New upcoming book on Vietnam bring back weapons!

[WWIIBuff1945]

Hello everyone,
I would like to announce my upcoming book on Vietnam bring back weapons. I’ve noticed over the past few years, a growing interest in bring back weapons so I decided to publish a book on the subject. I’m trying to judge interest in such a book and figure out how many copies to get printed.
This book is non-profit and all proceeds after printing costs will be donated to the Honor Flight South Florida Organization. To those not familiar with the Honor Flight Organization, they take veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam on an all-expense paid one day trip to DC to visit the War Memorials.
The book showcases 39 veterans. Each veteran’s story is broken into three sections: The first highlights the vets service history in detail if known. The second gives a brief history of the Division/Unit he served in and lastly, a short history of the weapon and when possible, the story of its acquisition.
The last section of the book includes 10 pages of VC made bring backs not tied to specific veterans plus VC grenades and even a Chinese RPG Rocket Launcher! There also is a six page section of period photos showing soldiers and dignitaries holding captured enemy weapons.
The book will be hard cover, approximately 270 pages of premium paper with full color. From my calculations, the books printing cost will be around $35 a copy and adding an additional $5 for donation to Honor Flights bring the total to $40 plus shipping. USPS Media mail will be the preferred shipping costing around an additional $5. I am not asking for any money up front. When I have the books in hand, I will notify those interested via this thread or by PM. I am projecting a Mid-January completion date.
I was trying to post one vet’s section who was an Airborne Advisor who brought home a WWII era Luger that he himself captured but the PDF is too large to do here. Please PM me with your email and I will be glad to send it out to you? I have blocked out the serial number on the gun and paperwork but the full information will be shown in the book.
I would like to thank everyone for their interest in my book.
Thanks Keith

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[MAP]

Looks like a real interesting topic. Will also be interesting to see what unexpected types of weapons were brought home and make it into the book.

I will add a re-direct of this thread in the Forum Reference Library.

[WWIIBuff1945]

Thank you sir!

[MAP]

Put me down for a copy. Always willing to help out a good cause

[Rakkasan187]

Keith,

Put me down for a copy, I know how hard you worked on this book.

I am glad I was able to help out with the MAS 36

Best regards

Smitty

[lebus12]

Very interesting....

[WWIIBuff1945]

Thanks guys! Smitty got you down for a copy. Thanks again for the lead on the MAS36. Its actually a nice shooter!

[WWIIBuff1945]

Thanks again for the interest everyone! After posting in a few forums, I'm up to 60 copies so far. My friend has a Facebook group on bring backs and made a post there so I'm sure there will be plenty more.

[WWIIBuff1945]

Book is done I'm currently getting some quotes from book printing companies. It showcases 48 veterans and other weapons brought home from unnamed veterans. Its 320 pages now!


I'm trying to decide how many copies to get printed. The more you get printed the cheaper they are.


I have around 150-200 pre-orders right now and I was going to do 250 initially but now thinking 500-1K. Honestly, I've showed the book to a few people and they love it so I think it will take off.


Its not cheap to get a book printed. I'm looking at around 10K for 250 (42 a copy includes shipping/taxes) or 17K for 500 (34 a copy sh/taxes)). If I have 1K printed overseas it probably will be 20K plus (around 22 a copy). I have to also buy shipping boxes on top of all this. Either way a nice sum of money to come up with! I really don't want to collect any money in advance in case any issues arise but I might have to. I would prefer to have a US company do the job but its much cheaper overseas.


Getting close everyone. Thanks for your patience.

[Chopperman]

I'll take a copy.

It sounds like an interesting book and it is a great cause. My old friend who lived across the street
from me was a ww2 vet and he was able to take part in one of the DC trips. It was a grteat thing
for him to do and he talked about it for months afterwards.