"The Secret Horsepower Race" - Available to pre-order

[Deleted member 68059]

My WW2 fighter engines book now available for pre-order after a 5 year wait.

If you intend to buy one please do pre-order it as it helps the publisher to see how popular it will be and might mean we get a bigger print-run...
This wont be a print-on-demand, but a high quality hardback so its a good long-term investment.

A4 about 350+ pages and 1/4 million words. Fully referenced to archival documents, about 500 archival referenced documents shown.

Not for modelling fans, and those wanting an in-depth on V1710 or R2800 should buy Dan or Grahams existing books, but if you want to know things
like why the British didnt use direct inject, who decided that, when and why - or why the Daimler-Benz DB628 didnt work, or why the DB605 was
ACTUALLY de-rated, this is one for you, also contains a lot on German fuels, and intelligence work. Has photo of Me409 with DB628 engine....

With the cooperation of Gli Archivi Ritrovati an italian edition of the book will also later be released. It will contain added information on the italian engine industry (Con la collaborazione de Gli Archivi Ritrovati stiamo realizzando una versione specifica del libro, che conterrà capitoli aggiuntivi sugli sviluppi dell'industria motoristica italiana).

 

[jetcal1]

Pre-ordered. Good luck with sales.

BTW, you've haven't seen a pre-order thread for a book on the Martin B-10 have you?

 

[b0ned0me]

My WW2 fighter engines book now available for pre-order after a 5 year wait.

Does it make any difference to you whether a sale goes via Amazon or Mortons?
The big A have unmatched convenience but I have heard they can be pretty brutal on the finances of small publishers and authors.

 

[rprosperi]

Looks like a great book, I look forward to seeing this.

The amazon link posted above notes: "This item does not ship to the United States".

Any chance of having it listed as another Amazon item that will ship to US? Shipping from Morton's will be killer since it's such a large book (thanks for that btw).

Edit: Found one!
Hmm... feeling noobish.... can't seem to post a link here, but just goto amazon and search by title.

 

[jetcal1]

Looks like a great book, I look forward to seeing this.

The amazon link posted notes: "This item does not ship to the United States".
Any chance of having it listed as another Amazon item that will ship to US? Shipping from Morton's will be killer since it's such a large book (thanks for that btw).

It's available on the US Amazon site.

 

[jetcal1]

 

[Mal H]

Also available in US for preorder at Barnes & Noble where I have placed my order. I am looking forward to reading it.

 

[Deleted member 68059]

Also available in US for preorder at Barnes & Noble where I have placed my order. I am looking forward to reading it.

Oh, thanks. I didnt know you could order it from them...haha. I`m not really involved with sales other than persuading people to buy it....

 

[Deleted member 68059]

Pre-ordered. Good luck with sales.

BTW, you've haven't seen a pre-order thread for a book on the Martin B-10 have you?

Thank you for ordering it, its not a tremendously expensive book - but money is money and I appreciate people taking a "punt".

This is one advantage of a traditional publisher (a couple of years ago I was thinking about a print-on-demand) as you can do a reasonable print run
and therefore sell a pretty thick A4 hardback with 350+ pages for less than 40 dollars. Trust me the content is not bargain basement.

With print on demand, a similar book actually COSTS about 25 dollars each just to print it, so to make it worthwhile, a self-published print
on demand would have been at least 50 or 60 dollars. Colour and hardback are real killers for print cost.

 

[jetcal1]

Thank you for ordering it, its not a tremendously expensive book - but money is money and I appreciate people taking a "punt".

This is one advantage of a traditional publisher (a couple of years ago I was thinking about a print-on-demand) as you can do a reasonable print run
and therefore sell a pretty thick A4 hardback with 350+ pages for less than 40 dollars. Trust me the content is not bargain basement.

With print on demand, a similar book actually COSTS about 25 dollars each just to print it, so to make it worthwhile, a self-published print
on demand would have been at least 50 or 60 dollars. Colour and hardback are real killers for print cost.

A passing acquaintance of mine now makes more working as a professional aerospace photographer than he did authoring his own books and owning a publishing company.

As a personal note to you, I'm thrilled by anyone who takes up the gauntlet of writing a book. Thank you!

 

[Deleted member 68059]

Does it make any difference to you whether a sale goes via Amazon or Mortons?
The big A have unmatched convenience but I have heard they can be pretty brutal on the finances of small publishers and authors.

As it turns out its much better for me personally, and the publisher if you order from them directly.

Amazon undercut the publisher, and it means the pre-order money
isnt "seen" by the publisher until Amazon ships the books, in the current "situation", for that reason I recommend supporting my publisher -
if you are able to (I think Amazon have discounted it about 15%)

 

[tomo pauk]

As it turns out its much better for me personally, and the publisher if you order from them directly.

Amazon undercut the publisher, which is fine for them and buyers, but effectively means we get less money, and it means the pre-order money
isnt "seen" by the publisher until Amazon ships the books, in the current "situation", for that reason I recommend supporting my publisher -
if you are able to (I think Amazon have discounted it about 15%)

If one is from Europe, it is far better deal to buy from an European publisher.

Bill's upcoming book is listed to cost 43GBP to Croatia (p&p included) at Osprey, while the same book is listed beyond 100USD (hundred+USD) if one orders it from Amazon. The big A offers only the most expensive p&p (2-4 working days), and a very suspect 20+ USD custom fee.

 

[Deleted member 68059]

Currently working on final "page-check" for the last 2 chapters, we hope to send to the printing press within 10 days.

This careful checking process comes complete with the additional approval of "cat", who has supervised the entire process, and has at certain moments insisted on long pauses in the checking process.

 

[pbehn]

Currently working on final "page-check" for the last 2 chapters, we hope to send to the printing press within 10 days.

This careful checking process comes complete with the additional approval of "cat", who has supervised the entire process, and has at certain moments insisted on long pauses in the checking process.

View attachment 594173

They look like normal pawses to me.

 

[Crimea_River]

Where's that coat....

Thanks for the update. I have a slight concern about my order in that the Morton Book pre-order charged only the cost of the book but did not account for the shipping cost to Canada. Somehow, the site did not apply it and so I hope that I don't have an issue.

 

[Deleted member 68059]

The manuscript is now at the print-house, and we expect actual postal distribution to occur in 5 weeks time.

Thanks for the patience of everyone who has been waiting months for it to be finished...

Here is a very short 22 pages "sneak-peek" the publisher made just so you get a feel for what sort of thing it is:

THE SECRET HORSEPOWER RACE - WESTERN FRONT FIGHTER ENGINE DEVELOPMENT (Preview)

Exciting late developments include a glowing foreword by one of the most highly respected contemporary Technical Directors in Formula-One racing James Allison
at Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 - who described it as the engine development equivalent to Alfred Price's "The Instruments of Darkness", on electronic warfare development.

Final page count confirmed at 480 pages A4 (amazon has studiously ignored our attempts to correct the page-count on their website).

Anyone in the first 600 who orders from Mortons (link below) will get an autographed copy, as of yesterday about 468 of these had sold. Of the total first print-run
is 2000 copies, and including orders from other outlets 1292 of 2000 have gone. Given that it has not even reached shelves yet, I would encourage anyone
who doesnt want to hang about waiting for a 2nd print-run to order sooner rather than later. Its not print-on-demand, and no E-book, so if you want one
after the 2000 have gone, it might be a while.

8504 - THE SECRET HORSEPOWER RACE - WESTERN FRONT FIGHTER ENGINE DEVELOPMENT | Mortons Books

Chris Starr who restored the engine of the RAF's last flying Bf109G (Black-6), has described it as "revelatory".

 

[SpicyJuan11]

Great!!!

 

[Marcel]

Nice work. Maybe I need something for this year's Christmas....

 

[fastmongrel]

Just put my order in via Mortons.

 

[Deleted member 68059]

Sales update, we`ve now sold 1400 of the 2000 total print-run, and still 3 weeks away from the shipment of books arriving for distibution.

There are 100 left in the "to be signed" category, of the 600 we designated to be signed which were 1st come 1st served for those who
ordered from the publisher direct:

8504 - THE SECRET HORSEPOWER RACE - WESTERN FRONT FIGHTER ENGINE DEVELOPMENT | Mortons Books

I hope the Foreword below shows where the excitment is coming from.

Thanks to all who have ordered a copy, its taken almost 6 years to research and write so its nice to finally get
something back for it !