Plan your book, then plan your trip

When you plan to make a book about your vacation travels before you leave, the experience of your trip will be much better – as will your book. This applies even more if you want your book to be more than a simple collection of photographs. To create more of a journalistic or documentary-style book that others might enjoy, you’ll have to do some planning beforehand.

The same applies when you write or create any non-fiction book. Good books are structured in a certain way to make them a success. In my book writing class Write a Book in a Week I teach my students this structure. When you plan ahead, you’ll be inspired to search out interesting stories during your trip to tell, and images to share. If you’ve kept an open itinerary, you may even decide to visit new places and experience unanticipated events along the way.

I didn’t quite follow this model when I created my book A View to Take Home. This full-colour fine art photography book presents the unique life found in the Canadian Rock…