The first I knew about it was when I was alerted by a tweet from @penswordbooks last Wednesday, 17th July: “The Wargaming Compendium is coming soon, follow the author Henry Hyde @battlegames for more! http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/the-wargaming-compendium/p/3159/ … #wargaming “
As you are no doubt aware, there have been a number of false starts over several months. Both I and my potential readers have been left reeling from the continual on-off-on-off roller coaster ride, and so when I saw Pen & Sword’s tweet, I thought I’d better do the sensible thing.
I called them.
I was informed by my contact at P&S, Katie Eaton, that it was indeed true. The container holding 2,000-odd copies of my books had delivered its payload and even as we spoke, copies were being rushed out to those who had pre-ordered the book direct from them. Supplies would be going out to all the well-known bookstores and online retailers over the coming days.
I was gratified to see that the first review appeared on Facebook within just a couple of days of having that conversation. Laurence Baldwin, a veteran member of the Newark Irregulars and co-organiser of the Partizan and Other Partizan shows, wrote:
Just received my pre-ordered copy of The Wargaming Compendium from Pen & Sword today – blown away by it, and looking forward to poring over the hugely diverse content. This one is destined to be a classic description of the hobby, a once in a generation book. Chapeau Henry Hyde, chapeau!
Naturally, I’m pretty chuffed about that, and I hope that once he has indeed had the chance to read the thing from cover to cover (a task that may take, quite literally, a month of Sundays), he will feel the same way!
If you still haven’t bought a copy, both Pen & Sword and Amazon are doing hefty discounts. I gather that Amazon has contacted all its pre-order customers to say that their copies will probably arrive next week. Pen & Sword seem to give the quicker turnaround, but don’t discount as heavily. I can’t speak for other retailers, but I know that Barnes & Noble in the US appear to be offering a substantial discount too although, like Amazon, this may be based on the very, very old information they were displaying, listing the book as having just 256 pages! I have contacted both Amazon and Barnes & Noble who, I believe, have now updated both the ‘blurb’ and the page count. Waterstone’s appear to be in a vacuum of their own making, with a hugely out-of-date listing and the book still not available. You can help us by pestering your local branch of Waterstones to get that corrected, as there seems to be no way for an author to contact them direct via email.
If you are already waiting for your copy, then I hope it arrives soon and, of course, very much hope that you feel the same way as Laurence does! If you do like the book, then I will appreciate it hugely if you take a few minutes to say so with a brief review on Amazon or elsewhere.
Finally, a reminder that I’ve created a website to accompany the book and I’m hoping to release a lot of additional goodies there on 1st August, such as playsheets, playing aids and so forth.
Roll ’em high!
Henry, I’ve just taken receipt of my copy of ‘The Wargaming Compendium’ what a beautiful, inspiring book ~ and that’s after only a quick scan through. It’s brilliant. Thank you very much indeed.
Thanks for your kind words, Ernie. I hope you enjoy the full read-through. 🙂
Henry – just ordered it! (from Amazon :D)
Hi Henry
Just came back from the Post Office having collected “The Wargaming Compendium”. Obviously I haven’t had time to read it yet. But first impressions are excellent.
Superb production values and layout. Staggering range of content and lovely photos and illustrations. If the text if half as good as the book looks it will become an instant wargaming classic. Fit to sit alongside “The War Game” and “Charge!”. Its been a long time in coming – but good things come to those that wait 🙂
Incredible value at £16 from Amazon (and no delivery charge as a Prime subscriber).
You must be very pleased with the result.
Regards
Alan Charlesworth
Thank you for your very kind comments, Alan – though Amazon flogging it for 16 quid compared to the RRP of £35 is a somewhat controversial issue! It unfortunately means that bricks-and-mortar retailers have no incentive to stock it.
Yes I would agree. Although the likes of Amazon, on the face of it, seem to be good value for the consumer, there are other issues involved. By cornering a lot of the distribution and cutting margins there is a big disincentive for authors and publisher to bother producing books that have relatively limited print runs.
Dear Henry,
today i received your book and it is a stunner! There is nothing i dont like about it and especially for a beginner like me a great source!
May i just ask you one favour , could you bring more scenarios/tabletopteasers for 4×6 feet tables in future magazines and boks? ( i love the scenario in the compendium!)
My best regards and compliments
Elmar
Vienna
Hi Elmar, thanks for your kind comments. 🙂
I’ll do my best to include scenarios suitable for small tables – but of course, I rely on other contributors to send them in. I can’t write them all! The other thing you can always do is scale down any scenario originally designed for a larger table, especially if you use smaller miniatures (15, 10 or 6mm as opposed to 28mm).
Henry – Just for the record, I signed up for notification with Amazon and have heard nothing from them. I just checked again and they show me as waiting but I cannot preorder or purchase yet. Not sure if there is anything to be done but wait – be it ever so impatiently 😉
Thanks!
Jim
Unfortunately, Jim, Amazon are a law unto themselves…
nice book covers most things well worth the wait even my grandson was interested in it had a job to get it of him
Great news Henry! I shall place an order sharpish!
Cheers
Paul
Just purchased mine from Book Depository for AUD$40, with free worldwide shipping. 🙂 (They also have the book listed at only 256 pages.)