I'M WRITING A BOOK! THE STORY SO FAR...
I’m writing a book on food photography and styling! To be honest, it’s not exactly breaking news if you’ve been watching my writing diary on stories, if you’ve read my captions on instagram, if you’ve tuned into the podcast or subscribed to my newsletter at any point in 2019. But in today’s busy world, messages like these sometimes get a little lost. It’s why I thought I’d share my book writing journey so far here on the blog, in the hope it might be helpful to those of you who dream of creating a heartfelt, beautiful and delicious book too.
1. I’M WRITING A BOOK ABOUT FOOD STYLING & FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY!
I started 2019 with a big dream, one I’d harboured for such a long time: To write a book about food photography and styling that would help YOU take the next steps on your food photography journey. It’s a book that so many of my students asked me for; initially I dismissed the idea, but their requests awoke a little flame inside me that I just couldn’t extinguish. Perhaps, just maybe, this wasn’t such a weird idea after all - I’ve taught for more than 25 years, love sharing my knowledge about food and photography and thoroughly enjoy writing down my thoughts and feelings on the blog. How magical it would be to pull all my knowledge and experience together and write a book about my most favourite topic ever?
2. WRITING MY BOOK PROPOSAL WAS A LABOUR OF LOVE
I spent 6 months putting together the best proposal I could. I mean, there’s no way I could have put in more energy, more heart or more time than I did. To fit it around family life, the classes I was teaching and my food photography client work, I wrote every morning from 6am - 7am, just before everyone else woke up and mayhem ensued.
Needless to say, by the time the proposal was done and ready to be submitted in June 2019, I was pretty knackered! But I also knew the hard work was necessary; agents receive countless book pitches and mine HAD to stand out in order to be noticed and taken seriously.
By the way, the importance of putting the best proposal together is something that I talked about in detail on episode 19 of The Eat, Capture, Share podcast, if you wanna listen in.
3. I GOT A STRING OF REJECTIONS…
Before we set off to South America for the summer, I sent my proposal off to every agent I though would be even remotely interested in the book. (You can listen in on episode 30 of the Eat, Capture, Share podcast where I talk about what I did to create my shortlist of agents). I have a list of all the people my little book baby went to, perhaps it was 15, maybe 20 book experts, who knows. The end result however was the same: It got rejected! I’m pretty relaxed about it now, but at the time as my inbox was flooded with short e-mails that all amounted to the same, a big, fat NO, I did feel a bit VERY wobbly to be honest. However, I also took close note as to why the book was being turned down and made sure I rejigged the manuscript in response to each and every critique and concerns raised. I feel this has made the book better and led me to see the rejections as incredible gifts.
4. A YES! AND SOME MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
When all seemed lost there was a lifeline, I was put in touch with an agent, Isabel, who was super interested in my book about food photography and styling. It was SO lovely to finally speak to someone who was as passionate about the book as I was. Despite this incredible turn of events, I also started exploring the option of self publishing, just in case Isabel couldn’t get a publisher to pick up the book…
And I’m soooo glad that I did! Because as I was researching self publishing for the first time in earnest, I discovered through Isabel that another food photography and styling book was being published, not by me I hasten to add :(! To say I was heartbroken, is a huge understatement, I was devastated and cried non stop for a good week! Here I was trying to make the book a reality, whilst a publishing deal had simply fallen into someone else’s lap (how this came about of course I don’t know, but in my darkest hour I just envisaged publishers falling over themselves to offer the other person THE book deal I’d been pining for for months!). These turn of events meant that time was of the essence and rather than wait another few weeks for publishers to come back with a yay or a nay, I decided to pick myself, pick my book and move forward at MY pace through self publishing...
5. SELF PUBLISHING AND IT FEELS RIGHT!
Deciding to self publish means that for the first time on this book writing journey, I’m no longer walking it alone. I have a team, an awesome team (I call them my A-Team) of creatives that I cherry picked to help me put the best book together about food photography and food styling that I possibly can. I’ve got a brilliant art director, Fiona, with the right bold and beautiful vision, a wonderful book designer, Emily, who gets my brand and knows what look I’m after for the book, an incredible structural editor, Elizabeth, who just brings out the best in me and a lovely line editor, Tara, who will put some fabulous finishing touch to my manuscript.
The financial investment is incredibly frightening and I still dream of the advance that wasn’t to be, but paying for everything means I’m in the driving seat and don’t need to compromise on anything! It also means I have to continue to work alongside writing the book to ensure I can pay for the whole thing! I spill the beans on how big a financial investment the book actually is on this week’s episode of the Eat, Capture, Share podcast if you want to listen in.
It’s taken me some time to see all that’s happened to date as a blessing in disguise, but as I sit here and write these words I do feel that my journey towards self publishing happened just as it should have.
6. IS THIS HELPFUL?
I’m in the very final stages of finishing the manuscript and my work with my structural editor. Now the question is, would a blog post (rather than another podcast episode) about the next few steps towards self publishing my book be helpful? I have focused on sharing my book journey on instagram stories and on the podcast, but I was wondering whether you’d like me to share more about my journey towards self publishing my book here on the blog? If so, what exactly would you like to know? Any specific questions I can answer?
Thanks for reading everyone and for rooting for me. Deeply grateful.
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