Food That Rocks
Posted 11 months, 3 weeks ago at 10:57 am. 5 comments
“Food That Rocks” was co-written by Margie Lapanja and myself in 2004. Part entertainment, part cookbook our goal was to create a book that would be fun to read while actually preparing one of the artist’s recipes. In addition to delicious recipes, it’s packed with juicy tidbits like what do the artits recommend you listen to while preparing their favorite meal, and what do they require backstage during their shows. Our intention was to give the reader an opportunity to get to know the musician while they’re preparing their recipe!
Writing Food That Rocks
It was great fun to write. We got some wacky recipes! Many came handwritten without any ingredient amounts, or cooking times or temperatures. Thank goodness Margie had prior cookbook experience! Some of them are pretty funny as well. There are some really great personalties that shine through. The musicians were so much fun to work with. That was probably the best part of writing the book… For me anyway.
Margie and I split the writing down the middle. We would write our intros and swap them for the other to comment on. It worked very well for us. We divided other duties up. Margie did the recipes and I took care of permissions, etc.
“Food That Rocks” was written for charity. To benefit Freedom From Hunger. Our intention was to be able to give back in big way and present them with a large check. Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out quite as we visualized, but we’re still hoping to give them a nice big check one day. We ran into some obstacles along the way.
One of the biggest obstacles was having our publisher be sold half way through the writing of our book. Our new publishers inherited something like 50 books and only 1 extra staff person, so they were stretched pretty thin. I also don’t think the “got” our book in the same way our original publisher did. They thought it was a cookbook, which it partly is. The problem is, bookstores want cookbooks to be all about the recipes and “Food That Rocks” is more about the musician’s contributing the recipes. Some of the recipes are fabulous, some are kind of silly. They don’t necessarily compare with Julia Child if you know what I mean.
We had fantastic reviews and some extremely successful book signings. The book signings were great fun! Depending on the location they were held, we had musicians on hand to sign their recipe pages as well. There are lots of photos on Food That Rocks.com. We also did a lot of very fun radio interviews. I remember having to be wide awake at 4:00 am to do live morning radio shows on the East coast. Those were tough! It was pretty disappointing that our book didn’t fly off the bookshelves, but I am proud of it and extremely grateful for the experience I had participating in the whole process. I learned so much and I got to meet some wonderful people!
Cindy,FOOD THAT ROCKS was a fantastic idea..A friend bought it for me,and had it signed at one of the booksignings..I really hope..you may decide some day soon to publish some other book..I was specifically thinking of a book on all things spiritual?And..how they affect our lives..MAYBE you could even follow up the GREAT idea of involving musicians,and have THEM comment on how various things have touched their lives?From alternative medicines,to our Angels..I`m sure there are stories.Another booksigning..??!!and..for charity maybe too??!Just a thought..you are very good with words,I`d enjoy another book..immensely.Thank you..
Oh Boy! I swore I would never write another book after the last one! ha ha. At least not for awhile… I needed to do something that didn’t involve me sitting at my computer! I spend enough time doing that. Maybe at some point I will do another book. We’ll see. I have no desire to do it right now. Maybe when my “pole dancing phase” ends… I do like your idea though.It’s a great one! Maybe YOU should write it!
haha,Cindy..Let`s write together,come on come on..let`s write together..lol..(a joke) YOU have the better connections to those “VIP`s”..;)
And..as for sitting on your computer..don`t forget it HAD its advantages..when I read that you always had a kitty on your lap../side..
Mine only..sits in awkward places..like..the keyboard!
One reason i now use a laptop…
So, you two didn’t make a dime in the name of charity huh?
I don’t get it.
Did you actually sell this idea based on the fundraiser you never gave any of the money to? That’s like me going door to door in the name of MDA and asking for donations. Giving interviews and booksignings … did you two mention the charity you were suppose to give money to in order to advertise this p.o.s.?
I am just shocked.
I mean honestly if you hadn’t of thrown in the charity and then been blonde enough with the admission that you didn’t give them any money… the book might have been more interesting and more accepted.
What a stupid and shitty thing to do.
You owe them a fucking check.
Wow, Dianna.
You sound pretty angry. Let me just give you some information so you can hopefully let that go.
First of all, yes of course we mentioned the charity and information about it is included in our book. That was our whole intention in creating the book-to give the proceeds to a charity. We did not write the book in order to make money at all. It was a labor of love, and a great learning experience for both of us.
Unfortunately, the book has not yet made any money, therefore there has been no money to give. As authors we are still in debt to the publishers. There is no guarantee that anything you do will reap financial reward, but I don’t believe that should prevent you from at least trying. Other than organizing some basic interviews, our publishers were not interested in promoting our book. There was no book tour arranged. They did not have any budget set aside for promotion of our book. I think they printed it merely because they inherited it and we were half way through writing it when they bought the company that originally signed us.
The book signings we did were organized by Margie and myself (at our own cost) and although they did very well, they did not create enough sales to pay back what the publishers spent in making and printing the book. In fact, I personally paid out of my own pocket for an outside publicist to also work on our book. She helped with our LA book signing and she organized a lot of interviews for me (and sometime David too) within the music industry. Margie did her part by getting interviews from the cookbook realm, as she had written a few cookbooks prior to ours. In the end, it just didn’t go and become the great success we had all hoped for.
So there you go. I think you owe me, my co-author, and the musicians who contributed and/or participated in book signings, an apology. Everybody involved gave freely of their time… hoping to be able to make a difference. And maybe we weren’t able to pass on a big check to our designated charity, but we were able to put some smiles on peoples faces (obviously not yours!). So in no way do I consider it a failure. I’m still very proud of it and grateful I was able to participate in it.