mathman,
More than once, I explained to our doofus Campfire member who kept insisting that print was dead, that instead print was very much alive--and provided statistics from the publishing industry. But he insisted, apparently because of being an "example of one," who no longer bought any print magazines. Instead he only read the Campfire--not a bad deal at all, but not the big picture. (Cannot remember his Campfire handle, but he hasn't posted in a while, so suspect he has gone to the Big Chat-Room in the Sky.)
One thing I tried to explain to him is that while print is no longer the biggie anymore, it's still very much part of the mix. Some magazines have INCREASED paper circulation after they started offering an Internet version--which is a good way to promote any magazine.
Have been "gun writing" for the Internet since the late 1990s, partly because paper magazines asked me to write for their website. But one thing I noticed is that Internet writing pays less than paper magazines, even now. This does not just apply to "gun writing," but across the industry.
Have also never relied on just "gun writing" to make a living writing. Instead have written for a wide variety of magazines, including Sports Illustrated (where I sold my first article, on flyfishing in the winter, over 40 years ago), and National Geographic. Neither of those magazines is going out of print, and neither are many others. Though SI no longer runs fishing and hunting articles, an apparently depends more in bikinis.
Since tax time is coming up, Eileen and I have been analyzing our income figures. Just about a third of our income comes from the print magazines I write for, but a little more comes from the Internet--IF you count all our book sales as Internet. But they're all print books, only ordered off the Internet. In fact, we decided a while back to do only print books, because e-books do not deal well with data--which is a BIG part of my gun books and Eileen's game cookbooks. (Which I do "shamelessly promote" on the Campfire. That's part of the deal I have with Rick Bin--but I also am the first taste-tester of Eileen's recipes, which I have now been eating for close to 30 years. Her very first cookbook sold over 100,000 copies, which ain't bad.)
If print is dying, it's very odd that each year for the past decade, our book sales have increased.
