Publishing

[swissmiss]

You mention in the "Interviews" topic that you visited Daniel a few times before writing your proposal. Was it hard to find a publisher for this book?

Would you have gone on with the project if no publisher had signed it on based only on the proposal? Do you think that the success of Kitchen Confidential made it easier for The Fourth Star to be signed on by a publishing company?

Thank you.

[Leslie Brenner]

It was not hard to find a publisher for this book--Clarkson Potter had the intelligence, forsight and taste to make an offer right away. If no publisher had shown interest, it would not have been possible for me to continue with the book, since I needed to pay my rent, put food on the table, and buy clothes for my kid. Sad, but true.

Interesting point about Kitchen Confidential. Actually, Kitchen Confidential had not yet been published when I sold my book to Clarkson Potter. (Nor had Michael Ruhlman's Soul of a Chef.) If Kitchen Confidential had been published, I believe I would have had a much easier time--a bidding war, perhaps? The deal I made was not huge, sad to say, because, as the publishers said at the time, there hadn't been a bestselling book in the category (narrative nonfiction about food).