I’m writing this post on 5 May 2014. Liberation Day (also known as Freedom Day) for Holland. It was 5 May 1945 that Canadian forces along with other Allied forces were able to obtain the surrender of German forces in the small Dutch town of Wageningen. This led to the complete surrender and liberation of the country.
There is a cemetery near Maastricht. It is the final resting spot for 8,301 American soldiers who died in Operation Market Garden (17–25 September 1944). It was a failed Allied attempt to liberate Holland on their path to Berlin. There are other military cemeteries nearby for the British and Canadian men who did not survive the battle.
A Dutch family has adopted every man who perished in the battle. Each man’s grave is kept up and decorated. Even a portrait of their adopted soldier sits in their respective homes.
Alfred Hitchcock directing Family Plot (1975). Photo by Stan Osborne. Wikimedia Commons.
Once anyone decides to write a book, they are confronted with many decisions. Believe it or not, writing a book is easy (you can always get a ghost writer). However, everything else associated with it requires a lot of thought and planning. Why? Because the typical writer has limited resources and there are many ways he or she can spend their money (beyond the actual cost of publishing the book).
The big money its in publishing (and the most mysterious to self-publishing authors) are the distribution and marketing components (they go hand-in-hand). In other words, now that you have boxes of books in your garage (or even just an ePub version), how are you going to sell your book and make any money? Frankly, there are so many avenues an author can go down that it becomes overwhelming. It’s also one of those components of publishing a book where the author must push all their chips onto the table. So it becomes an exercise in determining where the greatest return-on-assets (ROI) will be achieved.
Out of the blue, I was asked by a local public television access channel to produce a 10-episode television series based on the first 4 walking tour books (French Revolution–two volumes, Medieval Paris, and the Nazi Occupation of Paris). At the same time, I’m confronted with doing ePub conversions of the books for Amazon Kindle, Apple’s iBooks, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. Oh, and then there’s developing an app for the walking tours. What about hiring someone to get the books into the book catalogues that retailers use to purchase books for their shelves? What about the choice of different distribution channels such as big box retailers, small independent book stores, libraries, or even the bookstore at the airports that are gateways to Paris? So what does one choose to do when their stack of chips is only so high? I know what I’m going to do. Read More Producer Stew?
Lavishly illustrated, gripping guide to the Paris that existed under Nazi rule.
This is a fantastic new book that provides extensive information for both those planning a trip and for armchair historians. While there are are walks that take you past famous places made infamous by Nazi rule, there is also a lot of detailed information. Stew Ross provides details about many topics that are not necessarily popular, including anti-semitism and collaboration. Photos add poignancy. Paris is haunted by its past, and these pages show you exactly why. The days of the Occupation and the Resistance are not that distant.
Jane Gabin, Amazon customer
“Another outstanding, well-researched, and presented book by Stew Ross. It gives a detailed guided walking tour full of facts about the activities of the Gestapo during their occupation of Paris during World War II. I highly recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in what life was like during the Nazi occupation in France.”
Richard H.F. Neave, President Royal British Legion Paris branch, member Paris-based Libre Résistance SOE “F” Section and author of SOE: A Life in the Shadows
Liberation Day
