BOOKS
SCHWAN'S & WEBER GRILLS
Schwan's (frozen foods) and Weber Grills dreamed up a co-op project - they wanted to create a recipe book that featured grilling and all the fun that goes with it. Tad Ware & Company (TWC) designed a 48-page book for them and I handled the copy. After discovering that both companies were started by entrepreneurs in 1952, I used that to link their stories in the intro, and then wrote fun chapter names, entertaining editorial, and handy tips, such as the sidebar Brushing Up on Marinades.
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CELEBRITY CRUISES
To launch a new marketing effort, Celebrity Cruises envisioned a big book that told the stories behind their cuisine and recipes, the inspiration behind their restaurants, the quality and diversity of their wine and spirits programs, and their entertaining expertise. I wrote a proposal for TWC that would bring Celebrity's idea to life, dividing the book into three major sections called Captivate, for the restaurants, Accentuate, for the wine and spirits, and Illuminate, for the entertaining tips. The proposal was approved by Celebrity, and the race was on! It was indeed a big book - large format - 12 inches by 11 1/2 inches, and 400 pages.
For the editorial, I conducted 45 interviews with architects, designers, wineries, and vendors, as well as Celebrity chefs, executives, and food and beverage staff. Some of the interviews actually took place onboard...I traveled to the shipyard at Eemshaven, The Netherlands, to stay on their newest ship at the time, Celebrity Eclipse, as she was receiving her finishing touches. Then it was back home to write. I still have the 400-page thumbnail layout, where I figured out where everything would go, on my office wall. TWC designed the book and did all the recipe photography, with the assistance of Celebrity chefs. The book included 200 recipes and 200 pages of editorial. I could tell you a story about every page!
VITAMIX
Vitamix wanted to add a new book to their cookbook collection, a hardbound edition that would include helpful editorial as value-added information. This particular 356-page book is included with the Vitamix blender for high-end retailers. I wrote a proposal for TWC that outlined the book into two sections, highlighting the capabilities of the blender for consumers: Energize Your Weekdays and Relax & Entertain on Weekends.
The proposal was accepted by Vitamix and once again, the race was on. I wrote the book intro, and the seven chapter intros. And came up with a dozen sidebar types, including Gifts from Your Kitchen, Send in a Sub!, For Two or Twenty, and Kitchen Chemistry. And seven tip headers, including Ingredient IQ, Create Your Own, On the Menu, and Freshen Up. To complete the sidebar and tip copy by the required deadline - FOUR days - I did all the idea generation for 60+ sidebars and 60+ tips with another writer, to avoid duplication, and then joined/supervised a team of four writers, assigning each a section of idea-starters to complete. We got it all done on time!
UNCLE BEN'S
Uncle Ben's did a project with the Susan G. Komen Foundation to support breast cancer research. Uncle Ben's asked TWC to design and write a special cookbook for them. The first step was to contact well-known women chefs around the country, inviting them to join the cookbook project, donate a recipe and write a letter sharing their experience with those who had fought this disease. Sixteen chefs accepted the invitation to participate. Per the art direction for the book, I had to take their heartfelt stories, some a sentence or two, some three pages long, and edit each into one striking line (touching on a different aspect every time) and write a short summary for the lead-in spread for each chef. And write the chef bios. Uncle Ben's sponsored the production costs of the 112-page hardbound book, offered the book for sale on their web site, and donated the proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
CARNIVAL CRUISE LINE
This book was produced quite a long time ago... but it's here because of a story. A writing challenge story! This was a beautiful cookbook TWC produced for Carnival. The book did not have editorial, it was recipes only. So I had not participated so far. I was sitting at my desk one day when the book was about to go to print, and up comes the VP in charge of the account with a request to fill an empty page at the end of the last signature. This was a last minute thing - it was about to be released - "You have 30 minutes!!" So I supplied this copy in...30 minutes!
ROYAL CARIBBEAN INTERNATIONAL
TWC designed and produced the popular Savor cookbooks for Royal Caribbean. There were four books in the series. To keep the page count down (easier to slip into a suitcase) they were usually recipe books only, no editorial. I did write a Wine introduction for Savor Volume 2.
