Complete Idiot's Guide to Aquaponic Gardening - we haz cover!

[Meg Stout]

As some of you remember, Penguin decided to publish a book about aquaponic gardening in their "Complete Idiot's Guide" series. After some fits and starts and having courted several people to write the book for them, Penguin decided to sign me to the gig.

First, a huge thank you to everyone here, even if you weren't one of the many many people who helped me back when I was a struggling newbie. This community and the others like it are an immense resource for anyone diving into aquaponic gardening.

Second, if you are one of the many generous people who let me use your pictures, I can't thank you enough. But I can send you a copy of the book, as promised. The regular book is cool, but doesn't have color pictures. The e-book is an e-book, but it does have color pictures. I'll be reaching out to you individually over the next few weeks to get information on how to send you your copy.

For better or worse, this is the book I wish I could have had in hand when I started doing aquaponics - how to plumb, how to test water, what plants would work when, and what to do about fish. Plus lots of DIY plans.

And now that I'm not writing a book, maybe I can start blogging and posting more regularly... LOL!

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Congrats Meg!

[wes]

Good Job!!!!

[Converse]

Very nice looking!  CONGRATULATIONS!

[Meg Stout]

One correction - I said this was the first aquaponics book published by a mainstream publisher.

What I meant to say is I think this is the first book about aquaponics published by one of the Big Six publishers who dominate the publishing industry (Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, Random House, Macmillan, The Penguin Group, and Hachette). So what I meant to indicate is that aquaponics is now sufficiently mainstream that one of the big publishing houses thinks they can make a profit publishing such a book. I also means this book went through a vast array of editors before it got to readers, hopefully cleansing it of gross inaccuracies (and maybe even cleansing it of minor inaccuracies).

Between you me and the wall, by the time I got this contract, the Complete Idiot's Guide series had moved to the DK imprint, meaning I was only offered this gig as a work for hire and won't be getting royalties. So if you see me running around promoting the book, know that it's still only because I adore aquaponics, because I don't personally make money off future sales of the book.