Hi, that's who I have been these days... (see above, albeit for 2
weeks)
Day 1: SMEAR PESTO ON SKIN
To my utmost thrill and horror,
it was a MAC!!!!! (A mac a day .... and there's a million ways to finish that
phrase). The Kyle Books catalogue was the first thing I was asked to make
acquaintance with.
I was left drooling all over
chocolate and cake and cheese and lexical odysseys into culinary delights of present
day London. All kinds of gastronomic exotica leapt out of Kyle Cathie ltd.’s multimedia
and print matter. This was going to be difficult, especially if I was not going
to be able to buy half those delights (of
course all books would come priced to me at a special discount of 35%), good motivation to keep at the grander objective, and perhaps careers do
rise like a soufflé, as critics tease about a certain boy who bakes to
Britain's glory ever since he ditched his banking past. You can read more about his books and bakes here.
Kyle asked me to check out the
cheapest direct flights from London to Maldives and return. I had no idea
Thompson Airlines existed, and not only did they exist, but they offered direct
flights to Maldives and back for cheap. Flight websites always assume you have
fixed dates of travel, and not that you like reading their timetables, unlike
bus or train companies.
Sophie the editor asked me to
begin my research on world grains for Ghillie James' book Grains and
Rice (June 2013). So, I created a spreadsheet with a focus on grains for UK, Iraq, Pakistan, Paraguay, Mexico, China and South Korea.This would aid the author in researching sourcing and writing relevant recipes pertaining to each region, in her book.
The editorial group was larger than I had imagined, with about four editorial assistants, who managed the ground work and followed up with authors once they declared what books they planned to
write.
Armed with wishful calories, the
next task would involve compiling AIs and publicity materials for about hundred
books from the period July to December 2012, including those not yet ready, to
send to sales agents who looked after buyers in Asia. Although it looked
intimidating, it returned me to my favourite programme, Acrobat.
Day 2: DIP BREASTS IN OPEN PAN
The Rights and Co-editions
coordinator kept me busy with collating advance information sheets, printing covers
and spreads (also called--blads!). Here is when I realized
the totality of the process and how each department works in tandem with
the editorial, in putting together sales copy, cover spreads and content for
books for co-publishers in Europe and USA. I also learned the courier logistics
while using Seabourne services and sent out packages as a follow up for communications between the Rights director and certain clients and publishers abroad.
Rights is so lucrative, and although digital is not a big part of Kyle’s books’
strategy—they face no immediate threat, with the presence of a large gift books’
market that is not yet too comfortable cooking off I-pads or gifting appy
materials over the physical books—it was very interesting to learn about the
kinds of books that do sell and don’t. And
how invincible Curries are, worldwide, and in Germany for instance! But Single
themed books make for the best Co-editions, Allison warned. Like Soup
Glorious Soup! Foreign digital rights are still in their infancy (with USA leading the chase), and very much a part of their author contracts.
I researched five broadcasters
and their birthdays for Kyle, and then ran down to Camden town to purchase
5 kilos of Ethiopian Mocha for the office and its boss--who has a long term
relationship with the Camden Coffee House (which I am thankful to have
visited).
I am getting Mac-er by the day.
Day 3: SIMMER UNTIL BRONZE
Fiona asked me to go through the
entire stack of press clippings for Katie Caldesi's The Italian Cookery
Course since its publication (2011) and extract the best mentions for
the reprint of the same book.
I continued to compile book
information for proposed co-editions and publishers in Germany and
USA. Titles of certain books keep getting changed at the last minute, so
you have to keep checking with editorial. So the editorial process is at the very
heart of publishing. A lot of press coverage happens for cookbooks, and cookery,
with so many celebrities competing their recipes and diets and TV shows; it is a
very cut-throat industry, punnery and all! Camilla Punjabi's 50
Greatest Curries is one of the hottest exports, and Meat Free Mondays,
is a huge seller too! Allison mentioned that despite the fact that cookbooks
bring in the most revenue UK cookbooks don't translate very well in Asia, just
as gardening books don't enjoy that much of a rights market in Scandinavia,
where climates are more extreme and the growing season utterly different.
Is cooking recreation? Or survivalist?
Because the genre feeds a range of budgets and mouths, wallets and
stomachs, making it the most commercial or revenue generating aspect of their
business model, (mostly because they are celebrity endorsed, and or partnered with
restaurant or retailers). The grammar books and other minor walking and
geography books, sell well in Asia.
With so much controversy brewing
over whether highly illustrated cookbooks will survive, in the future and with
people saying apps might do for cookbooks what still visuals never could, I am
convinced there are enough people in London hankering for delicious looking
feel good recipe books.
Asking what is the difference
between whole wheat and whole grain is like asking what is the difference between
a carrot and a vegetable? However, these are answered at length by the
chef-writers in the process of their books. There are no defined genres in
Cookery, ingredients and recipes overlap, recipes get slashed and rejected in
the bodies of email and the packaging for emphasis is key. There are odd ball
genres, like Grammar Rules, and The Complete Verse by Yeats, and
English phrase books, but these satisfy different book palettes, and make for
great gift books overseas.
Day 4 & Day 5 & Day 6
were spent putting together rights information for export sales and rights directors.
BIKINI JAMES
James Duigan is one of Kyle's regular authors who writes about
how to flatten up, and get lean and clean on his no fuss diet. I notice a big tendency with co-authorship in cook-books, Katie Caldesi and her husband being one, and James and his wife, being the most recent I remember.
I am falling in love with some of these delicious books. Maybe I will go on a 14 day diet, in the absence of a swimming
pool. Berries are the official office breakfast, it appears. You get them for a pound a pound by the station!
Editors and assistants are often rushing off to shoots to
capture stills for the books on the shelves and videos for their you tubes and
social media virals.
One such afternoon he called and I answered the phone. I learned,
that "sugar is like a nuclear fat bomb exploding all over your body"
;)
I am still torn about conflicting messages with relation to
Coffee and the body. Some say it improves memory, others that it gives you
cancer. Excess, in either condition, is no answer, I suppose.
AND A PINCH OF SALT
Ultimately, I ran into the new intern, very young, just
turned 21 and had spent the last year teaching English in Paris until she
realised books were more compatible than students! Together we made book
jackets for books that will be taken to trade fairs by Sandy and Catherine.
I have soaked in two weeks of crash course in publishing
house interning. I will also remember everyone, the beautiful macs, the
spacious sunny office overlooking the broad high street, and hopefully get to
stay in touch too.
Until then, I am very much going to be a Chic
on a shoestring.
J
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