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Win Secrets of the Southern Table + Get Tips for a Successful Book Tour

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image for book tour and cookbook giveaway

Cookbook author Virginia Willis starts another book tour with her new Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover’s Tour of the Global South. She reminds herself that book tours aren’t just about sales. “Book tours are about connecting with readers,” she says. “Even if I sell only a few books, those people will tell their friends.”

Her first book tour took place in 2008 with Bon Appetit, Y’all. She’s written six cookbooks and done four big book tours. In this interview, she’s [Read more…] about Win Secrets of the Southern Table + Get Tips for a Successful Book Tour

Get Tips About a Cookbook Tour + Win a Copy of Istanbul & Beyond

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Cookbook Giveaway: Istanbul & Beyond

[This post is now closed. Kris Diede is the winner of the cookbook.]

What happens on your first cookbook tour? Author Robyn Eckhard found out when she came to the US and Canada from her home in Italy to promote  Istanbul and Beyond: Exploring the Diverse Cuisines of Turkey. She did around 25 events in 5.5 weeks, traveling with her husband, Dave Hagerman, the book’s photographer. 

If it sounds exhausting, it was. Exhilarating too, she says. In addition to the events, she fit lots of interviews and podcasts into that compressed time.

I’ve known Robyn for years. She is one of those overachiever types who speaks several languages and has freelanced food stories for Saveur and The New York Times. We worked together on her [Read more…] about Get Tips About a Cookbook Tour + Win a Copy of Istanbul & Beyond

5 Ways to Expand Your Platform for a Book Deal

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A guest post by Nicole Gulotta

More than two years before signing a cookbook contract for Eat This Poem: A Literary Feast of Recipes Inspired by Poetry, an editor at my would-be publisher said something like this: “We want to publish your book…but.” Although I had a solid book concept, the size of my platform wasn’t where the publisher hoped it would be. I needed readership building strategies.

In lieu of giving me a firm number to reach, my publisher was more interested in overall growth. This was comforting news for a blogger with around 2,000 visitors per month. After my initial disappointment wore off, I set out to [Read more…] about 5 Ways to Expand Your Platform for a Book Deal

14 Million Deer Hunters: Hank Shaw Wants to Meet Them All

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Hank-Shaw

Author Hank Shaw has already begun his self-financed, cross-country US book tour, which continues from now into 2017.

After traditionally publishing two cookbooks through Rodale and Ten Speed, Hank Shaw wanted  a third. But when publishers passed on a cookbook based on “Deer, Elk, Moose, Antelope and Other Antlered Things,” Hank gambled on his readers. He decided to self publish.

He knew there was [Read more…] about 14 Million Deer Hunters: Hank Shaw Wants to Meet Them All

How to Get Interviewed on a Big Radio Show

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Gillian_Ferguson_by_Molly-Cranna

In Los Angeles, Gillian Ferguson is the executive producer of the KCRW Good Food show, hosted by Evan Kleiman. (Photo courtesy of Molly Cranna.)

What does it take to get on a big radio show like KCRW’s Good Food in Los Angeles? To find out, I arranged to meet Gillian Ferguson, the executive editor of  this award-winning [Read more…] about How to Get Interviewed on a Big Radio Show

What I Learned in My Year of Cookbook Promotion

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CathyBarrow Allrecipes © 2014

Yes really, Cathy Barrow ran around the US for a year to promote her cookbook, taking every opportunity. (Photo courtesy Allrecipes.com)

By Cathy Barrow

It was a year of saying “Yes” to every cookbook promotion opportunity.

In November 2014, my cookbook, Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry, hit the shelves. My publicist planned nearly 50 events in the first four months after launch.

As enthusiastic as I was about those first crazy months, I wanted to give the book a full year of my attention. It took a year to write it, so shouldn’t it take a year to tell everyone about it?

After many long talks with my spouse about how to structure the year, I decided to limit travel to one week per month and appearances to two weekends a month. We committed resources and time (and airplane miles and hotel points) and leaned heavily on the kindness of friends.

Over the past year, there were more than 50 flights, not to mention so many hotel rooms, train trips, bus rides, and car trips. I criss-crossed the country twice, drove through a bit of the Midwest, appeared here and there in the South, dawdled in Seattle, dined and dished in the Bay Area, jammed in New England, and made pork barbecue with all the condiments across the state of Texas. I slept in guest rooms, on couches, in swanky [Read more…] about What I Learned in My Year of Cookbook Promotion

Cookbook Publicist Dishes on What Works and What to Expect

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ron headshot

Publicist Ron Longe works under contract with publishers and  individuals.

Want to know more about cookbook launches and how to work with your publisher?

Chef Craig Priebe and I are working with our publicist Ron Longe on promotion for The United States of Pizza (due out Sept. 22, 2015), so I took the opportunity to interview him on your behalf. Even if you are already a published author, you’ll be interested in Ron’s insider perspective.

Ron is the founder and president of Ron Longe Public Relations, a boutique PR agency. With more than 25 years of experience (I know, he looks so young! ), he has worked in the publicity departments of many New York [Read more…] about Cookbook Publicist Dishes on What Works and What to Expect