The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 4, January 22, 2006, Article 5

ON UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS

In the MPCGram #1416 this week, Fred Schwan of BNR Press
commented on the problem of unfinished manuscripts.  I had
raised the topic here in the last issue of The E-Sylum.
He writes: "Unfortunately, I have a few unpublished
manuscripts.  Of the three that I am thinking of (there
might be more), there is a continuum of likelihood that
they will ever be published. In order from most likely to
(eventually) be published they are (titles approximate):
United States Defense and War Bonds, World War II Allied
Military Currency, and Military Vignettes.

All three of these were near publication at one time or
another. The most interesting story here is about Military
Vignettes. In the 1970s and 80s I wrote a monthly column
called Military Vignettes for the Bank Note Reporter.
Eventually, I decided to publish an anthology of these
many columns. The special hook was that I would publish
the articles as they originally appeared with annotations.

This was in about 1984. Word processors were not what they
are now, but still I had one and worked real hard on the
project. I got most or all of the articles typed. I also
wrote most of the annotations. In many cases the annotations
were as long or even longer than the original articles. I
must say that the articles and annotations included some
really good information.

As mentioned in The E-Sylum, the last 10% causes a lot of
trouble and often means the difference between publishing
and not. In this case I never got the last 10% done. However,
I did make up a mock-up of the cover. I also photographed it
and included it on a price list somewhere along the line.
I am pretty sure that I never accepted any money for copies
because I think that (among other things) I never decided
on a price. Some other project got in the way.

Unfortunately, Grover Criswell lifted the notice with picture
of the cover from some sales literature and included it on a
price list of his. He must have put a price on it because I
believe that he took a few orders. Grover was infamous for
taking orders for vaporbooks and this was one of his worst
examples.

Now for the really good part. You can go to Amazon.com today
and look for this title with author Schwan and find that it
is out of print. I would say that that is an understatement!"

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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