Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“Ideas are easy. It’s the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.” ―
One of the questions I’m often asked after “How do I pronounce my name?” or “Where do I find models?” is: “Where do you get the ideas for your books, magazine articles, and blog posts?” Let’s take a look at these categories one by one:
Book ideas: Sometimes the ideas originate with the publisher, most times from me and once from a friend and (eventual) collaborator who suggested the idea for Part-time Glamour Photography, Full-time Income that was probably the easiest, successful book pitch I even made. There’s a post about how that happened around here someplace.
Not all of publisher’s ideas work out. I was approached by a book publisher well known for their series (it rhymes with “gummies.”) to write a book abut digital black and white photography. They requested that I prepare an outline based on their guidelines and write a sample chapter—something I’d never been asked to do in my 37 other published books. This chapter was guided by their more-than-suggestions but their editorial board didn’t like it. I declined their kind offer to write another sample chapter and told them, “I had already seen that movie, and Lucy always pulls the football away.”
A similar situation happened to me a few times. Once I was asked to ghost write a book for a famous photographer who would supply the photographs and I would write a book around them. Maybe you’ve read some books like that but maybe didn’t know that fact? According to Amazon, “Eighty percent of ‘big name’ books are ghostwritten…” The publisher wouldn’t tell me who the photographer was until I signed the contract so I asked if I could get a byline like many ghost writers get with my name on the cover (smaller than Mr. X’s, of course) as “with Joe Farace” but they declined, so I declined too. Writing a book is a lot of work and I didn’t want to help somebody else get (more) famous without some kind of recognition, in addition the the money of course.
Magazine ideas: There was a time when I was writing magazine articles during the final days of one of the few remaining, non-Association-based print photo magazines that the editor told me what topics to write each month. It was no fun but I did what was asked and worked hard at making it my own while trying to free myself from the influence of the sales department. Before that particular editor was appointed, the previous editor was one of the best I worked with. He solicited ideas from me and chose ones he felt appropriate and was a source of constructive criticism. He—his initials were GS—was one of the three-best editors I ever worked with. The others were at Photomethods magazine—Fred Schmidt and Lief Erickson (not the actor.) But prior to the ultimate decline of all print photo magazine, the process would be similar to books. You made a pitch for an idea and if the editor liked you and the idea it would be assigned.
Getting the ideas…
…on the other hand, is a different process. For me, ideas for both book and magazine articles came from two main sources: First, the ideas were based on projects, professional or personal, that I was working on that time. That may be why I wrote so much, especially in my early days, about 3D Photography and later wrote about infrared photography, both film and digital. These were photograph interests and projects that I was involved in and was enjoying. Second and this might sound odd, ideas would just pop in my head when I was doing something mindless, such as taking a walk or, as silly as it sounds, taking a shower. This blog topic, for example was a “shower idea” and many ideas, not just ones related to writing happen when I’m soaping up!
Blog Ideas: This was actually the impetus that got me to write this post. When I made the decision to stop writing about glamour and photography for this blog, it has been a challenge for me to come up with idea for new posts every day of the week. This challenge was the impetus for me to create Joe’s Book Club that I publish every other Saturday because I enjoy reading and wanted to include book reviews on photography, automobiles and whatever fiction or non-fiction book I happened to be reading at the time. From time to time, I also include some insights on what it’s like to write books The number of page views I received for book club posts surprised me and prompted me to create Joe’s Movie Club that, in turn, got me to add a video version for my You Tube channel.
question: Why haven’t you uploaded more Joe’s Movie Club videos in several months? The short answer is “technical difficulties. For the past two months my home video system has had sporadic problems that finally resulted in it “crashing and burning.” A diagnosis by a Geek Squad technician laid the problem at my, what I thought was expensive, Marantz receiver. When I tried to purchase a replacement, the manager of the Park Meadows Best Buy agreed with that diagnosis and told me the receiver was underpowered for my Dolby 5.1 speakers. It tuned out that my receiver had a three-year warranty and so he credited me for the original purchase price against a upgraded and more expensive Denon receiver. The new receiver is due to be re-installed today so new Joe’s Movie Club videos, including one about the 4K version of The Maltese Falcon, should be available real soon now.