Thursday, January 26, 2006

[Of interest] Food blog book - call for writers

Hey everyone, I got this email and wanted to share...


Hello! This is June Low from Marshall Cavendish International Asia. We at the Cuisine department in Marshall Cavendish have watched the food blogging community with great interest and are interested in publishing a book that is written by a collective group of bloggers. We seek your assistance and partnership in this book project.

Here are the details: In the spirit of giving and corporate responsibility, Marshall Cavendish International Asia is seeking to publish a book written by food bloggers around the world. All royalties from this book will be donated to UNICEF. Marshall Cavendish is a major international publisher of books, directories, magazines and partworks. Our philosophy of enriching life through knowledge transcends boundaries of geography and culture.

In line with this vision, our products reach across the globe in 13 languages, and our publishing network spans Asia, Europe and the USA. Our imprint, Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, has won several Gourmand World Cookbook Awards — the Oscars for food and wine publications — and epitomises the culinary face of New Asia. For more information on Marshall Cavendish, please visit www.marshallcavendish.com

Hungry is a proposed culinary book that seeks to provide insight into the global food blogging community. The contents of this book will feature a collection of 1 page feature write-up and 2-3 original recipes contributed by variety food bloggers. Recipes can include anything from everyday fare and favourite foods to elaborate dishes, the only criteria being an injection of originality, personality and innovation into the recipes contributed.

WHAT IS TO BE SUBMITTED: - 2 or 3 original recipes with an anecdote - sample pictures of dishes - Deadline 3rd February Please note that, as the Publisher, we reserve the right to select and edit final material and to change the proposed title, structure and extent of the book. We regret to inform you that we would not be able to include all the recipes submitted. All materials selected will be published under our Marshall Cavendish Cuisine imprint.

Please feel free forward this information and to contact me at this email address if you have and further questions. We look forward to hearing back from you. Best regards, June Low Editor Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd 1 New Industrial Road, Times Centre Singapore 536 196 Email: junelow@sg.marhsallcavendish.com

This post brought to you by Rachael at Fresh Approach

6 comments:

Owen said...

Hah! I knew Digital Dish (www.pressforchange.com) was a good idea! Fortunately so did 23 others of you. Not so fortunately only about 150 other people thought it was a good idea.

I am especially glad about the UNICEF bit, but I do hope they realise that they are NOT on to a big seller.

Putting the publisher hat on for a moment. They are certain to be asking for all print rights for the posts - probably for any print use - and you should be careful that they don't forget to include a clause that you have the right to put it on your own blog - not that they would try to stop you or anything but if htey got bought by another company, etc etc.

If they were going to do it right (like I did for Digital Dish) then they would ask for only the right to a single use in print in book form. Leaving rights to future use in your own personal cookbook after you become a major TV chef still in your hands.

I also am paying 20% royalties for Digital Dish - but since they aren't making money but giving it to UNICEF it wouldn't make sense for them to pay and frankly it wouldn't be right to take payment given the stated purpose. What you will get is publicity. Seems like a straight up good faith opportunity to me - I'd say go for it.

Sam said...

I tried to contact her two weeksago and the mail bounced so I wondered if it was a hoax. The turnaround time for submissions is way too short.

Rachael Narins said...

The email bounced back? Weird. The website is for real.

And Owen, I love your book and think it is a great and much more grassroots idea, so I support it whole heartedly.

Andrew - It being for Unicef, I just think it is a cool exercise and in good fun. I wouldnt care if I had rights or not.
Since the odds of my prose (ha ha) ever being seriously published are about zero, I think this could be quite a kick.

Sam said...

ishe linked to marshall cavendish which of course is a legit publishing company - they do some really fantastic books.

But was the email for real?

Did any other bloggers manage to make contact?

cookiecrumb said...

I'm just thinking: Royalties go to Unicef (they say), but profits go to... the publisher, right? So contributors get nothing but "published."
(I mean, c'mon! Publishers would not be in business if the only money generated from book sales went straight to the authors. The publishing house is making money on this. Not you. You should just send 25 cents directly to Unicef.)

Chubby Hubby said...

It's not a hoax. I know June and her boss, David. I also posted a comment about this a few weeks back.

I've contacted June and she's told me that:

1. They won't be using our pictures. They want them as reference. They are going to reshoot everything themselves.

2. They intend to own copyright. i.e. They want all bloggers to sign over the rights of their recipes.

Based on #2, I turned them down.

CH