Well, it's official: The gun book business is dead; long live the Internet blogs, forums, and websites.
I just received a letter from my publisher, Collector Books of Paducah KY, that they will discontinue publishing all books about collectibles at the end of this year. Collector Books (CB) has long been the 800-pound gorilla of the collectibles business ranging from Beanie Babies to Buffalo Bill, Depression Glass to Duck Decoys, and my recent book, Parker Guns: Shooting Flying (2008). CB will continue to sell existing book inventory, but the vibes not good for a second printing.
Before I hooked up with CB, I was told by the other big collectibles publisher, Krause, that they had been sold to an Ohio group who had no interest in gun books, save, maybe, trying to salvage Gun Digest.
And prior to Krause giving up gun-related books, Ludo at Safari Press (who published my Parker Guns: The "Old Reliable" [1997-2004] and When Ducks Were Plenty [2000]) told me that Safari was getting out of the publishing of shotgun-related books (thus I jumped to CB for Parker Guns: Shooting Flying). As an aside, Parker Guns: The "Old Reliable" is approaching the go-or-no-go-decision for a third printing...we shall see...
Previously the various reincarnations of CountrySport Press folded under Shooting Sportsman magazine's ownership.
The punch line is that if I were to write another gun-related book (which I have no intention of doing), I would not be able to find a publisher unless I wanted to do a subsidized publishing (vanity press) deal. In other words: Gun Book publishing is dead---long live the Internet. And worse yet...
Gun Book dealers are beyond "endangered" and all but extinct. The number of book retailers who continue to set up at even the biggest gun shows (CADA, Vegas, Louisville) can be counted on the fingers of one thumb. I have spoken to a number of the "usual suspects" and they cite non-economic sales volume for their absence...one well-known dealer said, "I used to do $8,000 at a big show and now it's below $4,000--I can't buy the books, drive the distance, pay for the tables, and the motels...it's no use!"
The punch line: Any of you would-be authors who intend to see yourself in print that involves dead trees, will need to hook up with a subsidy publisher and fork over substantial coin of the realm up front. Then once the deed is done, you will need to figure out how to sell your book inventory, one at a time, at gun shows or over the Internet. Quantity sales to the few remaining dealers will most likely be at discounts from cover price that are below your cost: When selling at a below-cost loss, you ain't gonna make it up on volume.
On a lemons to lemonade note, Dave Weber wins the media battle, and the dead tree publishers lose (as do we all for losing future books not published). Yet it is some consolation that we have the various dot-orgs like PGCA, LCS, Fox, etc. to surf when not here on doublegunshop.com, but things ain't what they used to was. Alas! EDM
