An Illustrated History (the new one!)

[TLF799R]

Hi All (By the way Claude, yes there are ladies on the forum, amazing though it may seem!),

Without meaning to sound all doom and gloom, having gone through the process of writing (a truly fabulous, LOL) book, then the painful process of having it professionally edited I have to agree with George. Do not underestimate the difficulty of making such a book flow.

My editor moved sections round, put ruthless red lines through (very interesting) bits of waffle and generally savaged my beloved manuscript. The end result though is a really tightly written book which (dare I say it)got excellent reviews. Without her it wouldn't have been the professional product it became.

If you use multiple authors you are in great danger of publishing a bundle of articles all expressing different opinions which, although all valid, are of no real help to anyone.

Already you can see the different views on what such a book should be - from workshop manual to a history through the eyes of Tony Crook.

It seems to me that we have loads of latent talent here dying to write Bristol material so why on earth is the BOC bulletin editor stuggling to get contributions? We've already got an excellent outlet in a quality format for these articles let's get some of these ideas on paper and published in the bulletin at no cost to anyone!

Or have I missed some unspoken barrier here...?

Philippa

[Claude]

Originally Posted by TLF799R

It seems to me that we have loads of latent talent here dying to write Bristol material so why on earth is the BOC bulletin editor stuggling to get contributions? We've already got an excellent outlet in a quality format for these articles let's get some of these ideas on paper and published in the bulletin at no cost to anyone!

Or have I missed some unspoken barrier here...?

Philippa

Hello Phillippa,

I would not see an unspoken barrier but a different purpose, a different process, and a different membership. The BOC is a British Club that welcomes overseas members, but eventually they grow tired of renewing a membership and drift away. However, Kevin's forum keeps them involved, it is entertaining, is international because the internet conquors the tyranny of distance, and it lacks the politics that clubs inherently take on.

If the BOC forum wishes to publish the on-going work, wonderful. But if the BOC becomes the official body, then we have risk, risk assessment, politics and a host of distractions from something singular in its goal. Better to set up something independent, but keep it open-source, meaning the Club may print whatever they want from the book process.

Cheers
Claude

[Kevin H]

Claude,

That's a great framework to get things going.

Should we spread the word a bit more widely, because I am sure that there are plenty of other Bristol owners (other than the 68 members who have joined BristolCars.info to date) who may be able and willing to contribute, but do not yet know about the existence of this site and therefore are oblivious to this discussion.

Regards,
Kevin

[Nick Challacombe]

I thought that was precisely what you did not what!

"A creaky didatic prose complete with inaccuracies"

At least he was passionate about Bristol Cars.

Peg Leg

[Kevin Howard]

Originally Posted by Nick Challacombe

I thought that was precisely what you did not what!

"A creaky didatic prose complete with inaccuracies"

At least he was passionate about Bristol Cars.

Peg Leg

It will have the elements that interest me - the Buyers Guide, "how to service and fix" and "where to get". I'll just ignore the potentially non factual stuff

However, Claude may be right, newcomers to the marque may need a bit of that to get them hooked. After all it was only after reading A Private Car that I had the urge to buy a Bristol.

Kevin

[Nick Challacombe]

For my half penny's worth, it would be fantastic if a book were written on
the Bristol
Car Company through the eyes of Tony Crook.
This I believe would be a totally different book to that proposed as I think
that there is
so much myth behind the Marque that he could if he wanted settle once and
for all.
Even so if that were not possible his account would be very interesting,
even his life story.

That would not cut across any other publication.

Phillipa, I wondered when you would put you Zagato head above the parapet
after the
Gentleman remark, also one of my local member Gwyneth Hogger with her 401
would
have bridled at that one.

Peg Leg
Nick 407 6028

[Kevin Howard]

Off topic posts (including one of my own) which discuss the site functionality have been moved to this thread http://www.bristolcars.info/forums/showthread.php?t=81 in the "About This Site" forum.