“as i recall, someone else wrote the bulk of that manuscript and is listed as the co-author. it always bothers me that the other author’s name isn’t listed in your ambitious self-promotion…”
The above comment on my Facebook page, greeted me first thing this morning. My coffee’s gone cold and bitter. The comment was left in response to a link promoting an interactive interview I’m giving tomorrow – on Facebook – hosted by Cool Springs Press where I’ll be discussing my book Growing your Own Vegetables – I blogged about the interview here and posted the link on FB.
I’m a reader and a writer…I love words. But sometimes there are just too many of them. It’s true – the entire title of the work is: Growing your own vegetables, an Encyclopedia of Country Living Guide, by Carla Emery and Lorene Edwards Forkner, Sasquatch Books 2009. Carla’s original work – now in its 10th Edition is 900-some pages long; my book – GYOV, as I call it for short, is 180 pages – including an ad for the original “Big Book” on the last page. What follows is an excerpt from my response I sent to my critic this morning:
…the ECL was originally published in the 1970′s by Carla Emery – I owned a copy in the early 80′s. Today – 36+ years later, it is still in print and now in it’s 10th edition. Carla died in the late 90′s… Sasquatch Books has held the rights to her original work and has long planned to issue single subject titles drawn from the material in an effort to bring the work – which includes such tidbits like giving birth at home alone and burying your dead – into a 21st Century consciousness and lend a more urban perspective. That is what I was hired to do…
I first blogged about this project here.
I really don’t think you can asses how much material is original and how much is brought forward from the “Big Book”. The two are intertwined – and far more complicated – as is the very concept of living a sustainable life in the 21st c. Carla was all about independence and self-sufficiency – my perspective is that of coming together in community and cooperation…that, and I never want to give birth or bury my dead at home.
As for your accusation of “ambitious self-promotion” – I’m afraid you are confusing the issue of “self” with promoting the work – which is, in fact what Sasquatch expects and hired me to do. I would far, far, FAR prefer to remain quietly at home in my garden and office in private – however, that is not how books are sold or even meager, writing-driven careers earned. So yes, I put MYSELF out there, because a book can only speak for itself if others actually READ it. …
I’m afraid I’m far more thin-skinned than I would like to be. Your comment has hurt… However, while I plan to delete your comment from my FB page I also plan to post excerpts of this message (deleting any identifying references) as a rebuttal and to publicly address my response.
Perhaps every last word is necessary to explain, justify and inform as to the exact nature of the book and it’s derivation. Or… you could read it. I don’t pretend to know the answer to this admittedly painful conundrum. I’d like to think that if Ms. Emery were alive today she would join me in exhorting people to grow their own food, share with others and take responsibility for living a sustainable – and delicious life.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh, honey. Some people just can’t help being mean, can they? Thoughtless, unkind, unnecessary. I gotta think there’s some serious jealousy behind that. Don’t let it shake you.
.-= Lorraine´s last blog ..Emomaha =-.
Lorene, your book bring’s Carla’s message to a whole new generation of gardeners and makes it accessible and readable (two adjectives I wouldn’t necessarily use for the big book). You did a fabulous job on the book! I say pox on mean, unnecessary comments.
.-= Willi´s last blog ..A Portable Garden =-.
Hi Lorene, as someone who has also been hired to revise, update and add to the original work of a deceased author — and then have been expected to serve as the promotional living “voice” of the new, hybrid edition of that work — I wholehearted affirm and endorse everything you wrote to this despicable comment-writer.
If people only knew how hard it is to actually write a book; if people took the time to read your clever, creative and inspiring “Growing your Own Vegetables” and “Canning & Preserving Your Own Harvest” titles before ignorantly attacking them, then we wouldn’t have to watch you being subjected to such malicious unkindness.
The good and true ju-ju of this world will follow you and your actions of integrity. And we’ll just have to let the bad karma follow that other person.
Keep doing what you’re doing to bring the best of Carla’s messages to a new audience; an audience who would probably never have discovered her without your new infusion of ideas and energy.
love, Debra
I echo the comments you’ve received here already. Anyone who knows anything can appreciate how hard you worked to update and expand the book and figure out how the original author’s voice could be heard by today’s readers.
.-= cathy´s last blog ..paying attention in new ways… =-.