Woodworking Book Project

[Wally]

I'm considering to write a book on woodworking. The intended book will be about the wood itself (mechanical properties, types of finishes, some botanic info to identify the trees, variety of usage, etc).

The reason why I'm interested in writing this book is because I've never found any book that have all this together with a reasonable amount of info. Basically this book would be a blend from "Understanding wood from Bruce Hoadley, Woodworker's Guide to Wood from Rick Peters, and some other books like the botanic stuff (for identifying wood) + finishing.

If I attain my objectives, my book would provide all the information necessary about identifying a tree, harvest it and dry it for woodworking usage. You would also have all the mechanical info about wood properties (shrinkage, resistance, spans, etc). You would also get sample pictures with all those species with various finishes and stains. At last, you would have pictures of furniture or objects made by each specie.

My questions to you wreckers:

1. Do you see a significant value in such a book?

1. Would you suggest additional chapters on other subjects?

2. What are the pitfalls with publishers?

Thanks for any useful information!

[Charlie Self]

Some problems with your approach: the U.S. Forest Dept. has already done it...Encyclopedia of Wood. Best job of publishing has been done by Lee Valley. Other tomes you seem to have missed: Know Your Woods, Albert J. Constantine, Jr.; World Woods In Color, William A. Lincoln; Useful Woods of The World, Flynn & Holder,and a few others.

Next up, if you can differentiate the book enough to give it value enough for people to add it to their libraries, is to find a publisher BEFORE you write the book.

Good luck.

[Brian Kerr]

You're going to need a really good proof reader. Good luck.

[Andy Dingley]

Can you really do a better job than "Understanding Wood" and "Identifying Wood" ? There are already far too many woodworking books in the world (usually very poor ones) and only a few areas where there isn't a good one. I see this particular niche as one that's already pretty well covered.

I like the idea of "from tree to furniture" coverage (which Hoadley's two don't quite cover), but that limits itself to local timbers. I already have books from the UK forestry commission that do this pretty well for UK broadleaf species.

I would _love_ a European edition of "Identifying Wood", with our local species in it, rather than all this hickory and osage orange.

[Charlie Self]

Talk to Taunton's acquisitions editor. Who knows? They may be in the market for just such a supplementary book, especially if you can find someone to cover the Aussie versions that are gaining popularity in the U.S., along with one or two or twenty Asian woods, and a good, deep look at some S. American species. That might just expand the market to where a publisher can afford to do a good job.

[Andy Dingley]

Oddly enough, I have done (although not about that subject). They were the _least_ helpful of any publisher I've spoken too, and the most US isolationist. They're not interested in books of limited interest to their core US market, and they're pretty uninterested in working with non-US authors. I was disapointed, quite frankly, although I found the similar UK publishers to be much more encouraging (and when I have the projects finished to get the photographs done, you'll maybe see the results).

[Charlie Self]

Sterling Publishing used to have a pretty close relationship to British and Aussie publishers. One of their top guys now runs Barnes & Noble, which now owns Sterling, so lord knows what's up there. Storey Publishing used to do some good stuff, though they are more lighter crafts oriented than they are woodworking. I'm not too impressed with Storey's responses to queries in recent years, and Sterling and I came to a parting ot the ways about a decade ago, but both might be possiblities.