Guide Books

When Countryman Press, WW Norton's Vermont-based travel imprint, hired Jim to write a guidebook for them, they told him that they needed something special. They knew that, in order to sell well, a guidebook must go beyond a collection of entries. A guidebook had to be a dream book; it must put you in the middle of a locale, show you exactly what to expect, and guide you around as you find just the right things to do. If a guidebook is doing its job, it will create a fantasy land for you as you read it — and then let you live that fantasy as you act out your dreams.

This is what Jim can do for you, whether in the form of a 200,000 word book or a 2,000 word article — turn your locale into a fantasy world which your readers will want to visit again and again. Jim does this by combining deep research, clear organization, and a strong feeling for what makes your locale special. You may need only a short piece: a travel article, a hotel brochure, a recruiting pamphlet. If you need a long and complex project, however, Jim has both the experience and the customized software to handle both the text and the images.

Countryman Press released Jim's guidebook, The Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains: An Explorer's Guide, illustrated with 86 of his photos, in June 2003. They were so pleased with the result that they asked Jim to produce a companion volume, The Shenandoah Valley and the Mountains of the Virginias: An Explorer's Guide released in April 2005 along with the revised 2nd edition of the earlier guidebook. Together, they form the only two volume guide to the great travel destinations of the Southern Appalachians.