A couple of years ago we launched our Filling the Gaps series of blog posts where we asked you what glaring omissions you had spotted in each of our series. We were stunned (and humbled) by the amount and quality of responses that we received over the 8 or so months that the series of blog posts ran for - and we continue to use much of the information we received in our planning for future titles. In fact in our recent Hitlist meeting, many of the titles that were discussed emerged from the Filling the Gaps results.
It is still too early to re-run the Filling the Gaps blog series because we are still working our way through the suggestions from a commissioning point of view, but one thing did stand out in conversations around the original vote and in more recent feedback - that as well as reaching out to new areas and subjects of military history we should also be considering looking back at some of the subjects we have already covered and revisiting those subjects.
Some of you have noted that some subjects deserve a more in-depth treatment - a good example would be the upcoming three-book Campaign series on Waterloo we have commissioned, which delves into much more detail than the original title in the Campaign series could. Similarly we are revisiting the Spanish Civil War in the Men-at-Arms series with a two book treatment that expands on the original MAA 74 that was published back in 1978. With our older series, some of our books are now 40+ years old too, so you may think they could benefit from an update. And sometimes there may be a subject that we have covered in one series, that you would like to see covered in a different series and from a different angle.
Now, there is simply too much out there that we haven't done yet for us to want to take up too much of our yearly program of publications with revisiting subjects we have already covered so we will be changing the suggestion requirements a little for the series by series votes.
Rather than choosing five subjects we are reducing the limit to two suggestions, with one added slot for supporting a suggestion made by someone else. If your suggestions have already appeared, pop them in anyway to lend your voice of support to the subject! We would also like you to include a short sentence explaining why we should revisit each subject you have suggested. As with the Filling the Gaps series we will then be taking the 5 most requested titles and putting it up for the public vote in our monthly poll.
With the Filling the Gaps suggestions we asked that you tried to keep in mind the commercial appeal of the books that you were suggesting - and we would urge you to follow a similar trend with this vote. A six book series on the Football War, detailing the kits of the footballers on the opposing teams as well as the soldiers who took part in the conflict might not be the most sensible series to commission.
The first of these 'What Subjects Should We Revisit' blogs will appear at the beginning of next month, so keep your eyes peeled!
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