You can post suggested titles in this new series during the survey, so could you please post title suggestions in there rather than under this blog! Thanks everyone!
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Hmmmm! Ok, I’ve filled in the survey but… You guys are going to have to be really careful here as the potential for overlap is massive. With Aircraft of the Aces (particularly the earlier ones), Combat aircraft and Duel all at least touching on the technical details (and covering them in some detail in some cases) of many of the key military aircraft types the possibility is that you could end up simply re-hashing material that has already been printed else where. The same could be said of colour profiles, with all three of the above current series using them, as well as Aviation Elite Units, you could easily end up just re-printed the same profiles!
For the new series to be significantly different from the four current series covering aircraft (five if you include New Vanguards coverage of helicopters) it will have to take a very technocentric look at the aircraft types discussed almost to the point of being a sort of Hynes Manual for military aviation buffs. The use of any battle scenes (one of Osprey’s great strengths), combat histories, unit histories and first hand accounts of the aircraft in action will simply mean that you are, in all likelihood, simply re-writing one or more of the existing series under a different name.
All the best with the new series and I hope it goes well, I’ll certainly be watching it with interest, but please be careful and try to avoid the spectre of too much overlap.
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Thanks for the extended feedback Adam! We are very conscious of the need to avoid repetition as much as possible. One of the things that has really drawn us to this series is the added ability to cover a wider range of aircraft than we can cover in, for example, the ACE and Duel series.
In terms of profile art, we will aim to never repeat profile art that already exists in one of our other books - though with some aircraft types - that may be harder.
But yes we will be very careful of just repeating material!
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I agree with AdamC's comments and would like to expand on something he touches on in his post. With this series Osprey is entering into a crowded field and I know you're weighing the risks and costs of developing a new series carefully. I know also on launching a new series the thought is to put out some 'safe' titles first like you did with Command and Weapon. While I understand this, I also think the market is over saturated with P51 Mustang, Spitfire, B17, Bf109 Avro Lancaster titles (to name some aircraft from my area of interest WW2 aviation). To someone like myself, who buys a lot of books, a new purchase of a title on one of these aircraft would have to be a standout. For me the strength of this proposed series will be if/when it covers aircraft less well covered like Heinkel He 219, Nakajima B6N Jill, Short Sunderland, or Macchi C.202 Folgore for example. Look forward to future updates on the progress.
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I'm very happy that you have decided to take up this new series. I have always wanted aircraft titles like the New Vanguard series (and made a lot of proposals for aircraft under this series) as I'm really interested in their development, design history and evaluation of their effectiveness and impact and not so much in Aces and combat histories of which I own less than a dozen. I will definitely pick up a lot of these titles, I do however agree with Mark that I will probably skip the obvious titles Spitfires, Mustangs, etc, although I expect that they will sell well nonetheless. One of my favorite aircraft books is Jiro Horikoshi's Eagles of Mitsubishi, which tells the full development story of the famous Zero fighter. Combine this with your excellent colour artwork and a lot of photo's and I think you have a winner.
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Fantastic initiative! Besides that please don't worry too much about overlap...
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First, I have to disagree that it would be a "crowded field". On the
contrary. While there are some excellent and detailed technical
monographs out there, they are not too many and even then they tend to
be at the higher price range (say over £40). Therefore there is a
significant gap on the market.
Second, I definitely agree that the series should strictly concentrate
on discussion of the development, structure & systems, performance and
handling. By concentrating on these issues it is possible to give
reasonably detailed treatment within the page limit (96 pages if you ask
me).
It would be imperative to discuss performance in detailed and analytical
manner. There is plenty of data available in primary sources and it
would simply not do that some figures are thrown in without information
on power settings etc. In other words, the series should be developed
with the idea that each book would have significant value as a serious
reference. By concentrating on the essentials, this would be doable with
fixed length books.
Third, illustrative coverage should provide internal detail through the
use of manual drawings etc.
Fourth, there should be discussion and analysis on handling.
Fifth, the publisher should encourage also newer authors to join, not
just the old tired war horses. It would be a serious mistake to rely on
authors whose research has stagnated to the 1970s. One such new high
calibre author is American Jared Zichek.
A part of this would be to have German authors writing on German
aircraft and so on. In other words, please, no more Alfred Price and his
regurgitated material!
One more thing: I have a recollection that is some cases "technical art" has been simply multi-view or profile line drawings. Not so. Technical art must mean interior detail drawings, cutaways, system diagrams.
If the series comes to being and does provide detailed discussion and
analysis of the development, structures, systems, performance and
handling based on solid primary research, I will be buying a significant
number of titles on pre-1945 aircraft!
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If the series is not generalist containing operational history like New Vanguard me and many others are definitely NOT interested!
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ASM, the market is full of such generalist books. A certain publisher's landscape format paperback series is an example. Therefore it would be a huge mistake to make it a generalist series. Plus that given the relatively limited amount of space the inclusion of operations descriptions would be off elsewhere.
As for the New Vanguard series, I wish it concentrated more on the vehicles themselves, less on which division had how many of them. Only operational experiences relating to the characteristics of the vehicle should be included.
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Hmm a certain publisher's landscape format paperback series is actually a very good example, but you might have noticed that they practically don't do them anymore! Also they never reprint. This leaves a gab I think...
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Speaking as one who owns 250 Osprey books, 150 Squadron Signal books, 50 Ginter books and 50 Concord books, I'm a big fan of military books that are part of series. I also think that an "Aero Vanguard" series is a natural product line extension for Osprey. But I'm not sure how the "Aero Vanguard" series will be distinctive. Does the world really need another P-51 book, another B-17 book, another F-14 book? I doubt that I would purchase books on those subjects. Osprey could focus on more obscure military aircraft (examples: the B-50, the Nimrod, the Viggen). That would be of interest to me, but I'm not sure that Osprey make a viable business based on obscure aircraft only.
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One can only agree
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How does one define obscurity? For example, many very famous aircraft like the Ki-43, Ki-44, A-20 Havoc, G4M are very poorly covered. Especially Japanese and Italian aircraft virtually uncovered in English. Note that there are some general works, but is there a good technical book on the Ki-43 Hayabusa in English?
Kpkatz, I am talking about a bit similarish to those Ginter books, but more text oriented.
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"Obscure" means not well covered by existing publications. For example, the B-17, P-51 and the F-14 are not obscure. The B-50, Nimrod and Viggen, while not obscure in the strict sense of that word, are not covered well in current books. The A-20 would fall in between.
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Then in that case there should be no problem to market volumes on "obscure" aircraft like the Ki-43, Ki-67, G4M, Fiat G.55, Reggiane fighters and so on. In case of British aircraft, how about Fairey Albacore, Barracuda, Firefly, Fulmar and so on.
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I look forward to All suggested titles so far!
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Jukka, all excellent choices.
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I must say I was hoping for some WW1 content - RE8 - DH4 - Roland Walfisch - Albatros 2 seaters at least! But then again I also hope for some post WW2 jets DH Vampire - Hawker Hunter - English Electric Lightning - F104 Starfighter. But which is better - I suppose there's only one way to find out .....:)
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