Almost there time for a new one

Well, the book is cataloged and up on the Osprey website.  You can see it here along with some of the illustrations they commissioned for the book.

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/Polish-Armies-of-the-Partitions-1770%E2%80%9394_9781849088558

Working up the artist notes, as I have said before is interesting.  Essentially, you set the scene you want the artist to portray, provide as many notes on the uniforms that the artist will produce and then walk away.  Yup, you have no further contact with the artist unless my editor came back with a question.  You may think this odd, but really it is the most practical.

Artists are generally not like Michelangelo brooding over their work and taking years (well some are).  Publishers can't wait indefinitely for the illustrations (some still do).  Ideally, both side use the old carpenters adage of essentially measure twice and cut once.  Once provide as thorough a description, get some sketches to make sure you are on the right track and give a deadline.  When I sent the notes in I also provided a sketch of what I thought the scene should look like.

If you don't do this, the temptation is to tweak everything.  When you are working on a cover for a book this might be possible.  Many artists work on the computer this this is not as painful as it might seem.  Still both sides want to be done and move on with the best product.  So, I didn't see the final product till it was put up on the website - all in all I think they came out pretty well.  I hope you like them.

So now I'm moving on to the next venture.  I started an imprint called Winged Hussar Publishing LLC, you can see it at www.wingedhussarpublishing.com.  I'm waiting till after the Polish Armies of the Partitions to come out before I do any other Polish history, so I am almost done working of an edition of Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars.

I expect The Gallic Wars to be out as an e-book on the 26th of November.  I was trying to get it out next week, but two weeks of delays from Sandy has hurt my schedule.  A week later expect a paperback edition to be available.  The Gallic Wars is edited and updated, meaning I have cleaned up a translation to make it readable to the modern ear, added maps, illustrations and a bunch of appendices dealing with people places and things of the period.  If you have not read Caesar's commentaries, or not read it for a while this is a great opportunity for you.  It is a fascinating work of the period and while Caesar does go on at time over the mundane, the picture he paints of the time and people is quite even handed.