Rolls

[Mike Dunn]

Rick-as we have talked-I'll take a full set-one of all that are printed. Also-let me have two of any W?rttemberg award rolls printed. Have a friend in Germay that will enjpy them. Thanks, Mike

Edited September 1, 2007 by Mike Dunn

[W McSwiggan]

Rick - can't resist - please put me in for one of each.

Regards,

wem

[Guest Rick Research]

I've counted the 2nd W?rttemberg in Europe's tally, Mike, since that won't need trans-oceanic shipping.

[Mike Huxley]

Rick / Daniel,

Please add me in for 1 copy of each. I've been looking forward to these since you first mentioned publishing.

How and when do I pay?

Regards, Mike

[Guest Rick Research]

We won't know until we hear from Michael Autengruber how many he has had printed. That's why I wanted to have a preliminary nose count here, so we can assure him that there IS a market, and large enough to recoup his outlay quickly.

The last time he printed rolls from Willi Geile and the late Erhard Roth in the early 1990s there was no such thing as the Internet.

Times Have Changed.

Rather than taking years for a small number of volumes to sell out one at a time, my fear is that they will sell out INSTANTLY now and not be enough.

As I understand it, the printers don't care WHICH volumes are being done, since price is by total UNITS/pages. We could theoretically have 50 Hohenzollerns, 2 W?rttembergs and no Weimars printed out if THAT was the demand, but I think most people realize that the wider the coverage, the better chance of spotting one of our "suspects" when a medal or ribbon bar or photo or lone award document turns up. I am gratified to see my Research Gnome Brothers also wanting the "full set" since I remember how hard it was getting the early 1990s volumes I wanted-- and never being able to find several of them.

Like small children the week of Christmas, we are waiting and waiting and waiting to find out How Many, How Much and WHEN.

[medalnet]

I will take one of each for sure.

[Mike Dunn]

Rick-if I understand you--I can pay for the extra W?rttemberg roll book and they will ship it to my friend in Germay? Also, as we have talked, if I can, I will buy at least one extra set. Mike

[Claudio]

Hi Rick,

I'd like to order one of each, too! (shipment to Switzerland)

Ciao,

Claudio

[Guest Rick Research]

Mike-- Yup, I counted that one in the Europe allotment. I hope we have enough for second sets, because I'd like to get a "spare" set myself.

[artofwar]

hI,

COUNT ME FOR 1 EACH OF ALL 5

TO NEW MEXICO

CHEERS

BOB

[Ed_Haynes]

I cannot imagine a serious publisher that will not at least print enough copies to meet pre-orders.

(I find this whole discussion to be fairly amazing.)

[Guest Rick Research]

It all comes down to money, Ed.

Michael is not a "publisher" in the permanent-business sense. There is no building, there is no staff for the imprint name. He is, and God bless him for it, an enthusiastic "phaleristics" data collector who, when and how he can with all his own personal financial resources at risk, sporadically prints books that did and otherwise never will see the light of day.

He is, simply enough, a PATRON of awards knowledge. There is no one else like him out there.

If it came down to the vanity press option, nothing would result. Neither Daniel nor I have ANY spare cash to sink into this. Even Neal O'Connor, for whom spare cash was not a burning issue, had to get his NOW sought after WW1 aviation books published with his own cash, and incredible as it seems NOW, it took long, long years to empty his garage of the pallets of piled up books selling one by one by one.

Theoretically, I suppose, Daniel and I could have announced our INTENTIONS to publish, raised cash by pre-subscription, and THEN tried getting the lists published

but that would have been a long, drawn out, awkward process to go through, which might in the end have foundered on being JUST THIS MUCH short of what was required. Ill-will, personal repercussions, messy book-keeping....

Instead, we have had the freedom to do the WORK, get it done, and since financial reward has not been the motivator for either of us, now it is up to Michael in the BUSINESS end. He's done it before, and he will do it again. We may chafe at delays and wish for more "product"... but it's HIS cash and his experience and his business work.

It would be nice if there was a National Endowment for the Arts "subsidy" for Struggling Militaria Authors, but there isn't.

Reverse of this situation-- in the U.S. (although all their books are actually printed in Still Red China) any and all "collecting" books (dolls to you name it) is Schiffer Publications. They "already" published "the" German Ribbon Bar Book (which unfortunately was dreadful) and as a result they have zero interest in ever doing "the same thing" again.

There's my OTHER collecting love, shut out FOREVER.

Vanity press? Out of the question due to the money issues. I may not be doing all of this to MAKE money, but I am certainly not going to do it all to LOSE money I don't have.

Hence... online (when AUTHORIZED ) and there will never ever EVER be any other version of my Heart's Labours after the New & Improved that will at some point in some FINAL form, go up here. Too much time and effort for literally ZERO return otherwise. (The Vatican, oddly enough, has to date expressed no interest in my living beatification....)

There are also other issues involved in our mutual decision as to where and how to publish. Incredibly, at least to an American, German printers CAN print, locally, quickly (ask Jani how he's faring with his ), and reasonably. (God knows how they feed their children....) Copyrighting book content in Germany is something that the Federal Republic (unlike our own Peking-beholden Republic) takes VERY seriously, so anybody STUPID enough to run off pirate copies of Daniel's and my work will find GERMANY on their copyright violatin' tails, not just a couple of peeved authors. I have a New York friend whose self published work has been brazenly bootlegged out of Arizona for years, and short of traveling out there and arranging an "accident" on a secluded section of highway (my preferred option, being a poor excuse for a Christian ), there seems no "solution" barring expense far greater than the satisfaction involves. (Same with my stolen Ribbon Bar Article, BTW. Dishonor may not be an impediment to the dishonorable, but everybody else knows it.)

"Commercial" publishers are not interested at all in our sort of marginal subject matter. Your Mega Work on awards, however your business arrangements have been made, has the allure of fantastic, exotic, ground-breaking and color pix to back up all that dusty, dry old boring "scholarship-stuff." Ours... are just lists of TEXT.

I've tried-- Lord knows, I've tried, to get scantily clad babes in color for the covers (My thoughts running along the lines of Grand Cross sashes and... well, JUST Grand Cross sashes ) but such is Not To Be.

[christerd]

Hallo !

I take one ex of the vol 1 Hoenzollern , for delivery to Sweden

Regards

Christer

[Noor]

One of each for me please when its possible.

Where I need to send money, etc?

Kind regards,

Noor

[Guest Rick Research]

We will let everyone know how much each volume will be (and how many are available) as soon as we hear how many Michael has had printed.

Just "counting noses" here so our GMIC friens (who have had to put up with all our moaning and endless posts) can be sure to get copies!

[Herr General]

1 of al 5, but I have to wait untill the prices are set. I a still a student and my income is variable

[Ulsterman]

I know you do not like OMSA because of past members' actions Rick, and fair enough-but the present day management -and the future leadership team (which will include Ed Haynes within 5 years or I am not a betting man) ...but OMSA I would bet would be happy to publish a ribbon bars book. Similarly if you were to do a ribbon bars of the world book I'd bet that Schiffer would take a very hard second look. Also, OMSA has an endowed research fund.

[Guest Rick Research]

Not to worry. I'm an old guy, and my INcome is still variable too! It's the OUTgo that always seems to be increasing--and that will never change as you get older!

Problem with a "pictures" book is getting the photography perfect enough. "Good enough" is... good enough for a free product, online. I've been asked about getting a ribbon bar project printed, but the problems are simply insurmountable:

so many people all over the planet have contributed items from their collections that it is not all in one place to be professionally photographed. Given the current crime wave in our nationally-pensioned mail services, there is simply no way I can or would ask people to send their irreplaceable items two ways through the postal pirates. If I had the world's greatest personal mega collection, which alas I do not, then the photographer could come here. But gathering in hundreds of items from all over the world for an indefinitely lengthy period to schedule that just isn't feasible, any more than intercontinetal travel to photograph 5 or 6 ribbon bars in 3 different countries. So THAT Just Ain'T Gonna Happen.

[Stijn David]

Hello,

I wanted to say that thanks towards Bernd D. the Lubeck Rolls are currently worked out.

David M. and myself are cooperating with Bernd to list the L?beck hanseatic cross up. The work is progressing ;-)

Cordial greetings,

[Herr General]

Are there any Dutch persons in the Rolls?

[Guest Rick Research]

There are a very few. Non-Germans are almost never identified as such, except in the Lippe-Detmold rolls (full job titles and places of birth included) but they usually have their rank or title in their own language. Most are lower level court or estate employees from vacation trips.

Typical entries from Schaumburg's roll are

"Junkherr van Tets, Adjutant" and "Baron de Voss von Steenwyk, Kabinetts Sekret?r"--

but then Schaumburg's roll isn't any better on identifying GERMANS , hence all our additional research work.

I doubt there are 100 Netherlanders in all these rolls so far. Handfuls of Italians or Swiss, an odd Frenchman (2 in Nicaragua in the 1860s!) or so... all usually depended on where the rulers themselves travelled. There is exactly one Egyptian--in Cairo-- out of all the rolls I've done. I can remember ONE odd, inexplicable award!

[Blitz]

Any finns in the rolls?

[Guest Rick Research]

None from the 5 states I did. Too late... too far away.

[David M]

Does anybody know if the FA crosses rolls are available, or should I contact the Archives in Oldenburg in order to find out?

[Dave Danner]

Does anybody know if the FA crosses rolls are available, or should I contact the Archives in Oldenburg in order to find out?

O'Connor stated that the rolls were there in Eutin, but apparently incomplete. He said that there were about 2,400 OFAK1s and 55,000 OFAK2s, but Friedhelm Beyreiss stated that as of the end of 1918, there were 6,900 awards of the OFAK1 and 62,800 of the OFAK2. O'Connor also noted that a number of known recipients from his prior research were missing from the rolls.