Bloody April

[Roxy]

Peter,

Sorry to hear that your 'cheery publishers' have prevented you from writing more avaition related books. 'Aces Falling' is No1 on my birthday list - hope this helps!

Roxy

[PMHart]

Hi Roxy,

If you get 'Aces' you'll particularly enjoy the brief appearence of the tiny Southampton and England midfield dynamo Alan Ball on page 56 - a considered tribute of course to the august men of 56 Squadron that Albert Ball served with and not the result of me accidentally repeating in a book a verbal joke I employ at WFA talks for the cheap amusement of all and sundry! That''ll teach me!

Far more annoying and much less funny was the Plumer misprint to Plummer - these things drive you mad (or madder) and you can only really blame yourself! This however doesn't stop me trying to shift the blame wherever remotely possible! Actually by looking at the forum I'm skivving from proof checking at this very moment - an activity that is so dull that even Phil B's latest anti-Haig diatribe would seem a fresh and invigorating breath of fresh air in contrast!

Pete

[howard nobbs]

Hi all

I haven't read" Bloody April" but after reading this thread, I feel I can't live without it. My grandfather was one of those Tommy's that went over the top, on the 9th, he ended up a name on a wall! Needless to say, it's that aspect that interests me. Do you think that there is enough of the ground battle in the book to make it right for me. "commercial interests apart that is" and can anyone recommend further reading.

Thanks

Howard

[David Seymour]

Hi Pete,

Whose idea was the pale typeface for the quotes in Aces Falling? Never seen that done before.

With best wishes,

David

[PMHart]

Hi David,

I'm glad you asked because I have a burning desire for vengeance on the young book designer concerned who sprang it on my editior and me when it was far too late to stop. I'm trying to get the paperback sorted out but 'they don't know' yet whether it is possible.

I attach the relevant portion of my e-mail to the paperback editor for your amusement.

"Basically the designer is probably a young gorgeous chap or chappess with 20 - 20 eyesight and a keen sense of cutting edge design; but the rest of the world can't read crap grey typefaces cos we're old and faulty, especially those of us who that read boring old military history as opposed to feng shui guides for modern lovers."

Irate Pete

[Dolphin]

Peter

I'm with you regarding the pale typeface in Aces Falling. Also, there are a number of minor errors in the book that I'm sure didn't stem from your fingers on the keyboard:

Independent Air Force instead of Independent Force, RAF;

United States Air Force instead of US Air Service;

Hannover Cl.IIs with two forward firing guns; and

the coloured cover illustration of airmen wearing what was then the blue of Imperial Russian Cavalry breeches (later RAF blue) instead of the khaki that they really wore.

It's a great pity that you're not writing more about the war in the air, as the story of the battles on fronts other than the Western, ie Italy, Macedonia, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Russia in 1919, etc would make great reading.

Nevertheless, we have to thank you very much for both Bloody April and Aces Falling.

Gareth

[David Seymour]

Hi Pete,

That young book designer has much to answer for! Not a clever idea.

And as to your publishers not permitting further air books by you - they are throwing away market-share! And there aren't enough books about the air war - we could do with a few more to balance the many on the ground war, and to continue to make the point that the air war and the ground war were inextricably linked. Had you another air war book in mind?

With best wishes,

David

[PMHart]

Hi David,

I wanted to do an air book on the second half of 1917 covering May to December. I even had a title courtesy of my esteemed colleague at the IWM - the mighty Bryn Hammond - Ypres of Trouble, 1917! Almost as good as Up the Arras would have been for Bloody April!I also had my eye on the 1914 -1915 air war - from the hesitant first begnnings culminating in the so-called Fokker scourge. I probably need to step back from the air war though to generally recharge my enthusiasm - Aces Falling was a sod to write - so perhaps my publishers are right! It is however selling better as it has the word 'Aces' cunningly inserted into the title!!!!

Pete

[howard nobbs]

Hi Pete

Having followed this thread, I decided to have a look on Ebay and Amazon. Living here in the Treacle Mines, we rely on e-shopping more than most. Norwich is the Ebay capital of Britain, and going there requires some planning.

I was surprised to find that the majority of offers were for new copies sent from the USA. Didn't I read earlier that they were difficult to get over there?

Is this another of those strange sets of circumstances that could only apply to the UK? And/or is the lack of local offers a contributory factor to the "as stated" disappointing sales figures?

Is it odd or is it me?

Howard

[SiegeGunner]

One question, perhaps, is at what point in the distribution chain is a book deemed to have been 'sold'. Is it only when the book is acquired by a final consumer, or does stock within the book trade count as sold? Depending on the print-run, it is presumably possible for stocks to be thinly distributed over a wide network, leading to local shortages in places where demand is brisk, but still resulting in a poor volume of sales.

[David Seymour]

Aces Falling was a sod to write

Pete

Hi Pete,

What made it so?

With best wishes,

David

[PMHart]

Hi David,

To get the contract in the first place I had to have the word 'Aces' in the title. Having done that I was trapped - hoist by my own petard! I wanted to cover the Great War on the Western Front in 1918, but 'they' reasonably enough wanted a heightened coverage of the various aces - as per title! But generally my thesis was that the aces were past their sell-by date and not as important as reconnaisance/artillery observation anyway! Hmmmm! Also the length of the period covered meant that I had to read a whole years worth of material for every collection covered. Meanwhile the 'narrative' itself was exceptionally complex mixing the events on the ground which had to be covered as they of course were at the centre of everything, the aerial battles, the lives and deaths of the aces and the Independent Force bombing campaign. All of which were happening at the same time! My editor Keith Lowe (who has written an excellent book on the Hamburg Raids) was a absolute diamond and helped me unravel my tangled brain waves! He is great to work with - I think he also 'does' Bryn Hammond, Charles Messenger and Gordon Corrigan.

It was also somewhat dispiriting as although 'Bloody April' sold out in hardback the paperback was doing appallingly at first. It has now picked up thankfully! Irritatingly enough (so they were right- Doh!) the presence of the magic word 'Aces' has indeed boosted sales of 'Aces Falling' and it has already been reprinted - otherwise I would be doing 20 odd WFA talks with no books to sell. (my talks are a little odd)

Actually although all authors moan endlessly about their publisher I thinik that Orion, Cassell or Weidenfeld & Nicholson or whatever they call themselves this week are not a bad firm to work for, indeed they have given me a lot of support over the years, it is just that some of their ideas and conventions are not appropriate to military historians - a fuddy duddy group with set ideas I think it is true to say!

By the way I have to confess that most errors in my books are generally entirely my fault. I think that nearly all books have mistakes that just seem to creep by no matter what you or they do! And we are always rushed to death with deadlines - ask Charles and Bryn about that for a start!!!! Also sometimes there is more than one right way of looking at things! As to point of a sale I have no idea but I think it is when the happy punter has it in their hands, before that they can be returned to the publisher. The current squeeze on publishers profit margins exerted by powerful retaillers like Amazon is causing havoc with their profit margins and many firms are cutting back on their lists.

As you'll gather by the length of this and the overall more cheery note I have finished proof checking the coopy edited text to 1918: A Very British Victory so I am happy even though the mighty Liverpool lost last night!!!!!

Off to hand it in now!!

Cheers,

Pete

[David Seymour]

Hi Pete,

Most interesting. Thank you very much for sharing these insights.

With best wishes,

David