[Lagarto]

Mr Mombeeck, with all due respect... None of the books I have mentioned before - those by Donald Caldwell, Christopher Shores or Brian Cull - are cheaply flogged works of compilation, by God! Why haven't you mentioned these, only some booklets for modelers and Ospreys (which by the way cost about $15, so they're still a good value for money).
And as for the layout and design - if you choose a professional publishing house, then you can supervise all the work being done on your book, be it placing photos in the text or whatever. I've seen it happen many times. It's not like you give away your manuscript, and they abuse it as they want. Believe it or not, but good publishers want their authors to be happy with the end result, if only because they want more manuscripts from them.

Another example: 'The 5th Fighter Command in World War II Vol.2' by William Wolf, to be published soon, a 456-page hardback priced at $43.81. A 'cheap work of compilation', would you say?