The Book, the Book

I'm hoping that about one year from now I will be asking you to fork out $11.99 for my new e-book on photography. After much gnashing of teeth and wailing, not to mention an embarrassing number of false starts, I decided not to try to write a "big" book. No novel, no inventive nonfiction to change the world. I would love to write in different forms. But...

...But we all have to go with our strengths. So I decided to write a book about...well, photography. (Are you shocked?) The working title is "Have Fun With Any Camera," and I gave myself two objectives. First, it has to be 100% new; no using bits and pieces written for other venues or outlets, no recycled blog posts. Second, I have to write from start to finish, front to back, so it flows. My goal is to simply write a whole book-length book that's discursive and engaging, friendly, companionable, and fun for photographers to read.

Don't take this little bleat as a promise, please. I'm notoriously bad at finishing things, and I seem to have an aversion to finishing things on time if I do finish them.

But that's what I'm up to on the weekends. Thought you might like to know.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Comments

[John Krumm]

Awesome, looking forward to it.

I'm in the middle of a Stanford continuing ed. online course on writing the first 25 pages of your novel, which sounds funny, because so many of us then stop and go on to something else, but it's a great class, extremely motivating. Nothing like a group of peers to hold you accountable, at least for a couple months.

So... I hope your struggle goes well. I recently read Ursula K. LeGuin's book on writing, Steering The Craft, and found it motivating in many ways.

https://www.amazon.com/Steering-Craft-Twenty-First-Century-Guide-Sailing/dp/0544611616

[Peter Wright]

Count me in for a copy!

[Frank]

Come on, Mike! Keep on going.

I can wait.

[c.d.embrey]

...and fun for photographers to read.

Photographers are a dying breed, soon to be extinct. While there are lots of people coming on-line everyday who enjoy taking/making pictures.

[Mark Cotter]

I haven't read a photography book for some time, so something new and engaging would be most welcome - even if it's a year away!

[Jim Henry]

I'm sure I will want to read this. Keep at it!

[John Krill]

You need to create a waiting list for the book. That way you will see the list get longer and longer and the end will (the writing) will get closer and closer. Of course you could, like me, panic and run screaming into the woods and tell all the list was lost do to a disk crash.

Still put me on the list.

[Dave Van de Mark]

Been following you since the "37th Frame" and through upturns and downturns. Will enjoy it if it happens and understand if it doesn't. Best of luck!

[Roger Overall]

What Peter Wright said.

[scott kirkpatrick]

It sounds great. My only worry would be that writing from beginning to end, how will you know when you reach the end? Regardless, count me in for a copy. Will you release a beta version for crowd-sourced proofing?

scott

[Michael H]

I'm down for buying one copy (or more - for friends) ...

[Dan Khong]

Can I pre-order the book? That way, I know I won't be left out.

[Roger Bradbury]

A great title for a book. It sounds like it would make a good present for any photographer.

[Rick Reed]

Where is the link to pre order? :-)

[Thingo]

Funny. I don't seem to be able to find the link for "Have Fun With Any Camera" by Mike Johnston in purchases through TOP. I guess it'll take a little more time to show up.

[Bahi]

I'm so looking forward to this! In the e-book world, smaller books make a lot of sense. You can always update and issue follow-up volumes.

[John Wilson]

When you want the check or since you New York now just down the road you want cash? Please advise.

[Darlene]

Michael C. Johnston's five word memoir:
"Have Fun With Any Camera"

I predict it will be a success!

[Richard Reusser]

I think it's a brilliant idea ! Still have your books of film era articles and oddly enough they're fun to revisit once in awhile. Read about Canon and their radical EOS migration and the like.

[Joseph]

When your e-book is ready, it won’t take too much effort to publish it on Blurb.
I’ll buy the e-copy for sure, but I’d rather have a hard copy.

[Kenneth Wajda]

Interesting you would announce this on the first day of NaNoWriMo. http://nanowrimo.org/ - Started today (although you already have been writing.) Good support for people who need structure.

[andreas]

"Don't take this little bleat as a promise, please. I'm notoriously bad at finishing things, and I seem to have an aversion to finishing things on time if I do finish them."

Why are you bothering to tell us about something you have no intention of completing?

[Andreas, please. I have every intention of completing it. --Mike]

[k4kafka]

Mike: New title needed. Otherwise,count me in.

[Joe in L.A.]

It all sounds good except for "First, it has to be 100% new; no using bits and pieces written for other venues or outlets, no recycled blog posts."

I don't think you want to just cut and paste a bunch of old blog posts together to stitch it into a book-length "best of" anthology, but please don't be shy about pulling in some nuggets of wisdom that you may have already shared that fit into the flow of your new book.

There will be many new readers that will benefit from this, and a few of us old ones who have forgotten those gems or more likely remember them fondly but may otherwise have a hard time accessing them once again.

[Harrison Cronbi]

Can't wait. Start a kickstarter and I'll happily pay up front.

[Rod S.]

That was brave!

Good on you, Mike. Sounds like you're well into it. Keep it up.

Best wishes, Rod S.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

The title sounds rather Japanese, in the manner in which Japanese expressions sometimes translate badly to English.

[s.wolters]

Great idea! Here some suggestions to give the title a boost:

'How to have fun with any camera and the girl next door'

'The circle of confusion'

'Sex and lies and photographs'

'Make photography great again!'

[JohnMFlores]

Looking forward to it, Mike! Don't agonize over wordcount, just let those ideas flow from you mind to your keyboard.

[Stephen S. Mack]

Sign me up, too!!!!!!!!!!

With best regards,

Stephen

[Gabe]

Mr. John Stone

This is to notify you that I've copyrighted the phrase "Have fun with" and my attorneys from the firm of Sue, Grabbit and Runne will be calling on you shortly. I've also copyrighted "Camera", and the fictitious name "Johnston".

We've collected a huge number of settlements, totaling billions ..... believe me folks, I'm building that corn maze.

Donald J. Snollygoster

[Tim Auger]

Mike, this is one book I shall look forward to.

Mr John Stone - isn't Sue, Grabbit and Runne the property of Lord Gnome's celebrated organ, Private Eye? They may be watching you ...

[Tim Auger]

Mike, far be it from me to offer anyone advice... I've written several books, some of them quite long, and I've found that the key thing is to get absolutely everything you want to say into a document any old how. Just get it down, without agonising about language, coherence or anything. In this computer age it becomes much easier then to sort it out into the sequence you want, chapters and the like. After that, if you treat the resulting document(s) as rough notes, you can transform it painlessly into golden prose. Trying to write a final or even semi-final version straight off into a blank document is a shortcut to writer's block, followed by insanity. Or maybe alcoholism.

[Gabe]

Mr. Tim Auger
Quick mind, great memory.

Look up Snollygoster .... I had to build an email around the name.

cheers
Gabe