Mr. Taylor was honored to be awarded an Associate Fellow with the Royal Historical Society

It is wonderful to read your letters and comments, thank you everyone. It is the hope of an author that their material educates and entertains. It pleases me to know that my material has changed opinions and has educated in and outside the classroom. I am very pleased to see a few scholars have challenged my sources to find them correct and that they learned something. I have shared some of these letters on this website.

I still receive many questions about the term ‘armchair researcher’. With the availability of instant information, many seem to fall under this category. I was part of the global digitization by the University of Michigan during my first two books. With these databases, it still amazes me of the incomplete/inaccurate data we call complete information on many websites. Many authors publish and those who read their works, believe them to be true. Not surprisingly, some of these authors never cite their sources. Check their bibliographies, are they citing recent sources or original source information? Some have heard me rant at lectures about a popular author that their book cover photo was not the subject of the book; it was correctly identified almost a decade prior to their book release. If the author had done their ‘homework’ that individual would have known that. 

Self-publishing is also fraught with problems like self-editing and proofreading (A writer should never final proofread their own material). I have read some material that a 5th grader would find problematic. My books are eternal. They will be available as long as the written word exists, ergo, I will always try to produce the best quality, most accurate book I can. I am blessed to have a wonderful publisher who ensures I also meet those guidelines. To find several of my books used in classrooms is very important to me and that our future generations have accurate information available to them.

Please-be part of the solution, not the problem.