"Books with substance, specific lists, giving precise directions for particular conditions along with beautiful photos."

You mean like a cookbook, Poinc?

What about the cost of many garden books on the market?! I want a book on ornamental grasses, but do not want to spend $40-plus for one. I have only found a few in the $20 range and they feature none of the grasses I am interested in. How can you even write (or publish) a book on grasses and only include 3-4 types of Miscanthus? And how can the authors ignore all the great native grasses?
Same thing for the iris book I am looking at - $45! I don't want or need another coffee table book, I want a garden book with some substance to it.
Oh, and don't even get me started about garden books with lovely photos of 'unnamed' plants! The last rose book I ordered via Amazon (thus bought unseen), has less than 1/2 the roses identified.
I still find a book or two every month to buy, but I frequent the used book store and the library. Sorry - I work in the garden industry and it just doesn't pay enough to spend $40 or so on a book. Hm... Three more rose bushes for my garden or one book? Do you know how much compost I can buy for the price of one book? (One cubic yard!)
Sorry for the rant; just some food for thought.

Most of the nations gardeners are average people, and what I mean is, they garden for themselves, just for the simple pleasure of it. They do not give a hoot for latin botanical names, these names are for people who talk with others from across the globe, because common names are so varied, they have to use the botanical name. Gardening for dummies may sound a little insulting to some people, but it is a easy book to understand, and that in my opinion, is what people want, I myself, like most all garden books, and I do love the pictures as well, and a little humuor doesn't hurt either. Ivy

Dear Suzie,

The main reason the garden book market is flat is because of all the mediocre-to-bad books that have been dumped on the market, as you've noticed.
There are still small markets for inexpensive books and for coffee table ones. Nothing in between. You can get a little handbook or a dummies guide or purchase the $40.00 and up mega-rose-bibles and the like.
I have to also blame the British publishers who have flooded our market with junk, such as, a good-seller, "The Ultimate Garden book for North America." I think it is shameless to promote a book with this title, especially since it is practiaclly useless. Most of the palnts included will not survive Zones colder than 8. Our publishers can be blamed, sopmetimes, as well, fopr showing photogrpahs taken in England of plants that will not survive in the US.
As to your specific quesiton of a book on grasses. Check out one by Lauren Brown. The original is out of proint, but it has been turned into a pEterson guide. But if you can get one of the old copy, there is wonderful information on native and some nonnative grasses. An excellent book with no color but very descriptive black and white illustrations. You could probably find a used one via amazon.com (having swallowed alibris.com). I have to say, however, you would be much happier with Rick Darke's book on grasses publihsed by Timber Press. It costs about $50.00. Color reproduction is what makes these books expensive. But you would get your money's worth with htis one.
If you are not going to buy a good book at a hefty price, good books won't be made.
You should send back the rose book you bought and describe your complaint with it. What was it?
You should also buy any of my last few books. I don't want to tell you what to do, but here's an offer: If you buy Making More Plants and do not like it or think it is not worth the $36.00 or so it will cost from amazon, I will buy it back from you.
Really.
If you do like it, you will get to keep the book and please, please recommend it to your gardening friends. Word of mouth is the most important thing.
You may not get $40.00 worth of compost out of my new book, but you will be presented with information necessary to produce tens of thousands of plants -- for free. And the Latin is pretty good, too.

Ken Druse

AND Dear Ivy,
I know that Gardening for Dummies is an OK book. The "Dummies" books are pretty good and by very good writers. It is cynical to choose a name just to attract attention, but that is what it takes. If an average gardener and reader needs a name like Dummies to find a good book, what does that say about him or her?

About Latin names:
-I know of many plants that have different common names from state to state -- even store to store.
-Imagine if you bought a cookbook and it said "liquid" and wasn't specific as to type. No matter how high-toned or down-home the food presented, you need an accurate recipe.
-Don't you hate to see a plant...

Further to Ken's comments on gardening books and the publishing industry, this season does seem to be unusual. I started looking late in the fall for his book on the gardening shelves of all the bookstores I normally go to in my large metropolitan region. No one had it in stock. Compared with previous seasons, this is very unusual for a new release by a well known author. The stores I went to included majors, small chains and independents. One newly opened chain outlet said that their gardening section was very small at this time of year.

I concluded that either Ken's book was sold out or the book industry is about to collapse. It may be that the wheel is turning, and there's an opportunity here for a gardening bookstore business, since not everyone wants to place orders sight unseen through online retailers.

Dear Ken, Yes, you are right, I guess that doesn't say a whole heck of allot, does it? I love books that have the botanical names, and I have been trying to teach my readers some whenever I get a chance. I am very interrested in plant history. I did not realize at the time, but I have one of your books, and I love it. I will be looking for more the next time I go to the book store. I did not mean to sound critical, I just don't know a whole lot yet. Signed Ivy

RE: WORD OF MOUTH
Another way to support significant books is to write reviews of them on those ecommerce sites that offer this review feature (eg.: Amazon). Be brief, be specific, be real.

RE: GRASS IDENTIFICATION BOOK
I can also vouch for the quality of the Lauren Brown book Grasses, an Identification Guide, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-62881-4. I just checked barnes & noble (www.bn.com) and it is available and in stock for $12.60. It is compact enough to carry in the field. The deceptively simple pen drawings nicely capture the identifying features of grasses, sedges, rushes, etc. (You'll never lump them all together again!)

RE GARDENING AS OLD MAN'S GAME (Sept post)
I work with a lot of gen-x and a few gen-y people and their interest in gardening is far beyond that of my peers when we were that age. An untapped audience? Could be they just need some writing that focuses on their particular attitudes and interest sets.

I have been an avid gardener for many years and for Christmas I received the new book by Ken Druse. I have read about half of it so far and I think it is wonderful and informative. I have already read about propagation techniques for several plants that I didn't know about. My son who is also a gardener also read it and he also thought it was a great book. We simply have to weed out the good books from the bad. But this is definitely a good one.

I am 30 right now... I became a New Hampshire Master Gardener at age 27. I don't think I'm old... and I know I'm not a man. ;-)

That is not good news for those of us who are just trying to break into the market. Newspapers pay nil to nothing, and magazines have lengthy lead times. Can a living be made at this writing thing, or must we be content to garden and write about it just because we love it so? It's a quandary!
Has anyone self published?
Marie Harrison -- author of Gardening in Paradise -- and looking for a publisher.

Marie,
Your question as to whether one can make a living with this writing thing. I guess the answer is, barely.
I write books, magazine articles, photograph for both, have a photo stock service with 150,000 images, lecture, etc, Put them all together, and yes, one can make a living. But pull them apart, and I would say, no.
Most people I know who write for magazines do something else, as well. It is helpful to have a wealthy spouse.
Self-publishing is an attractive idea. Barbara Barton could not get a publisher for her book, Gardening by Mail, and finally, published it herself. After several successful editions, she allowed a publisher to publish/distribute the next edition. That cured her -- she took the book back and continued to handle it herself. A unique case, but not a unique result. The problem with self-publishing is distribution.
ken

Ken, could this latest book be considered applicable to the advanced gardener and hence the small audience? You have gained much respect for compiling such a text. I have purchased several very good propagation books and don't know how I can justify another one. For $40.00, I would consider this book more for the professional propagator than someone like me that grows from seed and cuttings for a hobby.

The internet, without doubt, is having an impact on book sales as one can find answers to the majority of gardening questions in minutes.

Thank you for your gift to the gardening community. Your are in a tough business today that unfortunately, is driven totally by profit over substance. Feel good that you have accomplished what you have. Some as gifted as you will never have the chance.

i wonder if the next phase in garden books is going to be back towards the essay- henry mitchell, allan lacy, elizabeth lawrence, eleanor perenyi. i think the market is saturated with (poor-quality) how-to's. also, most americans have the attention span of gnats. i work in retail nursery sales, and the demand is for the instant effect, with instructions in 25 words or less. the demand by the thinking gardener seems to be a fairly stable number. re:the younger gardener- there must be a way to make henry mitchell 25 again! (i know he's dead!)

Most publishers and other commercializers of gardening are banking on beginners. These people think the interest is akin to decorating seasonally, as one might with Christmas lights. You buy some plants, plug them in and turn them on -- then wait for the next holiday.
People who love gardening find this irrelevant if not downright insulting. I wouldn't think text-only books would sell, but consider Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire -- a New York Times bestseller. Whether this book is a garden book or not, someone is reading.
I think the future market is for what one might call gardening 201: people who planted impatiens form Home Depot and want more -- much more -- that's certainly everyone who visits gardenweb.

Ken. I write a weekly column for Chicago suburban daily, and also occasionally for one of the big metros. If you'd like to send me an advance/review copy of your next book, e-mail me and I'll send you my address.

Ken,
Shirley's posting made me smile. When my Dad died his horticultural library contained hundreds of gardening books. As a former editor of Horticulture and a garden writer he was sent advanced copies of every garden book published in hopes that he would write reviews. I spent a winter going through each book carefully. Kept only thirty books. Those were the ones with real meat in them, latin names and all. The rest of the books I donated to an arboretum that was trying to find the funds to establish a gardening library. They were thrilled.

There is no doubt that the information available on the Web is seriously impacting the book business. This creates a dilema for the garden writer. I do not have an answer to the problem. But, regional books seem to still hold interest. And, design/idea books are always popular. The recent terrorist events will probably return everyone to hearth and garden. Cottage gardens, creative junk gardens, vegetable gardens will again be of interest. Warm and fuzzy...that may be the 'new' trend.

Maybe this new International Digital Medium is your nemesis?
When I crave enlightenment, I head for the in-house International Library right here in my board of keys.
If I can't find it in a flash with Google, I may then search through that paper medium.

Otherwise I may be content with the many clickable options
which make me forget what I was LQQKing for in the first place : )

Health and Happiness,
Nevin H.
-----------
P.S.-
Ken Druse,
I just ordered your propagation book.
It better be as good as I heard,
or I may donate it to that Public Place where non-surfers go to read : )

Here is a link that might be useful: My Place

I have to agree with everyone here who says the problem is an overall lack of quality. I can't tell you how many times I have gone into a Barnes & Noble or Borders or our local bookseller looking for gardening books, only to find the same basic, unimaginative information rehashed for the 65th time.

I think today's garden hobbyist is at a skill/knowledge level far above that which the writers are directing their books. Just my opinion, but then again I have the money & would love to spend it on some quality books, so I guess my opinion matters here.

philosopher

Ditto on the comment about Gardening NOT being an old man's game. I am male, but 18 years old, thank you very much, already addicted to gardening, rose breeding, and presently celebrating my first ever acceptance letter (Okay, from a little magazine no one has ever heard of, but it does have national distrobution, and I am wildly excited.) I, at least, would love to buy more books, but I am the classic pennyless college student, and any spare funds are going to plants before books.
Joseph Tychonievich.

I only publish in a local newspaper, but I have noticed something... if there is substance, people respond to it. If it is just a list of plants that work in a specific location, it does not have much impact. I think folks like Michael Pollan, Sara Stein, Emily Bowers, Lauren Springer, that write material that is more than one-dimensional, are the folks that will produce something of lasting value. These garden books have a holistic ecological perspective... I know they are my favorite writers, while I can not remember most of the other writers, though Scott Ogden, Bill Welch, and Geyata Akjislgvi get opened a lot when I want to research more about gardening in the south and southwest. I think people also respond to the writers that show a passion for their subject, and get carried away, just a little, as they describe a plant, a garden, a design style, etc. I also think regional books are important, that to try to write for a national audience is part of the process that waters the subject matter down... admittedly, no one will ever make a living solely writing regional books, but as Ken says, a person makes a living in a lot of ways. I have held all day seminars at 75 bucks a head, and hauled in a grand plus... the people take away plants, handouts, and more, but that is not a bad payday.

I think we all have to realize the sad fact: Publishing is dieing, and the conglomerates which now own most publishers are NOT interested in quality or scholarship, merely maximum sales, usually defined by them as "impulse sales." Those money men have accurately guaged the populace and know that the majority (those who spend significant amounts of money) are mainly interested in pictures, and most such books are now sold as gifts, with the buyer often ignorant of any real gardening knowledge! If publishers had to depend upon the few among us who are 'scholarly' to buy enough of their books, they would soon go broke in today's world. Face it: videos, DVDs and the like are now what sell to a largely illiterate world (did you see the wire story of the Philadelphia schools finding that only 13% of their high school kids could understand the meaning of newspaper stories?!!!) If you wish to toil for a pittance for the few scholarly journals still printed and the occassional university bulletin, more power to you; but most of us writers must make a living and only the panderers to pop will ever make more than the proverbial dime. If you could become the Harold Robbins or the Jacqueline Suzzane of gardening books, your fortune would be made! I can see the cover of your successful book now: a nubile maiden reclines nude amid sprigs of Hedera helix covering certain areas and the title leering: "HOW TO MAKE YOUR SPRIGS GROW (BUT NOT TOO MUCH!)" wink, wink. [barf! barf!]

P.S. Also, very few publishers today employ any editors actually expert in a subject area. They mostly get the young MBA baccaulaureates who will work for a pittance and bright hopes. If they actually know English grammer, spelling and composition the publishers consider themselves blessed, but as to whether they know if an author really knows their subject, they haven't a clue. It is all cosmetics today, with the authors supposed to supply text, index, visuals and captions and then all that is turned over to a group of 'stylists' who create a "market product." It is no wonder that captions are placed with wrong photos, and botanical names are frowned upon by those who scraped through schools with purchased tests and grades and who would be hard pressed to distinguish between a preposition and a pronoun, much less know an area of science such as horticulture. You will find more discerning readers here on the web than amoung the publishers and book stores of today.

And Ken Druse is quite right when he alludes to the marketers thinking of gardening as something like seasonal decorating. It is all market (read: money) driven. The entire Horticultural/floral industry is to blame for much of this. Every florist and garden center has only the latest notions and eveyday easy-to-sell plants as per the season. Just try to find someone there who knows the difference between Alopecia and Aspidistra! And in the past three decades especially, the industry has found it profitable to 'adopt' cutesy...

I appreciate the opportunity to write a note here. I seldom come home from a trip without a new book. I spend some time tracking down older books that have demonstrated value.

I am a reader and a buyer of garden books. I wrote a review "the Collector's Garden" a few years ago for a regional plant society newsletter. It resulted in many people coming to the annual luncheon featuring a discount bookseller and having her sell out of this book. After the discounted copies were sold the full price copies (club owned) stayed on the table. Softcover, lower priced copies of everything should be available. Not everyone can afford Exotica.

As for the market being flat, maybe you guys are not writing books we want to buy and read. Henry Mitchell is my favorite and I have read his three garden books many times over. I don't want basic information. I don't want cute or clever prose. If you are writing about bulbs, begin with the beginning and do the entire life cycle of that bulb. Give me information I can use.

Don't fill up the pages with quotes. Don't print pix of places that nobody will ever get to see. If some opinion is in order print the opionion. A book withoout opinion is written by W. A. Burpee. I accept that pro and con will be part of a message. Nobody believes a few symbols with a key somewhere you cannot find when you want it, will do the job. Don't gush on about plants that cost more than the mortgage payment. Pay somebody to write an index. The indexes that lead you to nothing are maddening. If you are writing a monograph try to use language that can be tranlated into the garden or greenhouse. Don't market a textbook to non-academics. Do market intelligence and know your subject. If you do not know your subject, the reader will know that in the first five pages.

Stop yakking over Latinate form in horticulture. There is no other way. Yes there is, the other way is ignorance.

Since books cannot hope to keep up with developing information make your book contain something solid and factual, stuff that the reader knows is the real thing in the first five pages. Don't take the attitude that because a plant is common it is worthless. Many common plants are something entirely different when really well grown.

Don't write about desert plants or tropical plants unless the books are intended for that readership only. Don't talk down to the reader.

Do not think your fixation on color photography is such a certainty. Mitchell's books have not one photograph and he is the most popular garden writer in American - only three books and unfortunately, no longer with us. But he was honest and true and you just know he wrote every piece after he performed the job.

Ilike bulbs. I have about twenty books on bulbs. I accept that noone can do it all but if you are going to handle the subject don't skip around and leave out most of the species. I also clip articles and keep folders. The folders are...

Thank you Claire, I needed that. I feel like I have just walked through the woods with the dog; muddy but with lungs full of fresh air. tony

Whenever I go to Marshall's, TJMaxx and all of those discount stores that sell a hodgepodge of designer clothing, housewares, shoes and gourmet food products, I always find lots of gardening books marked waaaaaay down (found a book on garden designing and using outdoor space, for $3.99... found an excellent and huge gardening encyclopedia and design book for $9.99 when at a bookstore at full retail it would have been $40.). Many of these books are mass produced in China, thus taking printing work away from American, Canadian and British workers. The result is lots of cheap overruns. If you can get a $20 book for 4 bucks at a discount jobber, why go to a big bookseller? Sad, but true.

Don't worry, Ken, I'll watch for your books. I've followed your magazine columns. I am a public relations writer by profession, and do occasional newspaper writing. Will be happy to review your work.

Quite simply, I believe a good quality gardening book is just like a good quality tool. Neither will ever become obsolete and are worth whatever price we paid for them.

As an educated gardener with a desire to always know more I too am dismayed by the new onslaught of junk books I see on the shelves everywhere. Thankfully I have a great resources for quality publications here in my region from the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon and a couple of our local book stores. It's unfortunate that hard information is not what the masses are wanting to spend their money on. It's the same way in the retail plant trade, if you are trying to sell two plants to the average joe, they always want the one with the flower. It's that insatiable appetite for instant gratification that the publishers are banking on when they are selling a printed product.

A recent example of this is seen in the changes at Rodale publishing with their remaking of Organic Gardening magazine,now called OG and the new Organic Style. Organic Style with it's lavish oversized uptown look and high fashion style is in every grocery store in town and OG, which used to be available just as easily is no longer readily available. There is also much disappointment in organic gardening circles with the lack of hard information in the newly redesigned OG. Rodale lost their bet on that one.

Thank you Ken for keeping bar raised. We appreciate the quality work you and others are doing in your research and writing. You keep us well fed.

Many people responded to the "Book Market Flat" posting. Now, I fear, the market is dead.
My book, Making More Plants, winner of "Award of the Year" from the Garden Writers Association of America, sold out its first printing last August -- way ahead of projections. Now it is mid-February and books are still not available. They blame 911. It seems that having unsold book in the warehouse is such a big sin, that it is better not to print any. Publishers have so little faith in all garden books, because bad ones depressed an already weakened market.
My other titles have just a handful of copies on hand (in spite of sales), with no announced plans to reprint.
Timber Press is still producing books and Houghton Mifflin is recycling Taylor Guides and publishing a book on native shrubs.
Any thoughts?

As mentioned above, I'm certain the web has been a blow to garden book publishing, though at the same time a real boon to gardeners. Inevitably, information wants to be free, and gardeners have discovered how to reap whatever they need without ever buying another book. I might even go so far as to say these very Gardenweb Fora may be the most lethal thing that ever hit the publishing world.

I myself have pretty much stopped buying garden books. I used to buy at least five or six big beautiful expensive rose books every year, for the photographs as well as the information. But now when I need to look up a picture or learn whether a rose is blackspot resistant, I can get quick free immediate and locally relevant answers on the web. No more paying $60 to find out how tall a rose grows in England!

I love to browse through the beautiful garden design books at the bookstore, but I seldom purchase them because, you know what, my yard is not Sissinghurst. The pictures are pretty, but for the most part hopelessly irrelevant to my little rectangular plot. I start to feel like I'm living on a different planet. Again, I get most of my best design inspiration and ideas on the web (e.g., Roger Raiche's site, and Keeyla Meadows, to name just a couple of favorites).

I have three or four well-worn reference books, most of them more relevant to California than Louisiana (Sunset Western Garden Book, Golden Gate Gardening, etc.). It seems the west coast generates the best information. I have two or three books geared to Louisiana gardening, but I seldom find them useful. My favorite reference book is still Liberty H. Bailey's 1924 Manual of Cultivated Plants. Again, I can find the answers to almost all of my questions with a quick google search on the web.

The 21st century is certainly presenting a profound challenge to garden writers, especially book authors, no doubt about it. We need to figure out what a good quality book can offer that can't be found for free on the web.

I have enjoyed immensely reading this thread. Also a note from Mr. Druse.

He is correct in stating his book is not in the shops. It was stolen from the Albany, NY library and is not in local stores so I have not been able to get a look at it. I like to look at a book before I order it from an online site. There are price comparison sites now and when you try the best price it is always out of stock.

I would like to repeat my comment on indexes. This part of any book drives me crazy. I know I have read something in a book and I cannot find it and hours are spent looking. It is with respect that I gaze upon a complete index in any garden book.

There is a an article in the RHS "Garden" this month on the quality of garden books. The author is stating all of the points made in this thread. He is also saying that a pretty space is what is wanted and thinks the UK program Garden Force has affected the gardening public in the UK.

It has affected the part of the public in front of my TV set as my non-gardening husband is addicted to it. What is the most interesting part is that this TV program is in the ten most popular in the UK. A TV program, not books.

TV, online and books should be connected. I believe there will always be books. cp

Yesterday, I spent a few hours in the Albany Public Library and checked things in the garden book area on the computer card files (now all the card files available).

Mr. Druse's newest book is gone and in a check of all the libraries in upstate NY which are drawn on for inter-library loans, the book is listed nowhere.

Martha Stewart and Rebecca are in most libraries with two copies available in many. So......I asked a person who seemed to be in chrge of something who chose these books. He said there was once an advisory committee on the 600's and 700's but getting people to meet and advise was not easy. Therefore the purchasing choices are not made by in the case of 635's by gardeners. In the much older books on the shelves are some very good choices. Local authors are always purchased regardless of the quality of the writing.

I also discovered that I can check all of these many catalogs at home with my library card. That is plain wonderful.

The purpose of this message is then to say that authors should pressure publishers to place better books in libraries. A book buyer will seek books, most are not an impulse purchase. An impulse purchase will be a less expensive volume found by chance.

Also stolen and not on the shelves are all books by Rosemary Verey and Penelope Hobhouse. These two authors were popular in the 90's. For pinching books, I do not have a suggestion. cp

Claire,

Interseting that you should detail the library selection process. I have recently been at the local library doing research on landscape design. I was dumbfounded at the number of books and videos by Jerry Baker. I didn't know this guy was so proliferate at producing crap!

Sadly, many of the truly great gardening books that I own and treasure are not available on the shelves. (Hey, Ken... you weren't there at all.) :-(

IronBelly

Ironbelly, is it OK to use that name?

Get a membership in the Pennsylvania Hort. Soc. You will get a very good magazine and the privilege to borrow all the best garden books on any shelf anywhere. They mail them back and forth and it very easy - choose online. cp

You've all struck fear in my heart with doom-saying the fate of gardening books. I love my computer for information, I love my magazines (I subscribe to 8 different garden publications) for a look at what others are doing in their own spaces, but for filling my soul I turn to my books on rainy afternoons and upon retiring for the evening. Henry Mitchell and I have been having an affair, and Ken Druse shows up for a menage a trois, occasionally Penelope H. drops in for a little high-brow chat. When I want to get real, girl-friend, I listen to Cassandra Danz, who always makes me laugh; I revitalize my passions with Lauren Springer. But my Henry, dear Henry, crusty as ever, is always there. He never disappoints. I turn to my gardening books for a reaffirmation of my soul--remembering why I garden. It's something more to do with my spirit than with the genus and species. I research my Western Garden Bible, er, Book, when I have questions on why things aren't thriving or how much water the astilbe really needs, but that's the nuts and bolts end of it. Leave out the spiritual end of it, for me anyway, and it would quickly become the drudgery I thought it was back when Mom made me weed the strawberries. Please, don't tell me there won't be new voices out there, writers to discover who share their inner gardening life with me. As long as they are writing, I am buying, and in hardcover, no less. Yes, Ken, I own Making More Plants, as I participated in the thread a couple of seasons ago on what to name such an adventure in horticulture. Feeling somewhat like a proud parent, I had to have it as soon as it hit the shelves, because, dang, I was there when the "fam" was deciding on what to call Junior. I'll have you know there are 22 cuttings working up (or would that be down?) roots on my potting shelves right now. I've decided a meaningful gift I can give to friends next Christmas is a little plant I nurtured myself. The hours to clip, snip, dip, mist, repot and water must leave some trace of my karma with the plant, and the recipient can look at it and think of me. (Now if they let it wither and die, I guess that will tell me just WHAT they think of me...) As a person who found healing and wholeness in the garden and among plants, I can't imagine those who look upon gardening as "yardwork". My two goals in life--rid my neighborhood of lawns (those over-fertilized water wasters...but then I live in a high interior desert--Utah), and get the neighbors to stop setting out orderly rows of marigolds and petunias in their kidney-shaped concrete-edged beds in the right hand corners of their front yards. I've succeeded in my own 1/4 acre suburban lot and now spread the good news and compost about to my neighbors...(and I throw in some starts of nicotiana alata, or one of the salmon colored asters, maybe a knee-high delphinium, and certainly a pinch of purple coneflower to convince them there are a lot more interesting choices than petunias out there...but...

This is a belated comment. I am new at gardening. and I have become very informed through books: the best of which I have found at the library. Though I must say that I haven't seen any of yours, and I will ask them to order some next time I go in. I check them out, and the ones I find extremely informative and/or beautiful (because I need those photos for ideas and inspiration), I actually buy them. There are two I'm planning to buy at the moment. so I feel quite sure I will eventually own Ken Druse books - because there seems to be overwhelming enthusiasm about them. But I'll try to get to know them from the library first.

As a writer, I write presently non-profit for several African violet magazines. As a reader I have become uninterested in general garden books. They seem to be all the same. There's little new information.

Presently my "winter hobby and goal" is to read two of every speciality plant books offered. I've started writing Book reviews on different forums at gardenweb and have had some negative opinions. (Seems I did not care for someone's favorite book or something.)

I think there is no glut of GOOD books written about special plants. Example: Try typing in "Chrysanthemum" at Amazon.com. You'll get lots of books, but little about the garden plant. What I want is a book that is all-inclusive about each plant. I want to know everything about Peonies from seeds to transplanting. It shouldn't be hard for an author to make him/herself an expert on one subject and there is a dire need for excellence in books of this type. I am not speaking of coffee table books.

Reader's opinions are gold. That's how I choose my Amazon.com selections. After all we can't peruse each book from amazon as we can in book stores.

I'd say writers are missing the boat if they don't get more specific on one plant at a time. If I had the talent that would be my goal in future. Good luck.

Everyone is dismissing "coffetable books" too lightly. I recently found one at the library I simply could not live without owning "Wild Flowers" by E. House. To Ken I have read several places that your latest book is excellent but I have not yet seen it. As for latin there are pros and cons pro latin 1it is universal, 2it is descriptive, 3it is international, 4it places a plant in a structure in relation to other plants. Of these reasons perhaps the last two are most important, however as botany degrades(I use the word intentionally) to the molecular level many plants are getting new latin names so that reason 1 goes out the window. latin con 1it is elitist 2 it is hard to understand 3beacuse of the founder's name bit it is less scientific and more advertizing 4it seems to reject folk wisdom which is sometimes part of common names for example poison ivy is pretty darn clear Rhus radicans is not.

Hi Ken,

I think that the key is to find something new that's not been covered, or is, at the least, innovative. And also....that the tone needs to be encouraging of self-exploration. I can't tell you how many times I've glanced through a gardening book over at Borders and put it back because the author had a "My Way is the best way, is the ONLY way" stance. Uggh. I think a book writtne as encouraginly as is possible will certainly be approved of by a wider audience. (IMHO)

Ken, I was very delighted to see that you had looked at my photo album of the trip I made last month to teach WS to USO youths. I'm going back again next week to teach an adult group and at the request of the USO I will be steering part of the course towards the development of Victory Gardens, I hope to adapt that for another course at Hofstra.

Kindly,

Trudi

With the condition of our economy in the US and other concerns, it's not just gardeners and gardening books. People are cutting back on discretionary purchases of all kinds. More and more of my gardening friends are swapping plants and books (here in my town *and* amongst internet friends as well). Once there is a significant change in the economy (oh, say by November 2004), I think there will be a celebratory spending spree by all kinds of folks!

I am thoroughly convinced that the right books would sell like crazy. I think that one of your chief difficulties is marketing to the "intermediate" gardener. It is my belief that the person who knows "more than a little" but is not an expert is the most difficult person to convey information to. It is very difficult to know what to say and what to leave out. Take, for instance, the books out there about garden design. They are full of beautiful pictures and they tell me wonderful information about how to tastefully fill my garden in 10 ft x 20 ft segments, but they do not adequately tell me how to get all of these segments to flow together. If someone could write a book that tells me how to "pull it all together" I would buy it in a minute.

I live in Mississippi. I garden approximately 2 acres. Many people in this state do the same. Well, they mow 2 acres of grass. BUT, if somebody would teach them what they could do with properties of this size, they just might listen. Maybe such a book exists. Maybe I haven't found it yet. I am looking...every other weekend at Border's and I've read for hours on Gardenweb to try to find out what other people are reading.

There should be more publications written for a specific region. Mississippi Gardener's Guide by Norman Winter is a start. Felder Rushing's and Steve Bender's Passalong Plants was a delight, but I don't get a sense of the nearly limitless possibilities in plant choices that are available to this region from either of the aforementioned books. Somebody, please, write a book for Zone 7 of the "long hot summer" with high humidity and sweltering nights. This region is not exactly like the rest of "the coastal south." For one thing, we aren't on the coast, and our winters can be cold and wet. Oh yeah, our region tends to have acid soil, not that sweet stuff they have in parts of Texas.

After having said all that I want to tell you that my husband bought your "Making More Plants" for my birthday in October. I have been a propagating fool ever sense. I have tried to coax roots from every shrub in my yard that still had some semi-ripe wood. My husband and I also bought your,"The Natural Garden" for my mother for Christmas. I can't wait to read it!

I've just begun to look for Karl Foerster's and Friedrich Stahl's, "Perennials and Their Garden Habitats."

Best to you in this endeavor.

Nita

Make that Richard Hansen's and Friedrich Stahl's "Perennials and Their Garden Habitats." Oops.

Ken, yesterday, I was able to purchase your book new from Amazon at $22.44 and today when I checked, I see a used one for $18.75. I'll be watching for the mailman.
Thank you for all your work in the field of propagation.

It would be a shame if garden authors joined the company of pattern makers.

Are you familiar with that trade?

About 1980, I met a man whose father once had a pattern making shop - suppose Caterpillar needed a metal gear for a tractor; these tradesmen would make a wooden one for a mold (manufacture pattern).

As computerized equipment was developed that could "zip-out" patterns of synthetic material in no time, the trade of the woodworking pattern makers bit the dust.

There probably are many books of "stale" quality on the market, but the "flat" market may be due in part to a decrease of gardeners.

Many children, especially boys, like to read Harry Potter, read cheat codes for games on the Internet, and play with bionicles.

Is is possible that successive generations are phasing gardening out of culture?

If that's the case, you won't want book reviews. You will need to generate interest in gardening and plants.

The market may be flat for some, but the market for us is expanding rapidly. I belive that consumers are looking for books that make a difference in their own gardens instead of national books. Also, our authors conduct hundreds of seminars and signings each year. Marketing makes a difference!

I am an avid gardener and an avid reader, and I buy a lot of gardening books. Lately I have bought fewer and fewer of the new books. Why? Very few of them have anything to add to what is in the books I already own. It's not really the fault of the books or their authors. I have all the basic books I am every going to need, and only buy specialized books that fill a gap in my collection, a gap in an area that is of particular interest to me.

Recently I did an inventory of my books. I have roughly 200 garden books, and of them 60 or so are on focused on roses. When I go to a bookstore (which I often do!), I always check out the garden section, but I am seldom moved to buy anything. I am still actively collecting some older out-of-print rose books, but most new garden books just duplicate material I already own. I'm sure I'll buy more new garden books over time, but not at anything like the rate I have done in the past.

Paula

When I read the first post on this thread, my first thought was that it is exactly what I had observed in the local bookstores. 5yrs ago you could go into a Walden/BN and find a 'bookcase' full of gardening books ranging from specialties like herbs (my favorite) to regional. Lately you can barely get them to a full shelf and they are sandwiched between Martha and the holistic crafts! But are we partly to blame for this?

I have lost count of herb books that reitterate the same thing and the 'Idiots Guide' to whatever is perhaps great for the starter but of no interest to anyone past the two garden implements stage. This might be a time when people are doing the home thing, as has been suggested by media so logic would suggest that gardening and preserving the harvest etc should be a continuation of that nesting instinctbut it has to be addressed with less generic attitudes. To be realist, though, we perhaps don't get our book from the bookstore anymore - we go to Amazon or wherever.

My weakness though, is to go to historic houses, and there I pick up everything that is on offer.

I do however get concerned when people like Ken Druse have problems - what chance do the rest of us! My first review of a book that was printed somewhere other than locally, was for the Making MOre Plants (I had to buy the book though first). A great book that deserved the press and another person who does 'backyard' propagation, and not in a sterile university laboratory!

Perhaps all this shows that we all have to do more than just write a book - we have to market it and that takes time and energy.

Having worked in public relations and marketing for 25 years, I can heartily aver to your last paragraph, Katy. It's all about marketing - which includes knowing who your potential market is and what its members need/want.

Also, many a good product has languished in obscurity, while mediocre works get touted and sold, all beause the latter had a savvy and relentless promoter, and the former didn't.

I just found an interesting quote which, despite its age, is surprisingly timely:

"The ever increasing crowd of readers and their continual craving for something new ensure the sale of books that nobody much esteems.

In democratic times the public frequently treat authors as kings do their courtiers; they enrich and despise them. What more is needed by the venal souls who are born in courts or are worthy to live there?

Democratic literature is always infested with a tribe of writers who look upon letters as a mere trade; and for some few great authors who adorn it, you may reckon thousands of idea-mongers."

Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. II, Section !, Chapter XV, 1840

Here is a link that might be useful: The Trade of Literature

Mediocrity apparently isn't a new concept, and the exceptional are such precisely because they are...exceptional in a sea of mediocrity. ;)

What a great thread to revive! Ken Druse wrote this several years ago. Who has used his books, and others recommended here, and which have withstood the test of time for practical information and inspiration?

I ask because I am bored to death with my gardening books. Like it or not, January will come again, and I will need a good gardening text...not a picture book.

I cannot understand how you can think that distribution is a problem in self-publishing with Amazon there. If you self-publish a book and put it on Amazon, you won't need distribution.

Internet marketing is a wonderful way to market your books. yes, there is a little bit of a learning curve, but the old days of calling door to door on booksellers and getting them to carry your book is long past.

Most larger booksellers, such as Barnes and Noble, actually prefer you to send them an electronic pre-release copy with a picture of the cover, so they can make a decision. It's much simpler and less time consuming than submitting a hard copy, and you don't actually have to give one of your books away to do it.

If the want a hard copy, they'll request it.

well i'm not usually on this forum but the topic struck me so i thought i'd put my 2 cents worth in-- in 2009.

yes the market might be flat. but i think there is a learning curve that corresponds to a generational curve.
it takes a while for people to learn the basics and move on to something a bit more hard core. in 2002 we were pretty much after the baby boomers and just getting into the
gen-xer's.

I'm in my early 50's. i gardened early as a teenager, but
then with college, job and starting a family i wasn't ready
to start expanding my knowledge until about 10-15yrs ago.
even then i was well beyond basic books, but bought a lot of them hoping to find something new/better. now when i buy
i look to fill gaps in my knowledge. but usually i get the library to get the book first, check it out and read it.
if it doesn't suit my needs, i don't buy it. if it's outside of what i am interested in, i usually just go back to the library again to reread it.

i do love to read those english garden books. but for someone who lives in NE Ohio they just don't offer much that i can use.

i had to google ken's books to see what of his i've read.
surprise was that i've read them all and remember enjoying them. but i don't own them-- probably because i wasn't ready to buy them at the time. Now i hit the used book stores looking for gardenbooks that i really want. and the reason that so many basic books are out there is that they are entry level for the newbies, but not everyone goes on and on.

the same hold true hen i buy cooking books. with a few more than 1300 of them, i still buy about 50 per year. but a lot come from the remainder shelves or used stores or are regional ones with quirky recipes. the other day i noticed that our library had the El Bulli cookbook on the shelf. I'll probably check it out, read it, do a lot of scoffing and return it. but i'd never buy it unless i could get it for under $15. simply because it's a fad.

same hold true for gardening.

diggerb