy it, pay for it, and file it. When the magazine is looking for a particular kind of article they think will work, they go back in the files and if they have one there, they print it.
You are making me wince as I read this thread because there are some comments that aren’t correct. Indeed, Bob Spaulding died before we published his story. Sadly, it happens.
These comments are true:
– It sounds like they have a backlog of some articles and not enough of others.
– When the editors see an article they may sometime want to print, they buy it, pay for it, and file it. When the magazine is looking for a particular kind of article they think will work, they go back in the files and if they have one there, they print it.
– I’ve also seen identical articles by the same author published in separate magazines at the same time, which tends to indicate that some authors submit articles to more than just MR or whatever.
And these are not quite correct:
– When somebody dies the family has the option of publishing the article. Some choose not to and others look at it as a honor for their departed family member.
– More usually, the item will have to wait to be tied in with some manufacturer’s production schedule (an article on superdetailing a loco tied to availability of product)
Sincerely,
Neil B., editor
The July issue had another layout, Stan Olander’s Cornbelt Northern, where the article did not appear until well after the layout owner was dead and the layout dismantled. But in Stan’s case I think he may have been dead even before Dave Rickaby could take all the photos. I am sure Stan would have loved to have seen the article about his layout appear in MR but his main goal, and he made no secret of this, was to live just long enough to host tours and operators during the 2010 NMRA National Convention in Milwaukee, and he did. He was also able to make it to the convention itself, briefly. Where he found the energy I do not know as he was very ill and weak. His goal achieved, he died within a couple of weeks of the convention. I believe he knew Dave was going to photograph and write up the layout for MR, and surely that gave him great pride and pleasure, but Stan was aware he’d never live to to see it.
Someone mentioned near-identical articles from the same author appearing in competing publications.
Publishers and editors take a very dim view of someone sending identical or near-identical articles to more than one publication. Standard contracts used to include a phrase along the lines of “exclusive first North American rights” or something similar as a guarantee that no one else would be using the same material.
The high number of amateur authors in model railroading (people who don’t write articles for a living) means that someone will send out their story to several magazines “to see who wants it.” The better course is to send it to the magazine where it’s the best fit – if I had some original material on the East Broad Top 3-footer, I’d send it to Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette, for example.
Having an article paid for but ending up in the file drawer is frustrating for we hobbyists who just want to see our project in print, but the turnover in editors means this is going to happen from time to time. Few magazines can afford to buy material specifically to keep another publication from getting it.
Any editor is going to be overjoyed to see really original material show up, with good photos and drawings. I still remember getting stories at one place I worked that were hand-written in pencil on legal pads, with Polaroids for illustrations. It had to be pretty special for us to put in extra time on a submission like that.
Someone also mentioned hiring ghost writers to put articles into shape. Unless you can find a volunteer, that kind of work still pays around $40 an hour or more. I’ve done a couple of projects that way that did end up in national magazines, but they were done for friends who had good stories that weren’t going to appear any other way.
I’m wondering if writing articles for paper magazines is necessarily the way to go these days. There are a lot fewer magazines, after all. The hobby, like the rest of the world, is changing. But I’ve also heard of people who got their layouts published in MR and promptly tore them out – not sure if this is much different from passing away before your layout is published (assuming that’s a bad thing), or figuring well, the point was to have it appear in MR, now I’m done. Or think of the recent post complaining that guys whose layouts in MR became well known, but tore them out, as if this were a sort of betrayal.
The point being missed here is enjoying the layout and the hobby for their own sake. This is one reason I like MRVP as a recent development in the hobby: people like David Popp and Cody Grivno are clearly are enjoying what they’re doing, not struggling to be famous.