Regional garden books

**Saxon Holt s*@saxonholt.com**

Seeing the recommendations from another list member for Northern 
California that does not mention Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry 
Climates prompts a response about regional book publishing.  The book 
won awards from both the Garden Writers of America and American 
Horticultural Society when it came out only 2 years ago and is already, 
it seems, forgotten.  The publisher, a big local water agency (East Bay 
Municipal Utility District), never put much marketing energy into it 
and has only a local distributor.  Not really their business 
(unfortunately for the book), but speaks to the difficulty of regional 
publishing.

Regional publishing is the best way to get targeted information to 
local audiences but too often the books do not get publishing support 
beyond an initial press release or author tour.  Perhaps creating this 
list will help publishers, booksellers, and readers alike to recognize 
these most worthy regional titles and keep them alive.  I suspect 
small, specialty internet sites will keep local publishing viable but 
is tough way to make a living as an author.

The entire publishing dilemma is really an odd one for all of us who 
make a living on publishing:  On the one side we want our own titles to 
be sell well and not get pushed off the shelf for some new trendy title 
before our "classic" has some recognition.  On the other hand we are 
glad publishers want new titles so our next book will push something 
else off . . .

Saxon Holt
_______________________________________________
gardenwriters mailing list
gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters

GWL has searchable archives at:
http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters

Send photos for GWL to gwlphotos@hort.net to be posted
at: http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos

Post gardening questions/threads to
&quot;Gardenwriters on Gardening&quot; &lt;gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org&gt;

For GWL website and Wiki, go to
http://www.ibiblio.org/gardenwriters