I'm thinking of writing a book

<p>I started taking photographs over 60 years ago. Along the way I made a decent living as an advertising photographer with national accounts, I got to travel the world, fly in the backseat with the Blue Angels and spend time with Ansel Adams at his house and mine and in the field in Yosemite. I found out recently that Ansel had kept some of my work in his personal collection. I have seen the transition from film to digital and got to meet lots of interesting subjects and photographers along the way. I have no idea if this tail of interesting experiences would be of interest to others. The book would not be about me or my work, but what I learned along the way from so many others and the challenges I ran into.<br>

I'd be interested in the thoughts of those both starting out in this endeavor and those interested in sharing some nostalgia.</p>

<p>It is impossible to say whether I would be interested in reading your book from your description. If it is a good story, well told, perhaps.</p>

<p>But you don't need the answer to this question if writing your book would be enjoyable. I have several published computer books whose writing was work (pleasant enough, but still work), and a self-published novel that was so much fun to write that how many copies it has sold doesn't matter at all.</p>

<p>So, do it if you think it would be fun. Then post the chapters online as they're completed as drafts (maybe even a link to them here), and get some feedback. Keep at it as long as it's fun. When you're finished, publish it yourself OR try to find an agent. (Must be an agent; publishers do not accept works directly unless they are in a specialty, such as computer books.)</p>

<p>I wrote about 20 queries to agents for my novel, with no luck. I recently met a published author and asked her how many agents she had queried. It was about 240. I gave up too soon, but, as I said, it was so much fun I'm likely to do it again.</p>

<p>Hope this helps...</p>

<p>I understand the process. I'm more interested in whether or not there is an audience beyond my family. I'm at that stage of my life where ego has long since passed away, but the body of knowledge may be worth passing along. There are funny, informative and sometimes sad stories to tell. Once I met a photographer named Shorty Wilcox. It was at the Reno Air Races. I was a pilot as well as a photographer and knew where I wanted to shot the races from. I was in the crowd after the finish and holding my Nikon with a wide angle lens over my head to get the shot of the winner, Daryl Greenamyer climbing out of his bearcat. I heard a voice behind me telling me my horizon wasn't level. It was Shorty - he was seven foot, two and looking through the viewfinder!</p>

<p>I'd be interested in reading your book.</p>

<p>Two things would get me interested in the book. 1) Some sort of inspiring conceptual hook. Who you've met and known and what you've learned might not be enough to get me interested in the first place. I'd want there to be a stated and more or less coherent <em>raison d'être</em> for the project. What would tie the stories together? What would be your unique perspective on these people? 2) If there were accompanying photos of yours that helped tell the story and were good enough and could help exemplify what you learned, perhaps even side-by-side with some from Adams and others that could show the influence of each on you, if such influence exists, or that might show strong contrast if that were more appropriate.</p>

<p>I'm a lousy customer but would love to<em> read</em> it. - I have no clue about blogs - how long will they outlive their authors? But I guess they are a great publishing format? - no big hassle when there is no red line to follow, add what you have finished... but thats just my 2 cent and I am disorganized and hardly able to write 5 coherent sentences on my own.</p>

<p>Other than that bit about Ansel Adams the rest of what you relate does not seem out of the ordinary for a photographer of your apparent age. If you turned out to be a good storyteller and a good writer that would determine whether or not I would want to read your book at least as much as, if not more than, who you spent time in the back seat with.</p>

<p>Personal memoirs will always have a limited audience. A few years ago my mom bought me a copy of Tim Russert's memoirs. I never read it and donated it to the library in my apartment complex.</p>

<p>The memoirs I've read or re-read the past year or two were of the offbeat variety:</p>

<ul>

<li><em>A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius</em>, by Dave Eggers. AKA, <em>A Meandering Reminiscence of Musings That Ushered in the Web 2.x Generation of Ironically Self-Indulgent Confessional Unreliable Narration</em>.</li>

<li><em>Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim</em>, by David Sedaris. AKA, <em>Wry Observations About My Dysfunctional Family (But Dysfunctional Only In a <em>Modestly Middle Class, White and Safely Amusing Manner</em>) That You've Already Heard on My Radio Shows</em>.</li>

<li><em>Naked Lunch</em>, by William S. Burroughs. AKA, <em>If You Think This Stuff is Crazy, Wait 'til You Get a Load of My Shotgun Art</em>. Probably my third reading. Burroughs revised it several times so I keep buying different editions trying to spot the revisions. That's part of his performance art.</li>

<li><em>Camera Lucida</em>, by Roland Barthes, which turned out to be as much a personal memoir as it is a collection of essays about the philosophy and nature of photography.</li>

</ul>

<p>In every case of these rewarding memoirs, it's not about who they knew or what they did but about their writing styles, gift for turning a phrase, personal reactions to events that range from moderately disturbing to tragic, and, above all, the ability to allow the reader to invest enough into the tales to say to themselves "I understand this, I've felt this or thought this."</p>

<p>I also enjoy photographic essays with lots of photos and descriptive captions or narratives relevant to the conditions under which the photos were taken. For example, the typical Taschen softcover magazine style photo book such as their Betty Page publication neatly walk in that gray zone between photography, biography, gossip and pulp fiction. Taschen books are fun for people who think they don't like trashy publications but really do. You know the type - the post-hippie self-styled iconoclast. They'd never be caught dead with a copy of Playboy or Penthouse, but they'll casually but ostentatiously leave an old copy of <em>Evergreen Review</em> on their coffee table, along with a Taschen book.</p>

<p>There's probably also a market for books that delve into scandal, gossip, behind the scenes reminiscences and name dropping. Those do tend to appeal to some readers. Personally, I rarely finish books like that. But my tastes run more toward reminiscences about Ansel Adams' demonizing of William Mortensen than toward more anecdotes reiterating the already well established tales about Adams' brilliance as a darkroom master, influence in formalized photography of static objects and photography/music analogies.</p>

 

I guess if you are not self publishing, I would draft a proposal, or outline, with some examples to a publisher (s). If your wrote a book for the people here and our like, we are likely to say "sure," but do not count on us for a selling. My immediate answer , a sunny one naturally is " sure" go ahead and get your story down in writing and on the computer. At least it will be a legacy for your offspring. Which aint half bad either.

In passing. I saw the movie " Wild." about Cheryl Strayed's hike on the Pacific Coast Trail w Reese Witherspoon and I liked it. Or like her in it at least. I got the book out and it was not as compelling in print as I expected, no great revelation vs the flick,-good script and photography and good actress, so I am returning book to the library,mostly unread. Autobiography unless of the hot stars may not be a seller. Non technical stories of photo journalists at war have some traction.... Get at least some of your history down and then maybe shop rough draft around...my final thought .

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<p>"At least it will be a legacy for your offspring. Which aint half bad either."</p>

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<p>Good point. Among families and friends, those reminiscences tend to be filtered through the biases in their relationships. At least our own personal memoirs give us an opportunity to influence, if not control, those narratives. We don't want our personal narratives dominated by the blind man who had to misfortunate to grab the tail end of the elephant.</p>

<p>If it is something you would like to do, you should while you still can. My dad talked about writing a book of memoirs, he spent 20 years in the military, traveled. He had friends all over. He went through two wars, WWII and Korea, he told great stories. He passed at only 62 and never got around to writing his book. I wish he had.</p>

<p>Books are interesting because they are well-written. People will read a well-written book about almost anything but will lose interest in a poorly-written book about almost anything, unless it's a subject they find especially interesting or study. </p>

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<p><em>Naked Lunch</em>, by William S. Burroughs</p>

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<p> <br>

There's no way I would call this a memoir. There is a difference between hallucinations and a memoir. Great book, nevertheless, and unexpectedly, it made a great movie.</p>

<p>Speaking of recommendations of well-written books of stories from someone who was there and who knew people, check out Patti Smith's <em>Just Kids</em>. There's an obvious photography connection in terms of her intimate relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Aside from how well she observes and describes, she put herself into it. It's a commentary on her, those she wrote about, and an era, a commentary on pop culture, art, lifestyle, and many other things, all accessible, authentic, and honest. </p>

<p>I think I would read it.<br>

<br />Rick H.</p>

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<p>"There's no way I would call this <em>(Naked Lunch)</em> a memoir."</p>

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<p>Neither would I have, the first time I read it as a teenager. The first time I decided it was just druggie free-form rambling.<br>

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The second time I read it I decided it was dystopian science fiction, nearly as prophetic as Philip K. Dick's stories.<br>

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The third time, after having read more about Burroughs, listening to many hours of his various audio creations, lectures and interviews, watching his videos and even the occasional movie appearance, and even dabbling myself in audio cutups, I decided it was probably as close as Burroughs would ever get to a memoir. Every character, scenario and bit of rambling narrative had its analog in his bizarre life. He even repeatedly interjects himself parenthetically - a practice that I've found alternately enlightening and disruptive to the story, but consistent with all of his creative output.<br>

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But I also hold the admittedly arguable theory that all self-assigned creative works are self portraits and memoirs, and that no creator has complete control over the artistic output. Every creative product tells part of our stories, and every viewer and reader is just as qualified as the creator to interpret its meaning.</p>

<p>The story you related is rather funny. If you have a lot of stories like that, it would be worth a read to me. Check out some of the work by Patrick McManus. I think anything in that line would work. Oh, and make sure you know 'tale' from 'tail.' ;)</p>

<p>Thanks to all who have responded. One of the things I found out about photography along the way is that it was a vehicle for meeting very interesting people and forming good friendships. One of the other people I met was a young naval aviator who was with the Navy's Blue Angels and went on to become the first CO of the Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) and was the character Viper was patterned after in the movie. We are still good friends and our sons went to the Naval Academy together and are both still in the Navy. I do think there are interesting stories and I have a good co-author lined up who is a superb writer.</p>

<p>I think Marc R's response to this is spot on: do it if it is an endeavour you will enjoy. Some will be interest; if really well done, perhaps many.<br>

Self-publishing these days is relatively easy. Put it up on Amazon in Kindle format easily, won't cost much to start if no hard copies.<br>

You can have some fun and enough people will be interested to make it worthwhile.<br>

Now, if your question is whether you will have enough demand for your memoirs to make a lot of money, the answer is probably not - but by all means do prove me wrong!</p>

<p>Take a look at "War Shots" by Norman Hatch. It's his story as a Marine Corp combat cameraman. Great example of a photographer making a book out of his adventures.<br /><br />I think to have a sellable book, it has to have a clear focus rather than just a collection of interesting stories. I'm sure Hatch did other things as a photographer, but the book focused on his Marine Corps experience rather than going off on tangents. And that also gave it a cross appeal not just to photographers but current and former Marines, military buffs, history buffs, etc. But even at that, I took a pass on paying $29.95 list price at the WWII museum in New Orleans and got if for around $6.99 on Amazon. I doubt that Hatch saw even $1 off that sale.<br /><br />Whatever you do, don't self publish unless you can find a very clear niche market and a way to promote the book to that market. Bookstores buy from wholesale disributors who represents hundreds of publishers, not even from individual publishers let along individual writers. If you can't find a real publisher, the hopes of selling are slim and none.<br /><br />BTW, even though I started off as a photographer and still shoot on the side, my day job for almost 40 years now has been as a writer. I've worked for newspapers, wire services, magazines and currently in PR. Never written a book but I have friends who have, so i've heard a number of stories on what works and what doesn't. <br /><br /></p>

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<p>Bookstores buy from wholesale disributors who represents hundreds of publishers, not even from individual publishers let along individual writers.</p>

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<p><br />Amazon controlled 41% of the printed book market last year. They will hit 50% this year. This doesn't include other online sellers. And anyone can sell their book on Amazon or online, so the distributors represent a rapidly shrinking share of the market. Plenty of authors self publish and sell online.</p>

<p>What Jeff says is true. And Amazon is a wonderful opportunity in that sense. But the fact that anyone can self publish and sell on Amazon is part of the probelm -- thousands of people do, so any one book gets lost in the clutter. Musicians can also put up any song they want on iTunes but that doesn't mean anyone is going to find it or download it without promotion. It's like putting up a web site -- anybody can do it, but if you don't drive readers to it no one will know.<br /><br /> That's what I meant by saying self publishing only works if you find a niche market and can market to it. If you can drive the traffic to your book on Amazon, Amazon provides a platform from which to sell the book. But no one is going to go there looking for it unless they've heard about it. If the title is "How to Use a Leica IIIf" somebody might find it because they are searching on "Leica IIIf." But "My Adventures in Photography" is unlikely to come up as the result of a search. It's all in the marketing.<br /><br />I have a friend who has written I believe three books on quilting. They're on Amazon. And when she gets interviewed in a quilting magazine she sometimes sells a couple of copies. But she hasnt' quit her day job.</p>

<p>"The book would [be about] what I learned along the way from so many others and the challenges I ran into."<br>

Even if some of its content is about technology and techniques long gone, I dare say much else will be "timeless": ethics, aesthetics, professional matters, etc. And anecdotes can be fun as well as instructive.</p>

<p>My question was not whether or not such a book would be a success, or have a general audience, or make money. I am interested in knowing if my fellow photographers might read it. They would really be my target audience. I could publish it with others I have for free as an iBook and make it purely electronic. The only place I read books these days in on Kindle.</p>

<p>True, I did not explicitly say that such a book would be of interest and use to photographers.</p>