HOW TO WRITE A HOW NOT TO BOOK

I'm new at the publishing game, just started getting some long overdue books in print . . . and I did that through self-publishing.  My attempts at writing fiction started back in the early 1980s, and over the years I've written lots of stuff.  Yeah, stuff that just stayed in a drawer or on a computer hard drive, or on a backup thingie.  Most of what I'd written had been for my own amusement, but people who'd seen it over the years thought it worthy of publication.  The new age of independent publishing opened a door for me, and I finally got around to using it.  I've got 7 books in print now, and 4 more are almost finished -  all fiction.  But now I'm thinking of doing a how to book.

Actually, I'm planning on doing a how not to book, and I don't really know how to go about that.  I'm no stranger to non-fiction, have written numerous articles and poems and songs in the past that ended up in print or recorded, but I'm definitely a novice at how to stuff.  I need a book on how to write a how to book . . . or better yet, a how not to book.  That's what it really comes down to when you're writing about how to do something, the telling of what you shouldn't do.  So, I'm tossing around the idea of doing a book on how not to build an acoustic guitar.  I've been building them for 25 years, and my guitar shop is full of mistakes - those guitars that didn't turn out right because I did the wrong thing.

Several things work in my favor here, and being an experienced mistake maker is part of the mix.  I'm a decent photographer, and I draw fairly well, and I am a former teacher.  I can teach someone how to make a decent guitar . . . in person.  But can I do that in print?  I'm confident that I can because I now know a lot of things a guitar maker will be tempted to do that shouldn't be done.  Building a guitar properly requires slow, painstaking work, and you need the right tools to do it right.  I can explain all that to a reader.  The problem is, that's already been done.  There's all kinds of guitar making books out there, and some of them are very good.  And some of those books point out what you shouldn't do.  None of those books, however, told me everything I should expect from my experience as a builder.

My guitar making started with an attempt to build a kit guitar bought from Martin's Dream Shop.  By the time I finished that first guitar, I had invested several thousand dollars in new tools and equipment.  Nobody told me I'd do that.  And then there were the injuries, like the cuts and scrapes you'll get making guitars.  Take a look at an old luthier's hands, and you'll see what I mean.  Shop accidents happen, and some of them can be serious flub-ups.  And hand's aren't like lizard tails 'cause fingers don't grow back.  I cut the tip of my left index finger off with a table saw.  That's painful and irritating, especially when it's your chording hand, the one you depend on playing the guitar.  I was
months getting back to playing again.  Even after 25 years of experience as a builder, I'm still dinging up my hands from time to time.

This blog is a request as much as anything else.  Got any experience with how to writing?  Or how not to writing?  I'm open to suggestions.