Re: Garden Book Trends

**"Peter Loewer" t*@earthlink.net**

Doreen: I've made a good, not great, living as a writer for almost 30 years.
As the years have passed, more and more second-rate books appreared on the
market, going through one edition, awash with color photos but sadly lacking
on content. Years ago when somebody wanted to buy a photo they did but now
thanks to some unscrupulous people in the business, today you get offered
half of what you once did, they they begin to make deals! Not for me. Then
publishers asked for more material but offered less money and now the major
publishers are bowing out of a greedy mess they created. Meantime, I saw my
book "The Evening Garden" reprinted by Timber Press (after its initial
destruction by Macmillan), God bless Timber Press, and my "Solving Weed
Problems" published by Lyons. Now I've just finished "Jefferson's Garden" at
Stackpole (no photos just black and white line art) and this fall Lyons will
be publishing my two books, "Solving Deer Problems" (again no color) and as
yet untitled book on Imaginative Container Gardening (this one has lots of
photos, all provided by me at no extra cost). At no time was the advance
larger than $5,000. I provide my own art and photos, but as a few of you
know, these are small publishers still interested in bringing out books with
more text than pictures. But you have to be able to write well,  be your own
editor (today, the bean-counters have decided that copy-editors can be
replaced by Spell-check), and have another source of income as writing for
some of us is a chosen profession not a way of making big bucks! Hope this
helps! Peter
----- Original Message -----
From: "Doreen Howard" <doreenh@ticon.net>
To: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 12:37 PM
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?
> Doreen Howard
>
>
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