The Fourth Reich - the journey…

[Gary Compton]

Cheers CTG, it's not JJ who is doing this edit by the way.

I would love you having a look along with all the other who've put themselves forward

I think I might only send 30,000 words at a time. I'll then deal with the feedback and then send the second lot out. 120,000 in total.

I'm doing a re-write taking into account the aforementioned comment which will take a week. I'll then send it out.

Thanks to everyone getting involved

[I, Brian]

I think the main challenge is to get the manuscript polished, and not be afraid to make sensical changes. If it's good, then it's a matter of time.

Either way, I think the story idea is potentially clever - because there is stilla huge amount of modern interest in the Nazi's and Third Reich in general. In which case, to keep this people on board to read your book, it's going to have to be as historically faithful as possible up to 1945.

The collaboration between UK and Israeli intelligence raised an eyebrow for me, because prior to the UN declaration for the formation of Israel, those for a Jewish state tended to be violently aggreived at their British "colonial rulers". Also, was Mossad in existence so early? Either way, a general pointer - it's up to the story to answer such concerns.

Either way, best of luck with it and hope it goes well - but take no short cuts.

[Gary Compton]

Hi Brian,

You must have read the blurb on the website. The Mossad mission in my book was 1953. According to Eichmans wiki Mossad was formed in 1949 so I think I'm okay

Thanks for your comments and I won't cut corners - its too important to me!

I'll check the collaboration thing, off course what a country says in public is nearly always different behind closed doors.

[Hex]

Gosh. That's good, detailed feedback. How helpful.

With my web accessibility boots on, Gary, I'd worry that the contrast between the foreground and background might be difficult to read -- especially people with ageing eyes like me

[Gary Compton]

Cheers Hex. I'm commited to that design and colours now so thanks for looking though. I'll send you my reading glasses instead.

My blog, (coming soon) will be alot easier on the eye.

Okay, so one of the things I wanted to do is bring people who may be interested in my site by other means.

So I'm proud to announce the History Bunker is going to work with us. They sell WW11 memorabilia to re-enactors across the world. I'll be adding their products to the Fourth Reich shop and hopefully when customers are buying these products they may buy my book as well.

I'll also be selling some books on there and Fourth Reich related products. So get in touch if you want to promote yours.

[Hex]

Glad to be of help, Gary. I'm sure since your user testing didn't flag it as a problem it's just me being neurotic!

[Gary Compton]

So I'm having doubts about the name of my series and the 3 book names.

The Fourth Reich - Return of the SS

The Fourth Reich - Hitlers Revenge

The Fourth Reich - The Final Solution

And going by my mockup of the cover, would it and names put you off buying?

The story, whilst it does have the Nazis reinventing themselves. It is a spy thriller with supernatural elements to it.

What do you think?

[Ursa major]

The book cover, while eye-catching, does not shout out "supernatural thriller". This isn't a big problem if the supernatural elements are not a big part of the book. (And depending what these elements** are, they may not be that easy to capture in an image). But it does suggest a thriller with post-WWII Nazis at its heart, which is, as far as I can tell, not a million miles from the truth.

All this is moot, though. Notoriously, authors of imprint-published books have little or no control over the covers on their books, and I've heard, as recently as Eastercon 2012, that some authors are almost bewildered about what's been put on the front of their novels.



** - I suppose there's an argument that the cover depicts Earth, Air, Fire (lightning strike) and Water (the coming deluge), but I doubt the average reader will bother with all that.

[Gary Compton]

Thanks Ursa, obviously if I am the publisher then I will do the cover design after taking advice from everyone.

If I get an agent publisher then this discussion is futile because they will decide on one.

I am just worried the names/cover might put some readers off who would actually enjoy it. The story, in my opinion, is Dan Brown meets Tom Clancy

[Hex]

'The Final Solution' as a title for a thriller would put me off buying. It's clever, but I find it a bit much, considering what the final solution actually was.

[Ursa major]

I agree with what Hex says, Gary, even if the solution involved really was a re-run of the Third Reich's genocidal plan (in which case it would be a spoiler of epic proportions).

You could always use: Tomorrow, the World.

[Gary Compton]

No, "the final solution," is what the protagonists comes up with to get rid of the Fourth Reich once and for all. But it was a play on words.

But this is what I have to be careful off and at this stage nothing is set in stone. As I said I am leaning toward setting up my own publishing company to publish this. I just think it will be more fun. And to be fair some of the advances I've heard about would return me £1 an hour for all the time invested. It would be nice to have all the profits sitting in my bank.

Off course this could all change if a publisher makes me an offer I cant refuse. But that is a dream. Plan B is the reality at the moment.

[The Judge]

To me, both the cover and the proposed titles just say Nazis, possibly a thriller in The Odessa File/Fatherland sense, but not spy, not conspiracies among governments and certainly not supernatural in any shape or form.

As a result, I wouldn't pick the books up to look at the blurb and investigate them further since I'd also assume that they relate to WWII in some way, which doesn't interest me. Having said that, I have read both the Forsyth and the Harris because I knew from the outset that they were thrillers of a different sort -- so yes, by going down that route and pushing the Nazi aspect so hard you will miss out on readers like me.

[Gary Compton]

Yes that's what I am worried about. My antagonist has an army of followers. Each one has a tattoo (See my image)



I was toying with the idea of calling the books:

Head of the Snake
Revenge of the Snake
Hunt for the Snake

And then get artistic inspiration for the cover from the tattoo.

The image is actually a WW11 Nazi badge and I'm getting it redesigned to make my tattoo original.

This is hard!

[Gary Compton]

Okay, after some thought I've decided on a name change. The Fourth Reich isn't a historical organisation, even though a few organisations fit the bill (EU).

So I'm sticking with that for the name of the series but I'm changing the name of the first book to, "Head of the Snake."

I was probably, wrongly focussing on the antagonist rather than the protagonist so there you go.

My new blog is up so if you want to listen to me argue with myself, please subscribe

Also I have instructed an artist to make a mock-up of the cover. Will reveal as soon as poss.