A Vietnam War Novel - Part 7

I revised The Red Dragon and sent it back to the publisher. A few weeks later I get a letter stating the novel is "too technical". If I want to reach non-military readers I will have to make it less technical. I knew this was an issue but wasn't ready to make any changes. I still wanted to be technically accurate. My wife was the first to complain about this when she first read the draft. She told me that the Vietnamese ranks were confusing, that she could never remember who was what. She also didn't like all the radio communications, all this call-sign stuff distracted her from the story. My step-son had the same issues. Neither has any military background. My junior medic from Nam never mentioned this "technical" issue. Of course not, he knew exactly what I was talking about, he lived it too. Damn. I do want this book to interest non-military readers too. What to do? I can challenge the publisher, well known authors do that, and have it published their way. Well, I'm certainly not a well known author. Okay, I'll do it. Back through the book again. I changed all the Vietnamese ranks to their American equivalent. Thank God for Microsoft's Word "Find and Replace". I deleted a lot of radio communications and simplied most of the rest. Back it goes again. What's next, take out all the cussing? I draw the line on that one. Now I hear nothing for several weeks. I send a letter, what's going on? Finally, I get an answer. "I can't get a bank to finance this book." This is devastating news. I have a completely different book, changed a the request of a publisher who promised he would publish the book. Now, he's reneged. I review his letters. He told me on the phone he would publish the book, that's not repeated in any of his letters. Several times during our dealings I thought I should have a contract but didn't follow up on that thought. Even if I did have a contract I don't know what my recourse would be, contracts have clauses that allow either party to end it. Well, back to square one: Find a publisher.