New Aquaponic Gardening Book - looking for input

[RupertofOZ]

What concerns me Meg... is that the list of contents goes way beyond... at least in suggestion... the kind of "basic" description of "complex" issues... that an "idiot's guide" suggests....

And without doing the list content justice.... would neither help a "newbie"... or add to the pool of aquaponics "knowledge"....

No offence meant to anyone... but there's already several genralised aquaponics books on the market.. including Sylvia's...

I'm just at a bit of a lose to understand what another generalised book is going to achieve... and how it might help a "newbie"...

I can't see how a "newbie" can be assisted... without providing some very specific explanations of what is involved in aquaponics... and/or how to setup a system....

Essentially a "workshop"... in print....

And the list of contents doesn't seem to fit with that.... or to put it another way... how the list of contents can be done justice... within the timeframe you have available...

[Castaway]

What concerns me Meg... is that the list of contents goes way beyond... at least in suggestion... the kind of "basic" description of "complex" issues... that an "idiot's guide" suggests....

And without doing the list content justice.... would neither help a "newbie"... or add to the pool of aquaponics "knowledge"....

No offence meant to anyone... but there's already several genralised aquaponics books on the market.. including Sylvia's...

I'm just at a bit of a lose to understand what another generalised book is going to achieve... and how it might help a "newbie"...

I can't see how a "newbie" can be assisted... without providing some very specific explanations of what is involved in aquaponics... and/or how to setup a system....

Essentially a "workshop"... in print....

And the list of contents doesn't seem to fit with that.... or to put it another way... how the list of contents can be done justice... within the timeframe you have available...

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I was under the somewhat naive and mistaken belief that we are still living in a capitalist system where book publishers are free to choose, fund and publish a book on any topic of their own choosing even if - God forbid - the topic has been written about previously and even done to death?

Does Meg need to get permission from RupertOfOz first to publish a book on aquaponics?

Surely Labor Socialism hasn't spread its nasty pervading tentacles into curbing people reading more than one book on the subject because it may be deemed too simplistic and not complicated enough?

Perhaps I'm wrong and will need to be sent to a Labor/Green re-education camp to learn how to handle the "truth."

That Aquaponics is NOT easy. That only a certain few should hold the knowledge.

Especially when the high priests deem it to be so.

Get over it Rupe. In the words of a Labor folk hero - John Faulkner "put a sock in it!"

I reckon Meg is making a very thorough and detailed book on aquaponics for the average punter.

Its not a text book aimed at an academic focused on stocking densities and boring formulas aimed at the commercial aquaculture industry.

Thats why its called "The Idiots Guide..."

Geddit?

Its a commercial decision that book publishers make using their own money. Not a socialist collective funding a proletariat workbook.

If you don't like it - don't buy it.

Write your own book.

[RupertofOZ]

Whoa Castaway....

I'm not suggesting in any way that Meg... or anyone else for that matter... hasn't a right to write/publish a book about aquaponics...

I reckon Meg is making a very thorough and detailed book on aquaponics for the average punter.

I hope that's the case Castaway... perhaps you have the advantage of having seen a draft... I haven't at this stage... although Meg has said she would send one...

I just voiced a generalised opinion...

What on earth has got such a bee in your bonnet Frank...

And what's with the capitalist... socialist diatribe... grab yourself another beer mate... and take a deep breath...

I'd look forward to seeing a "very thorough and detailed book on aquaponics for the average punter"... you seem to be implying that there's a need ... or a niche for one....

I don't see how anything I've said is at odds with that viewpoint Frank...

[RupertofOZ]

P.S... Meg doesn't seem to have any problems with what I've said... well up until the most recent posts anyway....

The PM she sent me, in which she offered the opportunity to review a draft... was entitled... "Great Comments"....

[bigdaddy]

Hi Rupe,

I read your comments to be a positive help.

I wasn't aware of, and I don't understand why Meg has the restrictions placed on her.... but it doesn't matter...If thems the rules thems the rules....

It's good to have helpful critique....
Keep up the good work...

Cheers.

[stoutmtc]

Hi guys -

It is unfortunate that I live on the other side of the world - makes these conversations a bit asynchronous.

I had no aspirations to write a book about aquaponics until I was asked to do so by an agent for Penguin Books. I'm writing this book to be what I would have wanted when I was a newbie. And I'm writing this book for a home gardener who might be living in a temperate climate.

I am not historically a gardener, though I have dabbled and even set up a irrigated gravel garden in my one room apartment back in the early 90s based on guidance from a book published in the 70s. (The seedlings died when a mate turned off the lights while I was gone on vacation.)

Fish? When I started aquaponics in 2010, I asked everyone I knew if they knew about fish, particularly how to dispatch one. My primary memory of fishing was scooping something tiny out of Flaming Gorge with my bare hands. Though I suppose I had fished off a research vessel in the middle of the Pacific and caught a 10 inch (25 cm) squid.

I'm hoping no one else needs flood a floor or kill dozens of fish through ignorance, as I have done. And though I agree there are many books out there, it never hurts our common passion for there to be a mainstream book. This "Complete Idiot's Guide" will bump sales of the other aquaponics books, since most people do like to collect more than a single text on a subject they're excited about.

One last note, a happy-making comment Susanne Friend sent me when were were talking about me helping her update her System Guides:

"Thanks for the amazing, hands-on work you did at the Conference. It was so wonderful to see something GET DONE, rather than just talked about, as all the rest of us did!"

I built a 200 gallon stock-tank based greenhouse system in an hour, live, at the 2011 Aquaponics Association conference (people love seeing a greenhouse go up in 5 minutes - it's very empowering).

At this upcoming conference, I plan to arrive on a plane with the clothes on my back and create growbeds and a couple of microsystems and redux the greenhouse thing. All from components purchased at local box stores.

[Murray]

Good one Meg, I will be looking forward to seeing you there at the Conference and see you do the kit thing again. Very good.

[Murray]

Thanks Meg for the copy of "The complete Idiot's Guide to Aquaponic Gardening"
Got it a week back (or thereabouts). It was here when I got home from India. I have had a good look through. Have not "read" it as such but spent a couple of hours looking through.
Good work. I think the book is great for what is intended, a light coverage of the subject and being on the shelves it will get out to the masses and move the penetration of AP forward.

Once again Meg, good work.

[stoutmtc]

Thank you, Murray!

For anyone who thinks "Hey! She didn't put in my picture/comment!!!" I ended up with a draft that was on track to be 50 pages over budget. That, plus there was the week when their graphics department told me 75% of the pictures I'd submitted weren't high res and I culled, only to find out it was merely that many of the pictures had "72 dpi" hidden in a header and therefore displayed strangely to the graphics folks despite being (for example) 3000x4000 pixels...

If anyone notices anything drastically wrong, please let me know.

FWIW, I've already contacted the publisher about the concern from select readers that the book doesn't adequately acknowledge that metric exists, much less provide conversions. Having done all my university work in physics using SI units and having lived outside the United States, I know how opaque the constant use of English/Imperial units makes it feel to everyone other than residents of the United States, Myanmar, and Liberia. However the publishers are primarily focused on the US market, and were probably concerned that my early inclusion of both English and metric measurements in the discussion would alienate US readers.

At least I got them to retain the information about the Australian fish!