Writing a cookbook part 9: publicity, and the book name is....

Party Food for Girls featured on the September issue of NZ House and Garden magazine

Today the book that I have written with my daughter Arantxa is officially on sale, and finally I can reveal the title: Party Food for Girls. I am preparing the book launch at the Lopdell House for the 15 of September, it will be a big party, but I will post about it in due course. The book is available in NZ, Australia and UK from all good bookshops (including Boomerang Books, Fishpond and Wheelers in Australia, and WHSmith and Amazon UK in the UK), and from specialist shops in many more countries. If you live in the US you can find it on Amazon.com (also good worldwide), and soon the book will be available in Canada from Amazon.ca, in Japan from Amazon Japan, in Sweden and Scandinavian countries from Bokus.com, in Germany from Amazon.de, in France from Amazon.fr and for other European countries go to The Book Depository. There are more websites that stock it, but I don't have the time now to research them all (or post them all).

In Italy... I don't know... blogger italiani, per favore, potete vedere se lo venderanno da qualche parte, magari nei reparti per libri in inglese? O su qualche sito specializzato?

I know that all this sounds very impressive, but really, if you think that writing a book, doing all the photos, editing etc. is hard work, well, nothing compares with the 'art' of selling. You either have your own TV show, or you will need to rely to other media, supportive book sellers, and word of mouth. It is a busy period, lots of interviews, especially for Arantxa. I have to say that all the journalists so far have been great, knowing that she is only 12 and at school they came to us at home, on Saturday mornings or in the afternoons after school. There will be several 'outings' though: mostly demos, book signings and appearances, but I am determined not to upset her routine and her normal school and after school activities. This is hard: food writers are often out there promoting their books like mad (this is why many either have no children, or the children have grown up, or they have a 'wife'). I will have to do with less publicity, so vital in a competitive sector overloaded with fast turning cookbooks, TV chefs and supermarket chefs. So I will probably ask for a little help from my blogger friends,  and possibly do a give-away... do you think that it would be a good idea? After all I believe in blogging, it is the people voice, free and democratic :-).

And if you live in NZ or Australia but haven't seen the book in the bookshops yet, you can still have a little 'taste' from this month NZ House and Garden magazine. NZ House and Garden has the very first exclusive to talk about the book, and has dedicated 4 pages to Party Food for Girls, with 5 recipes and photos. And you know what? This is the first time that Arantxa has a byline in a magazine, and it is great that it should be NZ House and Garden, she loves it and when she was at primary school she used to have a scrap book with cuttings of interiors, cakes and pretty things just from this very magazine! Well, maybe she will become a designer, I would be happy if I could leave all my propping to her!

Let me know if you like the idea of the give-away, and stay tuned for the big party!
Thank you for all your support.

Ciao
Alessandra