Up The Garden Path: The Sublime Delights of Garden Plans & Pictures

Dear Laura,

I have loved your work ever since I bought Up The Garden Path when it was first released. In fact, on a recent business trip to New York, I found several 'vintage' copies of it at The Strand, and bought all six for gifts. They still look as beautiful, even with a little wear and tear. Perhaps even more so.

I''m writing to ask whether you still consider commissions? Even very small ones?

A group of us are going on a tour of English gardens next May, loosely dubbed 'The Flowers, Frocks and Horticultural Fantasies Tour', which is being designed as a sort of a Monty Don-esque adventure of haute horticulture. Only with better shoes.

I would love it if you would consider illustrating our logo? These garden tours are only just beginning, but we're trying to create a really lovely, rather magical company that inspires and delights people, and I'd really love the branding to reflect that. Your work is so enchanting that we'd love whatever you did, whether it was a small garden plan or simply a bosquet of your beautiful trees.

Of course, if you're too busy, I will certainly understand.
Many thanks for considering this email, and all the very best of luck for the new book.

Kind regards,
Janelle McCulloch

A month ago, I wrote to the bestselling writer and illustrator Laura Stoddart. (Samples above.) A part of me never thought she would reply. This was, after all, Laura Stoddart; one of the best garden illustrators in the UK, if not the world! She'd designed stationery for Kate Spade, stamps for The Royal Mail, pages for Vogue Entertaining, and books for Orion. Her whimsical, enchanting designs of formal topiary, Edwardian frivolities, dainty figures reclining on chaise longues and Versailles-style bosquets with green-tweeded gentlemen strolling through were as identifiable as, well, Versailles itself.

Then I received an email. Yes, she'd be happy to do the commission, she said generously. (Although she also admitted she was incredibly busy, so I won't hold her to it.) She loved Australia, she added –  her husband was half-Australian – and could even recommend gardens for us to visit.

It just goes to show. Gardeners are incredibly kind people, aren't they?

So I would like to introduce you to the work of Miss Laura Stoddart, Illustrator Extraordinaire. I also wanted to post some other whimsical gardenalia (below) that is a little Stoddart in style.

Just something lovely to enjoy for the glorious weekend ahead.

{Up The Garden Path: A Little Anthology and Off The Beaten Track are just two of Laura Stoddart's books, both published by Orion. Laura is also working on a compilation of her illustrations for a new book, due out soon. www.laurastoddart.com}

Garden Mania: The Ardent Gardener's Compendium of Design

By Philip De Bay and James Bolton, with Monty Don (Thames & Hudson)

Bought this book last month for a few pounds at a second-hand bookshop near Gloucester Road. Love it. Can't get enough of its beautiful garden drawings and vintage illustrations.

Vintage Printables

A wonderful site where you can find all sorts of copyright-free vintage illustrations (most are so old they're out of copyright: we're talking centuries old). They're lovely for browsing through and great if you're looking for garden inspiration of any kind, particularly for parterres. Link here

Brecy, France

Has anyone else seen Carolyn Roehm's blog? She has the BEST blog! {carolynroehm.com} Her photographs are superb. And her gardening skills are even better. (Try and find the post of how she transformed her conservatory into a dining room. Very fashionable now: Bunny Williams did it too.) It was here she recommended Brecy gardens in France (above), and what a find that place was. It's like something out of Laura Stoddart card...

Versailles

This may look like a quirky illustration but it's actually an aerial view of Versailles. 

Fascinating, isn't it? {I have the credit somewhere, but there are a few aerials so want to be sure I have the right source.}

More gardens next week. Don't want to bore non-garden lovers with too much scenery...

The Pure Pleasure of Palms

You know how some people like the sight of a great big dirty cocktail while they're on holiday? And others prefer the image of a deserted beach with nothin' but a naked sky and a cerulean blue sea between them and life?

Well, we love the sight of one thing.

The strangely comforting lean of a humble palm tree.

{Illustration at very top by the supremely talented Sara Midda. Do look for her books this Christmas. They're beautiful.}

Any palm tree will do. In fact, you could just grab a log, toss some fronds on the top and we'd be happy staring at it.

Palm trees are a curious kind of tropical tonic. And also strangely hypnotic, don't you think? Toss a hammock between two and see how fast you fall asleep.

It can't be long before the world finds out about the secret pleasures of palms. I know coconut water is being hailed as the hot new remedy for life but I'm sure they're going to find a way of distilling the rest of the tree's by-products, too.

Palms. Mother Nature got it perfect with this one.

{Both images directly above and the one below by me, from Florida and the Whitsunday Islands}

PALMS PART ONE HERE – OR HERE:

http://janellemccullochlibraryofdesign.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/turning-over-new-design-leaf.html

Royal Palm Tree Plantation, Molokai

Old Town Key West. Where palms meet colonial architecture.  {Pic: Me}

India Hicks' Palm Frond earrings. {Via India Hicks' online store, The Sugar Mill – buy.indiahicks.com}

Doris Duke at her Hawaiian home Shangri La. These glorious photos are now showing as part of the Doris Duke Shangri La exhibition at New York's Museum of Arts and Design before travelling to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach and the Honolulu Academy of the Arts.

The Moorings, on the Florida Keys, which was built on an old coconut plantation. They've kept all the palms, and the trees make the most delightful garden to walk through. {Another image badly taken by me as it's was so dark, and I'd probably had a cocktail or three.}

Antique French table lamps from 1st Dibs, via Hollister Hovey.

The Moorings,  Florida Keys.  {Pic: Me}

Islands Magazine.

Hamilton Island's Catseye Beach.  {Pic: Me}

 A palm tree swing. The Koh Chang Grand Lagoona Resort.

Harbour Island at 8am, by India Hicks, from her always inspiration and often humorous blog {indiahicks.com}

A palm tree-lined bathroom at Goldeneye Jamaica, the former home of Ian Fleming (the creator of James Bond). {Via Goldeneye – www.goldeneye.com}

Agatha Christie's quirky journey through the tropics. 

Oscar de la Renta's magnificent 'palm garden' on his Dominican Republic estate. {Via AD}

Taschen's enormous (and enormously fascinating) Book of Palms, which is as heavy as a 100-year-old date palm.

Manuel Canovas' beautiful Bahamas fabric.

A simple but glamorous Oyster Bay beach house designed by Christine Murphy. {Via House Beautiful}

Elizabeth Taylor's former home in Palm Springs. My friend lived right next door to this extraordinary estate. She didn't tell me this until I noticed the Japanese tourist buses pulling up outside. When she did reveal who her neighbour was, she allowed me to sneak down to the bottom of the yard and peer over the fence. (So unladylike!) There were 30 (I kid you not – 30) gardeners fussing with the palms. That was more astonishing that see the Nikon cameras flashing out the front.

One of the now-iconic image of CZ Guest beside her Florida pool. One of my favourite photos. {Via Life}

Palm stilettos. Perfect for tropical nights. {Via Tommy Ton}

Albert Park, Melbourne, on a balmy summer's night.

 {Pic: Me}

A party at the always fantastic Lorelei Cabana Bar on the Florida Keys.  {Pic: Me}

And lastly, a palm tree coffee... So fantastic.
{Unsure of source but wish I knew.}

How To Get A Book Deal

I've been helping a few people to put a pitch together to send to publishers. These people are lovely, and their blogs are distinctive, inspirational and enlightening, so I've really enjoyed working with them. I suspect they may be given their dream contracts and I wish them all the best for their publishing ventures. Their books will be beautiful.

I know other high-profile publishers who have been trying to get a book deal, and sadly failed. It's not because their blogs  were weak or uninteresting, or even low in follower numbers. (Under-the-radar blogs still have a chance of being noticed, if they have a point of difference.) It was perhaps because they didn't go about approaching the publishers in the right way.

Pitching a book and getting a publishing deal needs to be regarded with as much professionalism as you would when going to a bank to ask for a mortgage. Paperwork – lots of it – is imperative. You'll need a synopsis (short and long), a rationale of why your book will sell, a proposed target market (plus any stats or perceived 'following' you might have), an analysis of your competitor books and why yours is different, a list of marketing ideas, and a bio, photo and evidence any previous writing or publishing, so the publishers can see you can actually write. Lastly – and this is the most important thing – you'll need a mock-up. People are visual. They need show 'n' tell stuff. You'll need at least 3 chapters, with fully designed pages featuring your photos (must be your own), your copy (word) and even captions. An old school binder with some ripped out bits of paper and a few random thoughts simply won't do.

I'm very sorry to deliver this news. But getting a book deal is difficult. The thing is, writing a book is even more difficult. So if you can get through the proposal stage, you'll be fit for the arduous production months ahead.

Here are some tips.

10 STEPS TO BECOMING A PUBLISHED AUTHOR 

{Image of Osa watching NYC mayor Fiorello LaGuardia sign a giant mock-up of her 1940 book I Married Adventure via NYT Pictures}

1. NEVER, EVER, EVER GIVE UP

Ben Slbermann, the creator of Pinterest recently said: “People succeed because they don’t stop". He could have been paraphrasing Churchill. Never give up. If you really want a book deal, you WILL make it happen.

It took Hip Hotels' author Herbert Ypma 10 years to get his series off the ground. He told me that every time he approached Thames & Hudson, his publisher, they couldn't understand the concept. "Which part of the bookstore is it going in: travel or architecture?" they said. "Why does it have to fit into one or the other?" he insisted. But they weren't convinced. Ten years it took. Eventually Ypma received his book deal. The Hip Hotels books have now sold more than 2 million copies.

2. FIND A REALLY, REALLY GOOD IDEA

Don't copy what others are doing. The publishers will have already seen 100 proposals like it. Remember when Tuscany memoirs were all the trend? (Under The Tuscan Sun) And then tart-noir novels? (Adventures of a London Call Girl.) And then 'list' books with elegantly simple covers? (Schott's) And schnovels? (Self-help books disguised as novels.) Not to mention Expat Memoirs. (Eat Pray Love) And books about maps. And Darwin. And now Diana Vreeland... And 'Mummy Porn'. (I still shudder at Fifty Shades of Grey...) Step ahead of the curve. Study bestseller lists, but try to think up something different. Something innovative. Something that's never been done before. (I predict that books showing garden designs and plans will be coming back in. But maybe that's just wishful thinking...)

3. TRY NOT TO USE THE 'MEET PITCH'

As in: "XXX book is The Da Vinci Code meets The Sex Diaries". Really. Try to think of 20 other words to describe your story. 20. You should be able to do that.

4. PREPARE YOUR PROPOSAL / PITCH WITH THE SAME METICULOUS ATTENTION TO DETAIL THAT YOU'D DO IF YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE ABOUT TO WIN AN OSCAR

See that one-page synopsis you've done? Now elaborate. I usually do a short synopsis and a two-page one. Plus a rationale (why it will sell), a description of market competition and why this book is different, a description of potential readership, marketing ideas, a bio (add quirky things – they'll give the pitch personality), a full table of contents, a completed first chapter (sometimes three chapters) and any ideas for design/style.{Image via Book City Jackets and littlecommas.wordpress.com: aren't these jacket beautiful?}

5. WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW

Writing is difficult enough. Don't make it harder by tackling a strange subject. Write about what you love. It will make your writing life easier.

6. DON'T ALWAYS TARGET THE BIG PUBLISHERS

India Hicks got her publishing start with a small-ish London company, Pavillion. I don't know how many times this book has now been reprinted.

7. OFFER IDEAS FOR DESIGN, AND EVEN JACKETS, WITH YOUR PITCH

If you're creative, do some mock ups. If not, find a friend who can. Anything that shows the commissioning editor or Acquisitions Committee what your idea will look like will help.

8. MOCK UP AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TO ILLUSTRATE THE IDEA

Here are two pages from a book I pitched to a publisher several years ago. You don't even need to use final text. Just throw some jabberwocky copy in. It's the 'look' they're interested in. I use InDesign, but you can use any medium.

9. FIND SOMEONE TO SEND YOUR PROPOSAL TO

Don't just send it into the receptionist. Find  an editor. One tip is to look at books you like and see who published/edited them.

10. DON'T WORRY ABOUT AN AGENT UNLESS YOU'RE OFFERED A MOTZA ADVANCE

I've never had an agent. I would have made more money if I had but then they would have taken 20 per cent. Use a lawyer who specialises in contracts. They'll charge you $600+ or so, but it's still cheaper than an agent. In saying this, lots of authors like having an agent to do all the work.

And lastly, don't annoy publishers, editors or agents with follow-up phone calls. If they like what you've done, you'll hear within a very short amount of time. Just wait. And cross your fingers!