Your essays always bring surprises and insights, and this one includes some wonderful poetic riffs. I am sure you have more skills and talents up your sleeves than I can imagine. Thanks for sharing your gifts!
i know, that's why it took you so long to ID the smell. but as an expert horticultural artist, and a certified scientist, you should have got out the climbing gear, palette, and paints and gotten to work!!
about the publishing -- so the Big Guys weren't interested. I think the other tack is to make a thorough search of presses that have published generally similar things- the nature, science, art work, etc. They may even be regional presses, or specialists in a given topic, or combos of them - plants and "diaries", etc. In my experience you go with who already does what you/one does, because they know the market, the game, as it were, and can be more open to proposals. You may not get international fame and fortune, but you may well get readership. and you don't have to have it all done, to generate interest and even a contract. So don't use that rather insipid reason for not moving ahead with it all. The work is too wonderful to make the decisions yourself, that a publisher is the one that may be the best decision-maker. I'm happy to do a search for you, pal. I do speak from some modest experience in this, BTW.
wow, Michael, what a lot of expertise you bring to this!! I hope Walter does move on some of those tips. he is already well-published, as you point out. thanks a lot!!!
No agents, but Walter might..his The Fire Ants was published by Belknap-Harvard, and his Ant Architecture was published by Princeton. Such presses have historically been receptive to new work from science writers they have previously published. Smaller presses, like Wholon, in San Diego, have shown themselves to be risk takers in accepting authors and works outside the general mainstream-- they did a simply amazing job with Rohwer's, Youle, Maughan and Hisakawa's, Life in Our Phage World- a combined art, graphics and text..highly technical but still accessible. Wholon kept the price under 100. I would buy it at twice the cost. MIT is another press that has taken risks with mixed art/graphics,text hybrids. It is actually an ancient mode of science presentation- look at the early naturalists. The production costs are higher to the publisher so I suspect the authors don't reap much in the way of financial reward.
Art publishers that publish high-end works like popular Rizzoli are innumerable as are at least a score of EU counterparts. I fear for the survival of many of them as we are in an era of more people getting their information from screens. A pity. My advice to all of us is to not only support our publishers and reward their risk taking but also support our bookstores. Wear the old coat but read the new book!
I am very pleased to have your admiration. As for putting the essays together into a book, I have kept this in my mind, but think it is premature at this time. I still have a stack of essays to work on, and I like the process. I am also a bit sour on publishers--- I offered my plant drawings-with-essays to five different publishers (including Harvard and Princeton), and they weren't interested. Anyway, for now, my essays are free, and for the future, any book that results will most likely be cheap (not three figures, Michael).
Well I partially anticipated one of your hesitations. I was going to say in a follow-up comment that even though you might want to temporize on rushing to press knowing just how many things there are yet to relate- still there are always Volume IIs! The collected Essays and Art could go to three volumes (or more)! Anyway, I hope you do consider it. Reading and looking at your art on the screen is all very well and the price is right, but I'm old school and there's nothing like a large coffee table volume sitting on my lap, which I can slowly read and reread and scrutinize the lovely art without having my screensaver going on! But the big hurdle is finding a publisher.. and the time, and further the patience if you get a bad draw in an editor! Too much work!
Your essays always bring surprises and insights, and this one includes some wonderful poetic riffs. I am sure you have more skills and talents up your sleeves than I can imagine. Thanks for sharing your gifts!
you don't have one of your prize-winning drawings of the cow?????
It was hard to see up there in the tree.
i know, that's why it took you so long to ID the smell. but as an expert horticultural artist, and a certified scientist, you should have got out the climbing gear, palette, and paints and gotten to work!!
Uncle!
about the publishing -- so the Big Guys weren't interested. I think the other tack is to make a thorough search of presses that have published generally similar things- the nature, science, art work, etc. They may even be regional presses, or specialists in a given topic, or combos of them - plants and "diaries", etc. In my experience you go with who already does what you/one does, because they know the market, the game, as it were, and can be more open to proposals. You may not get international fame and fortune, but you may well get readership. and you don't have to have it all done, to generate interest and even a contract. So don't use that rather insipid reason for not moving ahead with it all. The work is too wonderful to make the decisions yourself, that a publisher is the one that may be the best decision-maker. I'm happy to do a search for you, pal. I do speak from some modest experience in this, BTW.
wow, Michael, what a lot of expertise you bring to this!! I hope Walter does move on some of those tips. he is already well-published, as you point out. thanks a lot!!!
I would love for Walter to collect his essays and illustrative art works in one book. I'd buy a copy even if the price was in three figures.
so-- do you know publishers or agents? it is a great idea!!!
No agents, but Walter might..his The Fire Ants was published by Belknap-Harvard, and his Ant Architecture was published by Princeton. Such presses have historically been receptive to new work from science writers they have previously published. Smaller presses, like Wholon, in San Diego, have shown themselves to be risk takers in accepting authors and works outside the general mainstream-- they did a simply amazing job with Rohwer's, Youle, Maughan and Hisakawa's, Life in Our Phage World- a combined art, graphics and text..highly technical but still accessible. Wholon kept the price under 100. I would buy it at twice the cost. MIT is another press that has taken risks with mixed art/graphics,text hybrids. It is actually an ancient mode of science presentation- look at the early naturalists. The production costs are higher to the publisher so I suspect the authors don't reap much in the way of financial reward.
Art publishers that publish high-end works like popular Rizzoli are innumerable as are at least a score of EU counterparts. I fear for the survival of many of them as we are in an era of more people getting their information from screens. A pity. My advice to all of us is to not only support our publishers and reward their risk taking but also support our bookstores. Wear the old coat but read the new book!
I am very pleased to have your admiration. As for putting the essays together into a book, I have kept this in my mind, but think it is premature at this time. I still have a stack of essays to work on, and I like the process. I am also a bit sour on publishers--- I offered my plant drawings-with-essays to five different publishers (including Harvard and Princeton), and they weren't interested. Anyway, for now, my essays are free, and for the future, any book that results will most likely be cheap (not three figures, Michael).
Well I partially anticipated one of your hesitations. I was going to say in a follow-up comment that even though you might want to temporize on rushing to press knowing just how many things there are yet to relate- still there are always Volume IIs! The collected Essays and Art could go to three volumes (or more)! Anyway, I hope you do consider it. Reading and looking at your art on the screen is all very well and the price is right, but I'm old school and there's nothing like a large coffee table volume sitting on my lap, which I can slowly read and reread and scrutinize the lovely art without having my screensaver going on! But the big hurdle is finding a publisher.. and the time, and further the patience if you get a bad draw in an editor! Too much work!