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The Finished But Unfinished Book By Bill Vossler You're not finished with a nonfiction book when you think you are. That's what I discovered after wrestling with each of my early books as they were getting published: Orphan Tractors (Motorbooks International), Burma-Shave: The Rhymes, The Times, The Signs (North Star Press), and Toy Farm Tractors (Voyageur Press), as well as my self-published books (The Complete Book of Farm Toys & Boxes and John Deere Farm Toys (volumes one and two). When you think you're finished, either with a particular component of a book-- like photos, for instance-- or part of a book-- like the introduction or chapter seven, for example-- you can be guaranteed that one part or another will return to haunt you: Rewriting Every book profits from a rewrite, perhaps along with a slightly-tweaked direction of a chapter or four, courtesy of your editors; unfortunately, the rewrite often comes at a difficult time, with the book already slotted into a publication schedule, which means the time you have to rewrite is limited, and/or the rewriting comes at a time when the author is exhausted, either mentally or physically, or both, and would rather chew on glass than wade into the same project once more. However, forewarned is forearmed; that's why I budgeted plenty of rewrite time for Toy Farm Tractors, and my fourth, Cars, Trucks, and Buses Made By Tractor Companies. Neither rewrite on these two books caused nearly the anguish of the pressure-packed rewrites of my first two books. Photos Photos often sell your book, to the editor and reader alike. So before I started Orphan Tractors, I made sure that the 220 black-and-white photos the book required were available at various upper Midwest historical societies and museums. I even priced some of the photos; unfortunately, I didn't price them far enough, so to speak. I discovered that these organizations required not only a duplication fee for the photo-- usually $5 to $10-- but also a one-time use fee to allow use of the photo in a book-- up to $75 per photo. The upshot was that the 220 photos I needed could have cost $16,500, money I certainly would never have recouped, since specialty books like Orphan Tractors seldom make more than $10,000. Luckily, I stumbled onto a collector of old photos of old tractors from the early 1900s. He had hundreds of them, which he offered free, if I would drive 300 miles to his farm to take photos of his photos (a common practice in historical photo circles, since nobody wants to part with old or precious photos for months at a time, or risk someone else losing them). Afterward, I developed the film professionally, and decided to print the photos myself, in a jury-rigged basement darkroom (black-and-white is very forgiving). By doing so, I saved $15,000 off the high end of the photo-cost estimate, although I didn't have to spring for the photo-printing equipment, which I already had. This does not count my time, of course. This was before digital cameras. Photo Blurbs Each photo requires rigorous and exacting identification, which is more difficult and time-consuming than one might think, especially because the types of books I do require a great number of photos (Cars, Trucks and Buses... contains more than 300 photos, The Complete Book… 1,200). These types of photo blurbs require great detail and exactness-- is it a 1927 or 1929 Auburn auto? Is the tractor a 15-30 horsepower or a 20-40? And if you don't get it right, your readers will certainly let you know, and you will puncture at least a pinhole in your credibility. To get the Orphan Tractors photos correct, I spent a day with an acknowledged expert on old farm tractors-- he identified the tractors in an unbelievable 301 out of the 310 photos I brought to him. I used his information to write blurbs of a few dozen words each. I was very glad to finish that work. But soon I discovered I wasn't finished, when a quick note from my editor said: Not enough words per photo-- each should be 75-100 words long. In other words, add 70 words per photo. Or 15,000 additional words. In two days! Luckily, the standard practice in tractor books is to repeat some information from the chapter's text in the photo blurbs. So again, I certainly wasn't done with the photo blurbs when I thought I would be. See the continuation of this article in next week's newsletter for Bill's advice on cover photos, galleys, and later rewrites! Bill Vossler has published more than 2,600 articles in 170 magazines, as well as 11 books.
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