The great outdoors, on your shelf

Falcon Guides, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, are best known in the publishing space for their exclusive content on outdoor activities such as bike riding, camping, foraging, hiking, paddling, rock climbing and their field guide series on wild flowers. With reading material written, tested, and recommended by enthusiasts and experts on the great outdoors, Falcon Guides cover the entire spectrum of outdoor activities, aimed at environmental preservation and wildlife identification. These field work guides give the best possible information there is on where to go, how to get there, and what to do when you arrive.

In large part, Falcon's continued success as the world's leading publisher of outdoor recreation content comes from its unwavering focus. With every book, Falcon manages to engage the spirit of the large community of sports lovers, nature lovers, and adventurers and captures beautifully the very heart and soul of the outdoors, its fascinating history, and its pristine incomparable beauty. After 40 years and hundreds of books, tens of thousands of maps, and countless trips into the wilderness, a Falcon Guide continues to make one feel as much at home sitting at a coffee table as it does out in the wilderness.

When Newgen took on the task of producing these books, there were some challenges: Because these books typically deal with outdoor recreational content, author unavailability was a real thing. Unlike with a regular book, project management for such travel guides became all the more significant. We needed to work with authors who were travelers/adventurists themselves and the schedule had to be customized to work to their schedules but still with an eye on the goal of meeting the publication date.

Another challenge for Newgen was the turnaround times for these book. Because these books were relevant to seasonal times, it was crucial to complete the production of the book and publish it at the opportune time when there was an actual need for such guides in the market.

Yet another one was factual checking of all data and maps, regardless of the activity: for instance, bike riding, camping, foraging, hiking, paddling, rock climbing all had to be fact-checked and data integrity met to account for seasonal changes and variations in temperature.

Newgen verified the maps with the help of cartographers and the text was verified with the authors by our fact-checking experts whenever there were mismatches. Because the content dealt with real-time applications, they were crafted to perfection and programmed to reach the user in time.

For books on biking and hiking, directions were provided with GPS coordinates so they were precise. Because terrain types and surface regularities changed from time to time, utmost care and effort were taken for verification. Local events and attractions were pinned to their locations for the convenience of the adventurer, and proper gauges and shuttles were mentioned for parts of the adventures. Because of the nature of the topic, an abundant database of photos were shared by the authors which our Newgen art team worked with, processed and selected appropriate shots relating to the content using their exceptional decision-making skills. The supplied photos were sensibly compiled, composed, and constructed for an aesthetic layout assuring better understanding for the readers about a particular activity and the zone.

All of this was done keeping in mind not to exceed the final page count of the book.

Newgen completed the Falcon Guides meeting all quality parameters in given time frame despite the many challenges of the projects.