I’d say that 99.9% of the folks here are totally unfamiliar with being published, whether it be articles, or photographs. That being the case, it has generated a lot of inaccurate spectulation regarding the question. In fact, the correct answer was given in the second post of this thread, the one offered by Galaxy. It’s simply a matter of COST!
I’ve been paid as much as $100 per photo published in MR (and Kalmbach is a very small publishing house); while my freelance photos addressing subjects outside of our hobby have often commanded $150-$200 each when they were used in major publications, or technical books. Obviously it can quickly become very much cost prohibitive to unnecessarily re-illustrate a simple insructional manual…especially when considering that the publisher already has the appropriate illustrations in his files, photos that have already been paid for.
The same holds true in re-printing articles taken originally from the pages of MR. These were bought and paid for previously. Unless an author of totally new material is one of the editor’s staff writers, it can cost relatively big money to have someone outside the organization prepare even just a 3-4 page new article. A typical example might amount to an author’s fee of $500-$700, or more.
Once appreciating the above, I think that most folks here will quickly come to understand just why things are as they are when it comes to a small company offering instructional books to a limited group of hobbyists.
I for one, don´t sell articles for unlimited use, if the publisher want´s to reprint it I will have a new fee paid. Otherwise the publisher could sell your material to other publishers with you standing without income… Maybe it´s not the way it works in USA?
Graffen, in recently years (at least since the 1990’s) it has been my experience that many, if not most, publishers now purchase the “rights” to at least articles they buy, giving them full ownership and allowing the further use of them at their whim. What you indicate is the situation in Sweden is the way it used to be over here, but pretty much is no longer.
I think we have a bit of a perception problem here. The Kalmbach publications are intended to be “how-to” compilations, not “the art of model railroading”. Although that publication is available too, as are the various “Great Model Railroads” – but again, there are only so many great ones, so these tend to reappear fairly often.
The publications are just that, though – compilations of MR articles so that the user doesn’t have to go back through years and years of issues to find what he wants. They are also aimed at the new user who doesn’t have the back issues. The couple of books that I have clearly indicate (in the fine print) that they contain material previously published in MR magazine.
If you were to buy a “coffee table book” of layout photos, and let’s hypothetically say that someone was publishing a Volume 1, Volume 2, etc., then yes, you’d be within your rights to complain if the author re-used photos in each volume. You’d also be paying upwards of $30 for a soft cover version, twice that or more for hard cover.
It is nice to see new photos all the time. This is one of the reasons I love the “Trackside Photos” section of MR and the “Magic of Model Railroading” section in the Walthers’ Sourcebook every year. But I wouldn’t expect each reissue of a how-to book to be completely re-illustrated, and neither should you.
I have noticed the same. I personally find it disappointing. I now will not by some topics by mail because I do not want to see a the same pictures again. Admittedly this is unfair to the LHS. To the point some LHS around here do not carry any magazines.
Except for one or two very odd situations, in my experience, when a LHS stops carrying the magazines, that generally means that LHS is in trouble.
And by the time pictures from a magazine get into a how-to book, the issue in which they appeared is already months if not years in the past, so there can be no direct competition.