From Blog to Book — How More Than a Pretty Picture Came About
Some books start with a plan. A clear idea, a structure mapped out in advance, a deliberate decision to sit down and write something. This one didn't start that way. It started with a series of blog posts, and a growing feeling that there was more to say than a blog could hold, and a decision to withhold what I'd already written and turn it into something else entirely.
That wasn't the intention from the start. But that's how it happened.
Where It Started
I had been writing photography blogs for Walking With Pics for a while — not tips or tutorials, but reflective pieces about why I photograph, what the practice gives me, and how it fits into everyday life. I released a couple of them and had several more written and ready to go.
Then it occurred to me that what I had wasn't just a series of blog posts. It was the outline of a book.
The themes were already there — photography as a steady presence rather than an occasional hobby, the value of slowing down and paying attention, how the practice of making images changes the way you look at the world around you. These weren't ideas I had researched or borrowed. They were reflections that had been floating around in my head for years. Getting them typed out felt surprisingly natural. It was less like writing and more like transcribing something I already knew.
Once I made the decision to write the book, I held back the remaining blog posts and started expanding on what I had. Chapters grew from paragraphs. New sections were added. What had started as a loose collection of thoughts became a structured argument about photography, real life, and what happens when the two fit together properly.
What the Book Is Actually About
More Than a Pretty Picture is not a photography instruction manual. There are no technical guides, no gear recommendations, no chapters on composition rules or exposure settings. If that's what you're looking for, there are plenty of other books that will do the job.
This is a reader's book with supporting images. It is about the experience of photography — why people are drawn to it, what it gives them beyond the images themselves, and how it can become a genuine and sustaining part of an ordinary life. It draws on my own experience as a self-taught photographer who came to the practice through walking, who shoots exclusively in black and white JPEG on decade-old Sony DSLRs, and who, between work, home life and everything else that comes with real life, doesn't always have the luxury of chasing dramatic locations or waiting for perfect conditions.
The book covers the shift that happens when photography moves from something you do occasionally to something that becomes a steady presence. It looks at what that change feels like, what drives it, and what it actually offers — not in abstract terms, but through honest reflection on a practice that has been part of my life for a long time now.
It is aimed at photographers who are not necessarily beginners but who want something to read that reflects how photography actually feels rather than how it is usually taught. People who walk, observe, and make images of the world around them without needing it to be spectacular. People who have wondered, at some point, why they keep coming back to it.
Seven Months From Start to Finish
The whole process took around seven months from the moment I decided to write the book to having a proof copy in my hands. That covers everything — writing, editing, designing the cover, working through the publishing process, and pricing the book.
Writing was the most natural part of it. The material was already there, it just needed organising and expanding. The harder work was everything that came after.
Publishing decisions took research and thought. I considered several print on demand suppliers before settling on Amazon KDP. The deciding factor was reach. Without a social media presence to promote the book through, all of my sales would have had to come through my own website. That's a limited audience, at least at this stage. KDP gives the book availability in both the UK and the US and puts it in front of people who would never find their way to Walking With Pics on their own. Amazon takes a significant cut — around 60% — and that is not ideal. But the reach and infrastructure it provides in return felt like the right trade-off, particularly for a first book.
Pricing was another area I had to research from scratch. I had no reference point for what a book like this should cost. Too low and it undervalues the work. Too high and it puts people off before they've even opened it. I looked at comparable books, considered the production costs, and settled on a price that felt honest and reasonable without selling it short.
Designing the Cover
I used Canva to design the book cover, which gave me full control over how it looked. That mattered to me. The cover had to reflect the book's content and tone — understated, honest, not trying too hard.
The design process itself went reasonably smoothly, with one significant exception. Getting the text positioned correctly on the spine took several attempts. The spine width is determined by the page count, and the template has to be precise. Too far either way and the text either disappears onto the front or back cover, or vanishes into the binding. It required patience and a fair amount of trial and error before it sat exactly where it needed to be.
When the proof copy arrived, I was more than happy with how it looked. Seeing it as a physical object for the first time was a different experience to seeing it on screen. It felt real in a way that a digital file simply doesn't.
What Comes Next
More Than a Pretty Picture goes live on March 1st, and I have mixed feelings about that — in the way that I suspect most people do when something they've worked on for months is finally released into the world.
There is genuine pride in having written and published a first book. The process was longer and more involved than I expected at the start, but it was also more straightforward than I feared. I proved to myself that it was something I could actually do, and do properly.
There is also nervousness. That is honest and probably unavoidable. After seven months of work, the question of whether it will sell and how it will be received by people who don't know me or my work is not one I can answer yet. All I can do is put it out there and see.
What I do know is that it won't be the last one. I already have plans and outlines written for more books — both photography and walking related. The framework is in place. The process is no longer unfamiliar. And the writing, it turns out, is something I enjoy as much as the photography itself.
More Than a Pretty Picture is available now on Amazon in both the UK and the US. If any of what I've described here sounds like your kind of book, you can find it through the store page on Walking With Pics.
Soft Back: 173 pages
Price: £14.99
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