"how low can an author go to sell a book" Topic

I love hollins link, it is so typical of him and even more typical of his way of dealing with people who review his work on amazons as well.

Ironically, thus I find it pretty funny he would post this link because to me it looks like he is throwing himself into the mud…

For anyone interested, the following references are very useful when studying General Gribeauval and his artillery system, and they also refute some of the nonsense that keeps reappearing in print and on the forums:

-Gribeauval, Lieutenant general des armees du roi (1715-1789) by Pierre Nardin.

-Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763-1815 by Ken Alder.

-The New Use of Artillery in Field Wars: Necessary Knowledge by Jean du Teil.

-L'Histoire de la Artillerie Francaise by Michel Lombares.

-L'Artillerie de Campagne Francaise Pendant les Guerres de la Revolution: Evolution de l'Organization et de la Tactique by Matti Lauerma.

-L'Artillerie Francaise (1665-1765) Naissance d'une Arme by Frederic Naulet.

-American Artillerist's Companion by Louis de Tousard.

-Elementary Treatise on the Forms of Cannon and Various Systems of Artillery by N. Persy

-L'Artillerie au Debut des Guerres de la Revolution by G. Roquerol.

-Gribeauval, Lieutenant-General des Armees du Roy

-The Systeme Gribeauval by Howard Rosen.

What these references, and others, clearly demonstrate is that Gribeauval was a school-trained artillery officer, not an engineer (and that there was no such animal as a 'siege engineer'); that he had combat service in the field during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748); that he had service with the Austrian artillery arm in the Seven Years' War as well as organizing and training the Austrian sapeur corps of three companies, and commanded the Austrian artillery in the siege of Schweidnitz. He was recognized as 'general de bataille, commandant en chef du genie, de l'artillerie et des mineurs' by Empress Marie Louise as well as being promoted in the Austrian service to general officer rank as well as being decorated with the Order of Maria Theresa.

The artillery system he developed was not a copy of the Lichtenstein System (nor was the Systeme AN XI for that matter) but a much improved and robust field artillery system. It should also be mentioned that the Lichtenstein System itself was designed and fielded because the Austrian artillery was badly handled by the new Prussian field artillery in the War of the Austrian Succession. Much of that work was done by the Prussian artillery von Holtzman and much of what Lichtenstein designed and fielded, especially the gun carriages and the screw quoin used for elevating and depressing the gun tubes. The Lichtenstein System was not the first light field artillery system in Europe-that belongs to the Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus and the Prussians and French fielded light artillery systems that predated Lichtenstein.

The following volume was found for me by a friend in a Berlin book shop about eight years ago and I have found it very helpful as a starting point for studying Josef Smola, the famed Austrian artilleryman:

Erinnerungen an den Kaiserlich Osterreicheschen Generalmajor in der Artillerie Josef Freiherrn von Smola by Albert Werth.

K

'Ironically, thus I find it pretty funny he would post this link because to me it looks like he is throwing himself into the mud…'

It struck me the same way and is a very confusing link.

K

What, no Hennebert with the text of the 1762 report?

What, no Duffy, who gives us quite extensive detail on G in Austria in 6 footnotes, none of which mention his doing anything with artillery?

What, no German source such as the MTO or Wurzbach, all of which tell us what g did in Austria?

Oh, look, a claim from Lauerma and others that " He was recognized as 'general de bataille, commandant en chef du genie, de l'artillerie et des mineurs' by Empress Marie (Theresa)" – could you give us the date of the Imperial Patent for this appointment, given that it doesn't exiost and this is a claim by de Coudray and Thiers?

Indeed, can we hear about Gribeauval's career – with the evidence to back it up, as third hand claims are not evidence. All we have at the moment is a man known to have commanded a company of miners, who was seconded to austria to advsie on the technical services, which he duly did and led the sappers at Schweidnitz.

The problem with this issue has been the repetition of unsubstantiated claims – can you address the points above about the claims in your book, which are manifestly false? I am sure they must come from Alder and Toussard after all.

'What, no Hennebert with the text of the 1762 report?'

If you were familiar with Hennebert at all you would have noticed that his book is second from the bottom of the list. I forgot to list the author for that volume, but that's the book title.

'What, no German source such as the MTO or Wurzbach, all of which tell us what g did in Austria?'

The entry on Gribeauval in Wurzbach's Lexicon, of which I have a copy, is incomplete and not as accurate as the French sources I have listed.

'The problem with this issue has been the repetition of unsubstantiated claims – can you address the points above about the claims in your book, which are manifestly false? I am sure they must come from Alder and Toussard after all.'

Nothing I have written is 'unsubstantiated' or 'manifestly false.' Again you are incorrect and it is getting just a little old that you keep repeating this nonsense. I've asked you to stop before and I'm asking you again.

Further, if you believe anything I have written is 'unsubstantiated' then prove it-if not, then you don't have much else to say, now do you? For someone that isn't in the habit of listing his sources or using only secondary material on subjects such as the Gribeauval System, these comments you are making are quite extraordinary.

K

Come along, Kevin, you made up the contents of the 1762 report in your book – where you do not list Hennebert at all! Indeed, you cl;early list and used Duffy, who shows the 1757 drawings with the bricole and you were told a year before your book came out that it was Prussian or maybe Russian in origin, yet you say on p.302 under bricole "This essential piece of equipment was invented by Gribeauval".

"The entry on Gribeauval in Wurzbach's Lexicon, of which I have a copy, is incomplete and not as accurate as the French sources I have listed." So, produce thise evidence about Gribeauval's time in Austria then – bearing in mind that Duffy has published research on him. In particular, produce the evidence of any appointment made to command any artilelry, citation or memoir of his time in action.

I shall keep telling the good people that you made up or exaggerated things as long as I can produce the evidence that you did or you can refute it. If you cannot tell the truth about where you get your information from, then we will have to examione your work – after all, you have beebn keen enough to tell everyone how wrong they are, most recently on Amazon on the subjects of artilelry and staff. Well, back your position up.

Then you are to be pitied.

I read somewhere (unfortunately I can't remember where) that doing the same thing repeatedly with the same result is a sign of either gross stupidity or insanity.

K

If I ever get so obsessive about anything please shoot me….and I don't mind if a gunner or sapper does it…..

I don't think that Kevin should be too surprised that if he goes off writing hatchet jobs on Amazon, then his own abilities should come under scrutiny. Now we are hearing that French secondary sources have better material about G in Austria than was written at the time – the award of the MTO required a double recommendation setting out the reasons for the award. These were copied by Hirtenfeld, whose work was repeated in Wurzbach. Likewise, Duffy lists the KA refs for Gribeauval's memoranda, the 1757 artillery regs etc. yet mysteriously nothing appears anywhere about his presence at any field action or directing any artillery. I am really just interested to hear what this evidence in various French books is – it is not an obsession, just a much repeated request for the data! I am interested in the subject, so obviously I would like to know the refs.

I don't think that Kevin should be too surprised that if he goes off writing hatchet jobs on Amazon, then his own abilities should come under scrutiny.

So you are proving my assumptions correct – you attack Kevin because you dislike his book reviews

hollins, you have such a nasty, spiteful attitude in life. You are not a people person are you? Your thirst for revenge knows no bounds and your accusations against Kevin are despicable. You are desperately trying to throw mud at Kevin to throw the light off of you with your 5 star vanity review.

How Bill tolerates this behaviour I just do not know

John the OFM found the quote I had (somewhat) recalled-great catch. I didn't recall that it was from Einstein.

'Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.'

A very appropriate response, I think.

Sincerely,
K

Wow, I read these posts in their entirety! A medal, I say! -for stupidity. I cannot say I have learned one thing this entire episode – except perhaps that someone may have been anally raped, killed and tossed into a pool -which truly puts bricoles in 1757 in perspective. Hopefully my DPC (late of RSM) limbers I am picking up next weekend do not have said offending bricoles. Wow, glad I prefer the SYW – much more gentlemanly.
Thank god – at least Mr. Duffy gets props here(as no-one else seems to)!
I doubt the Apocrypha had this amount of trouble in the 4th Century -and no, I did not read St. Augustine's chambermaid's account of the Council of Carthage in the original Greek, Latin or whatever other language the chamber-maid or -lain depending on one's translation of the original sources might be – wrote.

Basicly no one can answer my questions on Experts and all of the above posts are about two sad people and their followers who can't let things pass much like two old women who argue all of the time.If one thing alone these two people will deter anyone being intersted in the Napoleonic period and they will probably go to their graves in hopefully many years from now still hating one another.
The only advice I could possibly give to each of them would be "Get a Life"

Imperiale

Writing reviews and making posts does not mean the poster does not have a life and a good one at that.

But Mr. Hollins has just stated in another thread that to agree to disagree is nonsense. That suggests sadly that he has no intention of moving on. But I suppose if we all ignore him, then the posts might end.

Funnily enough, I've recently been sent a book to review. You'll never guess which one. Just don't tell Mr. Hollins or we'll never hear the end of it.

Imperiale,

It is not surprising. Your question was too simplistic.

I can give you the name of somebdoy I consider an expert on Russian military uniforms. I don't think he is an expert on Russian artillery though and I can't think of anybody who is, though there is doubtless somebody in Russia we could 'call to the witness box'. I don't think he is an expert on the Russian officer corps either but I have another person in mind for that, if you are really interested.

You see? Your question needs to be much more focused.

Bill

XV Brigada,

Can understand the confusion so rather than have numerous questions just the one, who in your opinion would you consider to be an expert on the French Army and it's regiments during the years 1792-1815.

Does the expert have to be French as suggested in an earlier post or can he be anyone.

Your thoughts would be appreciated as I am fasrt becoming disillusioned with the Napoleonic Period and the posters on the forum.

MTIA

Imperiale---> I would recomend starting that question as a seperate thread rather than tag onto a very long one that started on a differnet topic.
Gazzola---> " That suggests sadly that he has no intention of moving on. But I suppose if we all ignore him, then the posts might end." hahahah…if you were honest with yourself Gazzola you know that won't happen. Firstly you know you can't ignore it. You poopoed that suggestion but still continue to post. And as you like to count pages os much thought it might interest you to know that a rough count of the number of posts on just this one thread are 38 by Mr Hollins, and 50 by Gazzola….so pot and kettle come to mind.

Good luck and farewell. Have remembered I have some wargaming to do! Enjoy your pointless arguments and pointscoring…and if I see any of you in a pub I;ll buy you a pint!

Imperiale,

Even that is a long list I think but initially I would call Malibran, Rousselot and Rigondaud to the 'witness box' on the uniforms and Hollander and Charrié on eagles and drapeaux. For the campaigns there are the authors of the Staff Histories such as Foucart, Bressonnet and Colin.

There are probably others who have established their credentials and some of the above like Hollander are available in English but I can't think of any British or American author I'd be prepared to risk my pension on.

Bill

Bill,

Many thanks for the list unfortunately all the experts you mention are dead, I am looking for the so called modern expert what ever the nationality as yet no one as come up with an answer. In this I am just refering to the French Army

Serge

You are looking for a modern day author who has wrote about
the French army of 1792-1815, you will be looking forever
because there is no such book.

If you find one let me know.

Regards
James

badwarmer
What's this, make a post and then do a runner. Such bad taste!

As to the posts you have kindly taken the time to count, they were not all to Mr. Hollins, as you well know! They were in reply to other posters and posts, including yourself. Seemed you forgot to mention that bit. But typical, I suppose.

Mine's a larger by the way

Imperiale,

Why a living author? I fear that General Brock may be right.

Bill

Gazz….just got bored with the pointlessness of it all so decided to quit……..and I didn't mention that all your posts weren't in reply to Mr Hollins as that has no relevance whatsoever! His posts weren't all in reply to you either! The point I was making was you can't have a go at someone for continuing the argument when you have posted more than them!! Anyway, this is my last post as am going to leave you nutters to it!Adieu to you sir! I have battles to fight!

I think expert may be too strong a word, perhaps 'specialist' might be more appropriate.

Have a look on the NSF, plenty of specialists there, Russian, British, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Austrian, Polish, Italian . . .

If anyone is a Napoleonic 'specialist' it would be Steven H. Smith, who appears to read most European languages, has a library the size of a small English village, and if he doesn't know the answer he will know where to find it and is one of the most helpful persons (?) on the forums (late of this Parish)

Only one regular contributing 'specialist' left here on TMP, and he specializes in the Austrian army.

Imperiale,

In your quest forcountry 'experts' I would add that Peter Hofschorer has an extensive knowledge of the north German archives, and so is an 'expert' on Prussians, Hanoverians, Kings German Legion and so forth.

Unofrtunately, as far as I know he has been asked to leave this site because of his abusive and personal attacks of those that disagree with him.

In my opinion he has an anti British, or perhaps anti Wellington agenda, or at least has adopted one in order to boost the sale of his most recent books; the 2 volume 'Waterloo – the German Victory'. Nevertheless if you can get hold of him, perhaps on The Napoleon Series forum, he should be well placed to answer any German queries…

Hope this helps

Many thanks for all the answers.

If anyone is a Napoleonic 'specialist' it would be Steven H. Smith, who appears to read most European languages, has a library the size of a small English village, and if he doesn't know the answer he will know where to find it and is one of the most helpful persons (?) on the forums (late of this Parish)

Just a pity he was rude, nasty, disrespectful and had little to no people skills or etiquette to speak of. This "specialist" as you call him, was banned from the forum for his behaviour. The other "specialist" already went into self-exile several years ago and only came back last year and look what hornets nest he has stirred up this time. I dare say it will not be long before this so called specialist will go into exile once again or be banned alongside with all the other nasties that cannot seem to get along with all the other kids. And to prove my point just take a look at how PH conducts himself not just on this forum but in general, these guys seem to form a scary trend in social settings.

The problem with "some" specialists is that they think that because of their specialised knowledge they are superior to the rest of us and show it by their arrogant and rude behaviour time and time again. You don't have to hold a masters degree to see that. These guys only add hate to these boards because of how they act. They have spent so much of their life gaining knowledge that they do not have the necessary people skills needed to get along with others in life in general. It might be great to have this amount of knowledge but what for if you can't get along with those you wish to impart it to?

We might get called the "Idiot Tendency" by hollins but that is because Old Bear, Gazzola and myself see through their arrogance and take them to task on it. I know many more posters here also see this but are not prepared to enter the argument against them, that is fine. But I for one will never sit idly by and just let these guys next here and spread their hate as long as Bill continues to allow me to own an account here. I strongly suggest that if you are sick and tired of this constant nasty arrogant behaviour you protest against their behaviour also.

Remember, when they stop their rot, we will stop our defiance and cease fire in return against them. Simple as that. Old Bear, Gaz and I stand in protest against this hate and vitriol and are vocal about it, others should follow us and stand up to them.

badwargamer

Okay, out with it? How'd ya do it? You quit and left but somehow still managed to read my post and reply to it?

Why is Steve Smith banned of this site I have noticed is posts on the NSF and he seems to me just to point people in the direction of Google books. It as been mentioned that he has an extensive library is it a private library or does it belong to an organisation?

I would advise you to do a search here under his name, this will answer your question as to why he got banned…

Imperiale,

He couldn't suffer fools gladly and in essence said so.

Bill

actually no, he was foolish to think he could be nasty and get away with it.

What about is so called Library is it is personal Library or does it belong to an organisation. The last great Napoleonic Library was so I believe sold some years ago on the owners death and I am always interested in other collections.

Maybe you should ask him, unless you are a fool :¬)

Serge

I am not going to be ignorant like others so here
is a link to books out of date and available for
download supplied by Steven H Smith.

TMP link

If you need anything else, I will be glad to help.

Regards
James

Graf I've never considered myself a fool and as you seemed to know the gentleman quite well as you explained he had a library the size of a "small English village"

I do not like to impose myself on people and as I do not post on the NFS site I thought you or any other forum memebr may be able to help me with my question is it his library or does it belong to an organisation.

The last large private library that I know of belonged to the late John Sandler I managed to find out this information from the book "The Sandler collection" I am always intersted in Libraries whoever they belong to.

James my many thanks for the link and your kind offer of help.

Serge

Serge, I appologize if you misunderstood my post, I certainly was not implying you were a fool, that was more of a light hearted nod to Bills comment.

I don't know how big Steve's library is, but it is obvious from his posts that it is quite substantial, I think he also has access to a lot of the university libraries, maybe works in one?

Why not join the NSF they welcome new members, and being a polite and sensible poster would get on fine.

so sorry again for any misunderstanding

Wow, how low can an author go to someone's library collection – amazing!

I'm sure someone can do a Post grad on this.

Imperiale,

Yes 'The Sandler Collection' is a magnificent biograhical resource in its own right although many of the books were quite ordinary.

Bill

Gazzola,

Apologies if my questions regarding personal libraries as offended you, I am always interested in how many books individuals have managed to collect and what the time frame was for collection is i.e how long it took them would be interested in knowing what your collection consists of.

Unfortunately I do not know what a post grad is could you please explain?

Bill,

I believe John Sandler began collecting when he was nine years old.
Unfortunately Victor Sutcliff who edited the publictation the Sandler Collection did not complete the work as the total number of volumes in the collection is in the region of 15000 volumes.

Serge

Serge,

I'd like to be able to help you but Gazolla's post is not understandable. 'Post grad' though is an abbreviation of 'Post-graduate'in UK. A Post-graduate degree is usually a Masters degree and requires a year's additional study on top of a three year BA for example. In Scotland though many degrees are four year courses and a graduate Masters is awarded instead of a BA/BSc.

I didn't know Sutcliff's work was incomplete. That is a lot of books. I dont think my local public library has 15000 volumes!!

Bill

Imperiale

And my sincere apologies if my post offended you. It was certainly not intended. I was just amazed by how posts can include a vast array of topics or can be diverted from one whatever the thread started with, nothing more. And I don't see a problem with it because it happens in all threads and I suppose it is all part of the posting game.

The Post Grad refers to Postgraduate Study.

"how low can an author go to sell a book"

Normally it would be quite low for an author to review his own book. When the other reviewers are people who have been having a very personal and heated argument with the author for a long period and don't mention that fact, then I don't have a problem with one of the authors responding and giving it 5-stars as long as he declares that fact to us, the book buying public (which he did).

John, Kevin – with the best will in the world, do you really think that you can be objective enough to review anything by Dave Hollins for the wider world?

Whirlwind

Have you been on Holdiay, only it has been 11 days since my past post? I thought the thread was ended? It certainly should have been. But never mind, onwards and upwards, as they say.

Two things you need to understand. One, I (and I believe Kevin also) have given Hollins positive reviews on some of his work, one of mine being a 4 star rating, which would have been given 5 stars but for the poor artwork. I also have all his books, although I'm not sure I will buy any further work, if he ever has any published.

Two, Mr,. Hollins felt he had to write himself a 5 star vanity review, even though he is only ONE of the TEN authors writing ONE of the chapters. The way he acted was if the whole book contained his work alone. His taking it so personally makes me wonder if he had more to do with the book than just being one of the ten authors.

Like I've said before, a good author would have ignored the reviews, no matter who wrote them, and let the book and word of mouth do the selling. But as Mr. Hollins admited himself, he wanted to up the star rating! That is pure vanity and thankfully his review was removed by Amazon because it broke their procedures. But although he knew that he still went ahead and wrote it.

The book could have been so much better and the fault lies with whoever decided on which authors and armies would have preference over some of the other authors, and therefore more space allocated to their chapters. But the book does have its good points and I might even be recommending one of the smaller chapters in my next magazine article.

Swing low sweet chariot…

It's time to play the music
It's time to light the lights
It's time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.

It's time to put on make up
It's time to dress up right
It's time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight.

Why do we always come here?
I guess we'll never know
It's like a kind of torture
To have to watch the show

'John, Kevin – with the best will in the world, do you really think that you can be objective enough to review anything by Dave Hollins for the wider world?'

Yes, and I have done it with his Ospreys on the Austrian grenadiers and on his Austrian artillery. I gave them both four stars (my standard when reviewing Ospreys is Rene Chartrand and Ron Pawley-I measure all of them against those two authors). They are excellent and I said so-it is the material and the accuracy and not the author.

K