For several years while testing and writing about recreational vehicles for the nation’s leading camping magazines, Don and Pam Wright recognized the need for more public information about free and low-cost places to camp. When offered the opportunity, they acquired the publishing rights to a successful new book, “Free Campgrounds, U.S.A.”
They renamed the book “Don Wright’s Guide to Free Campgrounds” and then started a company called Cottage Publications to produce it in Elkhart, Indiana.
That was 1986.
Since then, the company has published 12 editions of that book as well as creating and producing numerous other books related to RVs, RV travel and camping.
To fill consumer demand for a guidebook about low-cost campgrounds, Cottage Publications next offered a book titled “Save-A-Buck Camping,” which included campgrounds that offered campsites for $5 or less. The title was suggested by the late RVing veteran, Hal Gaynor, who for many years helped thousands of RVers with his “Trailering Safety Clinic.”
That book evolved into a double set of books (eastern and western editions) which contained campgrounds with overnight fees of $10 and under. They were titled “Camping on a Shoestring.”
In 2002, the double set of “Shoestring” books were merged with “Guide to Free Campgrounds,” and since then, Cottage Publications has produced eastern and western editions of the free-campgrounds book and included campgrounds with fees of $12 or less. The current 12th editions feature more than 14,000 free and low-cost campgrounds!
Along the way, the company added its popular and controversial, “How to Buy an RV and Save Thousands” as well as a series of books written by veteran RV educator, columnist and humorist Bill Farlow and Bill Cima’s groundbreaking “Rest Area Guide to the United States and Canada.”
About a dozen years ago, Cottage introduced another new title – “Camping with the Corps of Engineers,” and that book became an immediate overwhelming success.
Cottage Publications continues to grow and expand its list of titles. The “Rest Area Guide” is in the process of being updated, expanded and retitled and will soon appear with the new title, “Rest Areas and Dump Stations of America."
e-mail: info@cottagepub.com
