How to Write YOUR Book

All along, an important part of creating these books on VIA Rail has been to encourage you to write YOUR book.  Though most people I tell this to will immediately roll their eyes or shuffle their feet, it's completely within the realm of possibility.  If I can do it, YOU can do it too.  I'm writing this post as a suggested course of action, as inspiration, not as a how-to.  Having read several books on the topic of writing a book, I distilled some of their contents useful to my projects. (Top photo - VIA hogger Terry Brennan receives his VIA Rail book at Kingston's VIA station)

Headings are followed by bulleted points - these are things to consider.
Numbered points are steps I took in creating my books on VIA Rail.

PLANNING

• Reflect on what your book will be.
• Do an environmental scan.  Has this been done before?
• If so, take a different approach
• Are you actually going to finish this?
• If so, decide on an approximate timeline
• Who is your target audience?
• Write for them, remembering you want readers to be able to read and understand your book
• Don't be self-indulgent, but write for yourself, too.
• Three C's: Commitment, continuity, confidence!

Define your scope:

1. What will you include, what will you not include?

2. What timeframe will you cover?

3. What is a comfortable balance of text and photos?

4. How many pages, what format will your book be?

Define your approach:

1. Lone-wolf or team approach?

2. If team approach, make contact with contributors

3. Always keep contributors informed of progress

4. Remember - you need them more than they need you

5. So, treat contributors responsibly and with care.
6. Don't be surprised if you need to modify your approach as the project evolves.

WRITING

• Do a little bit every day.  I repeat, every day!  If you do this, you will ensure completion
• Write what you know, then expand on it as you learn more.
• Constantly envision the finished product.

What worked for me:
1. Create feedstock file keeping your scope in mind: newsletters, magazines, online material

2. Use Post-it's or flags to mark pages.

3. Transcribe information in chronological information into notebooks

4. Include original source and that transcription is correct before moving on.

5. Organize information to find headings

6. Shake it out, filter it through

7. Broad headings: programs, locomotives, cars, disposition, operations

8. Organize information again - photocopy notebooks, cut and tape under headings

9. Write text under headings - sleep on it then reread/revise.

10. Print off drafts, keep in binder as mockup of book.

PHOTOS

• Select to support text
• Match to headings for readability, unity, logical order
• Avoid duplication, include as much variety as possible

(Photo above - Amtrak Superliner consist at Portage la Prairie, by contributor Brian Schuff)

PROJECT IS EVOLVING - FINAL STAGES

• Start a to-do list, what is still missing, what needs to be done?
• Develop need-to-do's on Post-it notes
• Feedstock file should be shrinking rapidly

1. Fact-check and triangulate facts as many times as possible.

2. Consult experts for specific critical information

3. Proofread and proofread again!
4. Send critical information to peer reviewers for typos, correctness of content, readability.

5. Submit to printer for proof copy.

6. Check proof copy. This may be the moment of greatest excitement you've envisioned.

7. Go to print.

At that point, it's time for the Highball! (Above photo - first printing of my Cross-Canada Compendium are delivered by Bryan Babcock...right to my door)
Eric

85 Uses in 85 Days

Remember Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed?  Well, if you're too young to, or you don't like sappy (yet meaningful) Christmas movies...the movie centres on George Bailey and his Christmastime misadventures.  He wonders, what if I'd never existed?  Is there a silver lining to this life?  Deeply philosophical to be sure, I'm relating this story to my second and third VIA books.  What if these books had never been published?  Of course there is still a body of work out there in print and online about VIA Rail Canada.  But it's a Miss America swimsuit competition-thin body, not at all what I'd call VIAluptuous!

Since I published my two recent VIA books, it's been cool to see how the books are being used.  As I've mentioned before, I don't expect people to read their copies cover-to-cover, though apparently some have, and that's great!  I do anticipate the books being used as a comparative reference source, or as I term it, a way to settle friendly arguments.  Here are just a few examples dug out of my Inbox as related to me by book customers of ways they've found the books useful since their release, about 85 days ago:

• a reminder of a first transcontinental trip on VIA Rail behind F-units in 1986
• a pleasant reminder of railfanning trips with my son
• several copies given as Christmas presents (fortuitous timing of the release, eh?)
• sharp-eyed reader noticing a captioning error, to be corrected in next printing
• modelling southwestern Ontario in the 1970's-1980's
• Park car backup lights, white and red
• finding 1970's Super Continental consists
• ex-CP 2700-series baggage cars taken on VIA's roster and their use
• modelling VIA CC&F dinette cars
• 1980's disposition of Canadian Flyer cars
• further suggestions for future book projects!
• researching VIA's unique E-unit operations and timeline
• RDC, E- and F-unit paint scheme research
• recollections of forgotten mish-mash VIA consists from the 1980's
• shortcomings of the ex-CN Tempo equipment
• VIA's three rebuilt ex-CP F9B's (watch for an upcoming Trackside Treasure blog post)
• ex-CN FPA4's and other MLW/Bombardier locomotives
• VIA/CN paint scheme, applied to what equipment and when
• use of ex-CN diners and ex-CP diners on the Canadian in the late 1980's
• the Canadian in 1984...and Rapido Trains' VIA Canadian set
• mixing of GMD and MLW units in the Corridor in the 1970's
• should we spell it Via or VIA?

OK, so that's only 22 uses, but I'm sure there are at least 63 others I haven't heard about, but you get the idea!  Thanks to each and every customer - may these books help you in the above, and other heretofore-unencountered ways in the days and weeks ahead.

Highball,

Eric

Top photo: Wrecked 6124 at Winnipeg, bottom photo the Canadian wends its way round Lake Superior, 1985.

[And every time an F-unit bell rings, does an angel get its wings, Zuzu? (trivia-style movie quotation reference)]

One Little Photo...

In August  2011, CN Winnipeg engineer Mark Perry sent me the above photo by email. Being aware of my main blog Trackside Treasure and my interest in Manitoba railroading, Mark probably knew I'd like the photo.  It shows ex-CP 1413-1898 leading the Canadian - 11 ex-CN and ex-CP cars through Elie, Manitoba in November, 1980.  Taken by Lawrence Stuckey, Brian Schuff also of Winnipeg had added this print to his photo collection.  But Mark probably could not have predicted where the photo would lead. The following email exchange ensued:

Subject: Interesting #1 at Elie MB in the late 70's/early 80's

From the Brian Schuff collection, check out the units, an F and a E running elephant style!

MAP

That is one awesome photo, Mark.  Thanks for sharing.  Do you have an email contact for Brian, by any chance?

Eric

Brian is a dinosaur and does not have a computer, he either phones or snail mails it.....

MAP

Sounds like Brian's purchase of my VIA book, plus a conversation between you two ended up with Brian calling me tonight.  We had a great chat, and it sounds as if we were both photographing the same stuff 'back in the day'.  It also sounds as if Brian has a goal to get on the internet, and I joined you and the others who are encouraging him to try Yahoo, email, or whatever helps him connect with people like us who share his interests.  

Eric

[who's just been talking to someone who knows exactly what the significance of '8558' is]

Brian became one of my valued contributors, sharing many of his photos and those from his collection with me for my book project.  In fact, today I just finished scanning a few remaining prints for my collection, and will be dropping them in tomorrow's mail.  Another recent development involves Brian (described by his contemporary Mark as a dinosaur because he wasn't online at the time) joining us keyboard-enslaved hordes by getting online...soon.

You'll hear about it on Trackside Treasure when it happens, but be prepared to see lots of VIA material previously largely unseen.

But this initial photo launched a shipload of VIA-era photographs that added much to my second and third books.  Never underestimate the influence you can have on someone else, even through one seemingly insignificant email.

Highball!
Eric

100 Copies by Christmas

Is there interest in VIA Rail Canada?  You bet. Are there at least 100 people in North America who will order a book or two on VIA Rail in the first two months after it's released?  For sure.

I'm pleased to note that just in time for Christmas, over 100 copies of my newest VIA Rail book, Trackside with VIA: Cross-Canada Compendium have winged their way to customers all over Canada and the US since I released them in late-October. (Just today, a VIA fan's family member arrived on my doorstep to pick up two copies just in time for Christmas.) This number is sure to climb upwards as hobby shop sales build in the new year.

This is in no small part due to the contributions of ardent VIA enthusiasts and photographers like Gary Hadfield (photo of RDC-1 6107 - above) and Brian Schuff (photo of 1413 at Winnipeg - below) who generously supported me in this project.

Also closing in on 100 copies is my other new book, the Trackside with VIA: Cross-Canada Compendium Consist Companion . Ordered nearly one-for-one with the Compendium, customers are proving that there is indeed interest in VIA Rail train consist information. And why not?  Long overlooked, I believe this type of information is of great interest today, to modelers and enthusiasts alike.

If you haven't ordered yet and Santa left some cash in your stocking, please see the printable order form, top right sidebar of this blog. If you're reading this, please accept a small Christmas gift from me in the form of a Trackside Treasure (my main blog) post on VIA's Canadian in 1984, including photos and consists I recorded in Manitoba in that year.

Thanks to all for your support, your interest in my books, and may I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous year to come in 2013! 

Highball!

Eric

One Month In!

Here are five things I learned or re-learned since the release of my two new VIA books four weeks ago:

1. Strong consist book sales.  This surprised me a little.  Initial print runs were weighted 4:1 for my Cross-Canada Compendium relative to my Consist Companion.  Orders have come in very nearly one-for-one.  I'd like to think that customers see the value of train consist information, from the joint points of view of enthusiasts and modellers.  It simply is the best documentary information available for a given train on a given day at a given location.  With cross-Canada and cross-era information, there is definitely some useful information in here.

2. Price for perceived value, not cost.  Related to my first point, I believe sales of the consist book may have been largely due to its reasonable price.  All along, I've been as committed to reasonable price as a goal for creating any of my books.  From day one. I've said it before - I shy away from books I consider overpriced.  An authority on marketing suggested pricing on perceived value of the book not profit vs cost.  Well, if I perceive a book's value to be $50, it's still only my perception. It's like the value of a collectible item.  Perception of value must translate into finding a customer.  If not, it's all perception and no sales.  So I do base pricing on cost, with my belief that a reasonable price will indeed lead to sales.

3. Be prepared when asking for feedback.  This is a tough one - you really have to be prepared to leave the ego at the door.  No news may be good news, or no feedback may be just that...the absence of feedback.  Either because there's nothing to say, or maybe there's something that customers don't want to say.  Let's just say that when Earl Roberts, editor of Bytown Railway Society's Trackside Guide, emailed me some very constructed feedback in the form of observations and corrections, I was glad to receive it.  I might add that the observations (along with additional information updates that Earl supplied on a few topics) outnumbered the corrections.  I will be posting errata on this blog.

4. Be responsive, both in terms of time and availability.  Don't fire-and-forget.  Customers or those simply interested in your book want to communicate, and they may want to do so before placing an order.  I don't have a Blackberry, so I'm not checking in constantly. But I have found that good communication leads to more good communication.  And I think people have a right to that, when you're making something available to them.

5. Make connections.  The connections I've made through this first four weeks, plus those forged with my contributors, have been nothing short of amazing.  This is partly because the VIA enthusiast community possesses a rabid interest, and partly because it's a relatively small community, compared to the Pennsylvania Railroad community, for instance.  Shorter history, smaller country.  But a very manageable interest, with some amazing variety that's been thoroughly investigated by some real diggers and grinders.  I'm proud to be in their company, and if these books are even slightly of interest to them, as well as adding text, data and photographs previously unseen to the community information database, I'm very happy to be there.

Thanks to all for your interest in my books,

Highball!

Eric

Check out that unique paint scheme on Angus-painted VIA 1418 at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba 1981.

Highball!

Both my new books are now ready for you to order.

On this big day, I would like to publicly thank my principal contributors from all across Canada: Tom Box, Bruce Chapman, Gary Hadfield, Robin Lowrie, Jakob Mueller and Brian Schuff.  Each of these fine gentlemen were good enough to make major contributions to these books: consists, reviewing text, critical data, photographs, and plain old good advice.  

These books were a team effort.  Without these contributors, I would not have been able to collect and include the important and useful content these books contain. Though my contributors are also listed under Acknowledgements in my second book, I think it's important to thank them here for their contributions along the way.  I've been waiting a long time to say this, and rather than overdoing it with 60 pt font, marquee lights or other overdone web effects like flaming penguins, I'm just going to type it here, now. Are you ready? It's...finally...time...for...the...

Highball!
Eric

Flyer: Consist Companion

This flyer gives you the contents, contact information and pricing for my new (third) consist book plus my first book.  Click to see a larger version, to save, to print or to share.