Researching what makes a good cookery book in Waterstones

It's been a great day and I've learnt so much in Waterstones in Milton Keynes. I was warmly greeted by with Lisa the manager and Annette the floor manager, who came over to the till saying she’d spotted me the cake lady on the CCTV and came straight downstairs to see me. I loved meeting them both. What Annette doesn’t know about recipe books isn’t worth knowing - after 8 years she knows a thing or two, and she was kind enough to chat to me on the Audioboo.

Coming from a Marketing background is a real plus in life. The thing about writing any book is that you have to know who is going to buy it. Target market sweetie. The biggest disasters I’ve made in life are when I’ve rushed into things without checking the market, and doing proper research. Writing a book is no different. As we (the publishers and the book designer and my PR manager) are refining the book cover and the blurb and the final exacting detail that will attract the readers it is essential to get it right. Putting together a public relations campaign to get people interested in the book means everything has to be right. The colour, the tone, the words, the photos and the message has to be sending the same message. What is the message? well for me it has to say .. pick me up! As an unknown Author this book is going to be sitting on the shelves next to the big boys ( and girls ) of the cookery world. The hairy bikers, the Jamie oliver offering, the Delia's latest and of course being a K in the alphabet I may well get to snuggle up to an L on the shelf ... Nigella's an L .. I can think of worse people to be cosy with!

So I had to check the detail. The choice of colour (It’s eye catching!) and the words on the bi line. So I spent today speaking to anyone and everyone that stepped foot in the recipe section.

The results .. well I had a few surprises .. and some seriously super findings. I have to collate the information and I’m doing a few more questionnaires to round up the numbers.. but can I tell you now .. we are definitely on the right track.

As soon as the results are collated I’ll be back to the blog to share all !

Publish PostSee and download the full gallery on posterous

Discovering a Local Plum Orchard

Each of the chapters in Prepped follows a flavour. Researching into the flavour is part of the background, and the fun, of writing this book. These next few weeks I shall be working on plums. Their round shiny, smooth skin giving way to sweet succulent orange flesh, they are summer lusciousness itself. Of course I know that there are Victoria plums, but aside from that I’ve never given much thought to which varieties make the best cooking .. so to find out more I thought I’d find a local orchard. After 2 hours of searching on the internet, and several phone calls to find a plum orchard anywhere .. at all ... in Northamptonshire I gave up. Instead I called Mansfield Farm in Kent. They grow about 8 varieties of plum and supply Waitrose. Craig, the manager was more than helpful and despite a protest from my husband, we were due to drive to Kent this weekend, to meet Craig and find out more about plums. Luckily for Alastair, I was complaining about lack of local fruit to Mrs Smith in our nearby farm shop, when she smiled and said that I needed to go and see Andy at New Creation Farm – just 5 miles away. I was, of course, a little disappointed not to be meeting with Craig, he sounded so interesting. However, I was seriously delighted to discover a local orchard. Andy kindly agreed to give me a special tour of the orchards and rather than just take photos I decided to try and share some of the visit with you. Forgive the home video approach, I am new to this side of things, but I hope you will enjoy the footage despite this. Thank you Andy, I shall be returning bearing plum food gifts soon.