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Old 07-25-2017, 10:17 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterAlway
This sums up exactly why I haven't reprinted it. There have been a whole lot of new developments in the past 23 years (gulp! Has it really been that long?), and a lot of the sources and supplies quoted in the book have disappeared. To produce an updated version isn't just about writing, illustration, and layout, but it's about re-learning half the content in the book. I really haven't kept up-to-date with the technology (I have no clue how to do 3-d printing, or how to avoid the very real problems I've seen with it) but just as importantly, I haven't kept up with the model rocket marketplace or the outside-world marketplace.

One example that comes to mind is the current world of spray paints. My favorite dutch boy/K-mart paints, for example, no longer exist. I know that Krylon has been reformulated and people have trouble with it. Another example is the apparent disappearance of dry transfer lettering, replaced by computer graphics. Even vinyl lettering, which used to have clean die-cut edges, now has lumpy, raised laser-cut edges. ALPS decal printers which were apparently very nice and capable of wonderful results, have apparently come and gone.

The awful truth is that I'm no longer even qualified to write a book on scale model rocketry. I really don't have the time, energy, or money to develop the expertise to be qualified again.

On the bright side, I *am* working on some new scale data!

Peter Alway
There is an alternative: re-publishing "The Art of Scale Model Rocketry" as an ^historical^ work, with a one-page notice at the beginning that explains this, including the changes in kit and supplies sources. Many old books, even ones that are up to (and over) a hundred years old, are re-published in this way--at *zero* cost to the authors (or the other people who re-publish them)--as POD (Print-On-Demand) published books, through CreateSpace.com (see: www.createspace.com ) and Lulu.com (see: www.lulu.com ). I have a couple of such POD reprints of 19th century and early 20th century books. Also:

A good PDF scan of a copy of "The Art of Scale Model Rocketry" (plus a separate PDF scan of its front and back covers) is all that you need to POD publish the book. CreateSpace.com and Lulu.com handle all of the order-taking and shipping. They make a percentage on each book sold, and the rest of it goes to the author, who retains the full copyright to the work. Plus, CreateSpace.com--which is owned by Amazon.com--automatically advertises their POD published books on Amazon.com. Lulu.com does this as well, via an arrangement with Amazon.com, but Lulu.com POD published books must have ISBNs (which aren't expensive) in order to be eligible to be advertised on Amazon.com.
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
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