Does anyone know what the guidelines are for submitting articles to NScale Railroading or N Scale Magazine? I am working on building a modern N-scale city water tower (supplies water pressure to entire community). No one makes one, I have a great idea for how to do it, and am considering writing it up as an article. Anyone know what is required? Jeff Augsburg & Concord R.R. (a fictional shortline in Central Illinois) http://www.pegnsean.net/~revnjeff
Jeff, Several things will need to be attained before the mags will look at the article. Primarily the images are what they will be pedantic about. Essentially, the images they will want of the model and prototype should be; - colour slides, - B&W prints, - digital images of 1600x1200 pixels at 300dpi or greater in TIFF format. Colour prints are not encouraged. To paraphrase Randy Lee of Model Railroading in a reply to me regarding an article submission - "As far as the text is concerned, put everything into the article you wish you knew before you did the project. Don't try to write to fill a particular space, just write to cover the subject. And don't worry about your writing, I can fix that, but I can do nothing about your modeling, and very little about your photography (both of these look pretty good though from what I've seen). Of course, I still need to see the finished results after painting, decaling and weathering. Also, please provide prototype photos of your subject and/or references to where readers can find prototype photos." I supplied 1600x1200 pixel digital photos at low compression .jpg and .tif for the above. Kirk Reddie of N Scale Railroading is open to articles from new contributors that are interesting (ie not been done before in N) and are a couple of pages long. As for N Scale, I have had one article published in the magazine back in 97 but since then I believe things have gone a bit haywire at Hundman Publishing. Best idea is to contact them directly and ask what they require and work from there. for starters - Kirk Reddie - NScaleRailroadN@aol.com Randy Lee - mrgmag@email.msn.com Have at it!
About ten months ago a member of Hundman's (N-Scale Magazine) advisory board saw my web site and emailed me that I REALLY needed to submit articles to them. What I sent (on a CDR) were six articles as Word documents largely taken from the site but rewritten, and a hundred or so .jpgs I shot specifically for the articles. I shot with maximum resoloution on my Sony FD88, (1.3 megapixels) and avoided heavy processing and compression. I separated the article-specific photos and articles into their own directory, and provided a PowerPoint slide show with all the photos. They have to date published three of the six (in the last three issues), and I'm pleased with the way the finished articles look. I subsequently learned they would prefer TIF files, which I could have done had I known - there was a lot of room on the CDR. Your water tower project sounds like a winner, in fact Oakville could use one!
Thanks for the encouragement and the information. What seems like it's going to hold me back might be the photography. I don't own a fancy 35 mm camera. And a digital camera is out of the question. I guess I will need to find someone in town who could take some pictures for me. But that's going to be hard, to get step by step photos, unless I get materials for each step. Maybe what I will end up doing is just taking regular print photos, write an article and stick it on my web page. I beleive a water tower is necessary for realistic look of a town. After all, how many towns have one? (Answer, almost ALL of them) My project is also one of those inexpensive ones. How's about a total project cost (assuming you have paint and glue and an Xacto knife already) of less than $5? Jeff
Jeff, I'm certain there is someone you know that has access to either type of camera. I found the water towers no end of help whilst travelling around the States. It would definitely make a great article in itself, and to have it for $5 would be icing on the cake. Gary.
I, for one, hope you publish it on the web. I would love to build a water tower for my future town and would not want to wait 6 - 9 months to see it in a magazine. Maybe you could do both as Jim has done. I look forward to seeing what you have done.
Most magazines will ask if an article has been published anywhere previously, including the web. Many only want fresh material and will skip even the best articles if they've seen the light of day anywhere else. I can't say if our hobby magazines are the same way, but I've been published in some trade magazines, and that is their policy. Anybody can publish on the web, only notable work gets published in print. I'd say save the web publishing until after the rejection letters (Hopefully you won't get one!)
After checking into having someone take some pictures for me (iow, HIRE a photographer) or purchase slide film myself (can't find it here in town), I have decided to give up the idea of publishing it in a RR magazine. I am working on writing up a How-To article and I will post it on my web page. This way, I can take simple print pictures, scan them into my computer, write the article and share my idea with the world (or at least those few souls who have found my web page. Right now, I am in the 2nd stage of construction. Once I figure out how to hide some seams, the water tower will be ready for painting. Then, just have to letter the side of the tower, add some attenae on the top, plant it in scenry and hook up the town water supply. The residents of Augsburg are getting tired of buying bottled water, but the bottled water company has threatened to blow up the water tower. Pictures are being taken as the project continues. Thanks for the encouragement. Jeff Augsburg & Concord R.R. (a fictional shortline in Central Illinois) http://www.pegnsean.net/~revnjeff
Jeff, it needs not be slide film or professionally taken - B&W is just fine. Six B&W photos tasken with my Olympus OM-10 and a printed Word document, including a couple of drawings, was all my first article was. N Scale published it (Aug/Sept 97). Gary.
