Now I understand

Osprey sent round an email touting for business before Christmas.
It links into a current item they have about  titles of books people would like to read.(read=buy).
Reading the text - which I past here and link to HERE. it becomes apparent why so many Osprey titles are ..shall we say, 'not very good'.

Fishing for something to sell

Osprey STARTS with a title. STARTS with the marketing. This is exactly the opposite of academic publishers or heavyweight publishers with a name to protect.
It also explains how a pool of wannabe authors has been created. and a niche for this kind of writing. They are not driven by initial interest for their subject but are effectively wrting extended illustrated essays. Many many people could do this task equally well or better. From their own material we can see that it is silly to expect anything more from Osprey. Mea culpa.

'All of this information really comes into play when we gather the entire Sales, Marketing and Editorial teams for our regular "Hitlist" meeting. This is the meeting where each team pitch for the titles that we would like to see commissioned for publication in the future - which is fueled by list suggestions from the book votes and book suggestions alongside suggested titles from established authors and submissions from new authors. 'After this meeting the hard work then starts - finding authors and illustrators for some subjects can be a challenge, and even if we do have a crack team of contributors, some subjects are so difficult to uncover suitable images / references for that we simply cannot fit the book into our series style. Then the Sales and Marketing team need to look into the sales potential for the book, contacting our key customers and sales reps to get their feedback, before submitting proposed sales predictions and working out whether the book is a viable business prospect. If all the signs are good... the book gets commissioned.'
'