Bob, I am with you on that one. There is often enough good info and interaction with other folks that it is sometimes like having multiple issues every month.

Speaking of issues it is August first was the magazine going to be available today or do we have to wait till Tuesday to get it.

I'm expecting the August issue to be released late Saturday evening.

Thanks for the update I was just getting ready to see if the wire from my computer had a knot in it that was preventing the magazine from getting through. I guess you can tell I really look forward to the magazine.

Thanks Joe for doing such a great job.

Unfortunately the payment rate has changed, unfortunately, down.

I have had a short mailing with Joe and I can understand his arguments. However, the new rates should be published also in opening post. Only that would be a fair information!

Unfortunately the payment rate has changed, unfortunately, down.

I have had a short mailing with Joe and I can understand his arguments. However, the new rates should be published also in opening post. Only that would be a fair information!

The payment rate varies some depending on how ad revenue is doing. Small variations we absorb, but this summer saw a steep decline in ad revenue (summer revenue is always down for the hobby) and we had to temporarily lower payment rates by 25% to keep at break even.

We expect the winter income to go back up so the reduced rate was temporary and only for a few issues.

So you're saying don't sell  MRH a story in the summer, hold off until winter?  

So you're saying don't sell MRH a story in the summer, hold off until winter?

MRH is ad-supported and if we see a major downturn in ad revenue, then payment to contributors might get reduced a bit. The first time that has happened is this summer and to compensate we reduced contributor payments a bit to stay in the black. I've added a note to the payment text above that this is rare but it is something we may do again in the future if we need to. We don't expect it to happen very often, but then we're in untried territory with this business model.

Summer always sees a downturn in the hobby, but this summer also saw more than the usual number of advertisers leaving for the summer, dropping ad revenue more than ever. Not advertising in the summer months is a good strategy to economize on advertising, but it obviously affects our revenue. We can cover some downturn (and we expect it each summer) but this summer has been unusual.

The good news is advertisers are already returning, including several name vendors who left quite a while back. So things are already looking up significantly.

" to compensate we reduced contributor payments a bit to stay in the black."

   I'd hope most authors are writing for the love of the hobby and wouldn't mind if payments were less? ......DaveB 

Click on ads!

When reading MRH... you see an ad that interests you... click it right then and there... even if you plan to check it out after you're done with the issue... the ad will wait for you in another window, and, you help out MRH by clicking on the ad links in the magazine itself.

Supporting advertisers is great, but clicking their ads help them to see where you heard about them!

Also... have you heard about a product in the forum, or an article, but they don't have an ad? Let them know where you heard about them. If enough people say "Oh, yeah... some folks were saying good things at MRH Magazine", then maybe that shop, or company will decided "Hey... I should go advertise there!"

Oh, and writing for the love of the hobby is the most important part of interesting writing... but paying artists (writers) is a mitzvah, and helps bring in high quality writing! That is why MRH is a magazine, with advertisers, and quality articles, instead of just a random blog. Making a magazine of this quality takes time, and talent, and I LOVE the fact that they do pay writers! (there was a comic book company a few years back that went out of business because they didn't pay any of their writers, or artists... people stopped working for them, and a number of artists sued, and their quality just got BAD after they stopped paying the talent)

It's a privilege to be asked to write on this hobby by a magazine like MRH, sure, but it's even more so because MRH lets you know by paying you for your time and efforts! Money that can be used to buy more train stuff? (what? If I was writing, you folks don't seriously expect "train money" to go for the bills, do you?)

Oh, and again... CLICK THE ADS! I can't stress that enough! MRH needs the advertisers to know where their customers are coming from!

I'd hope most authors are writing for the love of the hobby and wouldn't mind if payments were less?

Many are surprised to find a free magazine pays at all. Most appreciate any payment with the amount being secondary. Getting paid to do your hobby is unusual for many modelers.

Being a free publication does mean we're a lot more dependent on ad revenue when it comes time to pay the bills. The way I think of it is to remember all the money you didn't pay for the 20,000+ pages of hobby how tos. Any payment for contributing is a drop in the bucket compared to all the money you saved not buying 8 years of back issues.

I agree Joe, getting paid at all is a big bonus for most modelers. I think this is illustrated in the fact that I have seen posts by modelers that would make excellent articles....and folks just post them for the joy of the hobby and to share info with no payment expected. I have also noticed how some of these folks end up with articles in the magazine, sometimes at your request. I would personally love to try my hand at some articles, but I have a weak link with the camera....I don't have one except my cell phone. Maybe someday I will hook up with a photographer with the right skills or purchase a camera myself and learn how to take publishable photos. In the meantime I will keep enjoying the articles and posts that other modelers provide to MRH.

Loving life in Northern Colorado

Dale

Dale, don't let your cell phone hold you back!  I've had a number of articles published in MRH using pictures from my cell phone!  If you have the composition, lighting, and focus correct you can get great pictures with most cell phones.  There are a number of articles online on how to take model railroad pictures with cell phones.  Please give it a try!

Yes, today's cell phone photos can work. In fact, the cover story in the Nov MRH is Lance Minheim on how to use an iPhone to take railfan (track level) layout photos. The cover is an iPhone photo that has great depth of field!

Today's cell phone cameras have a lot of power most people don't even realize they have at their fingertips for taking awesome photos. Lance's article helps illustrate that indeed, superb cell phone model photos are possible and we're happy to publish them.

It's all part of moving publishing to keep up with the times!

" I'd hope most authors are writing for the love of the hobby and wouldn't mind if payments were less? ......DaveB "

They probably don't mind, but being paid for articles on a fluctuating pay scale can leave one scratching one's head. A little bit of cash for photos and stories helps to keep my hobby moving a long. It takes about three times as long to do an article about a modeling project as it would take to just do the project.

At publications where I have worked over the decades, there was generally a base pay scale for bought-in articles, and an overall annual budget that covered freelance buys. Exceptions could be made, but a low balance at the end of June meant the editor would be in trouble for the remainder of the year.

Hobby magazines that rely on contributions are in a tough spot because they are so dependent on contributors and because reader preferences can change in an instant. Where I worked in the news business, there was always a professional writing staff available that could respond more quickly than most of our stringers. 

It's a privilege to be asked to write on this hobby by a magazine like MRH, sure, but it's even more so because MRH lets you know by paying you for your time and efforts! Money that can be used to buy more train stuff? (what? If I was writing, you folks don't seriously expect "train money" to go for the bills, do you?)

The funny thing is that I've been printed extensively within the military history field, in several magazines and books over the years. Heck, I used to be the staff cartoonist of a British magazine that you used to be able to buy at most Barnes and Nobles newsstands. I used to keep a copy of every time my name was in print, but I got slack with that and now I couldn't tell you each time I got printed. All paid, and paid well. Heck, one was paying me over $50 for each simple book review; just a few paragraphs.

I never intended on getting published in the model train field once I got back into this hobby after long hiatus. But after I got my layout looking somewhat how I wanted it, I started re-discovering the old methods of model photography and found I was getting some decent shots. Yes, even with cell phones, like this:

So, one day I get a PM from the editor wanting to know if he could use one of my earlier shots for MRH.

I thought the joy of discovering someone wants to publish my stuff had long ceased to be a big deal for me. I was wrong. I never thought my stuff would be good enough for any magazine. Heck yes, I answered and I got a photo in earlier this year.

Soon after, someone heavily prodded me to submit to other magazines. I must admit I didn't 'pitch' any ideas to MRH as I wanted it to go into print so I could have a copy in the future. The surprising thing was among all the magazines I did pitch to, only Model Railroader said no (because, they said, they had enough On30 stuff for now. I supposed Lou Sassi has the corner on On30 over there). I had my choice where to go with my article and I went with the On30 Annual because of what it's done for that gauge.

Now, as for MRH, now that I have the printed model railroad article in my hands that I'd always wanted as a kid, I will probably pitch my next article (I have the idea and I'm working on photos for it right now) to this magazine. I really enjoy the content and the forums are very good. Lots of really good stuff to be seen here, more so than any other model railroad-related forum I have yet seen.

In print is one thing; but telling people where they can buy your article isn't quite as easy as replying, "Just click here and read it right now!"

I don't see eye-to-eye with Joe on a few things, but that doesn't matter. We both agree that this is a darned good hobby publication.

But as for the amount? I stopped writing for free a very long time ago (I'm a professionally-trained commercial artist and illustrator/cartoonist; one of the first lesson they should teach in art schools is that nobody will want to pay you for your work and that you probably will never make a living at it, no matter how good/popular your are). "It'll give you exposure" really translates to, "I'm too cheap to pay for your work," and never let anyone tell you otherwise. Free work only ever leads to one thing; requests for more free work. That said, a historian friend of mine said it best, "Nobody ever got rich writing for magazines or books," except maybe the editors (as they had other additional duties that justified the paycheck).

Joe, for the most part, pays pretty well. yeah, I can make more going back to writing about WW2 Jeeps, but it's be good to get my work out to a large audience that doesn't have to drive to several hobby shops and pay several bucks to see my stuff. It is a little less than other publications, but I think it's a little less work getting the stuff into this magazine, which is worth it to me.

Joe, you'll be seeing a pitch soon enough. I hope you like it when I send it in!

You can never have too much detail or too many trees on a layout.

Academic publications never pay-- in fact you pay them. That's why I never bothered and published in commercial mags instead. All of my university sponsored research went up on the internet for free.

Getting paid for an MRH article would be nice, but then I wouldn't be retired any more, would I?

pqe

There is no shame in getting paid for work when you're retired... in fact, that's a sort of "win" if you ask me!

I'm retired, but I still do paid photo shoots... I just don't NEED to to pay the bills.

If I ever got paid for anything hobby related, we ALL know that money would go right into getting some loco i wanted, or some structure I have no room for, or some other goo-gaw that is hobby related.

The way I see it... if I'm paid for doing something in this hobby, that just looks like free merch to me! (if nothing else, it's tickets to a Model Rail museum, or lunch while I'm out model train shopping!)

Rick and Joe, I appreciate the encouragement. I never realized that a phone would take the quality of pictures that a publication could use. But at the same time I must admit that I am very pleased with the quality of the pictures my newest phone takes....And it is not the latest and greatest that is currently on the market. You guys are motivating me to find some online articles on the subject while I await the Nov. MRH to read Lance Minheins' article. All I need to do is hone my photography skills and decide on a subject for an article, then of course do some writing. I like taking pictures....I really enjoy writing....and I love model railroading.To my ears this sounds like a winning combination. Hopefully I can find the right subject matter and  do a good enough job to get an article published at MRH. 

I take this as a personal challenge to prove to myself that I can do this!

Loving life in Northern Colorado

Dale

At the risk of promoting the competition... there are actually TWO articles in this month's "Model Railroader" on using the iPhone, and cell phones for taking "magazine quality" photos of layouts, and models.

Phones actually do almost a better job than a professional a camera (well... ones without macro lenses, at any rate)

I must not fully understand magazine economics but in a declining revenue cycle it could also make sense to pay writers more, not less. The purpose of a magazine is to deliver buyers from a defined demographic to advertisers who want those buyers, collecting ad revenue in exchange for that delivery service, thus generating profit, while concurrently pleasing its buyer-readers with content that attracts them to the magazine. If advertisers are not seeing purchases from those buyers, then the magazine is not delivering the demographic. The magazine's response should be to change content to resume delivering the demo to the advertiser, which may require soliciting specified content from premium writers who aren't going to write for a discount; instead, they would sell their content elsewhere. Of course, if those writers were going to write for you anyway and aren't interested in other markets, then you can squeeze them. And increasing writer pay in the face of declining revenue means that the control group has to have resources to sustain a short-term operating loss. If it doesn't, then margins during "good times" could have been too low, as well.

Another option is staff-written content that shows readers how to use advertisers' products (thus inducing buys). Model Railroader has done this in a sometimes tiresome manner with Walthers, Woodland and other products. In some cases MR articles read like explicit product placement, which they may be. I'm not suggesting that heavy-handed approach, but if there is a valued advertiser who dropped out because their product wasn't selling, what's the harm in showing how to use their product and why it should be bought.

For people that get asked to do articles it shows that they are well above every one else in skills.  But we also need to look at the fact some author are authors and have little skill or knowable in what they are writing about.  I have had some maintenance texts that were written beautifully but it was totally clear from what was written is was done by committee or the author had no clue what the machine and equipment did or how it really worked.

For people that get asked to do articles it shows that they are well above every one else in skills.  But we also need to look at the fact some author are authors and have little skill or knowable in what they are writing about.  I have had some maintenance texts that were written beautifully but it was totally clear from what was written is was done by committee or the author had no clue what the machine and equipment did or how it really worked.

Fair enough. I remember well, working on a doctrinal manual for what was a new concept in the military at the time and I was in the first unit ever doing the change (just Google, "Stryker Brigagdes" if you're curious). I was working with some Training and Doctrine Command folks who clearly had no clue what they were talking about. I was the guy who had to do the job eventually (being in charge of the people who'd repair damaged 8-wheeled vehicles in the field in a wartime environment) and many times I had to tell people way up the food chain who had no clue, how things could and wouldn't work. "Uh sir, we can't send a team that far out into territory we don't own. They'd be wiped out if the enemy found them," yet when the publication was ready for editing, it had all kinds of insane things. I had to call a Colonel in charge of these people to explain how it wouldn't work. Good for me, he understood my point and agreed (thankfully, he'd had my job many years before and understood my ideas as concepts). But if it weren't for that, the field manual today would be a laughing stock. Parts of that maunal were, anyway, for the stuff I couldn't get anyone to listen to me about.

Anyway, how many articles in the hobby press have we all read and thought, "This guy got paid for this?" How much ink has been devoted to recycled stuff that was wrong to start with?

It goes for the well-known people, too. A current prolific author I won't name here (not in MRH) has provided me with some chuckles every now and then, alternating between his utter lack of knowledge on the subjects and his inability to explain how something was done in any way that someone outside his own skull could understand.

I've seen LOTS of model train-related articles written by someone who knows the subject well but can't write to peple who don't share that level of knowledge. Books, too. Many people think that if something is easy and obvious to them, then it must be equally so to every other human on earth.

You can never have too much detail or too many trees on a layout.

We had a manual for an aircraft radar system that I worked on. It said, "By design the AN/APN-187 Doppler Navigation Radar System; manufactured by Singer-Kearfott will not operate in the O. F. F. Poston Setting. "

So, if you have the radar system turned OFF it will not work...?

Or is this a special feature of all Singer-Kearfott radar systems as others do operate in the O.F.F. setting?

My favorite manual in my Army  Band days was "How to play the oboe." I kept it right next to the one about the M16.

pqe

We're getting WAY off topic, so I'm going to lock this thread for now since the recent post about pay has been pretty well discussed.