At a recent Mildenhall Association
Reunion, I was approached by a guy who told me a story. Not about
the War, or a Bomber crew, but about the research and effort
put in to produce a book.
The guy had been to a few
publishers with the book he had written, based on, and dedicated
to his Uncle, who was 15 Sqdn Aircrew, and was killed in the
war. The Publisher response was awful. They were not interested.
In fact, the only interest he found was in them publishing the
book as a private venture, at a cost well into the thousands
of pounds.
I am sure his is not a unique
experience.
With the Web, we have an
opportunity to bypass the publishers, with their horrendous costs,
and do it our way. The few research pages, the stories, or the
full blown books CAN all be published, to a wider audience than
dreamed of.
So what is the concept?
I intend to "publish"
Geoff's book. The exact format is not yet finalised, but will
probably be along the lines of a synopsis, extracts and a PDF
file locked down to READ ONLY and published on "Stirling
Pilot" AT NO COST. The copyright will obviously remain with
Geoff, although if interest is there, a full download could be
made available at minimal cost.
After all, the objective
is not to generate whole piles of money; it is to honour and
preserve the memories and stories of the Bomber crews who flew,
fought and died for our today.
PLEASE, LET
ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS INITIATIVE, WHETHER AS A CONTRIBUTER
OR READER/HISTORIAN. YOU WILL DECIDE IF THIS CONCEPT PROCEEDS.
Stirling Pilott