These are difficult times for the guidebook publishing industry, with too many titles chasing too few readers. So even a guide to Beijing that receives reviews like these may wait a long time for a second edition:
More than comprehensive. ~ Holiday Asia
Fun but authoritative, the book is written in the strong voice of someone who loves poking around Beijing's hutongs, buzzing with pleasure at each new find... old China hands will even learn a thing or two. And the well-worn tourist attractions like the Forbidden City are given a new spin in a refreshing break from all the been-there-seen-that guides on the shelf. ~ Time
This positive reception did eventually convince new owners of the publisher to commission a second edition. But after months had been spent tramping the streets of the Chinese capital and more in revising the text from start to finish, shrinking guidebook sales meant plans to cover China more comprehensively were cancelled and the rights to the text released.
Three other publishers expressed an interest in picking up the nearly complete work, but in the current economic climate eventually decided against publishing a comprehensive guide.
Bring Beijing back to life
This finally provides an opportunity to produce a really satisfying guide to Beijing, and one that visitors really need; one free of the restrictions that commercial publishers tend to impose.
Some of these restrictions are entirely sensible; for instance, keeping the number of pages down so as to reduce production costs and keep cover prices competitive. But some destinations just need more space to cover properly than others. Few countries change faster than China, yet publishers often request that a guide should be updated but without changing anything, in order to keep costs down.
While any visitor capable of tackling Paris without French can easily tackle Beijing without Mandarin, the tool they need to help them do this must be rather more detailed and sophisticated. Some publishers refuse to include Chinese characters, or severely restrict their numbers, making the book useless to readers who for instance need to show the characters for their destinations to taxi drivers and ticket sellers, or communicate their orders to waitresses.
Even the best-informed and most diligent Mandarin-speaking writers struggle to squeeze Beijing and everything that visitors need to know into the straightjacket of house styles and formats originally developed for European or North American destinations, but which the publisher insists may not be even slightly altered.
This project is all about not letting years of research go to waste. It's about completing the revision and expansion of an already well-reviewed book, putting its information and advice into the hands of as many visitors to Beijing as possible, and doing so for the lowest possible cover price. It's about making one more complete revision of the text before issuing it in a format especially devised for the needs of Chinese destinations and China travellers.
As the saying goes, if you want something done properly, do it yourself.
Journalism
Because that's what a really good guidebook should be.
The highest standards of accuracy and detail need to be brought to the text with every fact double-checked.
Despite guide book cover claims to the contrary, most publishers fail to do any significant amount of fact-checking.
And the text should be more than the hearsay and superficial generalisations common to many guides. It should include a wealth of readable background detail, observation, and original research. There's no need for guidebooks to be entirely trivial, to sugar-coat real life, or to highlight only the most appealing aspects of a destination with text that's been manipulated to match carefully cropped and Photoshopped images.
A guidebook should be something you reach for not only for opening hours, ticket prices, and transport information, but because of its readable background material, engaging stories, and fresh research that together advance enjoyment and understanding of a destination.
As Time said of the first edition:
A great guidebook... an infectious, informative read.
The second will be nearly twice the size, and the intention is that it should be twice as good.
Why ask for so little?
Obviously $5,000 is not remotely enough to cover the costs of several weeks' research in Beijing, not to mention further time at the keyboard and the necessary fact-checking, proof-reading, editing, and web page design, all of which are best done by those who know how, leaving me to concentrate on the text.
But there's a determination to get this done, and it seems best to look for a very modest contribution and then try to exceed that target if at all possible.
Publishers now typically pay a flat fee for a city guide of only about $8,000, so it's perhaps unsurprising that few well-qualified writers want to tackle this work, and that many guidebooks suffer as their authors attempt to complete them as quickly as possible.
But in this case, $8,000 would actually be very helpful in enhancing the amount of professional assistance to be used, and beyond that in sending out review copies and generating the publicity that will see the book in more people's hands. If we exceed $8000 then delivery of all copies to those choosing a $50 perk or higher will be post-free.
More funding still would also allow for updates to be incorporated swiftly in the months after first publication—one of the benefits of using print-on-demand technology.
$15,000+ would improve the book further, and make it possible to produce multiple updates, perhaps to print parts of the work as standalone volumes intended as supplements to other guides or to produce a companion volume on two- to three-day trips from Beijing or to revise and reissue China: The Silk Routes.
In general, the more funds, the better the results will be.
The perks
This project is about not letting useful information go to waste, but putting it into the hands of as many people as possible. So the rewards take the form of the book itself, or the book with added extras.
It will be an 8.5" x 5.5" trade paperback, and looks likely to run to nearly 700 pages in the new design, with no space wasted on pretty pictures. Its contents include:
- Fuller details of more sights of interest than any other current guide; several walking routes around little-visited sections of traditional housing and along less-known sections of the Great Wall; descriptions of multiple day trips into the surrounding countryside with information on travel options from public transport, through Chinese bus tours, to one-day taxi hires; all with detailed directions in both English and in Chinese characters, and GPS data
- Reading on everything: the lives of the palace eunuchs; corruption in China's modern art scene; the damage caused by UNESCO World Heritage Listing in China; myths about the Great Wall; the keeping of insects as pets; the true story of the Anglo-French destruction of the Summer Palace; the expulsion of Starbucks from the Forbidden City; the Boxer Rebellion, the former brothel quarter of Qian Men; and much more
- Extremely detailed practical advice on health, transport, visas, and more, enabling readers to tackle the city entirely on their own and without needing a word of Mandarin; and whether travelling independently or on a guided tour to avoid Beijing's common scams
- A shopping section with detailed advice on when to bargain in China and exactly how to do it there; details on how to obtain the best hotel rates and domestic air ticket prices, and how to negotiate day-trip hires with taxis. Any of this information might save visitors several multiples of the book’s cover price
- Comprehensive reviews of hostels and hotels from rock-bottom to palatial, and from revamped traditional courtyards to the spartan but business-friendly; a restaurant section that introduces the immense variety of Chinese regional cuisines now available in the capital and which provides all the characters necessary to order recommended dishes; further coverage of cheap street food, food courts, and the best from overseas
- A language section that provides all the characters visitors really need to get what they want; tone-marked pinyin and characters throughout to aid those who have learnt some Mandarin to be understood; a directory of all the attractions around each individual metro stop; a concise and readable history of the city; and much more.
As the book’s final weight is currently unknown, postage and packing will be payable at net cost via PayPal at the time of dispatch (by your choice of surface, standard air mail, or faster means if preferred).
Canadians may also have to pay GST.
BONUS: If we exceed $8,000, then postage and packing will be FREE to all those who have chosen the $50 perk or higher.
Thanks are already due to Marina Dodis (www.marinadodis.com) for use of the only decent still images in an otherwise amateur video, and to professional cover designer, editor, web designer, and food critic friends and colleagues who have all offered help.
Have a look at the perks, and whether you decide to participate or not, please help by informing those you know with China interests that this project is underway.
Many thanks.
