The book in question, "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot" was not your run of the mill automotive fix-it book or shop manual and as such the publishing world could not get its head around it. As a result, Muir had to go the self-publishing route which at the time was more a thing of vanity publishing rather than actually making money. "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" changed all that...
The thing that made the "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" different, was that it fulfilled a need and serviced a niche that no one else had either bothered with or recognized and because it did it and did it well it flourished.
Of course, this blog is not about VW's or auto repair but John Muir's book illustrates a point that a lot of people in the marine trades and especially those folk designing boats should take into account. There are niches and needs that are crying out to be serviced and while the economy might be in the dumpster at the moment, there are still people out there who want and need stuff that is simply not available whether it is a "How to Repair a Winch" book or a cruising boat design for people who don't want the same old same because they are not the same old same sort of people who would buy a Bendytoy 38 or a SameOld 42 because they want or need something different because they are part of a whole different niche that no one recognizes or understands... Sorta like the people who read Boat Bits.
Then again, that would require listening, something the marine industry hardly ever does...
