A forum for N scale articles -- thoughts?

[Spades]

There!  He said it!

Unnecessary post (This one) , but so true!

[peteski]

Unnecessary post, but so true!

Um, it was good enough for you to respond to (and agree with). 

[Spades]

Um, it was good enough for you to respond to (and agree with). 

I meant my posting.  Me hope to write pretty one day.

[Catt]

How about a "How I do it"forum.I got this idea from all the guys asking Jos (the new guy) to do a tutorial on how he does those fabulous trees.

[OldEastRR]

Several editors have told me they would love more submissions featuring n scale layouts...note that I am not sure this is the same as asking for articles which are principally relevant only to n scale like modifying N scale models. Just wondering if this could explain any confusion between their words and actions.

Yes, I certainly agree that is my take on the situation as well. Completed N scale layout articles seem to be the most in demand -- however how many layouts can one complete in a year?

[davefoxx]

How about a "How I do it"forum.I got this idea from all the guys asking Jos (the new guy) to do a tutorial on how he does those fabulous trees.

If Jos does a tutorial (Oh, please! Oh, please!), it will fit just fine in the "Best of the Wire" forum.

DFF

[peteski]

Yes, I certainly agree that is my take on the situation as well. Completed N scale layout articles seem to be the most in demand -- however how many layouts can one complete in a year?

Um, but who appointed you the only one who needs to submit articles?!    I think that he goal is to get the budding authors of N scale articles out of hiding and have them submit articles.  That way you won't have to worry how many layouts you can build - the other modelers will have plenty of layouts (and other projects) going on to create many useful magazine articles

N scale Magazine has been aggressively looking for those budding authors for a while now. Model Railroader - not so much.  I don't know about others since those were the 2 magazines I subscribed to.  I also just let the MR subscription lapse (I have subscribed since 1987).

[Catt]

"Best of the wire" to me implies something already posted that got a high popularity vote.Not a new article.

[CBQ Fan]

Wouldn't that be weathering detailing and scratch building forum?

[OldEastRR]

Well, whatever ... I'm not planning on writing any new RR articles anyway, but I have 2 or 3 that have been moldering away in model mag files for years and I'll just toss them up on here to see what people think of them. Maybe there's only a few people on line who'd be interested in modifying Kato modern Pennsy cars into different variations, but at least I'll clear out my inventory of old writing.

[mmagliaro]

I would say that if you have submitted articles to magazines, and they have neither accepted nor rejected them yet after several years, then they are probably never going to use them. 

I went through that with a long historic piece  I had submitted it to Railfan and Railroad.  Finally, after about 8 months, I told them flat out to either tell me yes or no so that I could use the article somewhere else (and they told me "no").
So why didn't they just do that in the first place?

Sitting on something for 8 months (or years) and making no decision is just "hoarding".

[OldEastRR]

Sitting on something for 8 months (or years) and making no decision is just "hoarding".

It's also, I think, illegal, as it violates the copyrights of the author. As long as a mag sits on an  article, he can't submit it anywhere else. Supposedly the legal time limit a mag could hold a manuscript without payment is one month. After that they either must buy it or return it.
However, I don't think many of the model RR mags follow this requirement.

[mmagliaro]

It's also, I think, illegal, as it violates the copyrights of the author. As long as a mag sits on an  article, he can't submit it anywhere else. Supposedly the legal time limit a mag could hold a manuscript without payment is one month. After that they either must buy it or return it.
However, I don't think many of the model RR mags follow this requirement.

If I have not signed anything and have not even agreed verbally in an email or phone
call to give an article to a certain publication, how could they have any hold over my work?
As far as I'm concerned, until a publication responds to me, I am free to send my work to as many places as I want.
I don't do this, because I think it's dirty pool.  I send my work to one place at a time.

But if a magazine sits on a piece for months and doesn't answer me,
I don't bother with them and I send it somewhere else.  (That has only been necessary once).


 

[peteski]

It's also, I think, illegal, as it violates the copyrights of the author. As long as a mag sits on an  article, he can't submit it anywhere else. Supposedly the legal time limit a mag could hold a manuscript without payment is one month. After that they either must buy it or return it.
However, I don't think many of the model RR mags follow this requirement.

I assume that they have never acknowledged receiving those articles.  Is it possible that they simply got ... lost in the mail?

[OldEastRR]

Lost in the e-mail? I think everything I've submitted since 2009 has been via the Internet. Plus it's always a good idea for the author to contact the mag in a week to see if the article got to them. Because yes, stuff gets lost (or sent to wrong place) on the internet.