I've discovered a few things as I moved from the creative process of publishing my dream cookbook, to actually marketing it. I've apparently promoted myself somewhat inadequately, having had but nominal impact thus far. Right now I'm just trying to be not too intimidated, as I discover: The competition is fierce. In 2004, it was recorded (see BookStatistics.com), that there were 17 new books published each and every hour of each and every day. Whoa. I'd better get cracking...Wondering if I might drop a few of my books off at a gift store in Napa Valley, I discovered that Giada De Laurentiis will be dropping in there, literally, as she hot-air-balloon-rides over to taste the specialty olive oils and wines that the Valley has to offer. Humm, I think my appearance on the scene would be anti-climatic...
Inquiring of the manager at the local Sur La Table, I asked whether they might consider carrying a local author's cookbook. If I happened to be insanely popular, then yes, that might work. But I discovered that "Corporate" would ultimately decide whether any given book had enough potential selling power to be carried by such a popular shop. I suppose my book might not really qualify.
Doing a word search for "Cooking Stores" in various trendy, touristy areas here in California, I thought perhaps a smaller, independently-owned shop might appreciate my "home-grown" little cookbook. But there are very few such stores. I suppose the money isn't in selling kitchenwares, but in offering cooking classes. With Emeril Lagasse and other acclaimed chefs showing how to make Foie Gras Toast with Sauterne Gelee and the like, how will I stand a chance?! I checked out a local station's interview of another local chef, who presses her own olive oil. Oh boy, I feel so small.
I just read of how a fellow chef's favorite food is whatever new thing she's just now made that she hasn't made before. Not me. I like having a bunch of tried and true recipes to depend on. Most of my days are fairly routine; I do my routine things, work up an appetite, and start craving some of those recipes I've shared in my cookbook. Will it prove popular to start checking out my recipes? To start buying my cookbook? To realize the beauty of having a solid repertoire of best recipes that fit a range of moods and situations, from formal to simple?
Well, time will tell if anything will come of this chef/author, and her cookbook. Did I mention, the book is also a devotional, with scripture in it? Oh-oh. That could be a problem in our liberal, left-wing world. Humm. We'll see.
