Jan Riggenbach is the author of Midwest Gardener’s Handbook and a longtime garden columnist and feature writer for Midwest Living magazine. Her recent release, Your Midwest Garden is a guide to the flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruits, and other plants that thrive and make beautiful Midwest gardens. Below she tells us her “Gardner Story.”

For years I’ve
heard from readers who have a shoebox full of my garden columns clipped from
the newspaper. Over and over, I heard the same complaint: “I can never find the
column I’m looking for when I need it.”

I promised
I would gather the columns into a book. This year, in Your Garden: An Owner’s
Manual, it finally happened. I laughingly tell readers that the index is the
most important part of the book because now they can find what they’re looking
for.

I’ve read
and reviewed a lot of garden books over the years, but the ones I keep are the
reference books that I turn to again and again. To help make my own book a
useful reference, I added plant lists so you could see at a glance, for
example, which perennials to plant for fall bloom or what annuals will thrive
in the shade. In the appendix, I added a month-by-month garden chore list, fine-tuned
for Midwest gardens.

My
audiences gasp when I tell them it took me almost 40 years to write this book,
but it’s true. In that time, I’ve written nearly 2,000 columns from which this
book was distilled.

Continue reading “From the “garden” of Jan Riggenbach”

You can judge a book by its cover; in fact, I hope you do because we
spend a lot of time honing the titles and cover designs for our books. With
more and more people purchasing books online, it’s even important than ever to
grab them with a good title or compelling cover.

In the online world of search
engine optimization (SEO), a title needs to come up if a consumer is looking
for a book on a certain subject. That’s why I’m such a stickler for non-fiction
book titles (except perhaps, memoir) to say what the book is about.

In a recent meeting about titles
for forthcoming books, I raised the point that a particular title didn’t tell
you what was the book was about.

“Well, if you read the book,”
someone said, “you’ll know why the author wants this title.” I countered, “With
that title, I’m definitely not going to read the book.” We settled on keeping
the title, but with a very descriptive subtitle that captures what might come
up when someone searches that subject online.

Different genres have different
conventions for titling. It’s okay to go for a snazzy title paired with a long,
long subtitle on a sports or business book. (That seems to be the acceptable
approach now, anyway.) Personally, I love it. A recent favorite of mine: Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and
Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan. How could you resist a book
like that? Apparently you can’t because it’s been a hot seller for us. Of
course, some books don’t need a subtitle; the title says everything. I love 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before
They Die. End of story.

Religious books are tough to title.
You have to convey why the book is unique but remain respectful, while
explaining what the book is about. I’m particularly proud of the title we came
up with for —well, I don’t have to tell you what the book is about because the title
and subtitle say it all: From Gods to
God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends.

Fiction and literary memoir are a
bit more challenging. We seldom change the title that the author submits; it
would be like changing the title of a painting. Our memoirists, in particular,
seem to be quite skilled at titles. For example:

 

Continue reading “The Director Dish: Judging a Book by Its Cover”