Should authors concentrate on projects or major aircraft types?

I'm a bit of a polymath, so I tend to like general books on projects. Although when I do find something of interest I like to get books on a specific aircraft;, tank or ships (my late mother used to refer to my hobby as anything that flies, floats or goes bang!!!!
 
Personally I think unless the author already has a maddening level of almost unhealthy fascination on a topic, which borders on obsession - the book in question is most unlikely to be good anyway. Therefore, my own view, is that it is a moot point discussing what they ought to write about.

If someone asked me to write my next book about the Bristol Blenheim, or 1950`s helicopter rotors, I`d be out the door running for the hills before the sentence was finished. There ARE book commisions, and authors do of course like more than ONE thing enough to write about - but I still think if you`re talking about really useful books which are actually properly researched - the writer will do what they want to.

I`m sure full-time professional writers may disagree as through sheer financial necessity they may well have trained themselves to be more broad-thinking... thats certainly not a skill-set I currently possess.

I think there is also a serious issue with money, I`m amazed how many people seem to have no idea how incredibly expensive it is to do proper research, and how long it takes. Unless you have the traditional "gentleman historian" who can afford to take a few years out to look into things properly, any author of normal-means will have virtually zero chance of recouping the costs of a fully-researched book of even small scope. Many authors I`m peripherally aquainted with rely on applying for grants from the likes of the Society of Authors to pay for food and rent while they write. Its a real problem for specialist-low volume work, and I`m not sure what the answer is, annoyingly - as I`m also pretty sure that paying £200 for a book is unlikely to be well recieved by readers!

A real quandry.... perhaps for many books their only chance of coming into being is if the writer is retired and has a good pension. I dare-say thats often exactly what happens.

The only idea I can come up with is more use of crowd-funding.
 
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Having worked for some years at a book publishing company, a few thoughts. Even when writing fiction, a lot of research is required. The process begins with an idea which is then supported, and augmented, by real-world information. The company I work for has a library with various books on various subjects. Generally, I'm asked to locate the best books and then they come in. Although I work primarily as an editor, I need to be familiar with what I'm reading. It's not just spelling and grammar but a cooperative arrangement where those things learned, combined with what is known by those involved, produces the best result. Tom Clancy is read by specialists and non-specialists.

Of course the non-fun parts are little known. The public only buys the finished product and just assumes that those behind the scenes have acquired their arcane knowledge somewhere, along with their skills. Crowd-funding won't work with something that is poorly done regardless of what it is. I regularly scan one major crowd-funding site and the high number of unfunded and little-funded projects is the norm. Those started by people with obvious skill usually get funded.

And prior to the internet, how did things get done? Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, the big 6, down to 5 now, have to be able to tell good work from bad, and know what the market wants regardless of genre. They've had years to compile historical information regarding what sells and why, and keep adding to it. This is popular now, tomorrow, perhaps something else. It's not quite true to say that the various markets/genres are cyclical but broadly speaking, they are. The public buys this, others produce more, the public tires of it and something else is published. Vanity presses existed in the past as now. But imagine the pre-internet publishing world as being the size of the Great Lakes in the US. Then imagine that number swelling to the size of all of the oceans combined post-internet. And believe me, the new tonnage is mostly bad since the delusion of freedom from editorial "interference" has created zero to very small sales for the newly "liberated." Those who do have some skill are going along and doing well, but newcomers who seem to operate in a 'there was no history of publishing prior to the internet' don't know how to do another valuable thing - promote their work. Fiction or nonfiction. Books are languishing after a few social media posts, and "Why isn't my book selling?" posts.

Large, established military book publishers are still out there. They have a built-in following. The amateurs may learn but many do not. Posting on various forums and asking very fundamental questions usually do not get answers from professionals. But somehow, again, that big "somehow," more books keep coming out from here and there.
 
In my opinion, an author is someone who has something to say, no matter through which publishing system, audience or price.

An author who accepts ideas from others, in exchange of payment, is just an employee.

Price of research has gone down a lot with Internet. The contacts that may be made in specialized pages, like Secretprojects.co.uk, are also very helpful. It is a formidable tool to exchange information, gain readers, connect with publishers and obtain references about the acceptance index of your ideas for new books.
 
Going back to the original question -

"This might be a suicide here but I do wonder why the extreme fetishist interest in books on projects and prototypes of insignificance while there are tremendous gaps in English-language literature of major significant aircraft?"

A large part of the interest in projects for serious aviation fans is simply the desire for something new, that you never even heard of before, or know only from brief mentions in other books. By buying this book you will know something hardly anyone else does, something secret - and that's the heart of what makes conspiracy theories attractive.

Much as I love the Harrier, there's a lot of books already published on the Harrier, and I own several of them. I learnt a lot from the first one, and pretty much less each subsequent book. How much new information will I find from buying another book on the Harrier?

But a book on the P.1154 - now that's a story told only in passing so far. Every page is going to be new.

The point about document survival is also very pertinent. Hawker archives contain the Hawker Day Book, which is basically a record of major daily events in the Project Office for each program, which includes projects like P.1121 and P.1154. I don't know how many famous, built aircraft have such a record still surviving.
 
I was really excited to look an an album of P.1154 photos at Brooklands back in Jan 2020, but there was a bunch of photos of small parts and nothing new really recognisable or interesting. It seems it hadn't progressed much beyond paper and mockup.

If anyone has more it's @Mike Pryce though :)
 
Overscan: The "tremendous gaps" mentioned in the original post are exactly gaps whose coverage would reveal that "new" information. In case of readers limited to English-language books, e.g. the available books on the Bf 109 are hopelessly inadequate, outdated and superficial. As Calum's book has proved, there is tremendous amount of archival material not exploited by authors of currently available 109 (or many other major German aircraft) books. And then Japanese aircraft. The newest technical research in English-language books is in most cases several decades old. Do we have a single English, say a Ki-43 book based on primary research in Japanese archives? I would be far more interested in a complete technical history of the Ki-43 in English vs. P. 1154.
 

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