RE: books

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I've come to this books thread a little late but here are my thoughts. I'm sorry this is a long post, but I'm responding to three related threads at once.

I feel strongly that a good writer needs a good library, for a number of reasons:

ensuring accurate plant names
fact checking
the ease of extensive home-based research
finding obscure facts that you wouldn't even know to check
debunking misconceptions
stealing (and/or adapting!) other people's ideas
avoiding repitition
a room lined with books is a comforting re-assurance (and a chastening reminder to think twice before adding to it by writing a book yourself)

The web is invaluable too, but often reveals what is current as much as what is accurate. Finding the wrong picture attached to a nursery's plant description is always interesting and may in itself lead to a useful point for a feature. But as a botanical and horticultural resource the web is still so very patchy. I've used it much more since spending more time in the US - with most of my books still in the UK - and I find it both valuable and frustrating.

There is no substitute for books but over the years it's easy to accumulate a great many. I recently had to move a few hundred out of my upstairs study in England (leaving many more still in place) as I was afraid the floor would collapse!

Now, book sales and book revenues.

In Britain at least, the phenomenon of the TV gardener has distorted everything. With gardening so popular on network TV, the presenters command enormous advances and, often, huge sales. A book on a subject recently covered (however well or badly) by a TV gardener is unlikely to be commissioned and I've even had an idea turned down because, the publisher said, it was the sort of book a TV gardener was likely to write! (Not that they necessarily write the books themselves, but that's another story...) The top selling gardening book on amazon.co.uk is the autobiography of the top TV gardener - it's currently number 48 of all amazon.co.uk titles. He also has the number two gardening book. Of course, all is not lost for the rest of us; number five is the paperback of the wonderful Meetings With Remarkable Trees (number 1986 of all amazon.co.uk titles).

In recent years advances for the rest of us have gone down significantly, more publishers refuse to pay extra for pictures (especially for specialist books). There is an inclination to publish more books so publishers' overheads are spread across more titles, but to keep them in print less long partly owing to increased warehousing costs. As has been said on this list before, most authors should not expect to make a fair return per hour on the book itself, although sales at lectures are a big help.

Now, responding to Denyse's questions:

Reviews and word of mouth. Reviews in print, broadcast or online make a big difference, especially where a review is coupled with an offer to buy at a discount or with free shipping online or via a phone number which is given on the page. Of course, in some author's contracts, sales of this sort by the publisher attract a reduced royalty. But review copies are now sent out much less widely, and authors are not always consulted about the review list. And publishers do not seem to realise that review copies contribute to the word of mouth even if the reviewer puts nothing in print. And it also helps if, on amazon, the books can be shipped in 24 hours, or 2-3 days - and not four to five weeks as was recently quoted, inexplicably, for my new sweet pea book. When this is coupled with a link, on the same amazon page, to a dealer selling the book secondhand, for less than the amazon price, sales are lost.

Know their stock. Not leave shelves empty when they could be expanding their stock. Tidy and organise the shelves. Supporting local authors. All these factors are far too variable.

Not telling customers that a book cannot be ordered - this recently happened when a friend wanted to order one of my books from Barnes & Noble.

Sadly, it is often size and number of colour pictures at a cheap price. And, in the UK, a TV name usually makes an enormnous difference,.

Errrr.... I don't think so. Why would I want to publicise my book ideas for others to steal?

And, while we're about it, another gripe: publishers who sell a large batch of 'remainders' before the book is even published. OK, so they print all the copies at the same time and this lowers the unit cost (more profit for the publisher or a lower selling price). But there is then no opportunity for continuing full price sales, after 12 or 18 months the market is suddenly flooded with remainders.

And another... when publishers do decide to pay for pictures, paying photographers more than they pay the writers. One internationally known photographer, after writing his first book said to me: "I'm not doing that again, how can you make a living from writing? It was only worth doing because they used my pictures."

OK, that's enough. I don't know about the rest of the people on this list, but although I'm trying to make a living from writing, I write because I can't not write.

Graham Rice

My new book on sweet peas, The Sweet Pea Book, is now out.
Find out more at http://www.scentedsweetpeas.co.uk