Outdoor recreation

Showing front cover and sample pages

Great Wellington Day Walks

By Murray Doughty

local man writes book on best hikes in Wellington region

This 160 page guide to the best walks in the Wellington Region is photo-rich with helpful maps, practical advice, tips about what to take, getting fit, and how to get where you're going. The author is a career athlete but has walked these tracks many times over. He plans books on other regional walks. BriarsBooks prepared 20 Great Wellington Day Walks for print and digital, ie., several e-book formats for digital bookstores, EPUB readers and an interactive PDF for emailing. His intended market was the tramper with  internet access, so his focus was on the digital market in particular, eg., Kindle and other digital bookstores, with a printed edition available as print-on-demand. The author wanted high quality photos but made the usual error of providing photos and maps that were too low in resolution and/or needing significant colour and tonal adjustments to bring out their best. Low resolution photos do not work for print or tap-zoom requirements of smartphones and tablets, and have to be rescued in photo-editing software. 

Staglands - the first 40 years 

John Simister and Sarah Purdy

Widely-known wildlife park uses local agency Briar's Books to self-publish 40 years of history.

Wildlife Park commemorate 40 years with 60-page booklet

A popular local wildlife park - Staglands - commemorated  40 years with a colourful account documenting the full story of the park from its beginnings as rough farmland through to its current status as a sanctuary for breeding and protection of endangered species. Families and children go to Staglands for closeup encounters with NZ native birds and animals and domesticated creatures of all kinds in a beautiful environment. The cover design was provided and the text arrived needing little in the way of editing. A lot of the early photos however, needed rescuing. Sold onsite and through known networks.