RE: US books in the UK

**<m*@tagoresmith.com>**

Dear Graham,

I certainly don't mind writing to the whole list to say that I was very
happy with my treatment from Collins and Brown. Because I Americanize
and/or edit a broad range of books for several British companies, I feel
quite at home with them and am comfortable enough with the relationships
to work back and forth with them. As far as this particular book went, I
was not entirely happy with the copyediting at the end--some things
slipped through that bothered me. But realistically--how many books get
out there without a few errors in punctuation or a couple of sentences
with very confused syntax? Not a whole lot, of course. But to more than
balance that, they did a fantastic job on the design of the book as well
as photo-selection and color-correction, and they took great care that
the illustrations were accurate. Their production values are great and
that means much more to the overall feel of a book than a few places
with whonky syntax.

I'll be interested to see how the book sells in the UK. Because I do so
much Americanizing, I know how different tools, techniques, materials,
and plant choices are from one continent to the other. I wrote this book
from a very "American" point of view, giving a spread to solving
problems with deer, for example. Even though that's a rare problem in
most of the UK, that spread is in the C&B edition of the book.

But that's a digression. To give you a short answer: Yes, I enjoyed
working with C&B and appreciate the fine eye they bring to production.

Best,

Miranda Smith 

-----Original Message-----
From: gardenwriters-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[g*@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Graham
Rice
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 6:49 PM
To: Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum
Subject: [GWL] US books in the UK

One or two North American garden writers with whom I've talked have 
expressed disappointment at the way their books have been handled by 
co-edition publishers in the UK. It's true that North American 
publishers can be reluctant to adapt their books to the UK market - 
at the same time inisting that UK publishes adapt theirs for the US!

But today I received an emailing from the UK publisher Collins & 
Brown about Gardener's Problem Solver - Expert Answers to Real-life 
Gardening Dilemmas by Miranda Smith... whom I think is on this list. 
I signed up for the Collins & Brown emails as a customer (not a 
journalist) so it's good to know that they're on the ball as far as 
publicising their titles (home grown or imported) to prospective 
buyers.

I'd be interested to know from Miranda (on or off list) as to how she 
felt she was treated by Collins & Brown.

[Declaration of interest: I consult for BT Batsford, an imprint in 
the same publishing group as Collins & Brown.]

Graham Rice
Milford, PA & Northamptonshire, UK

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