My garden book

I know that many bloggers I follow are also fans of garden books. I read them endlessly and own more than I like to admit. But now I am starting to write my own book. Just for me. An account of my garden in a nice hard-cover book that I can take with me to the nursing home. Some day that's where I'll likely be, unless I get hit by a bus next week.

Mark has been self-publishing a number of books online via Blurb. But I am wondering if any of you have self-published a book about your own garden. If you have, what company did you use? Did you like it? Were there problems in putting it together or in printing? 

I am just in the beginning stages of trying to refine my ideas about what the book should include and the proportion of text versus photos. I am assuming that what I want to create will be pretty pricey. But I don't know of a better way to spend my money than making it possible for me to take my garden with me when I must move and leave it physically behind.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, tips, and publishing sites you can suggest.

Comments

[Peter/Outlaw]

I love this idea but know nothing about how to self publish. You can always take your blog with you to the home for old gardeners who haven't been hit by a bus yet.

[Lisa at Greenbow]

I am not surprised that you would want to write a book about your garden. You write so well I am sure you won't be the only one that will want to read it.
I know nothing about self publishing a book. A friend of mine does a vacation book each time she and her hubby travels. It is usually more pictorial but she does add some text. She does it with one of the online companies. I think it is Shutterfly. I don't know if they would do more writing or not. She loves it and watches for sales of their services.
Watch out for those buses.

[Kris P]

Good for you! I've got a friend who published an account of her African photo safari using Shutterfly. Jean of Jean's Garden (blog) has mentioned a good experience using Lulu.com for her annual calendars. (I understand they publish books too.)

[Barbara H.]

This is an exciting development, partly because as you learn you will help us learn - or at least that's my guess. I first started reading your blog when you did the He Said / She Said series about the creation of the garden and I loved it. I think as you consider and cogitate you will come up with the format you want to use. The difficulty will be editing down the pictures and the words! There are so many of both and they are all good.

[Linda Brazill]

If you go back to those posts, you've been reading my blog almost since the beginning. Thank you for your persistence. I am actually going back to those very posts as a place to start for this potential book. We did those posts more as "how-tos" and I want the book to be more evocative and about memory etc. At least that is my current thinking.

[Linda Brazill]

Thanks for mentioning Shutterfly. A friend uses that for books for her grandson and I was going to check it out — once I remembered the name!