13-12-2016, 12:56 PM
Thanks,
I did make a living of it for a number of years!
I tired of the electronics "rat race" in late 1992, at the age of 48 and took voluntary redundancy after 31 years at sea. I took up ship model building and writing, full time. The maritime auctions in London brought mixed results, but it evened out. The one attached, HMS Carcass, only took 33 hours to build, and sold for £780! Christie's auction house asked me to build something for their "Nelson" sale, so I built his 2nd ship, HMS Carcass, shown jammed in the ice with young midshipman Nelson aboard. They did not consider it suitable for the Nelson sale, 
claiming that collectors were only interested in the large ships in which he sailed - Victory - Agamemnon - Captain etc. Anyway, they just put it in a normal maritime sale with the astonishing result above! 
My book and other manuscripts were rejected by just about all the mainstream publishers, who assured me that "no-one is interested in boats these days!" I then took to the much sneered-at "vanity publishing," where I paid for the books to be produced as I wished them to be. This is supposed to be the last resort for those who are simply not good enough to get accepted by a conventional publisher. My last three books have now each been reprinted about a dozen times each, and have sold like hot cakes and currently, only 5 copies remain of one book, whilst the other three are sold out! I ran a monthly column in a shipping journal for ten years, before I tired of it! Wrote for Conway Maritime press quarterly journal for a number of years before they discontinued it. Also have a number of e-books on the go that bring in a steady income (today's sales just over £10). I stopped taking private commissions when I was old enough to take my pension. I build for pleasure only now, and don't haggle over the price. But this success is because I keep well clear of the ever-popular subjects such as Royal Navy, Napoleonic wars. I build, and write about the obscure, and semi-obscure. My radio construction also follows the same non-conventional path as some of you will have seen. My very eccentricity has been my success! 
Bob
I did make a living of it for a number of years!
I tired of the electronics "rat race" in late 1992, at the age of 48 and took voluntary redundancy after 31 years at sea. I took up ship model building and writing, full time. The maritime auctions in London brought mixed results, but it evened out. The one attached, HMS Carcass, only took 33 hours to build, and sold for £780! Christie's auction house asked me to build something for their "Nelson" sale, so I built his 2nd ship, HMS Carcass, shown jammed in the ice with young midshipman Nelson aboard. They did not consider it suitable for the Nelson sale, claiming that collectors were only interested in the large ships in which he sailed - Victory - Agamemnon - Captain etc. Anyway, they just put it in a normal maritime sale with the astonishing result above! My book and other manuscripts were rejected by just about all the mainstream publishers, who assured me that "no-one is interested in boats these days!" I then took to the much sneered-at "vanity publishing," where I paid for the books to be produced as I wished them to be. This is supposed to be the last resort for those who are simply not good enough to get accepted by a conventional publisher. My last three books have now each been reprinted about a dozen times each, and have sold like hot cakes and currently, only 5 copies remain of one book, whilst the other three are sold out! I ran a monthly column in a shipping journal for ten years, before I tired of it! Wrote for Conway Maritime press quarterly journal for a number of years before they discontinued it. Also have a number of e-books on the go that bring in a steady income (today's sales just over £10). I stopped taking private commissions when I was old enough to take my pension. I build for pleasure only now, and don't haggle over the price. But this success is because I keep well clear of the ever-popular subjects such as Royal Navy, Napoleonic wars. I build, and write about the obscure, and semi-obscure. My radio construction also follows the same non-conventional path as some of you will have seen. My very eccentricity has been my success! Bob
