Bayonet Book going out of print

[bayonetman]

I have been told that my book, American Military Bayonets of the 20th Century is now out of print. If you have any interest in getting one, some dealers will still have stock so you might check around to see who still has some. I do see it advertised on eBay from time to time.

 

This is happening because the printing plates are no longer useable, and the cost of making new plates is so high that it just does not make financial sense for a book that only sells about 10 copies a month anymore. Scott and I discussed this in some depth and we finally agreed that although we feel the book is still of interest, it would take too long to recoup the cost.

 

As some of you know, I have created a CD that covers most of the information that I have found since the book was printed in 1997, a lot of which was put on the internet as Bayonet Points on Frank Trzaska's great websitehttp://www.usmilitaryknives.com/

 

However, it would be entirely too time consuming for me to reformat the CD into a print book, and with the number of photos, many in color, that I use would run the printing cost up to a level that would greatly limit the potential market. Also a lot of the material is of interest only to the more advanced collector which would limit its appeal to those who have a more limited interest. I do have some copies of the CD if any more of you are interested - just PM me.

 

When I created the original book one of the goals was to create a book that would sell for about $20 which we felt would allow almost anyone to add it to their library. That worked pretty well as the total print run has been nearly double what was originally expected. I sincerely thank all of you who bought a copy and found it useful.

 

Scott asked if I could possibly rework the existing book to add new material and make it of interest even to those who already have the first book. I am looking into that, but finances, age and health issues limit what I can do. If I do decide to create a second book, my thinking is that I will make several changes.

 

1. Use of photos rather than the line drawings of the first book, which would allow more detail to be shown. I would convert most of the photos to black and white as the printer says that to print pages in color will significantly raise the cost of printing.

 

2. Limit the number of bayonet models discussed in order to add more detailed information to the ones of most common interest. In the first book I discussed many bayonets that most of us will never own and which therefore most people don't care all that much about. This would be done to hold the total number of pages down to the point where the selling price of the book, although higher than $20, would still be in the reach of most collectors.

 

3. Leave out much of the detailed contract information and other charts and tables that are on the CD and summarize them. Again this will keep the number of pages down and, to face facts, most collectors don't really care what the contract numbers and dates are.

 

The whole project is still very much up in the air and I certainly don't want to say it will ever happen. As mentioned, my health is not good and I am somewhat limited in the time I can devote to it. Some of you know that I had a major heart attack two years ago, severe enough that I had to be resuscitated twice and had triple bypass surgery. Since then I have had further complications, some problems with blood clots, and some fairly minor strokes and am still undergoing therapy. Although I had decent insurance, the time I was in the hospital and rehab and off work cost me so much that I had so sell some of my reference collection to cover costs. I had to retire (not a real surprise, I am 73) and my current income is enough to live on but leaves very little to devote to my hobby. To properly illustrate a new book, I would almost have to recover some of what I sold, and that is just not going to happen. Also I get about 15-20 emails a day and I do try to answer them even though I get way behind sometimes.

 

Any comments that you all may have about what you would like to see in a book, keeping in mind that I am trying to keep it under 150-175 pages and hopefully under $40 if possible, will be appreciated. To keep the wasted forum space down, feel free to email me at [email protected].

 

Thanks to all that took the time to read through all of this.

[Bob Hudson]

There are 20 copies available currently through Amazon.com, starting at $17.95

 

http://www.amazon.com/American-military-bayonets-20th-century/dp/1888722088

[thorin6]

I don't know about other folks in this forum, but I would like to volunteer any of my collection that would help in putting such a book together. Either I could send the bayonet to someone to be photographed, take photo's my self, or some other arrangement. I assume that most of us have one or more example(s) that would help, so if I(we) knew what bayonets might be needed, we could work out something.

I might add that I have your book, your CD, Cole's III and IV, and still feel I could use some more information.