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Thanks to all of you for your kind words of encouragement. There is no way this project could have come this far if it wasn't for the enthusiasm, support, and cooperation from all of you worldwide. I am continually amazed at the generosity shown to me and my research.

As for price, it all depends where I choose to have the printing done, and how many copies I have printed. I edited and designed a gun book a few years ago that the author chose to have printed abroad to keep costs down. That seems to be the trend nowadays. On the other hand, Kirton's book on Fraser was recently published and printed in the United States and still priced under $100. You guys tell me...would you pay an extra USD $20.00 per copy for a book that was printed in a (relatively) free country? Or is cost the bottom line for you?

I want to keep the price down to approx US $80.00 and no higher than $100. It cannot be lower than that if I keep it to a minimum of 224 full-color pages (hardcover). I certainly have enough material to fill 336 pages if I can swing it. How much material is superfluous even if interesting? These are the decisions to make in the "final cut."

In any case, if anyone is wondering, there's not much profit in books unless they have "Harry Potter" in the title. I know too many authors who have "lost their shirts" in publishing specialty gun books. The best I can hope for is to break even and recoup some of the research costs incurred over the past nine (!) years.

Some people are weird about costs....They won't balk at spending $6000 on a British express rifle, but $100 for a well-researched and well-designed book on the same rifle will cause their arms to shrink suddenly, unable to reach their wallet. (I have a friend who owns a large and expensive collection of modern defensive handguns but refused to attend a pistol class from the top instructor in the US because the 40-hour class cost (gasp) $800!) To each his own.

There are a few standards that I won't compromise on. The book WILL have a detailed index, and full footnotes. The latter is too seldom seen in gun books. I may have to put the footnotes in microscopic type but they will be there. After a book is published, there is no need to be secretive about sources. The reason is that future researchers MUST be able to verify my work, and build on it in the future.

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Researching Lee Speeds and all commercial Lee Enfields. If you have data to share or questions, please send me a PM.

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