John Bear seeks more cookbook help, this time visual creativity

A small but very cordial subset of this distance learning community has also been a very supportive cookbook-helping community: scores of creative title suggestions (winning title: Not Your Mother's Cookbook: unusual recipes for the adventuresome cook), a bunch of volunteer recipe testers. Now there is an interesting (to me, anyway) challenge with regard to cover art. A visual pun or cleverness is needed, and so far it eludes us. The illustration in question and the dilemma can be found at the following site.
http://circledance.tripod.com/notyourmother/

Many thanks. John Bear

 

Hey, I liked the NOT slash through the picture, especially in conjunction with the blue gingham background. It was visually appealing and would have easily stood out on a shelf amid the rest of the cookbooks, as well as when held up during a TV interview.

I found nothing offensive in the cover. I doubt the people who would be interested in buying the cookbook would either. Perhaps the sales staff needs to do a political correctness reality check.

Nicole
Charter Member
Loyal Order of the Royal PITA

 

Ah, but in publishing, especially of a consumer-oriented retail book, the sales people have all the power. If they don't like something, they won't even mention it during the very brief audience they might be granted with the store or chain buyers. And if they want a black cover with Charles Manson on it,* they'll get it.

The report I had was that of the five key sales blokes, three really didn't like it (anti-Mom), one (who presumably hasn't been on a public street since 1967) didn't know what the circle with slash meant, and one really liked it. That was enough to kill it.

_______________
* When Ten Speed got a cookbook manuscript from Bobby Seale, their first act was to verify that it really was the Bobby Seale. (Yes, now an admissions officer in Indiana.) Next came the decision on how to think of it and promote it. The sales wisdom said to treat it as an ordinary cookbook, no reference to Mr. Seale's interesting past, no picture of him chained to a chair in Judge Hoffman's Chicago 7 courtroom, etc. So that is what was done, and my notion of titling it Broil, Baby, Broil was rejected. (It was published as Barbecuin' with Bobby.

 

Personally, I'd like to see Sonic the Hedgehog going in the oven. (A few years ago I would have said Barney, but my kids are growing up!)

 

Ah, the creative juices are flowing. But the problems with Sonic, Barney, a teddy bear (and a few comparables, sent by Email) are (a) the same people who don't like a red slash through Mom won't go for a sweet and lovable (?) anything in the oven, and (b) that there is no relevancy: this is a real cookbook, of unusual but do-able recipes, and the notion of a sweet old lady taking something totally irrelevant from the oven is, well maybe OK, but only if there is some logic to it, however skewed.

The notion around here has been either to take one of the actual oddball recipes (the Crown Roast of Hotdogs, perhaps) and put that in the roasting pan, or even to create a new recipe that is really unusual, do-able, and visually weird.

There is stands, this Wednesday morning.

 

Yeah, I know. Doesn't mean I like it, doesn't mean I won't keep ranting about it.

Hmmmm. Maybe you could dress Mom up in a Jetson's outfit or somesuch, and superimpose her back into the Plymouth ad. Or {eg}, maybe you could get the rights to use the Mom character from Futurama, and superimpose her into the ad. That should make a statement.

(Gert, I like the idea about Barney, but I bet the sales crew wouldn't be the least bit amused by that either.)

 

Nicole -- I had a similar idea! Put a multi-colored Mohawk on Mom, or multiple facial piercings, or tattoos twining up her forearms. Wouldn't that get across the "not your mother" concept?

 

GMTA. {g} The access point, and logical juxtaposition, is Mom, not what's in the oven. The food graphic would be too small to be readily noticeable, imo.

Does anybody else find the little smiley chorus off to the left of the "Your Reply" box as you type a response to be somewhat surreal?

 

I, for one, can see the relevancy of, and admire the longstanding tradition a cute bear on the cover of a book espousing non-traditional methods, but I also can understand how poking a teddy bear with a fork and sticking in an oven might offend some people’s sensibilities. However, do the sales people believe these overly sensitive people are your target audience? Isn’t this supposed to be a cookbook for adventuresome chefs?

Anyway, rather than cute and lovable things in the oven, or anything else that could be construed as “anti-mom,” I propose going full circle and empowering mom. How about exchanging her traditional demeaning cooking utensils for something more relevant to non-traditional cooking methods, such as a chainsaw or a blowtorch?

Or maybe a compromise solution as to what to put in the oven—an octopus holding in each tentacle a teddy bear, a psychedelically colored turkey, a watermelon, used bicycle parts, Barney, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Esau’s birthright.

 

You're OK until they start talking to you.

 

Rut-roh.

 

Can I put a vote in for Stargazey Pie? It's cornish (I think) and has fish heads sticking up out of the crust - hence the name.

Jennifer

 

Stargazey Pie. It is indeed Cornish. (My grandfather was a miner from Cornwall.)

 

Instead of a slashed circle over the whole picture, how about a much smaller slashed circle over just the turkey? That way mother/grandmother isn't being slashed just her recipe?

You could also consider putting a Bozo head with a bored face on it in the pan instead of the turkey and circle slashing the Bozo head.

 

Too bad. I guess what I was thinking would be out too.

In keeping with the Christmas theme in the background, I would suggest that the turkey be replaced with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's head.

That suggestion may work, if there are some wild game recipes in the book. Most hunters won't mind at all if Grandma is preparing fresh roasted Rudolph instead of the usual frozen turkey.

On the other hand, how does everyone feel about sticking the Grinch's head in the oven?

Tracy<><

P.S. If roasting Rudolph is out, does that automatically exclude Hermie the Elf a-la-orange too?

 

Stargazy Pie

Love the name. Not sure I love it enough to try making it.

A couple weeks ago the NY Times Magazine had an article on Stargazy Pie, complete with photo and recipe.

You can still read it free at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/24/magazine/24FOOD.html (registration required) -- I don't know when they'll move it into the archives, which require payment.

It also has recipes for Marinated Sardines and Grilled Moroccan Sardines, and talks about sardines in general. I love this bit: "Sardines are inevitably considered annoying because they're so small, and one suspects they yip at each other a lot underwater."

 

Cookbook help

Good Morning, I liked your cover because it reminded me of my grandmothers' kitchen. This was a time when your fat content was not a consideration. In her kitchen nothing was wasted so a baked bean sandwhich was not unusual. *It would be a great thing to be able to bake through your book for life experience credits. I hope you are having alot of fun with this. Hille

 

I would suggest putting a microwave, or some other such modern cooking device, in the background of the picture to give readers the impression that even though cooking technology may change over the years, good cooking is always a time-honoured tradition (and necessity!)

Darren.

 

1) Put "Area 51" on the roasting pan. (Or "USAF, Roswell")

2) Since there is a Christmas tree in the background, put reindeer antlers on the victim instead of the knobby feet. (Or put a wreath in the pan; there is one in the window.)

3) Replace the turkey with a red sedan (or truck?) like the one seen through the window.

4) Instead of turkey: a pyramid of Spam tins (with permission, of course).

5) Show a turkey wing with water pistol pointing at Granny from out of the oven.

6) Grampa??? No, don't go there.

 

Ha! You laugh, but that book's already been done:

"Contingency Cannibalism: Superhardcore Survivalism's Dirty Little Secret"

(No, it's not in my private collection. Yet.)