Still hard at work

I haven't had time to give an update before now as real-life work and family have crimped some writing time.  I will be off to Book Expo next week, promoting our Black Library line and if the opportunity arises, scoping out books for use in this project or promoting it.  Usually, I am too busy to wander too far, but there is always the potential.

I think part of the challenge to a task like this is not only managing your time to keep it moving forward, but manage your own expectation.  As I delved deeper into the research, I kept finding different avenues to follow.  Even in history, new research replaces old research and theories.  I started using Knotel as the base and expanded from there.    In the process, either the English translation of Knotel was wrong, or he misinterpreted some info because I have found issues in some of his notes.  Additionally, using Polish sources such as Ratajczyk and Gembarzewski has raised more questions as I try to track down information on units formed in the 1790's.  At some point your have to cut off looking and start organizing. I do this periodically to keep ahead of the curve.  But I spent a goo part of the first part of the year translating a book called Zolnierz polski because it was such a good reference source.

In the end, the challenge is going to be not only what I put in this book, but what I have to cut out.  More on that later.

Island of Misfit words

One of the hardest things about writing this history is working within the limits on words.  When you are commissioned to write, most works have parameters on how many words it will contain.  That is because all books have set prices by format and a recommended page count to fit in that format.  Write too many words and you either make the font smaller or include more pages.  If you include more pages you eat into the profit margin.  Make the font too small and people squint to read.  As I went along in the process doing research I was worried at first that  I wouldn't have enough information on uniforms to make this unique.  Now I have to decide what to cut and what will stay - more descriptions or more narratives.  Whatever doesn't make it in the final printed version can always be added in the e-book I guess.  So there are always words that get cut.  Sometimes writers save them to use later, sometimes they just get sent to the Island of misfit words.

Day 2 - still here

I am slowly getting the hang of this and will fill in the blanks.  The pub date of the book is sometime in the later part of 2012 by the fine people at Osprey.  Yes - publishing works that far in advance. Publishers are currently selling in books for the later part of 2011 and early 2012.  In most cases you want something tangible before you announce that you are publishing a book.  I've been working on this - collecting info, sorting through resources, etc since the summer of 2010

So it begins

I decided to launch this on May 3rd, because giving the book I am working on - Polish Armies of the Partitions 1770-1795 what better date to start than the anniversary of the Constitution.  Check in to see what updates I have on this book and any other things I am working on.  A some point I plan to show how to create a Polish Army in miniature.  Good books I have been reading and interesting (I hope) insight into publishing in general.  In addition to this humble work my day job for the past seventeen years has been working in many parts of the publishing industry