Re: Garden Book Trends

**"bbmackey" b*@prodigy.net**

Well, I'm a book publisher, and I have two books far along enough in the
works to talk about. One is due out this fall, by Nellie Neal (list member),
called "Questions and Answers for Deep South Gardeners" and the other is a
new rock garden book by Rex Murfitt (co-author of "Creating and Planting
Garden Troughs") which will come out this spring, if all goes well. As you
see, these are both "niche" books. A reader who is interested in the region
or small-focus topic may be interested enough to buy the books. As for other
gardeners, you couldn't give them to them, free.

Timber Press does specialized topics and continues to publish excellent
horticultural and technical books.

I went to a Pennsylvania garden trade show this summer (PANTS, sic) and
visited a booth run by Houghton Mifflin. I asked what they were bringing out
this fall. The answer is nothing! Not a single new title.

There's still a glut of great and gorgeous books out there from the
'nineties.

It's alarming when I go to my local (huge) Borders Books and see that the
shelf space for garden books has been greatly reduced. It's only a third of
what it was about eight years ago.

My sales to Amazon.com were down in August, compared to June and July. As
has been said, widespread drought has depressed garden businesses.

I see a lot of books that have some kind of celebrity connection.

The big publishers mostly got gobbled up in corporate mergers and
acquisitions and are not doing so much anymore in the garden area. And few
others have the resources to produce costly, glossy, highly designed,
photo-filled books. In my opinion they are abdicating the garden and
mid-list book field, leaving it to smaller independent publishers.

If you can't find a publisher and have a book that has a definite and
reachable market niche and audience, you might consider the self-publishing
route.

As to Marty's question about photo prices, I think it's somewhat negotiable
and people don't want to say in public what they pay or what they receive.
Other opinions?

Best wishes,

Betty Mackey
Independent Publisher
www.mackeybooks.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doreen Howard" <doreenh@ticon.net>
Subject: [GWL] Garden Book Trends

> I have heard from several peers that some book publishers are not buying
> garden book manuscripts currently, because gardening is not a category
that
> is selling well in stores.  Also, packagers are looking more for food,
> convenience and cost cutting topics.  Please feel free to weigh in here
with
> opinions, information you have gleaned lately and what you have observed.
> Also, the book publisher people on the GWL list, how about giving us your
> expert insights?

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