Book Talk

Okay, it may not be ancient history, but on this day one year ago Joe Comm gave a book talk and slide show presentation on Rock Springs Park to the ADK Sorority Group in the Library of his alma-mater, Oak Glen High School. Read more - click here.

Thank You Fellow Time Travelers

SPEAKER — Joseph Comm, an Oak Glen High School graduate, gave a presentation on his book, Images of America: Rock Springs Park, at the April 2011 Alpha Tau Chapter meeting.

This month I challenged myself to do a blog-a-day and today marks the final day of July and my 31st post for the month. Where did the time go?

It has been a lot of fun looking for interesting and varied stories about my favorite amusement park and, this month especially, I got a lot of help from readers.

Rather than do another history story or talk about my adventures on the road, I thought for this 31st blog post I would share some insider information about the post-publication process. (Try saying that five times fast.)

About a year and a half ago, I finally worked up the nerve to ask my editor about how royalties are paid for an Images of America book. I know it’s cliché, but for me it was truly never about the money, and that’s good, because she explained that I would see approximately $1 for every book sold. That was great news for my students who were worried that I would quit teaching and become a fulltime author. “No,” I explained, “We’re not talking Harry Potter money, here.”

It is the hope of the publisher that a proposed book will sell, at the very least, all the first print copies, which today is 1,200 books. Images of America: Rock Springs Park sold very quickly and within a few months I was told it was going to a second print.

When I order a set of books from the publisher the box of 10 - 20 books is protected on top with an unfolded leftover cover of a book which didn’t quite meet its quota; like a birdcage lined with your book. Ouch! I fear seeing my cover when I open a shipment one day. RIP Nashville Broadcasting

Besides semi-annual updates from Arcadia or hearing from fans of the park who tell me they picked up a copy, there is one other way I can determine how the book is doing. And it is found in Amazon's unblinking sales rank, the 24-hour barometer of book sales.



I went my whole life without knowing about the Amazon bestsellers ranking system, but alas, it’s on my radar now and something I feel compelled to periodically check. The Amazon Bestsellers calculation is based on Amazon.com sales and is updated hourly to reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold on Amazon.com.

Timothy Fish in “How Amazon.com Sales Rank is Calculated” explains it best:

Few people understand how the Amazon list works or its relative importance in the publishing industry. Amazon's method of ranking books remains something of a black box with the fancy word algorithm used to describe it. Amazon.com does not give specific details of how they do this, but the general idea is that they base rankings on the sales within a sliding twenty-four hour period. The rankings are published on an hourly basis, but the actual rankings are updated with each sale.

For me, all this data just adds to the fun of the post-publication experience. I’m still having a blast researching, meeting new people, and giving book talk slide show presentations, not to mention posting here about Rock Springs. It is an enjoyable hobby for me and not work at all.

As soon as I think I’ve seen every postcard or picture or read every article on the park, a new piece of the puzzle is discovered or a new mystery is presented. It is my hope that readers enjoy reading about them as much as I do finding and sharing them.

Scot Campbell of Toronto, OH, sent me this delightful photo of himself and his girlfriend, Sally Hughes Porter, on the Pretzel Spook House Ride in June 1962.

I love this quote from the Queens Tribune in New York about the Images Series: "Reading any one of the series of historical captioned photo books from Arcadia Publishing is like traveling through time."

So, thank you fellow time travelers for coming along on this adventure with me!

Coming Soon: If you’re from the Tri-State Region you are probably familiar with Kennywood Park’s yellow directional arrows, but did you know that Rocks Springs Park had arrows, too?

A Real Field of Dreams

In a recent blog post I mentioned some of the odd coincidences that I’ve experienced while researching, writing, and now promoting my book about Rock Springs Park in Chester, West Virginia. In fact, last month I posted a six-part series entitled, “Rock Springs Park: My Field of Dreams,” about a recent book talk and signing event for the Wellsville Arts Club. In it, I compared my experiences with that of Kevin Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, who pursues his dream of bringing the past back to life by building a baseball field on his farm in Iowa after hearing voices. In a sense, I found myself also called upon to bring the past alive by writing a picture-history of Rock Springs Park.

On a trip to my alma-mater, Oak Glen High School, this week for another book talk, I was more than a little surprised to see a recently erected archway between the middle and high schools which reads, “Field of Dreams.” This brick archway is the dream of the Oak Glen High Class of 2011. Workers will put the finishing touches on the gateway this week. (Photo by Nancy Tullis of the East Liverpool Review)



As I was backing my Honda into a parking spot behind the high school library doors, I let out an audible, “No way! ‘Field of Dreams’? That is a sign.” Of course it is literally “a sign”, but for me it was just another in a long list of unusual coincidences that I’ve encountered while on this amusement park book quest. Moments like these lead me to think there is more behind it than simply my answer to author Toni Morrison’s call: "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." Something bigger is at work.


Toni Morrison

When I returned home and thought about that arch, shown in a rendering in the image below, I discovered this article by Nancy Tullis of the East Liverpool Review, who, coincidentally, also wrote the article about my book talk last summer in Chester. Nancy’s article dated last Monday, April 11, 2001 states, “The Hancock County Schools Board of Education will have a groundbreaking at 1 p.m. Tuesday in anticipation of the start of construction on the OGHS athletic complex to be paid with bond levy money (and) at 11 a.m. Saturday, the OGHS Class of 2011 will have a dedication-ribbon cutting for the completed gateway,” which means that I held my book talk event for the Sisters of Alpha Delta Kappa, an international honorary organization of women educators, on the same day as the groundbreaking. I had assumed, as I have never been to the middle school, that the arch had been around for some time, but it was just being finished THAT DAY! (Cue the “Twilight Zone” music) Joey Davis, president of the Oak Glen High Class of 2011, stands near the entrance to the Field of Dreams complex with a rendering of the proposed entrance archway the class has taken on as a legacy gift to the school district. (Photo by Nancy Tullis)

More next time on some of things I learned about Rock Springs Park at the actual book talk event held Tuesday evening , April 12 with the ADK Sorority Group.

You Can Go Home Again!

In his novel title, Thomas Wolfe suggests that You Can't Go Home Again, but I found just the opposite to be true yesterday when I returned to Oak Glen High School for a book signing and slide show talk on my favorite topic "Rock Springs Park." One of my major goals in writing the book has been to share the history of Chester and the park with area youth. Unfortunately, the talk was cut short by half an hour due to an impending snow storm, but I was able to present the entire history, leaving out only time for Q&A, and a ukulele song I had planned to perform.

The program was presented in the Little Theatre, a space which was once a second home to me, having performed in nearly every theatrical production from 1978 – 1982. No, I was not held back in my high school years, I actually began doing plays in eighth grade with Oliver! in 1978. The experience yesterday was extremely surreal as I haven’t been to my alma mater in over 28 years. The campus has changed quite a bit over the years, including several renovations which have connected all the Florida-style buildings with enclosed walkways and building additions. It took me a few minutes to get my bearings, but the theater space remained relatively unchanged, so I felt very comfortable there.

Although the question and answer period was eliminated at the end of the program, students who arrived early had many questions about Rock Springs Park; including its exact location and what happened to the Cyclone and Carousel rides after they were sold in 1974. I was delighted to tell them and explained that recent research may prove one of my book explanations to be not entirely correct. I recently discovered a second account telling who actually purchased the Cyclone and the reason for it. The explanation I gave in the book was one told to me by a long-time Chester resident. He had it partly correct. Bill Harper did purchase Virginia Gardens, but not the Cyclone. In my latest finding, a Youngstown newspaper dated July 1974, reported, ““William Johsnon of East Liverpool bought himself a one-mile-long roller coaster for the grand sum of $1.” It suggests that the wood from the Cyclone might still be around in a wooden structure built for an auto wrecking business in Calcutta, OH, run by Johnson and his father.

My next venture home will be to talk to the students at Allison Elementary in Chester. I can’t wait to show them images of their school as it looked in 1969 and 1970 with views from the Cyclone and one of the Ohio River and the school with the park in the background.

Godspell 1982