Ada Prill, The Philatelic Exhibitor
(continuation of the article Editing a Classic Philatelic Book Part 1 and Part 2)
I am an editor/writer, not a skilled exhibitor, so I had to wheedle friends who actually knew something about each of the types of exhibits into writing chapters for the book. I had NO budget for reimbursing writers! They all did it for love of the hobby, and my gratitude knows no bounds. I am blessed to have had help from so many people who were both knowledgeable and willing to help others acquire knowledge.
I asked Nancy Clark to recommend someone to write the Postal Stationery chapter, not knowing the she and Doug had a stationery exhibit. Nancy, always generous with her time and expertise, wrote that all-new section. Jim Graue let himself get roped into writing the new chapter on aerophilately. Display Division was ably explained by Steve Suffet, who also helped in numerous other ways. Alan Warren assisted in transforming Randy’s old chapter on first day covers into an updated section on illustrated mail.
Steve Suffet at work on an exhibit
Ben Ramkissoon rewrote the chapter on astrophilately and supplied all of the illustrations for it. Peter Iber had written the 1995 chapter on revenues. Since he is no longer exhibiting revenues, he suggested I find someone else for that chapter, and Ron Lesher stepped up to the plate and wrote an all-new chapter that almost makes me want to collect revenues!
In October 2005 I called Mary Ann Owens to see how the revisions were coming along for her chapter on thematics. It was then that I learned that she had cancer! We talked for quite a long time, and she suggested asking Tom Fortunato to do the thematic chapter for the new book. It was the last time I got to speak to Mary Ann, alas, but Tom was gracious about accepting the assignment and made it clear why Mary Ann had him in mind for the job.
John Hotchner, helpful everywhere, revised his chapter on how to become a judge, and Dan Walker updated the insurance chapter. (I gave Hugh Wood, Inc., a chance to suggest changes in the insurance chapter, but they did not do so.)
I edited these contributed chapters very lightly, as there was no need to make a chapter signed by someone else sound as if Randy had written it, and the contributors were all experts who knew a lot more about their subjects than I do.
Judy Stewart with Bill Bauer at STEPEX '05
As I finished updating each of the non-signed chapters, off it went to John Hotchner for suggestions. And he had lots of them. I think I followed all but one of his excellent recommendations. Other people fact-checked individual chapters, but John was amazingly generous with his time and expertise. There were a lot of not-so-obvious changes that had to be made. Exhibiting had gone through a major revolution, but some changes were needed in non-exhibiting information as well. Ellen Peachey, who proofread the whole book, found some out-of-date information about APRL policies, for example. Sherry Strahley also proofread much of the book and made some helpful comments. Peter McCann fact-checked the chapter on international exhibiting, and Ann Triggle patiently answered questions of various kinds.
I was determined to have an index; as a user of the 1995 edition, I had found that the lack of an index was perhaps the book’s greatest flaw. Not to worry, I was told; Quark Xpress, the software being used to lay out the book, has an indexing function. So I sent off a word list and waited. And waited. The person doing the layout could not make the indexing program work. After a series of delays and frantic e-mails, I finally got back the raw index. It was a disaster. I checked on the word “Zwillinger,” as I had used many images from a CD supplied by Steve Zwillinger. The index had three page numbers. I quickly found eight more! So I ended up doing the index in a rush, largely manually. It is not as complete as I would have wished, but I had to compromise in order to get the job, by then a month overdue, finished. Even an imperfect index is better than no index at all.
The newly revised exhibitor's handbook
At last I held the finished book in my hand! And, OH NO, the printer had introduced a bunch of errors that had not been in the last proofs! Words were left out in at least half a dozen places. In most – maybe all – cases, the meaning remains clear enough, but it is disheartening to have proofread and re-proofread and asked an average of three other people to proofread each chapter and still have glaring mistakes. Oh, well, I can hope there will be a second printing someday.
As you have realized by now, my name and Randy Neil’s name are on the front of the book, but it was really a group effort by the exhibiting community. As Randy recognized when he invited guest authors to write about their own areas in 1995, no one exhibitor knows all aspects of every exhibiting specialty. Because of the contributions of a whole galaxy of exhibitors, much of this book represents actual experience doing the specific kind of exhibit being discussed. I hope it will prove useful to both beginning exhibitors and those who want to branch out into new disciplines. A heartfelt “thank you” to all the wonderful people who made the book possible!
P. S. The Third Edition of the Philatelic Exhibitors Handbook is now three years old. Exhibiting is an ever-changing part of our hobby, and there have already been two major changes — the elimination of Special Studies as an exhibiting category and the addition of picture postcards. When the next editor takes over, I have everything on CDs! 
