Thoughts on Promoting Cuisine and Empire
University of California Press
Well, barring World War III, my world food history, Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History, will be out with the University of California Press in the Fall. If you are interested, their on-line catalog also has the Table of Contents.
It also has some very nice comments from writers whom I have not only admired for a long time but who also bring a range of relevant expertise: Dan Headrick who opened up debate about European imperial expansion in the nineteenth century; Anne Willan, culinary entrepreneur extraordinaire who includes food history among her many skills; Paul Freedman, whose comprehensive knowledge of medieval history has shed fresh light on the history of spices; and Naomi Duguid, who transforms travel into cookbooks that bring cultures to life.
Which means that I have to buckle down to get the word out about my book. In doing so, I take very seriously the words of a friend of mine from Mexico City, the economist turned well-known novelist and literary translator, who writes and blogs under the name, C.M. Mayo. And perhaps they may be of interest to those of you promoting your own books or curious about how the book world works.
First, Mayo addresses the cringe that so many of us feel at the very thought of promotion.
I have come to realize, both from my own experience having published several books, and from seeing that of friends and students, that book promotion is a Mt Everest of a hurdle, emotionally, psychologically, and even artistically. It seems that almost everyone, except the certifiable narcissist, feels well, weird, about promoting their own work.
Then Mayo briskly dismisses the cringe and tells authors to just get on with promotion.
Book promotion is not self-promotion; book promotion is book promotion, and when you have a real publisher, that publisher has employees and they are making their living, and not a very good one, probably, in working for your book and it is not, in any way, helpful to any of them for you to play tortoise.
Also, even though they work for your book, no one knows nor cares about your book as much you do, so it behooves you to get out there and do something for it. (Or, pray tell, why did you bother to write it?)
Go open open a donut shop and see if you can sell even one of the hot-out-of-the-oven chocolatissimo yummies, by keeping them, lid down, in the closet.
And it’s not just the agent and publisher. It’s all the other people who listened to you, sent you answers to questions or xeroxes of otherwise unobtainable materials, who took the time to review the manuscript, and (as above) were generous in endorsing your enterprise.
And on top of that, there are all the people who have already mentioned the book favorably or have promised in the future to write about me or the book at more length.
And now Grace Young, of classic books on Chinese cuisine and culture, adds this insight in a comment.
Book promotion is part of the mystical part of writing a book. I’m sure you will meet incredible people and marvel that without your book important connections would never be made. It is indeed exhausting but also wonderful.
So, yes, that too. Connections that are important for the author and for the readers or commentators.
And if part of the cringe is a fear of criticism, well no book is perfect. There will be errors of fact and errors of understanding. There will be reviewers who take umbrage at one point or another, or worse, regard the whole enterprise as misbegotten. No matter. What does matter is that the book contribute to the body of understanding of our world, an understanding that evolves by having one stab after another at interesting issues, and one correction after another of those stabs.
So over the next year I will be promoting my stab. And I will be using my blog, at least in part, to continue the discussion, welcoming queries, comments, and critiques from any of you who do me the honor of offering them.
Finally, a word to the wise. Amazon has a pre-order discount but I notice that it decreases by 50 cents every week or so. It is still at 20% but I imagine that will continue to dwindle.
Congratulations! I can’t wait to read it!
Thanks Nicola. Just checked and your cold chain exhibition is up. Wow! From grain to cold chain, right?
Great minds, etc. Laying promo groundwork for my new book (early November). It’s a) totally not fun (I’d MUCH rather be thinking about my new book); b) a total blast; c) exhausting; d) exhilarating as all get out.
So. Enjoy it. Yep, an icky necessity but you spent years making the book. Give it this final push into the world. Bon voyage!!
All those things, Maureen. And I think our books are going to work incredibly well in tandem!
Pre-ordered from Amazon.com in mid May and anxiously awaiting its arrival in September.
Thank you, as always, Ammini.
Other people will promote it too! Watch this space. Tomorrow!!!!
Elatia, you’re such a source of strength.
VIVA!!!! Many congratulations dear Rachel! I am so very much looking forward to reading your book. (And oh you are a dear to mention my book promo advice– it reminds me, I need to take my own advice!)
One’s own advice is the hardest of all to take!
Book promotion is part of the mystical part of writing a book. I’m sure you will meet incredible people and marvel that without your book important connections would never be made. It is indeed exhausting but also wonderful. I look forward to reading your new work. Congratulations!
Grace, that’s another aspect of book promotion that I had never thought of. But you are so right. Another great way to think of it.
Here’s some promotion in good taste. Many thanks, Rachel, for on of my all time favorite author interviews. http://www.theramblingepicure.com/the-kitchen-at-the-center-of-history-an-interview-with-rachel-laudan/
It’s I who should be thanking you for the interview, Elatia. So many thoughtful questions.
The book looks fascinating – and this is a wonderful post. People who are good at research and writing are rarely also good at self-promotion, but everything you say is right. Be the signal in the noise. Best wishes for enormous success with this book! I’m in an online archaeology MOOC and I’ll suggest it to students interested in this aspect of material and cultural history.
Thanks Elaine, both for the comment and for passing along the suggestion to the archaeology students in your MOOC.
The Dean of Concordia Languages Village has just recommended the book as essential reading to her entire faculty. CLV is an immersion program in Minnesota for learning MANY languages, and all about the cultures that produce them. The Dean’s own family speaks English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Armenian and Arabic — so this recommendation has saturation!!!
Hi Rachel! In a food world of burgeoning fads and dwindling intellect, it’s great to see one of the food historians I most admire still producing!
Thanks so much, John. I really appreciate that coming from you. Greetings to Mary.
Rachel, I think the other fear, at least with me, is that I’m going to bug people. There are authors out there whom I admire very much, but they seem to spend more energy in promotion than in writing. Or peddling the same book over and over for years.
Agreed, Ken. Who doesn’t have a sense of exasperation at the author who goes rabbiting on and on about their work.
Will your book be available as a Kindle eBook someday?
I believe so but the publisher has not told me definitively, nor given me a date.