
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