3 ms·

This reminds me of a girl I knew in college who worked as a contracter for a book publisher. I was surprised to learn that one of the most common types of book

This reminds me of a girl I knew in college who worked as a contracter for a book publisher. I was surprised to learn that one of the most common types of books people submitted were dairies of their sailing. Like, "we sailed to this island and there was bad weather then we sailed to this other island". Apparently they'd get a manuscript like this once a week or something. Not sure what the market is like for books like that since I don't think I've ever seen one in a book store.

gmiller123456 2mo ago
Ocean sailing leaves a lot of free time. Also the people who can afford to do it have a lot of free time. So I don't find it that surprising.
- detourdog 2mo ago
  Sailing can be such a transformative experience I'm not surprised many people write books of the experience. My guess is most people's experience is that interesting to others.
clort 2mo ago
They exist, but generally for more significant voyaging. For example - Joshua Slocum - Sailing Alone Around The World (1900) - H.W.Tilman - Mishief Among The Penguins (1961) - Sir Alec Rose - My Lively Lady (1968) - Annie Hill - Voyaging on a Small Income (1993) at least are on my bookshelf
- stockresearcher 2mo ago
  The ultimate boat-log-as-a-book has to be Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840. It has some great descriptions of the California coast, and does a pretty decent job of giving you an idea of why Los Angeles became the biggest city despite having the worst natural harbor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Years_Before_the_Mast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Years_Before_the_Mast
TacticalCoder 2mo ago
> Not sure what the market is like for books like that since I don't think I've ever seen one in a book store. Same. But then vlogs about people sailing can be extremely successful, with millions of subscribers. But then I take it there's more appeal in seeing young couples, with a six-pack dude and a beautiful woman in bikini, sailing around the world than reading description of the various kind of waves.
Doctor_Fegg 2mo ago
I edited a boating magazine (inland waterways, not sea-going) and we got article submissions like this all the time. I ended up putting in our 'Notes for Contributors' something like "Write about what will be interesting to the _reader_, not what is interesting to you" because apparently this eluded people.

gmiller123456 2mo ago

Ocean sailing leaves a lot of free time. Also the people who can afford to do it have a lot of free time. So I don't find it that surprising.

detourdog 2mo ago
Sailing can be such a transformative experience I'm not surprised many people write books of the experience. My guess is most people's experience is that interesting to others.

clort 2mo ago

They exist, but generally for more significant voyaging. For example - Joshua Slocum - Sailing Alone Around The World (1900) - H.W.Tilman - Mishief Among The Penguins (1961) - Sir Alec Rose - My Lively Lady (1968) - Annie Hill - Voyaging on a Small Income (1993) at least are on my bookshelf

stockresearcher 2mo ago
The ultimate boat-log-as-a-book has to be Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840. It has some great descriptions of the California coast, and does a pretty decent job of giving you an idea of why Los Angeles became the biggest city despite having the worst natural harbor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Years_Before_the_Mast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Years_Before_the_Mast

TacticalCoder 2mo ago

> Not sure what the market is like for books like that since I don't think I've ever seen one in a book store. Same. But then vlogs about people sailing can be extremely successful, with millions of subscribers. But then I take it there's more appeal in seeing young couples, with a six-pack dude and a beautiful woman in bikini, sailing around the world than reading description of the various kind of waves.

Doctor_Fegg 2mo ago

I edited a boating magazine (inland waterways, not sea-going) and we got article submissions like this all the time. I ended up putting in our 'Notes for Contributors' something like "Write about what will be interesting to the _reader_, not what is interesting to you" because apparently this eluded people.