I'm glad to hear that the Seminole Wars is selling well. Maybe this will spur future books on many of the large and small wars that get conflated into the Indian Wars. There's a ton of possible books, such as King Philip's War, Chickamauga Wars, Little Turtle's War, Black Hawk War, Comanche Wars, Red Cloud's War and dozens more. ... And I'm a bit surprised to see Duel 15 to be the top seller. It's nice seeing "minor" wars getting so much interest.
Report this comment
You should have included a link to your 2009 predictions:
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/predictions_for_2009/
;-)
"the likely winner will be Campaign 220: Operation Crusader 1941 out in May"
Probably, as it fits under the "long awaited" tag, and as far as I know it won't have much competition, at least from readily available books (yes, I know the NZ official history is available online). I'm cautiously optimistic about it. I'm expecting nothing fancy: a well organised summary from the British perspective, well supported by clear, uncluttered maps, in the vein of CAM 196 Gazala 1942. But Operation Crusader, being such a complex battle, is a difficult topic, so we may also end up getting another dud like CAM 158 El Alamein 1942.
The Essential History about the Chinese Civil War is a good idea and may also interest me, but it's the kind of book I'll need to browse through first before making a decision.
All the books by Robert Forczyk should sell well; he's making a name for himself even outside the circles of Osprey's "war nerd" core target audience.
Sky high expectations about Steven Zaloga's book on Op. Nordwind.
If the Maginot Line title does well, would you consider a companion volume on the June 1940 fighting at the Weygand Line (Somme-Aisne)?
I'm also very interested in the Messines 1917 title already listed at Amazon. Even though I suspect they're not among your bestsellers, I hope you persevere with these WWI operational histories, as there really aren't any books other than the official histories providing the kind of operational narrative found in CAM 197 Amiens 1918 or CAM 187 Cambrai 1917.
I'm not at all enthusiastic about the books on Mons Graupius and Boudicca's Rebellion, as I've mentioned on a number of occasions.
Report this comment
"a companion volume on the June 1940 fighting at the Weygand Line (Somme-Aisne)"
Just heard that Robert Forczyk pitched this very title to Osprey but that you turned down his proposal. Bad Osprey, bad.
Report this comment
Thanks Hugo - I meant to include that link. Honest.
I'll check out that other suggestion with Editorial.
Report this comment
Too bad if that's the case Hugo.
I'm looking forward to the Maginot Line book and the idea for that companion volume would be a definite sale to me. As I've stated before, one of Osprey's strengths for me is that it releases titles on subjects that aren't so well covered in English. My library has so many Battle of the Bulge/Somme/D-day titles in it that it would take a very special title on those well covered topics to make a buy. Judging from the posts on this site I'd say a lot of other Osprey regular customers fall into the same category of having already filled their libraries with books on the more popular aspects of military history. The fact that the best selling title for 2009 was Duel 15 (not the most covered subject in English) seems to bear this out.
Report this comment
With two books in the top 3, Osprey team should be nevertheless more attentive to Robert Forczyk's wishes!
Report this comment
Precisely, MarkL.
"Germans vs French, virtually no Brits* in sight - we'll pass". I'm not saying this is what happened, but Osprey, at least from time to time, needs to look beyond that. "No Brits nor Yanks" didn't stop Osprey from greenlighting the Maginot line book.
Osprey's core target consists of hobbyists/nerds who probably already own several books about the better known battles/campaigns, and don't need any further (even if the presentation of those battles would benefit from the "Osprey touch"). One of the selling points of the book Robert Forczyk proposed to write would be precisely the lack of any readily available detailed account in English - i.e. zero competition.
Pen & Sword seems to realise this to an extent - the subjects of several of the titles in their "Campaign Chronicles" series are campaigns not yet covered in the Osprey Campaign Series, which probably isn't a coincidence.
* plenty of them, actually: 51 Div and later on 52 Div and 1 Arm Div, plus other ad hoc forces
Report this comment
I partially disagree with you gents and I am going to explain why in my not perfect english (sorry!). If I understand well your remarks, Osprey should give preferential treatment to lesser known armies or subjects. But is it possible to talk about WW2 for example without covering battles like Arnhem,Kursk, Stalingrad, D-Day landings or nations like the USA or the USSR? I think it's like writing an essay on worlwide economy today without mentionning China or India. Just impossible!!! In this case, Osprey should resign to loose his leadership. My main "problem" with Osprey is quite the reverse to give the same treatment, 96 pages in the Campaign series, for battles like Stalingrad or Leningrad and Doolittle and St-Nazaire raids, or in the AEU series, for units such as JG7 or JV44 (only few months of activity) and JG52, in operation since the first day of the war with high ranking aces. Osprey, in my opinion, should develop, according to subjects, multi-parts volumes, like Kagero publishing for example.
But I say partially because like you Hugo, operation Nordwind and Messines will interest me. I sent a post a few weeks ago: I would like to see US 9th air force titles because these units are far less covered than their counterparts of the 8th AF and nevertheless paid a heavy toll for our freedom (Richard, I am still waiting a reply from Osprey!).
Osprey's customers are different and Osprey must satisfy all of them.
Report this comment
Hugo & Laurent you are having a debate we have frequently. And the answer is to try to do it all, cover both the major figures/events/units and also the lesser known but historically important ones as well. We strive for a balance and even hit it sometimes!
Laurent I sorry you've had no reply but all subjects are considered carefully and I'll make sure yours is on the list.
Report this comment
@ laurent14
"If I understand well your remarks, Osprey should give preferential treatment to lesser known armies or subjects."
No, not necessarily. My point was that a subject's apparent popularity shouldn't be the only factor taken into account when deciding which new books to publish. Sure, a book about D-Day appeals to a much wider audience than one about the June 1940 fighting in the Weygand Line, but it will also be entering a much more crowded field, and face much stiffer competition.
Written by Robert Forczyk and with the bonus of Osprey's visual presentation, a book covering the final stages of the Battle of France in the Somme/Aisne and beyond would fly off the shelves even if there were numerous books in English covering that campaign. And to the best of my knowledge there are none.
Re: the issue of multi-volume titles, those are made inevitable by the ridigity of the Osprey formats and assigned number of pages. Not that such rigidity is a bad thing; Osprey's strict adherence to its format rules are what makes purchasing its books without previously leafing through them possible, since we always know what we're going to get - which is a major competitive advantage in the field of military history publishing, since typically we never know if any given book whose subject looks interesting on paper will have the amount of detail, maps and annexes that we require.
But assigning a single volume to Stalingrad was a bad move by any standards. Sometimes it's best not to try to force everything into the same cookie cutter.
Report this comment