[Erik Mombeeck]

John,

Thanks for asking this question.

First of all, even if the main language of this board is English, there are a lot of other possible languages, English is not The Must.

Now to your question: most of the guys who are writing the JG chronicles in detail are not professionals, and this itself explains much.

I will speak for my self: my goal is not to make money with these books; it is to "save" the memory of a very chaotic period. That is the reason why I visited so many hundreds of pilots, interviewed them, copied their personal documents (like photos, log-books...) before all get lost, and worked so many weeks in many archives through all the western world .

The Luftwaffe vets of course replied me in German, the first sources are in German, thus publishing in German seems to be the most accurate to do. Further, many of these persons became real friends for me, and I find evident that the books I am producing are made for them and their family in the first line. My main topic is first hand accounts: how they lived their war. Books based upon listings like claims are not my cup of tea, and certainly since I compared Luftwaffe claims and Allied losses. So, I consider that the most interesting is to report what the veterans remember, what still exists in letters of KIA pilots, in reports… and I consider German as the most adequate language for the kind of books I am doing.

I am not a professional – and Franek's words make me smile, these books cost much more than bring money – but that is probably also a force: the books I produce are exactly like I want, from the first detective work to find the source, until the shipping of the final product. So, no editor in the middle of the process, who would want to cut, or to give a larger topic on a detail, in order to make or to save money. The only experience I had with an American publisher (evoked by you in another message) was disastrous, like it was also the case for other authors, including my friend Bernd Barbas.

My poor English is also one of the reasons. How to correspond with exactitude to make a difficult book without speaking the same language at a same level with an English spoken publisher?

I find it indispensable to start reading, learning the German language if you are really interested with the German air force, or this country's history. That is what I did many years ago when I began to interview the veterans. The first one I visited was Gerhard Schöpfel who remained a friend until he passed away a few years ago. He patiently corrected the few words I thought to know in German, and encouraged for my progresses each times we met after. This is a real pleasure to discover a new language, to use and read the exact terms rather than approximate translations. You should try too.

A wide market, as writes Franek? No, the market in Germany, as well as in Europe, is very small. I think that the wider market should be USA. Should be… because, I don't really think that books on Luftwaffe, Polish, English, Belgian air forces have a real market. Rare are the books sold in thousands rather in hundreds (to use Franek's words).

We are enthusiasts, losing a lot of money by doing these books, but we became rich with the contact, the friendship, the trust that we found by the veterans who told us what they lived. What an experience!


Regards
Eric