The MVPA's web site is useless. The master index is available on FLOPPY DISK. I did look.. this is what I get when I click on SUPPLY ROOM, ONLINE STORE, here are the first 6 lines:
The 6th row is "TM9-803", "GMC CCKW Walk Around" and "Jeffery the jeep". Where is the Sunderlin article??? I don't see it. Are your menu buttons correct?
The undated complete article I found is under Membership and Publications, Army Motors Magazie, archive link in the middle. Or the direct URL :
http://www.mvpa.org/memsec/archive.php "The first issue of Army Motors is mailed in January. IF Becker’s book was available January 1, 1989 and IF Army Motors Issue 47 was mailed January 31, 1989" This is complete and utter hogwash. IF, IF, IF, IF. You say you were on the phone with the editor... hey, editor dude, when would the WINTER issue be published? The ADVERTISING LEAD TIME ALONE is 6 months! In 1988-1989 it took a lot longer to press (edit, page set, print, ship) than in 2012. Look in you current issue of AM.. they ask for articles every issue... when is the deadline for article submission? Now look back to an issue in 1989.. is it the same lead time?
Your entire premise fall completely flat because you did not do two things... first, you did not determine when the issue would have been locked down... prepress time is several weeks, then printer lead time and then delivery. Since you were on the phone with the EDITOR who MUST KNOW THESE THINGS to put an issue 'to bed'. Me things Reg would have this info.. time to 'phone a friend'.
As far as Sunderlin working on the article for 5 years... sure, I've been working on my CCKW for 7. Means nothing. And it still does not jive with the fact that you have two publications (The Becker Book and the MVPA article) that state the same info... almost to the same table layout. How hard would it be for the Sunderlin article to cut and paste the series info into his work? Not long. The press times for a magazine are quite fast compared to a book. So I don't think that the Becker book could have read the MVPA rag, saw the Series info, and then yelled 'STOP THE PRESSES!!!" to add what is about a dozen lines of text.
I did a quick google of book publishing and this writer sums up what I already know:
"Many express surprise that it takes a
year or longer to get a completed manuscript into print as a finished book. This is a fact of life in publishing. It is frustrating, but there are some good reasons for it.
Part of the lead time is editing, which believe me you would not want to eliminate; and the time lag is actually helpful in that regard. Manuscripts generally improve with age, in the sense that most authors need to get a little distance from their work before they can see some of the problems that need fixing. I often do additional work on a book after my editor has had chance to go over it, and then again (to a lesser degree) when the copy-editor has made nit-picky changes, and one more time when I see it in page proofs after typesetting. Each time it gets a little better -- I hope.
Some of the lead time is necessary for physical production by the publisher -- which can sometimes be rushed for a hot topical book, but overall works better if done in an orderly fashion. This includes such things as book design and typesetting, and commissioning cool cover art. There's also promotional and sales lead time, which is important because publishers need to space their books in a regular schedule, for distribution. And of course, there needs to be advertising and production of bound galleys for reviewers. "
Most google searches are telling me that 2-3 months lead time for a magazine is typical.
