What interest would there be in a book about Anson & Deeley?

[Salopian]

A general interest question for you to consider.

A friend has written a book about Anson & Deeley of Westley Richards, who invented the boxlock action that is now universally used in shotgun manufacture.

There was very little known about Anson who was actually the gunsmith who had the idea . This book answers many questions and is an interesting and intriguing tale.

The problem my friend faces is the cost of publishing and printing, a number of publishers are interested , but they are not sure of the market and demand for such a book.

Do you think there is much interest in such a gun book or is the uptake likely to be small?

[Vince Green]

It will be small but there is a worldwide market for specialist books on guns. It needs lots of good pictures, contact the publishers of similar books.

 

this is just a sampler

 

http://www.ramrodantiques.co.uk/33-shooting-firearms-books

Edited May 3, 2016 by Vince Green

[felly100]

Have a look here,I buy fishing books from this site.

Some very niche stuff.

http://www.anglebooks.com/

[figgy]

He could publish snippets from it online to garner interest and see what demand there is. Contacting the leading monthly mags about his book and findings.

[panoma1]

From a personal point of view I enjoy learning about the history of British guns and gun making, I think a book on A&D would be of small but worldwide interest!.................Would I buy it? Depends on content and the quality of the book, just a thought, has your mate looked into publishing it privately if he can't get a publishing company interested?

[TDS]

I think your target would be the baby boomers , most who have grown up with side by sides

Unfortunately , due to age ,illness , and death this market is shrinking

Younger generations are more semi auto and plastic furniture so will be of limited interest

I would think more interest in the USA

How did Tony Treadwell (deceased) publish his book on shotgun restoration ?.. I believe this was in limited runs

You could ask the same question on the Doublegun BBS

[McSpredder]

I am wondering whether this book is mainly about the guns, or mainly about the people.

 

Millions of shooters use guns based on the A&D design and a substantial number might be interested to read about the original design, improvements and modifications, manufacturing methods, other gunmakers who used the design under licence, companies who circumvented the patent, developments after the patents expired, etc, etc. Of course, a lot of that information is already available in other books.

 

A book about the Anson and Deeley families might appeal to people who are in some way related to them, or to anybody studying the rise and fall of the Birmingham gun trade. I suspect this side of the story is less well known, and but perhaps not of much interest to the average shooting person.

 

Expensive books are often bought by (or for) dreamers. My gut feeling is that any book about A&D would have to be quite modestly-priced. Lots of people dream of owning a Purdey/Boss/Holland with beautiful flowing lines, lavish engraving and an intricate mechanism, and might spend £50 on a "coffee-table" book about them, even if they have no hope of affording one. But anybody with a spare £50 and an interest in A&D boxlocks can go out and buy a usable example of the real thing.

 

Self-publish, print-on-demand might be worth considering. Start-up costs are quite low if the author is able to lay out the text and illustrations and prepare his own PDF file ready for printing. Professionals in the printing industry will produce a much more attractive looking book than most amateurs could hope to achieve, and that would be important if selling an expensive book in shops or at game fairs. But somebody who is looking for facts about the gunmaking technology or the family history may be happy with a more amateurish book, if the price is right.