Most silly title of the year?
 

Hi Guys

Mr E.R. Hooton is about to publish another "complete" book about the Luftwaffe 1933-45. Obviously the same publisher (Classic) has not managed to pursuade him to finish what he started a couple of years ago in what at least looked like a more ambitious project. Hopefully Mr Hooton has not set this title himself:)

http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/th...m_medium=email

Is there anyone else but me who thinks Classic aka Midland Counties jumping into bed with Ian Allan has produced a more or less lousy homepage compared to what they once had? Trying to read more from Ian Allan about this book gives us the interesting fact it weights 501 grams, but they don't have a clue about the number of pages. On one page they confirm the author is Hooton, but on the product details the author(s) is unknown.... my, my, my...

Any takers?

Cheers
Stig

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Hallo Stig,

Concerning the Midland Counties/Ian Allen tie-up I agree with you totally ! I cannot find any book title in their catalogue now since the change. There is less - and less accurate - information about the books. They seem to want to get rid of the printed catalogues, as you now have to tick a box when ordering to receive catalogues in the future. They have also ceased advertising in FLYPAST. This was a great source of information about books just published or about to be published. I think this is going to backfire on them seriously. I have no intention of browsing through their website for hours at a time. I am becoming very cross just writing this !

Over the last 20 years I have bought several hundred books from them, so I do have an interest in how they operate.

Regards,

Martin.

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Add me to the list of unhappy users of the revamped Ian Allan website. Whilst chatting to Robert Forsyth recently, I asked him to make them aware of how difficult it was to find anything since the unnecessary changes...

Cheers
Peter D Evans
LEMB Administrator

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

It´s a terrible page to do a search. How they think will welcome potential buyers with that? Maybe Í´m becoming old and can´t understand the progress on the web...

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Their site is indeed a mess. The info is often contradictory and numerous long trem Midland customers have been quite annoyed by the new site. Quite inconceivable as even amazon.co.uk provides more reliable data.

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Maybe the correct title should be E.R. Hooton "The Complete Rehash"?!
:rolld:

Seriously, I did like his "Phoenix Triumphant".

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

I deliberately stopped buying from Midlands Counties about 5 years ago.

They produced a second-hand books catalogue that often had some nice rare titles in it. But they had the most bizarre and ridiculous ordering system.

If you ordered or phone ordered, they could not tell you if it was still in stock. You had to wait a couple of weeks to get a letter to say whether you had been successful in buying it, rather like a lottery! I ordered six titles and had to wait 2 weeks to find they had already sold them. I don't know any other company that has such a ridiculous ordering process.

I also hate to have to admit it, but I cannot afford to be a charity and pay their full book cover prices (plus postage) when the same books are far cheaper (with free postage) on Amazon.

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Another who is agreement that the 'new' website is next to useless.

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

This is what Robert Forsyth had to say on this title over here on the LEMB back in April:

"Ian Allan Publishing, who own Classic Publications, decided to pull the plug on the short-lived 'Luftwaffe at War' series because it didn't sell. Luftwaffe at War was produced by Chevron Publishing on Ian Allan's behalf. We commissioned E.R. Hooton to write the series.

Later I managed to commission two books with Ian Allan who wanted 'military history text hardbacks with plate sections'. I went back to E.R.Hooton (Ted) because I knew that he had conducted research in two areas: firstly tactical and corps-level operations over the Western Front between 1916-1918. The results of that research have recently been published as 'War over the Trenches'; it is massive in scope and breathtaking in its investigative work. Secondly, in accordance with the earlier brief to produce 'Luftwaffe at War' (pulled), Ted significantly revised, updated and expanded his Phoenix books and the results of that curtailed labour have gone, happily, to produce a fresh single-volume history of the Luftwaffe as 'a study in air power'. 127,000 words, 44 photos. IA perceive a market for this kind of text-based history (Waterstones, Barnes & Noble etc). Not sure how accurate this is, (I have only edited the book, not been involved in the production) but the IA catalogue states the book will be 224 pages (229 x 152 mm). I have not yet seen proofs from the publisher. FWIW War over the Trenches was 336 pages."

Incidentally, this title is available for pre-order on Amazon for £17.49...

Cheers
Peter D Evans
LEMB Administrator

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Guys

Glad to know I am not the only one disliking Ian Allan's site.:mad:

With regard to the silly title I still believe it is. No one makes a complete history about the Luftwaffe in 224 pages. To me it seems like Ted Hooton has had to cut his ca 10 volume history about the Luftwaffe with Ian Allan into a single title which makes the "complete" in the present title total nonsense.

Cheers
Stig

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Very funny, I just clicked on the link in the first posting and saw in the catalogue that the author also authored 3 brushes... Funny page indeed.

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Are those of us who don't like it actually telling Ian Allan, though? That will have more of an impact than posting complaints here. In the end, they want to sell books and if the redesigned site makes that harder, they'll change it.

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

I used to browse from time to time the old IA site. When I discovered the new one I was very disappointed and even if I absolutely don't use to do such kind of things; I found myself writing an e-mail to ideas@ianallanplus.com . It was June the 26th and the mail sounded this way:


Dear Ian Allan team,

I’m an Italian aviation enthusiast and amateur aviation book's writer.
In the past when browsing your huge site, I could select the editors Classic Publications and Midland Publishing that were the only one with titles of my interest, thus saving a lot of time.
Now it seems that it is no longer possible. I’ve spent twenty minutes in the new site and I still not know which are your forthcoming military aviation titles .
To be honest, I think that if nothing is going to change, I’ll continue to buy your wonderful books but I’ll never use again, this site for updates on your production.

Kind regards

Ludovico Slongo
Padova -Italy

Perhaps I did something wrong because I never receive any feedback from this e-mail address.

Ludovico

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Hi,
At first I thought that my eyes were playing games, but then I found the 'Enlarge product image', confirming that the title of the book on the cover is 1933-35, but '45.

Does anyone know what period this title actually cover? I assume it is until 1945, since there is no reference to a volume.

All the best
Morten

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Not sure how true this is but I was speaking to a guy at one of the Ian Allan shops and he claims that the staff are as disgusted with what has happened to the company as the customers are. Apparently one of the new directors has come in and, shall we say, 'messed' up everything. I'll carry on going to the shop but I'm steering clear of the website.

Re: Most silly title of the year?
 

Just an updated info on Ian Allan page. They have changed their layout and search engine, layout now looks friendly and easy. Nice to navigate again!