The small farm book business grows organically. Growing the seeds of good ideas into books, is akin to farming in some respects. In publishing, like in farming, there are large multinational multimillion dollar corporations dominant in the industry. Yet, the groundswell of good books about small scale farms, seasonable cuisine, and sustainable living reflects the growing market for good ideas. You may have noticed more books in the feed store, the hardware, the farmers market, and library even though you rarely step inside a bookstore. The business of books about small farms is healthy: no boom, no bust. No floods, no dustbowls nor droughts in the forecast. Far away from the publishing district in New York City, Joel Salatin pioneered the grass-fed movement on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley and began to self-publish books under his business name, Polyface. His grass-roots publishing initiative attracted a national audience. Farm tours, speaking engagements, media appearances, and more; Joel Salatin grew an organic audience for his seven books. Featured in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the documentary Food, Inc., Salatin is a self-described Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist-lunatic-Farmer. His distinctive voice and passion pulls readers to what he has to say. Even if you disagree with Joel Salatin, he raises many unaddressed issues of relevance to farmers today. In this crazy new world of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, iphones, apps, widgets and plugins, Joel Salatin grew an audience platform organically. Instead of pushing his book, he promoted a way of…
Passion for good, simple, healthy food is something farmers and hunters share with chefs, urban homesteaders and metropolitan diners in these new books about meat and so much more. It’s become cool to be carnivore. Farmer and evangelist for the grass-fed movement, Joel Salatin’s new book, Folks This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World (Hatchette 2011) points… [Read More]
Much of the labor of creating a snappy and engaging blog is visible to the outside world – your carefully crafted content, your punctual updates, your original style and creative voice… But under all of that outward cultivation lies a rushing river of information, a spring of data that you need to tap. Who is visiting your site? How long are they staying? How did they get… [Read More]
Journalistic nonfiction makes an unspoken promise to readers: it doesn’t just tell a tremendous story, it forces readers to question and examine current cultural practices and societal values. A strong journalist knows how to write articles that do more than just expose the facts. Many call it an ethical code, but I call it a mark of skill, developed over the years by knowledge of… [Read More]
Whether you check the news on your smartphone first thing in the morning or you’d rather read the phone book than attend to anything on such a tiny screen, there’s one thing you’ve got to keep in mind – potential readers are looking at your site on mobile even if you’re not. In the same way that your website needs to be accessible to many… [Read More]
Martin Sweeney from Homer, NY, has written a captivating account of three native sons who played pivotal roles in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the United States’ history. [Martin Sweeney, Lincoln’s Gift from Homer, New York: A Painter, an Editor and a Detective, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2011.] The painter, Francis Carpenter, brushed “The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before the Cabinet”—the iconic image of… [Read More]



