Fat Guy Lays it on the Table

[kitchenbabe]

I had the pleasure of reading a proof copy of Steven Shaw (aka Fat Guy)'s new book "Turning the Tables"...in fact I'm still reading it.

It's essentially a guide for the unitiated (and a refresher for vets) on how to insure service when you go out to eat.

Having spent almost 12 years in this crazy biz, I can honestly say that for myself, there weren't a whole lot of new revelations (except the section on sushi bar etiquette...well done!)

But, after reading just two or three chapters, I've come to a conclusion:

While "Kitchen Confidential" (aka my personal bible) should be required reading for anyone considering foodservice as a career or going to culinary school, "Turning the Tables" should be required reading for anyone who ever plans on dining outside the home in any capacity, particularly if they've never worked in a restaurant, and in some cases, even then.

Recommend it to your friends and neighbors! Make our jobs easier!!!

Edited March 25, 2005 by kitchenbabe (log)

[Fat Guy]

Much appreciated! I'll be interested to hear your comments -- and especially the way you'll describe what the book is about -- after you've read the whole thing.

Presumably you have a copy of the uncorrected proofs because you have a connection to or are one of the few hundred journalists and restaurant industry people who received advance copies. These are sent out mostly so that media can plan editorial coverage with sufficient lead time, so the protocol is usually that nobody actually writes anything about the book until closer to the publication date. But I'll do my best to answer questions and address comments as they arise.

I wish I had 15,025 more copies so I could send one to everybody in our member database. But that's not the reality, so any discussion of Turning the Tables prior to August (when the book will be available in stores) is going to be somewhat awkward. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[culinary bear]

Will the book have a European release, Steven?

[Fat Guy]

The book will be available from the various Amazon sites for Europe, like Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr -- actually you can order it from them today for shipment this summer. In terms of separate editions, like in other languages or printed by foreign publishers, a lot of that sort of thing gets worked out at BEA (BookExpo America), where in the first week of June they hold the big International Rights Marketplace ("rights" in this context meaning publishing rights, not human rights). We have received an inquiry from a Spanish-language publisher, but I don't think there will be a decision on that right away.

[Susan G]

Thanks for the thought, Steven, but I don't need a free copy. I'm happy to *buy* your book and support the efforts of an eGullet writer! Yay to you! Congratulations!

Edited for spelling and punctuation problems

Edited March 25, 2005 by Susan G (log)

[Bux]

Anyone looking for some background on the book or the author may be interested in Turning the Tables, Diary of a restaurant book revealed, a thread that ran last year. Fat Guy offered us some background information on the project, periodically reported on his progress and responded to member's questions. Some members offered to buy the book sight unseen. Others offered to read it. A few may even have promised to do both. With a little luck we'll eventually hear how much they enjoyed reading the book or at least the reaction from relatives who received an almost mint copy of the book as a gift. Some patience will be necessary as the book won't be available at book stores until August.

[Moopheus]

so the protocol is usually that nobody actually writes anything about the book until closer to the publication date.

Early reviews are a problem because readers tend to forget them by the time the book comes out. In this forum, however, I'd guess that will be less of an issue.

I wish I had 15,025 more copies so I could send one to everybody in our member database.

At your author's discount, that would only cost you $187,436. Plus shipping.

August (when the book will be available in stores)

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The real qustion is, when will the half-price review copies show up at the Strand?

[kitchenmage]

Congratulations, Steven! Finishing this kind of project is incredibly gratifying. Holding the first copy of the book in your very own hands is a rather magical moment.

Maybe it's the difference in market--I usually write on IT/business topics--but I am amazed by the time between handoff of final manuscript and printed book. The typical lag time on my books was less than 60 days (sometimes a bit less), while yours is almost an entire year! (I've had the topic of a book become almost irrelevant in about that time.) The suspense must be driving you crazy.

Does your contract allow you to buy author's copies at enough of a discount for it to be worthwhile for you to pick up a few cartons and sell autographed copies to eG members? Maybe only to members who have purchased a membership if your publishers only want you to sell to smaller groups than the general public. (royalties are tiny and you really should take advantage of your fan base here)

[Fat Guy]

The lag between handoff of final manuscript and printed book was about a month, but that was for the 500 or so copies they've already printed to send to media and other advance readers. The delay doesn't have anything to do with technology -- it only takes a few hours of actual printing-press time to create thousands of copies of any book. It's all about sales, marketing and publicity. The editorial lead time on a high-circulation glossy magazine, for example, can be as long as a year -- the piece I have in Cooking Light's April 2005 issue was assigned to me in May of 2004, and submitted in August 2004. Highly rated shows like Today start planning many of their segments just as far in advance -- we've already had conversations with the show's staff and have had to send video clips and supporting materials. Barnes & Noble and Borders need a couple of seasons lead time to allocate display space. The 92nd Street Y has its talks for September scheduled already, at least tentatively -- I'll add that to the calendar when it's a definite. The book fairs, speaking engagements and other events for fall 2005 are being planned now -- we already have something like ten such appearances scheduled for September-October. Since for a book like mine it's very important to these sorts of things, it's beneficial to be able to send advance reader copies to media in January for an August book.

Now, of course, there are exceptions. If you've got a title that's a multimillion dollar property and it's extremely time sensitive -- like the Starr Report or some such -- you can take it from manuscript to bookstore shelves in a week. And when you get into trade paperbacks, there are different standard schedules for different types of books. Computer books move very quickly because they have such a short life cycle, and the relevant media like the computer magazines all publish on very short lead times (which is one of the reasons their writing and production values are so poor). When Ellen writes travel guidebooks those get produced very quickly not only because they're time sensitive but also because there isn't a lot of media to coordinate -- books like that don't really get reviewed or written about outside of the trade journals; it's a totally different species. And there are various ways to accelerate the schedule even with hardcover narrative nonfiction books like mine. But with Turning the Tables, there's no reason to do that -- it's not particularly time sensitive (at worst there will be a few outdated references, because I might describe a chef as working in one restaurant but by August he may be in a different one, but that's not relevant to the core of the book) and so the best move is to have lots of time to plan the release.

The author discount isn't much better than what you can get the book for from Amazon.com, and even if it was I'd rather have people buy the book through retail channels. But anybody who wants a signed copy can mail one (or ten) to me with a SASE and I'll take care of it.

[Jason Perlow]

and the relevant media like the computer magazines all publish on very short lead times (which is one of the reasons their writing and production values are so poor).

Hey! I resemble that remark!

[TrishCT]

I'm almost finished reading my copy and I have learned a lot of valuable information. I'll be sending my remarks and comments in this week. Steve you are a natural teacher. From now on I am calling you Professor Fat Guy.

[Phatlouie07]

is there any place on the web where i can find an excerpt of the book??

[wesza]

Steven:

Having been privileged in being in a position to observe your evolution as a early lurker on your "Fat Guy's" original INTERNET site that I found thru using "Alta Delta" [pre Google] as a search engine referancing NYC Steakhouses when your reviews came up on screen to your progress on "eGullet" I feel that you are more competent, objective and understanding then anyone else in the Food/Restaurant aspects of the business. With you legal ability, combined with your deep wannabe feelings and acquired knowledge and certainly expertise in being a hand's on eater you have a unique approach to anything food or restaurant anything.

Again since I was fortunate enough to have been involved with both Craig Claiborne and James Beard while they were still authoring books I am sure that you are destined to bring "Foodie" into the next stage begun by "Paul Levy" in the 1970's and 1980's with a on going series of Books to a much more aware marketplace.

What I would personally enjoy in the future would some sort of Eating articles where you follow and re-visit some of the places that Ellen has taken all of us though with your own reflections about the Food but sharing it together.

Congratulations on your new Book, hope it a Series.

Irwin

[kitchenmage]

Computer books move very quickly because they have such a short life cycle, and the relevant media like the computer magazines all publish on very short lead times (which is one of the reasons their writing and production values are so poor).

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Fortunately for me, but not my publishers, my usual co-author and I are <i>picky,</i> when it comes to final production. This doesn't mean our books didn't have errors--they do, and some of them are puzzling and laughable--but we fight them every inch of the way.

Jason will like/hate this: an editor once did a last-minute global search and replace to renumber ~25 graphics in a chapter <i>after</i> we were told it had gone to press--changed every occurence of "21" to "19"...including those in TCP/IP port numbers and such... we didn't see it til we had the first box of books in hand... Day/date books are their own special kind of hell.

it's not particularly time sensitive (at worst there will be a few outdated references, because I might describe a chef as working in one restaurant but by August he may be in a different one, but that's not relevant to the core of the book) and so the best move is to have lots of time to plan the release.

←

Besides, you are just in time for the oh-so-important holiday buying season. Oddly enough, many tech pulishers think that a book that isn't tied to a product should also hit the holiday buying cycle with a late fall release...which i really amusing when you consider how few people are going to buy someone a book on some esoteric computer theory as a gift... maybe a few weirdos (like me) but really, could that be much of a market? (especially when it's up against all the interesting/pretty/hyped things out there)

I will have to go pre-order my copy and do my little bit to drive up your Amazon sales ranking. btw,when you hit #1, print a copy immediately...it's so ephemeral... (i have a page with a 597 rank on it...lasted but one brief hour, but oh, what a heady hour... )

[Fat Guy]

is there any place on the web where i can find an excerpt of the book??

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You can read a part of one of the chapters here. It's an account of a week I spent in the kitchen at Gramercy Tavern. This is the original version, which was published in Best Food Writing 2002 and received the James Beard Journalism Award. There was some rewriting done to bring it up to date for a book being published in 2005, but its essence is the same. Most of the book is original material or, where I incorporated some existing work, heavily rewritten, but the Gramercy Tavern piece was a favorite so I worked it in without changing much. Later on, once serialization and various other rights issues are worked out by my agent, Michael Psaltis, maybe we'll be able to offer additional excerpts. But that won't be for awhile.

[Fat Guy]

Irwin, I'm speechless. Thanks for your kind words. And yes, my intent is to write at least two companion volumes -- but on account of ongoing talks with publishers I'm not yet at liberty to discuss those plans.

[iheartoffal]

I just read the excerpt. Fascinating...can't wait to get my paws on a copy!

"Nice brunoise." Classic....

[Foodie in Vancouver]

Just read the excerpt - loved it and can't wait for the book in August. I'm the type of person who just has to know the what and how of stuff. For instance, I can remember the first time I encountered a fax machine - I refused to use it until someone explained how it worked. So as someone who loves food, dining out and all that entails, books like yours, Kitchen Confidential and the Fourth Star are fascinating. And based on the excerpt, no small delight - your writing is wonderful. I won't mention names but I have tried to read other so-called behind-the-scenes books that were pure dreck. Congratulations on such a great work; I am confident that it will be well received and not just by the eGullet crowd.

[rjwong]

Steven,

Congratulations! I'm looking forward to your book coming out.

Will there be a book signing tour? If so, is there a possibility of coordinating appearances with <cough> local eGullet events <cough>?

As an eGullet member from the Left Coast, I wouldn't mind meeting you in person, Fearless Leader.

[Fat Guy]

There will be a book tour; I just made comments to the HarperCollins publicists on what feels like the hundredth iteration of the preliminary tentative draft itinerary.

The schedule is complicated because the book is coming out on August 16 and in theory our first baby is coming out on August 31. So for September I'll be doing local appearances here in the New York area, which luckily includes much of the national media.

I certainly hope to be able to connect with eG members in the various cities on the tour, and it would be great if my visits could be coordinated with some fun local member-organized events. Right now, we've only scheduled the eastern half of the US: the major New England, Middle Atlantic, Southeast and Midwest stops. That's going to cover October-November.

Whether I make it out to the West Coast in November-December depends on what kinds of promotional opportunities present themselves, how the book is doing, how much stress my family can tolerate and how much benefit HarperCollins publicity thinks we can get out of West Coast tour stops. I'm not really in charge of any of this, though.

[ronnie_suburban]

The schedule is complicated because the book is coming out on August 16 and in theory our first baby is coming out on August 31. . .

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Wow! I think even bigger congrats are in order! It's going to be quite an amazing summer for you and Ellen. That's going to be one food-savvy kid!

=R=

[Fat Guy]

Many thanks, Ron. Yeah, the fall is going to be completely nuts. It occurs to me, you all should feel free to PM or e-mail best wishes to Ellen ("Ellen Shapiro" or ellen@byellen.com), but I'll get uncomfortable if everybody chimes in with congratulations here on the book topic.

[Fresser]

There will be a book tour; I just made comments to the HarperCollins publicists on what feels like the hundredth iteration of the preliminary tentative draft itinerary.

The schedule is complicated because the book is coming out on August 16 and in theory our first baby is coming out on August 31.

Mazel Tov on on the impending arrival of Fat Baby!!

[Marlene]

We all of course, wish Fat Guy and Ellen the best. As Fat Guy requested though, could you all PM them your good wishes, so we can keep this thread focused on Turning the Tables?

Thanks.

[Phatlouie07]

FG, the excerpt rocks. I can't wait to pick up my own copy of your book. When are you going to be doing book signings?