This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: [GWL]: The decline of garden writing

Garden Writing. Here's my experience. First I was a general writer and an
amateur gardener. As I  became more informed, I dipped into garden writing,
first for a city newspaper. The response was good, and I decided to pitch a
book idea. Anne Halpin and I developed a plan for a general guide to flower
gardening, back in 1986/7. The publishers we approached told us that this
topic was too specialized, and we never wrote it. Today, it sounds very
general, doesn't it?  In 1988 I became one of several writers for
Macmillan's "The Gardener's Home Companion," a detailed, 650-page general
guide to gardening. It came out in 1991, and was ahead of its time because
it recommended mulch and did not recommend the chemical fertilizers of the
day such as Sevin, etc. The packager (Philip Lief) and publisher sent it to
Ph.D's for review, before publication. One of the first expert reviewers
rejected it for its lack of authoritative chemical advice. Fortunately the
publishers backed up the writers (most of us from GWAA and from Rodale) and
found alternate Ph.D. reviewers. This book is still in print (got an
honorable mention for writing from GWAA in 1992), but is no longer radical,
because the public's position has shifted in our direction. Over the years
it has had little competition, mostly because publishers are not interested
in the expensive development of a book of this length. Books have become
showcases for garden photography. When you have picture books with few
words, those words have to encapsulate the basics, so there's little room
for discussion of anything interesting. So we've had a spate of books where
the photos and the unusual cultivars shown are interesting, but not the
text. A glorious exception to this is Graham Rice's "Discovering Annuals."

So I agree. There's a lot of skeletal, repetitive, and boring writing out
there, even in gorgeously produced books. How can we make garden writing
interesting again? What are the controversies and where can we cover them?
Michael Pollan succeeded at this with his "Botany of Desire."

Here is one idea I'd like to see covered -- and I'm unlikely to do so, so
feel free. How about "Gardening in a Changing Climate" (coping with world
climate change)?

Subjects such as genetic diversity, water management, land reclamation
("Gardening on the Dump" anyone?), and horticultural education are
possibilities. There's too much planting of marigolds in kindergarten,
without enough followup in the upper grades to get into the interesting
parts of ecology and plant reproduction. So people grow up and have no idea
that plants make oxygen and feed and support the world.

That's enough ranting for now. I can tell you where the interesting writing
is, it's on our List, and it's real. I do have to get back to work now.
Happy holidays, everyone!

Betty Mackey
B. B. Mackey Books
bbmackey@prodigy.net
http://www.mackeybooks.com

============================================================
Load up on QUALIFIED CUSTOMERS.
Keywords send visitors DIRECTLY to where you want them to go
Register your Keywords with RealNames now.  Click here:
http://click.topica.com/caaaeVGbUrGSSbVSZwBf/RealNames
============================================================

Pass the word to garden writers, editors publishers, horticultural businesses about our list.

==^================================================================
This email was sent to: topica.com@spamfodder.com

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrGSS.bVSZwB
Or send an email to: Gardenwriters-unsubscribe@topica.com

T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index