I am about to publish a book about bridge. However, somebody told me
that nobody plays bridge any more.

Is that true? Is bridge play up or down?

Would it be a waste of my time and money to publish a book about
bridge?

Sam Sloan

"Sam Sloan" wrote in message
...
I am about to publish a book about bridge. However, somebody told me
that nobody plays bridge any more.

Is that true? Is bridge play up or down?

Would it be a waste of my time and money to publish a book about
bridge?

Sam Sloan

What would you write about it?

Raija

In article ,
Sam Sloan writes:
I am about to publish a book about bridge. However, somebody told me
that nobody plays bridge any more.

Is that true? Is bridge play up or down?

Would it be a waste of my time and money to publish a book about
bridge?

There is still a reasonable market for bridge books, but you generally
need your name to be "known" for your book to sell well. I suspect that
a book by an unknown has little hope of substantial sales, however good
it might be. One possibility would be to approach a top player/writer.
If you can convince them of your book's merit, then they might agree to
be named as co-author (though of course they would want a share of the
profits).

Why have you crossposted to a couple of chess groups? Few chess players
are very knowledgeable about bridge (and vice versa)?
--
John Hall
"Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin"
attributed to Sir Josiah Stamp,
a former director of the Bank of England

"John Hall" wrote in message
...

Why have you crossposted to a couple of chess groups? Few chess
players
are very knowledgeable about bridge (and vice versa)?

Because he's a well-known Usenet troll who should be ignored. (He's
been in my killfile many years.)

Steven

I cannot say anything about the success of bridge (or even chess)
books; my one attempt to publish a chess book being unsuccessful
(though t did lead to my chess history column). However, ifyou want a
somewhat interesting subject that combines chess and bridge, I might
suggest writing about the Hymes family. They seem to have had
extraordinary natural talent at chess and bridge. Edward Hymes was a
remarkably strong chess player of the early 20th century; he played
one of the top 5 boards for the US in cable matches vs Great Britain
for a number of years. He never lost a game in these matches, despite
getting almost no practice during the year. He first appeared in the
chess world leading the Columbia U team to victory in some of the
first intercollege matches, and seems to have been remarkably strong
for a young player who did little training. His brothers were strong
chess players as well, though not in Edward's league.

The next generation of the Hymes family had one of the top bridge
players in the country. At some point an IQ test of top bridge players
was given at a major tournament; Hymes seems to have scored far above
all others. Some still live in the NY area, and you might be able to
get extra information from them.

There are some interesting personal stories as well, IIRC; without
checking my notes, I believe that there were ties to the Bloomingdales
(known for their stores) through marriage.

I was going to write an article about them sometime, but if you really
have knowledge of bridge as well as chess, and you use your often
misdirected energy on such a project, I think you could do a good job
with it; I would be happy to share my notes on the subject.

Jerry Spinrad

On Feb 24, 11:13*am, (Sam Sloan) wrote:
I am about to publish a book about bridge. However, somebody told me
that nobody plays bridge any more.

Is that true? Is bridge play up or down?

Would it be a waste of my time and money to publish a book about
bridge?

Sam Sloan

if you want to publish something about bridge in usa, you might mention
brattleboro

we are not just famous for kipling
but for the first bibles printed in usa
for first banning slavery, but also

as for bridge, [research this jerry] who lived here and introduced contract
bridge to usa?

5 nobels from Windham county Vermont - which is something eh? in one of the
poorest states and the poorest county thereof

but hey! uscf chose whatsitville TN, home of methathetamines

heuch! any book on bridge should look here

phil innes

wrote in message
...
I cannot say anything about the success of bridge (or even chess)
books; my one attempt to publish a chess book being unsuccessful
(though t did lead to my chess history column). However, ifyou want a
somewhat interesting subject that combines chess and bridge, I might
suggest writing about the Hymes family. They seem to have had
extraordinary natural talent at chess and bridge. Edward Hymes was a
remarkably strong chess player of the early 20th century; he played
one of the top 5 boards for the US in cable matches vs Great Britain
for a number of years. He never lost a game in these matches, despite
getting almost no practice during the year. He first appeared in the
chess world leading the Columbia U team to victory in some of the
first intercollege matches, and seems to have been remarkably strong
for a young player who did little training. His brothers were strong
chess players as well, though not in Edward's league.

The next generation of the Hymes family had one of the top bridge
players in the country. At some point an IQ test of top bridge players
was given at a major tournament; Hymes seems to have scored far above
all others. Some still live in the NY area, and you might be able to
get extra information from them.

There are some interesting personal stories as well, IIRC; without
checking my notes, I believe that there were ties to the Bloomingdales
(known for their stores) through marriage.

I was going to write an article about them sometime, but if you really
have knowledge of bridge as well as chess, and you use your often
misdirected energy on such a project, I think you could do a good job
with it; I would be happy to share my notes on the subject.

Jerry Spinrad

On Feb 24, 11:13 am, (Sam Sloan) wrote:
I am about to publish a book about bridge. However, somebody told me
that nobody plays bridge any more.

Is that true? Is bridge play up or down?

Would it be a waste of my time and money to publish a book about
bridge?

Sam Sloan

On Feb 24, 9:13*am, (Sam Sloan) wrote:
I am about to publish a book about bridge. However, somebody told me
that nobody plays bridge any more.

Is that true? Is bridge play up or down?

Would it be a waste of my time and money to publish a book about
bridge?

Sam Sloan

Having published about eight bridge books, you should not expect to
make big bucks out of it.
If you don't enjoy publishing bridge books then you might want to do
something else.

Eric Leong

Sam Sloan wrote:
I am about to publish a book about bridge. However, somebody told me
that nobody plays bridge any more.

Is that true? Is bridge play up or down?

Would it be a waste of my time and money to publish a book about
bridge?

Sam Sloan

There is probably at least a viable market for reprints of historically
interesting out-of-copyright bridge books. The key is to give rebirth
to the historically interesting part.

You have done it with chess books, I see no reason you can't expand in
the same vein.

On Feb 24, 9:05 pm, johnny_t wrote:
Sam Sloan wrote:
I am about to publish a book about bridge. However, somebody told me
that nobody plays bridge any more.

Is that true? Is bridge play up or down?

Would it be a waste of my time and money to publish a book about
bridge?

Sam Sloan

There is probably at least a viable market for reprints of historically
interesting out-of-copyright bridge books. The key is to give rebirth
to the historically interesting part.

You have done it with chess books, I see no reason you can't expand in
the same vein.

Yes. That exactly is what I plan to do.

Personally, I do not know the difference between a heart and a spade.

Sam Sloan

samsloan wrote:
On Feb 24, 9:05 pm, johnny_t wrote:
Sam Sloan wrote:
I am about to publish a book about bridge. However, somebody told me
that nobody plays bridge any more.
Is that true? Is bridge play up or down?
Would it be a waste of my time and money to publish a book about
bridge?
Sam Sloan
There is probably at least a viable market for reprints of historically
interesting out-of-copyright bridge books. The key is to give rebirth
to the historically interesting part.

You have done it with chess books, I see no reason you can't expand in
the same vein.

Yes. That exactly is what I plan to do.

Personally, I do not know the difference between a heart and a spade.

Sam Sloan

I don't think you really need to know much, this is essentially a found
money kind of venture, and the question is whether you're finding
pennies, quarters, or dollars.

There is an opportunity/time cost for you to find, package and publish,
but it is a numbers game. You're out there at the end of the long tail
investing your time, and particular expertise of finding, publishing,
and marketing these things.

There are worse ways to make a living for sure. Whether there *is* a
living here, is an interesting question, but I suspect so.

Good luck.