“Like so many of us,” said Ruth McGorty, “I came to the Vineyard for a year, and thirty years later, I’m still here!” In 1985 McGorty started the Martha’s Vineyard Real Estate Guide, then just a black-and-white pamphlet. Today the magazine is a full color, glossy Real Estate bible, known to many as The Book of Dreams.

Why did you start the Real Estate Guide?

Some of the real estate offices were saying, ‘We need one of those throw-away real estate rags you see in the grocery store.’ And I said okay, except I don’t want to create a throw-away. I want to start a magazine that people keep. I kind of fancied it to be the New Yorker of real estate magazines.

Describe the Guide’s evolution.

We started before electronic publishing existed. Everything was done by hand in the ‘80s. It was in black and white and it evolved to color very gradually. In the beginning, color printing was very complicated. It required a lot of manual labor.

How do you best describe your publication and its purpose?

It’s a snapshot of the whole market. It used to be primarily a source of information; but now that most advertising has shifted to the internet, it’s a source of inspiration. People love to look at it.

And you see who’s in the business, the highs and lows of the prices, which brokers are working for which office. We really like the personalities of the real estate offices to shine through the magazine.

Over the years, you must have seen a lot of changes in the real estate market. What stands out?

What stands out is what hasn’t changed. I wrote an article in our very first issued called, “A Sound Investment”. It was all about how you can’t go wrong buying real estate on Martha’s Vineyard. It’s a popular place, there’s limited land, there’s a lot of conservation, there’s not a lot of commercialization, not a lot of high rise hotels. And that hasn’t changed.

What do you love about this work?

I’ve been working with the same real estate offices for so many years that they are more like friends to me than customers. So it’s very fulfilling to be able to help them with their marketing. And also because it’s a monthly, I get a little bit of time to travel and travel is one of my hobbies.

What gives you your greatest satisfaction?

Creating a magazine every month is like creating a work of art and there is a satisfaction to that. When I see people reading it on the boat, or out and about, I get a little chill and think, “Hey, we did that!”

Paula Lyons is a former ABC and CBS television consumer journalist who is now semi-retired and lives in Vineyard Haven.