Quoted Text

---

---

Hi Bill,
I have to agree with Tom.I'm no spring chicken, my grandfather and father were in WW1 and WW11. I've done Shermans,Panzers,etc.since a kid and back when I started again as an adult.My focus changed when there became more Viet Nam kits.As a teenager this is the war I new and watched.Now it's Iraq and Afganistan.With a new generation coming up the hobby will pass to them and that's what they will recall.I have posted a few times before that if I see 1 more Tiger release I think I'll get sick.As Tom mentioned I will check a review and if it's German I'll go straight to the back button.(unless it's modern).
Tom

Hi Bill
First of all, thank you very much for the great reviews, they are very useful for me.

I have been circling around that Panther book for a while now, but after reading your review, I'm now going to order it. Hey, wait a minute, did I just thank you for making me spend my hard earned cash

Hi Bill well i must be one of the few , but I look forward and read the book reviews 1st.(Thanks to all the reviewers) I spend has much on books has kits. A book is for life, I find much more time is spent looking through them than on spending it at the work bench. In the last month I've spent £££££ Tankgrand's Feldherrnhalle and Herbert poller's book on SS Pnz Aufkl Abt 11 Nordland alone cost close on £80 Wendy at Aviation & Military book center loves me. I'd recomend her they're service is great. I most probably spend £40 on kits this month. Some people build kits just for the building plessure others like myself love the history of a build, so read more reference books . I suppose its down to what you want out of a build. Anyway back to the pages of TIGERS IN THE MUD great read, I sound like a real book worm cheers Geraint

That there might no be a manuscript in English available is no excuse - if that would be the reason NOT to publish and ignore the subject it is simply a damning indictment of the publisher.

I actually once sent an email, and the respons was basically - at that time - as I understood it, 'maybe sometime later, but it is not currently in our planning because it will not sell (enough).' Military historians with a decent reputation have run into the same problem with publishers of 'popular military history': if it will not sell in the US/UK you start with two strikes against you, and chances are it will not get published. Indeed, most publishers will go for a near rehash of what has already been done. Hence the continuous overload Normandy books, for instance.

Bill, don't assume that the lack people reading book reviews indicates a lack of people reading books, nor that a lack of people buying books indicates that people aren't reading books.

Quoted Text

---

That there might no be a manuscript in English available is no excuse - if that would be the reason NOT to publish and ignore the subject it is simply a damning indictment of the publisher.

I actually once sent an email, and the respons was basically - at that time - as I understood it, 'maybe sometime later, but it is not currently in our planning because it will not sell (enough).' Military historians with a decent reputation have run into the same problem with publishers of 'popular military history': if it will not sell in the US/UK you start with two strikes against you, and chances are it will not get published. Indeed, most publishers will go for a near rehash of what has already been done. Hence the continuous overload Normandy books, for instance.

---

Well, I think there's two points there. One, if the US-UK market is their primary target, then the book better be in English, and if they are already concerned about how much money it will make them ("how well it will sell") I can understand them not wanting to add to their production costs by paying for a professional translation.

The second point is that if there is any fault to go about I would put it with the NON US-UK market. If it was large enough I'm sure authors would appeal to it. In other words, to rephrase my previous question, how many short, Thirty Years War manuscripts in any language are floating around there looking for a publisher? How many people would buy a book anyway?

From my own experience, in 2008 I self-published a book on the technical aspects of the M5 light tank. By all accounts it was well-received. One might think this would enjoy some moderate level of success, and in the context of technical tank book I think it has. Total sales to date: less than 250 copies. Do you think a book on the Battle of White Mountain would do much better?

KL

Are you familier with Axel Urbanke's book "Endkampf - um das Reichsgebiet 1944-45 Ostfront"? It's a true masterpiece, if you're in to the final part of the war on the eastern front. It's in both german and english, and have some, for me at least, never published photoes, black and white, but also some very interesting colored ones.

Personally I love reading not just the stuff directly related to modelling, but also the more general unit histories right up to the kind of military history that is more strategic overview (Beevor and so on).


I guess thats why quite a few books try to appeal to both modellers and students of military history that have no interest in modelling in order to make their sales. Its difficult though; modellers want a level of detail that military history students find unnecessary (do they really care whether the tanks in that action were churchills, let alone MkIVs or MkVIs?) whereas a lot of modellers have little interest in whether Gen Clarke captured Rome or cut the highway



I think reading really enhances modelling and I do wish books got more attention

. . . As soon as it was published one chap on one site ( not this one) asked the question: 'any new pictures'.? It would seem that many modellers 'navel gaze' equipment but seem either uninterested or not bothered to appreciate that these machines fought in a real war. They are history.
I am amused at the number of detailed, almost pedantic questions asked, for example, about the finish of a particular Tiger of the IInd Co DR in the battle but no interest in how that unit actually did in the battle. . . .
.

Speaking as an author whose book 'Zitadelle' was recently reviewed on this site, I think the question is very well put.
In the case of this particular title, I was most careful to include pictures and the publisher at some expense comissioned colour plates of participating armour in the battle to make it of particular interest to armour modellers ( I am also one myself). The text was about 150,000 words and the whole project took many years to research and write. I have to admit to being frankly dismayed at how little interest was shown in a battloe that is an obsession with armnour modellers. No review even mentioned the plates even though they were as extensively researched as any in a Concord publication and designed to help the modeller.
As soon as it was published one chap on one site ( not this one) asked the question: 'any new pictures'.? It would seem that many modellers 'navel gaze' equipment but seem either uninterested or not bothered to appreciate that these machines fought in a real war. They are history.
I am amused at the number of detailed, almost pedantic questions asked, for example, about the finish of a particular Tiger of the IInd Co DR in the battle but no interest in how that unit actually did in the battle.
When I made a series of videos in the 90s on the Luftwaffe one reviewer asked the question 'why no close up of the engine of an Fw-190 being serviced'. Well, if the reviewer had appreciated that all the film was culled and edited from Deutsche Wocheschau - which was propoganda film - then it follows that the answer tohis question is 'there is no propoganda value in seeing a BMW engine being serviced. Doh!
As a History teacher of many years standing, it is also the case in my experience that many more people are choosing not to read books . Pictures and images are what matter, Hence the popularity of many appallingly made documentaries purporting to be history on TV channels.
Forgive the tirade, but Bill, you really did push a button when you posed that question.
One last point, unless modellers buy the books publishers will not produce them. For them and the authors it is about making a living at the end of the day.

Hey Bill, one thing you might want to look into ( assuming you're high enough up the armorama food chain to make the change ) is that the Reveiw section doesn't actually have a "BooK' section ( not that I've ever seen anyway ). So unless someone knows who the publisher is, or is searching by title then it's bloody hard to find reviews on a particular title.