Appeal to the group mind.

[pecunium]

I've got an offer to pitch some books; consumer how to.

So, the two subjects I think myself most likely to be able to write such a tome (or two) are some ideas on cooking, and some on photography.

What topics, in those subject areas, do you 1: see a lack (the photo books will probably have to deal with digital mostly. Feel free to consider aspects of "printmaking" as well. That would include making photos for the web), and 2: think I might have some ideas which would be worth having collected, all in one place.

Comments

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

This might sound odd, or even insane- but why not combine the two: cooking and photography? It's an art to create good food, and it's another art to photograph it in such a way that folks like me want to lick the pictures.

"Picture Lickin' Good"...

Considering how well you write, pictures would be a bonus. Make it a four-season 'travelogue'- with visits to the garden, the farmers market, etc. I'd buy it in a heartbeat- even at Williams Sonoma. (We finally got one out here- it's more dangerous to my bank account than CompUSA.)

[zoje-george.livejournal.com]

A good, laymen's "how to" for a digital camera would be wonderful. Online and print troublshooting and instruction manuals for digital cameras seem to assume that most users already have camera tech knowledge leftover from before digitals (and I never did figure out how to use that camera properly either).

How to properly resize photos for the web: what you see in you photoshop or graphic converter program size-wise even at view 100% is not necessarily how it will turn out online for example. Different common settings on cameras and how to take good pictures. How to work the "red eye" feature. What to do about shaky hands. How to use the viewfinder instead of the screen to focus due to the shaky hands issue. How to correct levels and colors to add warmth to a shot if you have a camera with a really blue white point (as I do).

These are just some of the issues I have with my camera. The manual that came with it is minimalist in descriptions, and online help guidelines seem to be geared toward the professional. They both just make me glaze over.

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

Yes. That. Not "Digital Photography for Dummies" but a level up from that. I *know* I could be doing more and better with my camera, but just can't figure out what and how.

[zoje-george.livejournal.com]

I find those "... for Dummies" books all incredibly insulting and unhelpful.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

One of your great assets as a writer is voice. I think a cookbook will allow you more scope than a photography book to show it off.

[doryllis.livejournal.com]

I always thought the "Idiot's Guide to..." were usually better but that is solely my opinion and obviously not the opinion of the majority of book buyers.

Also if you have tricks for making your print look like what you see on the screen that would be awesome. I've seen so many beautiful on screen pics that just come out dull in print.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I certainly need a good book on digital cameras, photography, and web (& other) manipulation of images. There may be some out there, but the field is developing so rapidly that anything useful would have to be purchased new (and would be dreadfully expensive), and I don't have an Adviser of known dependability.

Whether you're the person to write the one I need, I' don't know. I think you're capable of writing fairly complex informational material on the necessary basis of "the reader is intelligent, and totally ignorant", but in this area the information needs to be extremely complex if it is to be useful at all.

Anyone who knows enough about a subject to write a book (_pace_ H. G. Wells' "When I want to learn about something, I write a book on it") is almost certain to catch a serious case of Expertitis (diagnostic: "Everyone knows this, of course, so I don't have to explain it"). You're unlikely to be immune, and you might be especially susceptible. Probably this would depend, in the event, on your Editor and your choice of Beta Readers, with some side-ranging into time & space limitations.

I don't know whether to wish you Good Luck or not -- it's almost certain to turn out to involve far more Work and Time than you will estimate.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I can write such a book.

Food photography is a funny thing, and I've avoided it, in the main. A lot of food photography is artifice, and that's not the sort of thing which is easy to contrive on the kitchen table.

TK

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Even "Ventriloquism for Dummies,"?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

On the subject of buying, there's been enough time that second, and third, generation, cameras are now on the used market.

I know several good suppliers of same (not trivially cheap, but not the same as buying equivalent levels of tech new).

Tell me what you are looking to be able to do, and what you have by way of film cameras (because legacy hardware can still be used and some aspects of digital make it better than it, at first, appears).

TK

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I am hoping to pitch both. My father's editor just got moved up to acquisitions for "consumer books". She is looking for ideas.

I have some track record doing tech edits for photo.

I don't want to commit to two books at the same time (that's deadline pressure I don't need).

I was thinking of a cookbook on the lines of the photo book zoje_george is talking about, but for cooks.

Not a recipe book, but an overview of first principles, as well as how to build on that (the improvisational jazz aspects of cookery).

The photo book has less in the way of mental hurdles, people have Alton Brown, et al, on the brain, and I don't have the CV of a Collichio (whose, "Think like a chef" is a great book), so getting that out seems less likely.

I also don't know that the line they are pushing has that aspect.

But yeah, there are satisfaction aspects of a cookbook which make it the more tempting prospect.

TK

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I do, but there are hurdles.

If you want, I can do a post about printing from digital.

Hell, if I get the deal, I'll probably build a readers' filter and fly it past people/ask for questions to be answered.

TK

p.s. are you going to be in L.A this weekend? I'm having a party, if you want to come, you're invited.

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

Oh, ditto here.

Though How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Repair Manual for the Complete Idiot was an extremely well-written book, and didn't seem at all dumbed-down to me. Got me through a tune-up on a 72 bug, having never done anything beyond oil changes and tire changes before.

[doryllis.livejournal.com]

yep...please do.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about artifice- the prepping of food for photography can render it inedible, from what I've read.

It doesn't necessarily have to be the dishes themselves, but the context in which they're created and presented.

In many ways, your blog is a travelogue and cookbook. I've enjoyed your adventures and the good food that follows them for quite a while. Pictures of the context would add even more to what you write. You've already got the text and the technique. All you need to do is tell us about it- including experiments with photography.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I would buy a book about cooking written by you. Your food entries always fascinate me even if I don't want to make the dish you're concocting.

I'm interested in your entries on photography and image manip apps, too, but the cookery stuff stands out and seems very personal, which is what draws me to a how-to book.

[karl-lembke.livejournal.com]

I haven't really hunted for books on photography, so I can't really say whether or not there are "enough" of those on the market.

I'll mention, though, that a photography book may be more expensive to produce, especially if you have color plates.

That being said, why not work on both at the same time? That way, when you get tired of writing one, you can switch to the other.

[ctahmase.livejournal.com]

I'll weigh in with the person who said your writing voice is a major asset. Whatever happens, best of luck with this.