[P. Frank]

Dear fellow foromites,

since late last year I have been transcribing the 2nd Edition of the "The art of defence on foot with broad sword and sabre" by John Taylor (Or C. Roworth) and I am pretty much finished now.
I did it mostly to give my pupils something to work with that would be easy to read and reproduce, since most other versions on the marked I found so far were scans of rather bad quality or they were incomplete (especially in regards to accompanying plates).

I do not intend to make any kind of profit with this, as I did it for my own pleasure and for my pupils, and also as an IMHO necessary first step on the road to an interpretative work. But, I do have to admit that I am quite fond of the book and I would very much love to see it printed and handled by other practitioners of historical fencing.

So basically I wondered if anyone would be interested in seeing such a work in print and if someone could give me pointers as to what publishers one could contact regarding this. I am not overly hopeful, as 19th century fencing seems to be a bit of a nerd topic to be honest, but asking never hurts. I am also pondering self-publishing the book, because I really do thing it deserves to be out there in a passable edition. Can anybody provide some experience regarding this?

If this sounds rather clueless, it probably does so because I admittedly am, pardon for that. I just thought it might be fruitful to throw the question out while doing my own research at the same time.

[Michael B.]

Have you talked to Freelance Academy Press? http://www.freelanceacademypress.com/authors.aspx

They do great print jobs and are focused on this type of book.

[Neil Langley]

Lulu seems to be a valid alternative (http://www.lulu.com/publish/). Tony Wolf publishes the Bartitsu books and other 19th/20th century material this way (http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=214464) and Hugh Knight's impressive collection of manuals are all available this way too (http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=282588).

The printed books are a good quality and you can specify the format to suit your layout. This might be a good option if demand is small as there are no up-front printing costs involved.

Neil.

[P. Frank]

[P. Frank]