Would anyone have a copy of this book for sale ?Please email me at wbyman@frontiernet.net

Safaripress.com

$60.00

quote:

Originally posted by DC300:
Safaripress.com $60.00

Currently out of print, but Safari Press says a reprint will be available fall 2006:
http://www.safaripress.com/product.php?productid=6116
I suspect wbyman is looking for a copy sooner.

I heard the rumor that Ian made "no money" on his book. Don't know if that is true or "how" true. Still, I wonder about the royalties from a reprint!

I'll sell mine for $300 and send half to Ian.

I wonder what his royalties might be from Buzz's video.





It would be great to get Ian, Richard, and Sten to join the arguments here about doubles versus bolts!

wbyman,

Email sent.

Wybman, Search on Abe books under Safari Press. They sell a lot of used Safari press books. I bought a used limited addition of his book there.

Bill Stewart,

I will make you a counter-offer.

I will pay $300 to Ian Nyschens, and I will pay you $60 for the book if you will also pay $300 to Ian Nyschens. Our respective $300 payments will be sent to a 3rd party intermediary who will deliver them to Mr. Nyschens to supplement his retirement income.

Is this not a better deal for Mr. Nyschens?

Please indicate your acceptance or rejection of this counter-offer in a new post below.

Yes Bill, Ian was a bit bitter and at the time was trying to negotiate something better on his new book, which I have not heard anything of recently. Ian is the real deal.

Ian's new book is finished. I have read the draft. Better in many ways than months of the sun ( although to be fair, if the 30% of that book that was "edited" by Safari pres were put back...)

Ian is looking for a way to publish himself.

The interview with Nyschens is almost worth the cost the Buzz Charlton elephant hunting video that recently came on the market. Sitting around an African campfire with him hearing his tales and adventures would be one of the dreams of this hunter.

Ludo Wurfbain, of Safari Press, once offered me a book contract.

I paid George Haas, then an editor at Outdoor Life, US $600 to look at the contract because George had already published about six books and knew the publishing business and its pitfalls.

He advised me not to sign the contract and he gave me many good reasons why not to do so I did not.

Then Ludo offered me $500 to do two articles for his African Hunter 2 Book. I wrote them and got no feedback and waited for three years for the money but no money ever came.

Finally I got another lower offer for the same photos from both stories and the copy from one for even less money.

Its the old freelancer shuffle. Pissing into the wind. You do alot of work on speculation. Once again I did not sign up.


VBR,


Ted Gorsline

If Ian's new book is better than "Months in the Sun" it must be fantastic. His first book was really exceptionally well written, his narratives and descriptive detail were wonderful. I am sad to hear he did not do well with it.

I think part of the problem with so many of these new books is safari press. They market great books that should sell very well, but at such exhorbitant prices that most people are put off buying them. I know I am.

I enjoyed Ian's book more than most but man it's drenched with controversy. A poacher by his own admittance and I was a bit taken back by his accounts of killing the witch (judge, jury and executioner.) Still you have to admire him going after the worlds most powerful animal with guns-a-blazing.

My signed copy was given to me by a friend, I was once offered $130.00 for it and I still have it. I agree part of the problem may very well be Safari Press. I'd like to have Boddington "Search for the Spiral Horn" but I'm not giving $450.00 for it!

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
Ian's new book is finished. I have read the draft. Better in many ways than months of the sun ( although to be fair, if the 30% of that book that was "edited" by Safari pres were put back...)

Ian is looking for a way to publish himself.

Why not Afrcian Hunting publishing it? Could self-publish but have to have the upfront money!

The number of living authors who have made any real money from writing African hunting books must be extremely small.

By "real money," I mean enough income from writing to cover the time and energy spent writing, as well as the time and energy thereby diverted from other pursuits that actually could have generated "real money."

Boddington seems to do well enough at the trade, but who really knows besides him and his accountant? And who else can be even a close second? Maybe Sanchez-Ariño? Anyone else?

And not to speak ill of the dead, but TR, Ruark and Hemingway were well-established, quite famous authors (and celebrities, as well) before their best-selling African hunting books came out. IMO, it is doubtful whether those books alone would have brought them much income or fame.

Let's not forget that, these days, even the most popular books on African hunting rarely exceed a first printing of a pitifully small number of copies. After deducting the publisher's share of the proceeds, it's small wonder then, that the financial return from authoring African hunting books is short money, as a rule.

How many of us confirmed Africaficionados are there, anyway?

Amateur authors often have grandiose ideas of what they should be paid. Safari Press and Trophy Room books have similar contracts. I assume other publishers of hunting books are not much different. Basically, the author gets 10% of the retail sales, which means he will receive a total of only $12,500 for a $125 book at sellout. Perhaps that's what Ian meant when he complained of "making nothing."

Boddington and others of us who write for a living make money by volume. Craig cranks out at least one book and perhaps 25-30 magazine articles a year... a single book rarely makes "real" money for the author. It will have to go into three or four printings to make "real" money, and few do.

His critics can say what you want about Craig, but no hunting/gun writer living or dead has published as many words as he has.

Authors who are good promoters can make more money by self publishing, but few of us are willing to take on sales and distribution chores.

There apparently are a good number of Africaficionados, or publishers would not be buying so many memoirs of guys like Ian and the international trophy hunters who pay me to help them with their autobiographies.

Bill Quimby

I have had a question about Nyschens since I read Sanchez-Arino's book "Elephant Hunters, Men of Legend."

In the book he discounts authors who have written recent books in which they "boast of having been notorious elephant poachers." Sanchez-Arino says that the controls and regulations in place from 1945 on would have made commercial poaching impossible, at least for a white man. He says that anyone around his age (76) or younger could not have done such things.

He doesn't mention names and I don't know if he was referring to Nyschens (and I don't know how old Nyschens is), but that is who came to my mind when I read his comments. Any thoughts?

Doug

Hell, guys are still poaching for ivory. Not sure why there would be a 1945 cut-off date.

Dear Dougaboy,

Correct me if I figures are far off or wrong because I could be but I wondered the same thing about the number of elephants Tony Sanchez has shot.

I read his first book, which I think was published by Rowland Ward, and in it he says he had shot about 800 elephants. More recently the figure was something like 1,500. I wondered how in this day and age one can legally shoot 700 elephants in maybe 10 or 15 years without doing any culling.

He did not say that there was no poaching (and said pointedly that natives poached many elephants), but rather that poaching a large number of elephants by a white man would not have been possible because anyone doing that would have been caught. His contention is that by 1945 enough enforcement measures were put into place to have stopped such large scale poaching.

As I said before, I have no idea, but I do find his comments provocative.

Doug

There is still alot of elephant poaching in the Congo and it is picking up in Tanzania. I know a few years back an African chap in the Congo crashed a large aircraft and killed himself because it was overloaded with Ivory. But he may have been a buyer linked to many smal scale poachers and not a poacher himself. I also heard a rumor that there was a white chap in the Congo who poached more than 1,000 elephants during Mbuto's day but again that is just a rumour.

Ted,

I have the same thoughts whenever I see those kind of numbers. In this book he claims 1270 elphant killed in around 50 years in Africa. That's over 20 per year. I am always a skeptic, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the stories.

Doug

Dear Dougaboy,

I think Sanchez Arino must be comparing apples to oranges. I suspect he means he was the PH and the clients shot these latter day elephants wheras he may have shot many of the early elephants as did the the ivory hunters who shot all their own elephants.

If you take the date of his first book wherin he talks about shooting 800 plus elephants and subtract it from the publishing date of the book wherin he says he shot 1270 then divide the number of elephants by the number of years you get a hell of alot of elephant hunts per year even if they are paid for and shot by the clients.

If he paid for these latter day elephant hunts and shot the elephants himself then he must have begun his PH career as a very rich man and spent an absolute fortune on elephnat hunting.

Several Long stories in 1 post.

When the zambezi valley below Kariba dam wall was been cleared of “natives†in 1959/1960 to create the Hurungwe controlled hunting reserve and mana pools national park there occured a unique clash- a parks officer- Morgan Thomas was killed in a contact with Arab slavers. - thats right a slave caravan operating in 1960!

If you could collect slaves how much easier would it have been to poach? My father ran a mica mine in what is now Chewore safari area and held a Professional Ivory Hunters License during the late 40's and up till 1957. He knew Ian then- and when he was recruited into parks.

When “months of the son†first came out, Ian wandered into my office at parks and threw the book on my desk. “Read it, You’ll learn something†he said. I looked at him and asked- “Do you know who I am?†Ian looked at me for a long while and then said- “you’re Jock’s youngest!†“Yupâ€
“Well. Read it anyway, it will entertain you!â€

A couple of Ian’s stories might be stretched but nothing like a lion hunt I did with a Spanish client and his booking agent.The client didn’t speak English and I don’t speak a word of Spanish ... so the agent came along as interpreter-cum-host. We did a walk and stalk, and shot a magnificent lion about 8 am. During the photo’ session the agent had one photo taken of himself ( no client or PH) with the lion. That photo appears in the book as though the agent shot it himself....

I have a good idea who the “real deal†is.

Dear Ganyana,

It would be interesting to find out how much in royalties Ian made for his book. I'll bet its less than $1,000 for a lifetime of taking notes and 6 months of writing.

There is a Ph in Tanzania now who is actually taking creative writing courses in South Africa so that when his hunting book comes out it will be well written but given the publisher he is dealing with I'll bet that in terms of income he is just pissing in the wind.

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Gorsline:
Dear Dougaboy,

I think Sanchez Arino must be comparing apples to oranges. I suspect he means he was the PH and the clients shot these latter day elephants wheras he may have shot many of the early elephants as did the the ivory hunters who shot all their own elephants.

If you take the date of his first book wherin he talks about shooting 800 plus elephants and subtract it from the publishing date of the book wherin he says he shot 1270 then divide the number of elephants by the number of years you get a hell of alot of elephant hunts per year even if they are paid for and shot by the clients.

If he paid for these latter day elephant hunts and shot the elephants himself then he must have begun his PH career as a very rich man and spent an absolute fortune on elephnat hunting.

Ted,
I have been wondering when someone would have the "balls" to bring this up. I first crossed paths with Tony in the Sudan many, many "moons" ago. Don't get me wrong, I liked Tony and enjoy reading him, but I do have to question the numbers as "sugar disolving in my tea".
Furthermore, there are others that the "nay sayers" could pick on as well. John Taylor (but they would probably go after him on other rumors!), maybe Harry Manners. Just because you have a permit for "X" number of elephant a year doesn't make you legal it you "pawn" off a set of tusks here and there to a trader and keep hunting. You may have a legal permit left, but was it morally right? As I have told my friends and family, "judge me, but judge me by the time and the place, not by what is "politically correct" today.

Hunters are like fisherman. We all stretch the truth to make the story better. Although, I am the one exception to that rule.

465H&H

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
thats right a slave caravan operating in 1960!

The BBC reported a large slaving raid in the horn of Africa in 2001 or there abouts. I don't recall the details, just remember thinking that the story could have be written a hundred years ago.

Dean

"It would be interesting to find out how much in royalties Ian made for his book. I'll bet its less than $1,000 for a lifetime of taking notes and 6 months of writing."

You'd lose, Ted. You can calculate his income yourself. I would bet that he was paid the standard $1,000 advance against royalties that Safari Press and other hunting-book publishers pay all authors upon signing their publishing contracts for 1,000-copy limited edition books, Ian then would have received 10% of retail sales. When the 1,000 copies priced at X$ each sell out, he will have received 10% of X$ x 1,000. It can take two to five years to sell out.

All publishers are notorious about failing to promote their books after the initial release. Safari Press is no different. However, it does send its catalogs to a huge mailing list and it does a good job of distributing its products to various booksellers. An author needs to do some self promotion to keep sales moving, however.

Some authors, Boddington included, make additional money on their books by buying quantities from their publishers at 40% off retail and selling them at personal appearances and on their own websites.

Getting rich from one or two hunting-memoirs books just won't happen.

Bill Quimby

You could be right Bill but I suspect the offer you got, as somebody who knows the business, was not the same as some of these guys who live at the far end of the earth.

quote:

Originally posted by billrquimby:
An author needs to do some self promotion to keep sales moving, however.

Okay, here it is.

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2711043/m/805103964

Bill: Good start. If I were trying to sell my books, though, I'd write every SCI chapter president listed in Safari Magazine within three states of my home and offer to be the guest speaker at a chapter meeting in exchange for room and board. I'd show up with slides and a bunch of books to sell. Even with gasoline prices as they are, you should do OK. I'd even consider a booth a regional sportsman's show.


Ted: I get paid by the people I write for/about, but I have seen the contracts from Trophy Room Books and Safari Press that they signed: $1,000 advance up front on signing, plus 10% of retail sales. If Ian's book sold for $60 each and its 1,000 copies sold out, he was paid $6,000 total. That's not a lot of money, and it would have been paid out in drips and dribbles over several years, so I can understand him saying he was paid "nothing." If Safari Press or he puts out a "trade" edition, that should help increase his revenue with virtually no effort.

I won't work for royalties on limited run books. I get my money up front before the subject sends the manuscript to a publisher. I've done ten 100,000-word-plus books since retiring from SCI in 1999, and have averaged about 300 hours writing per each. This includes corrections and rewrites, but does not count travel and ten days or so spent interviewing the subjects at their homes and offices, or telephone calls and trips to the post office, of course. I write from 4 am to 7am three or four days a week. I won't get rich, but it's something for an old fart like me to do in his retirement.

Bill

Dear Bill,

You offer up good helpful information and a well organized and disciplined way of doing it.

I think what is happening with some others is they are getting no advance, losing all rights to all their photographs in perpetuity, getting tied up for say five books in a row with no chance to change publishers, and having stories from their books, and their photos, recycled in magazines for nothing or for peanuts.

"I think what is happening with some others is they are getting no advance, losing all rights to all their photographs in perpetuity, getting tied up for say five books in a row with no chance to change publishers, and having stories from their books, and their photos, recycled in magazines for nothing or for peanuts."

Ted:

If this is happening the authors have only themselves to blame. A contract proposal is just that ... a basis for beginning negotiations between an author and a publisher.

I've not heard of anyone "getting tied up for say five books in a row with no chance to change publishers," but I suppose it happens. As an author I'd have to get one hell of a huge advance before I'd sign anything like that.

After saying that I remember that years ago I was negotiating with a publisher of high-quantity "how to" soft cover books to write three books on fishing . Before we got to the contract stage, the company sold out to a larger company and the acquisitions guy I was working with was let go. I would have been very happy to have been "tied up" with those three books. At no point was there any discussion on exclusive rights to my work ... we talked only about those three books and their content and timeframe for producing them.

All of the contracts for hunting memoirs I've seen have been for just one book, and the authors retained the copyrights. Some gave the publisher the right of first refusal on a second book, though.

As for losing photos, that happened with the articles I sold to Petersen's Hunting Magazine when I did some freelancing in the 1980s, but I've not heard of it happening with photos used in books. I suppose it happens, too, but again the time to negotiate is before you sign a contract.

I have a contract I ask my clients to sign. Most have signed after a cursory glance, but a couple have gone over every line with me. I've dropped some points and they've added some. It's called negotiating.

Bill

Ted and Bill

Ian had twomajor problems with getting paid- One was the royalty cheques took an average of 4 months to get here- if you then want to get them to a bank outside the country you have to jump arround and find somebody who will take them out and bank them for you - before they go stale.

If you bank them locally- you get 1/3 to 1/4 of the actual value - less the US$10 than the banks here charge for accepting a cheque. Ian actually managed to get a US$2500 in his hand from two complete printing runs of the book ( the first 1000 sold out quickly and the second run of 3000 has been out of stock for a while.)

Ian did buy a pile of books and sell them himself- probably got more money from that than from Ludo- which is also why he's sore- as the book is now out of print.

Dear Ganyana and Bill,

So Ian made about US $650 per 1,000 books which is about what I figured he would but he sold alot more books than I thought he would.

Bill is right about negotiating before you sign but most Phs don't know what words in the contract like "first rights" mean and the cost of hiring a lawyer to explain it to you and to explain the implications is far more than you will ever make out of the book.

What is needed is a African hunting writers union and a standard contract. Promote it throught the various Ph organizations like PHASA and TPHA. Maybe the Outdoor Writers of America already has one. Then if Ludo doesn't like it he can write his own books.

Addenda,


Bill,

I just talked to Gerd von Harling on the phone. He is the best known hunting writer in Germany and excellent in the German langauge. He has written about 30 books. I told him he should talk to you as you had alot of good ideas and he said he will give you a call next week.

I'll have to give credit to the guys that can crank out article after article and book after book and still make it sound interesting.

Besides all the guys that "never met a gun or cartridge they didn't like," some transparently take the most insignifcant encounter in the bush and write 10,000 words on how it changed their lives forever, barely escaped with their skin still intact, or some such nonsense.

But if they have to make a living out of it, anything goes?

Ian was probably under the "impression" he was going to get rich. But, what the hell, he is more famous and more recognized now then he ever would have been without the book. And US$1000 in Zim goes a hell of a lot further than it does in the US!

It is not such a bad legacy since your kids will just spend any inheritance on new video equipment or another damn gun.

If you take the 4,000 books Ian sold and multiply it by the $70 selling price of Ian's book then Safari Press got US$ 280,000 from Ian's book alone. Ian apparently got US$ 2,500.

The publisher has lots of costs like office space, hiring copy editors, and publishing and distributing catalogues. And the book might not sell at all and then they would have a loss.

But writing is the essential and hard part of the book. He got less than 1 per cent of the gross. That's why alot of people are going to self publishing but then of course self publishers have to develop the distribution and that is the hard part.

If you don't do a good job there you end up with a garage full of books.

The guy who figured this whole game out quickly is Mark Sullivan. I am sure he first went hat in hand to magazine and book publishers with hunting stories, listened to what they had to offer, and then sat there with his calculator and said to himself,"this doesn't add up."

So he went Hollywood. People have enjoyed watching dangerous confrontations between men and animals since the days of the Roman Arena. He focused on what people want to see and now he can sell his stuff without having to go through regular publishing houses and film distribution channels.

But he must have had the money to buy the equipment and hire the camereman to begin with and its unlikely any Zimbabwe Ph has that.