New and upcoming books

[Sergio Luis dos Santos]

Originally Posted by Richard T. Eger

Dear Fellow Researchers,

I, too, received the Christian-Schmidt catalog. It seems more cheaply printed than in the past and the Luftwaffe offerings are meager and, as has been pointed out, many are retreads. I hope this isn't a signal that Christian-Schmidt is going downhill, but it certainly gave me pause.

Ditto with the offerings of Zenith Books, which hasn't had anything of significance in ages. It's a far cry from when I used to get their catalog and it was chock full of goodies.

Regards,
Richard

Richard,
I guess the decrease of new titles reflects the impact of internet pages and also lack of hot new material. Most publishers won´t invest a lot of money in a book with well know material. Also the fact that internet provided a fast way to find information and photos is also a challenge to publishers. How many times just released books are offered for download or their contents quickly posted in a "specialized" page??
This not occurs only with Luftwaffe subjects. One of authors I have gave support is Dan Hagerdorn, well know for his books on Latin American aviation. At last three books he wrote are waiting release for a long time, one of them on the T-6, if I remember correctly, is waiting printing for over two years. Hikoki one about Latin American wars is also very delayed. Dan had a long letter published in Small Air Forces Observer some months ago about this challenge and impact on publishing houses.
The new approach on publishing rights, with increasing prices, some of them prohibitive for a small publishing house or a title with little "impact" and potential selling of X books also counts. When rights for photos is high it impacts in the final price very hardly and it must be sold a very high number of books to reduce costs for each one.
I´m facing this challenge in the Fw-58 book. Some people ask no fees, other ones a fair pricing but other aks a high price for each photo. If we be unable to reduce those costs chances to use the photos are very low.
That´s my opinion.