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Re: [GWL]: Book Fees


> 
> Interestingly, a very well known and respected and
> multiple-award-winning British writer emailed me the other day
> asking: 'Have you ever made any money from books?' She reckons that
> the benefits to her have been almost entirely ancillary - more talks,
> more requests and better pay for magazine features and so on - and as
> a way of making a living books are a waste of time. An
> internationally famous garden photographer once said to me after his
> first book as an author had been out for a year or two: 'That was a
> waste of time, I made almost nothing as writer - I'm sticking to
> pictures.'
> 
> It's tough.

Graham, you got that right.  I had entertained some thoughts of
substantially supplementing my income after retirement by writing about
plants and gardens.  Selling few articles to magazines and doing my first
book disabused me of that idea.  Actually, I did get quite a generous
advance on the book (it allowed me put up a very nice home greenhouse), but
I figure I have at least two years of sales to go (the book was published in
1998) before the advance is paid off, and subsequent royalties will be
rather small sums.

I find it is increasingly difficult to place articles with magazines these
days--some are shrinking considerably (Organic Gardening becomes "OG") and
some, like Kitchen Gardener, are ceasing publication entirely.  Others seem
to have a "list" of favorite authors and are not very willing to go outside
of it, or are doing all writing in-house.  My second book project,
originally taken on enthusiastically by the publisher of my first, got
cancelled in midstream and has not yet found another publisher.  And, since
I write primarily about plants, the trend toward more books about design,
and fewer about plants, has limited my market yet more.

It's also difficult to establish those all-important personal relationships
with staff at publishers' when there is constant churning and turnover.

To paraphrase James Thurber, it appears that falling back on garden writing
for income is like falling back full length on a kit of plumber's tools.
There's a parallel here with agriculture--the farmer (writer or
photographer) ekes out a few pennies while the middlemen and retailers
(publishers and booksellers) get rich.  Except, I suppose, that they are not
getting rich either!

Bill Shear

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