A few weeks ago I posted up a blog about how exciting it was to have two of our bloggers writing books for Osprey this year. Well I have a bit of a confession to make on that score.  Possibly because I have spent the last month or so immersed in our 2011 catalogues and publicity plans I didn't really notice that we are already nearly halfway through 2010. And that another of our lovely bloggers actually has a book being published by Osprey - this month!

That's right, this month Osprey blogger William sees his book CAM Salamis published.

When I first started at Osprey, William was 'The Boss' and always said that when he eventually retired as MD he would love to come back and write a book for us. I am not sure we really believed that - but sure enough, a familiar name soon appeared on a project proposal at a publishing meeting.

Just as we never really thought William would actually carry out his 'threat' and write a book for us, I don't think William realized just how much work (and possibly heartache) would go into the writing process. To be fair he didn't pick the easiest of subjects to work with. Salamis, with its dearth of source material, some dodgy reconstructions and shifting coastline was notoriously difficult to research. William soon became a regular visitor to the office, raiding our archives for as much material as possible, before heading down to the Oxford libraries to glean as much information as he could from local sources. Eventually even that was not enough - and a visit to the actual site was needed (although I suspect the weather and food might have helped with that chore!)

Despite being busy trying to keep up with the incredibly tight deadlines that our vicious editors put in place, William very kindly carried on writing for our blog, and even wrote a series of blogs about what it is like to write an Osprey series book.

How to write an Osprey book - My Salamis Campaign

Writing an Osprey book - My Salamis Campaign (Part 2)

Writing an Osprey book - My Salamis Campaign (Part 3)

Writing an Osprey book - My Salamis Campaign (Part 4)

My Salamis Campaign: Part 5

My Campaign Salamis 6: Cruising the Straits

My Salamis Campaign 7: Overview Writing and Reading

My Salamis Campaign 8: The Mythology of Thermopylae

My Salamis Campaign 9: How an Osprey book was written

Now of course I am sure that William has ordered his book in a more coherent manner than I have listed his blogs, but poor naming conventions aside his blogs are a great insight into the process that our authors go through as they create one of our books.

Salamis is all finished now, copies are about to land in our warehouse in the UK and are heading towards our US warehouses at the same time.

But even as the dust settles on Salamis the rumours have already started that William will be back with another Campaign in the not too distant future!