”Your book saved our holiday.”
This is still, several years later, one of the compliments I value most. It is also a gentle reminder that my travel guides affect thousands of people’s holidays.
The theme for May: what takes most time creating travel guides (hint: it is not writing).
Two common comments:
”So you write books, you have to be very good at grammar.” No, editors and proofreaders are good at grammar. I am an expert at deciding what should go in the book, in which order, and how.
”You are one of them getting free meals.” No, I am not an influencer. I fund my research through future book sales — or consultancy work. To keep costs down, I also rely on interviews with locals.
The story of my new travel guide Upptäck Provence started almost two years ago when I was asked to write it by veteran publisher Erik Osvald. We decided that this time I should include the entire Région Sud, a larger area than I covered in my previous book Mitt Provence.
I immediately started thinking about the structure: how to divide such a large area into smaller, meaningful parts. I ended up using food traditions as the organising principle. The bulls, rice and salt area is one, the olive oil region another, the coast divided in two and so on.
In January 2025 I started doing research trips between consultancy assignments. I had a list of places I wanted to revisit and photograph to be able to both include well-known destinations for the benefit of first-time visitors and some less obvious places.
Summer 2025 I shared the first version with the publisher asking for feedback. Later the same year, the publisher sold it to the major bookstore chains.
January 2026 it was time for the editor Mia Gahne to point out all the places where I could improve user experience by rewriting. After that, the excellent proofreader caught a couple of remaining mistakes.
In March and April, we focused on pictures and maps. I insisted that they should support the structure I worked so hard on. After another round of proofreading the book went to the printer. Next week it will meet readers. If I’ve succeeded with the structure, no one will comment on it — it will just feel natural and obvious.
Perhaps I will get praise. In May I received lots of nice words on my nerdier books about southern France. One that I will remember for a long time is this one: “Your book was the only one my mum wanted at the hospital — she reads aloud from it.”
In this project I worked with an external publisher. I also run a micro-publishing company for other projects. It requires a different set of skills, something I might write about later (hint: grammar isn’t the essential part there either).
P.S. In April I forgot to count champagne — plenty of bubbly though. This month? 1 occasion 🥂
These recaps are also published on LinkedIn and written in collaboration and discussion with the following AI-tools: Claude & ChatGPT.
Science communicator and project manager based in Sweden, working internationally. Montly recaps in English.
- Ny bok: Upptäck Provence - 5 juni 2026
- Franska utsikter: stencirkel i Massif de Maures - 1 juni 2026
- May 2026: Structuring information for thousands of readers - 31 maj 2026