Market research - 'Most Wanted' Luftwaffe books

[FalkeEins]

Originally Posted by richdlc

Unfortunately unlikely to happen. Me, Robert (Forsyth) and Eddie Creek have discussed it, but you'd need someone to write the text

....I've always thought Vol IV was to be a 'photographic' compilation. I still wonder why nobody ever wanted to 'do' or even 're-do' Rodeike's 'Jagdflugzeug 190'. Having said that, 400+pages of photo captions is a lot of text..

[Milos Gazdic]

Isten hozott, Dénes. I was afraid that all this blabbing will be too much...

hello richdic,
I didn't know that vol4 was called off. I somehow thought there is still a chance for it.
If someone has done the research & compiled the photos & documents, putting the book together & even writing up captions maybe ain't that big of the work an ignorant guess.
It could be even done as an "open source" style project between a few artists. I would not mind doing the layout in InDesign if they need help & helping them set the editable proxy text files that go as captions so people can edit them on the go Anything for another Fw 190 Bible.

I am super excited if we gonna see "LO+ST sequel". One on TV lasted 6 seasons and was an ultimate hit. I would love NoroSan's one much more!

Thanks to all researchers, historians, writers, illustrators, publishers... for providing all those great and not so great (I buy such ones too, so don't worry) books!

[Jukka Juutinen]

It is mentioned in this thread that lack of sourced prevent this and that topic to be studied. But, let's remember the recent book Secret Horsepower Race. Many, many times before that book one could hear claims that that topic lacked sources. Then came Calum Douglas who dug deep into the archives and found mountains of new information creating a masterpiece. After that case one may really ask that how much untapped material still is to be found on other Luftwaffe topics in the archives, but researchers have not delved thus far deep enough. And in the case of the Secret Horsepower Race, another crucial aspect pertaining to the authoritativeness of the book is that he is an engine-designer himself.

[Siko54]

Great post Jukka. I think there is heaps out there still but as you say, finding it and putting it together is the hard bit. I am still hopeful of seeing a comprehensive publication on the JU188 and the long-range recon missions flown on the Ostfront.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Jukka Juutinen

It is mentioned in this thread that lack of sourced prevent this and that topic to be studied … After that case one may really ask that how much untapped material still is to be found on other Luftwaffe topics in the archives, but researchers have not delved thus far deep enough.

You can ask, but if you have unexplored topics in mind then identifying unused source material would be of more help for prospective authors.

[Jukka Juutinen]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

You can ask, but if you have unexplored topics in mind then identifying unused source material would be of more help for prospective authors.

For example in the case the Secret Horsepower Race, Daimler-Benz archives were apparently very crucial. One may ask that the D-B archives might contain material very useful for researching German aircraft too.

Years ago a Finnish researcher told me that for German aircraft, the key archive is at the Deutsches Museum, not BA-MA.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Jukka Juutinen

Years ago a Finnish researcher told me that for German aircraft, the key archive is at the Deutsches Museum, not BA-MA.

Thanks, it does look promising from a quick check. Whether any of it is digitised, I haven't yet established.

[richdlc]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

Thanks, it does look promising from a quick check. Whether any of it is digitised, I haven't yet established.

I know Eddie Creek donated much of his collection to it recently Nick

[AMC]

Originally Posted by richdlc

Hi guys,

I have been reading some interesting comments in recent days about the kinds of books people would like to see, which got me thinking. How about a list of such titles? What do you think has been overlooked in the past, perhaps a definitive guide to the Bf 109 in the Classic Publications style? I am asking in my capacity as a publisher (Chandos Publications) so please, feel free to comment. Tell me what you'd like and why, what it must include, what has been covered ad nauseum before (ie what to avoid). I'm all ears!

After rambling through this thread I think the selling maxim
“Never ask the customer what he would like” comes to mind….

[edwest2]

Originally Posted by AMC

After rambling through this thread I think the selling maxim
“Never ask the customer what he would like” comes to mind….

After decades working in publishing, I know that is not true. At a recent meeting, my employer reiterated to a newly hired person that (I'm paraphrasing): "You should give the customer what he wants." That is based on finding out what he does what. Since we publish mostly fiction, we also need to know what our competitors are doing.

The arcane term "Market Research" involves exactly this. The same is true of industrial/product design. Manufacturers need to know what customers want. They can't guess. A person can publish whatever they want without doing market research but run the very real risk of printing/publishing something few will buy.