Category: Recipe

Read, Eat, Drink: Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling and a Sumac Gin and Tonic Recipe

by Maria

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How to get published

Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling (Paul J. Zak for Harvard Business Review): “I advise business people to begin every presentation with a compelling, human-scale story. Why should customers or a person on the street care about the project you are proposing? How does it change the world or improve lives? How will people feel when it is complete? These are the components that make information persuasive and memorable.” This article is fascinating, and it explains the science behind a lot of what editors and agents know intuitively–that stories and a promise of transformation pull people in. And that’s exactly why I always tell authors to begin their blog posts, book proposals, and book introductions with a story. It’s the surest way to make people care.

Video: Michael Pollan on Cooking (The RSA): This little short is the most fun you’ll have in 2 minutes and 28 seconds all week! In it, Michael Pollan explains how corporations cook (hint: badly) and why there’s just one simple rule to eating healthy, without relying on fad diets or any deprivation at all (hint: a cookbook would help you with it!). I love this rule, and think it’s so true: no matter what you order at a restaurant, it will never be as healthy as the same thing cooked at home. That’s why cookbooks matter–they’re powerful tools to help people get in the kitchen and start living healthier lives.

20 Must-Read Books for Bloggers (Krystal from Bloggers Get Social): You can learn so much from books, and this list is a great start for bloggers who want to learn how to do everything better. Too many of the bloggers I see who are struggling are mostly just suffering from a lack of information–they’ve got their heads down, creating content day in and day out, and they’re not investing enough time in training and experimentation. So, even if it means you take a blog vacation for a week, set aside some time to do deep research. In the end, it’s much easier than trying to figure it all out yourself!

Worried About What You’re Not Doing (Leo Babuata of Zen Habits): “In any given moment, many of us are thinking about what we’re not doing. We feel guilty that we’re not doing more. Worried that we’re not as productive as we could be. Guilty that we procrastinate. We feel guilty that we don’t exercise more, eat right, have better bodies. We worry that we should be doing something better, something more amazing, doing what the amazing people we see online are doing. We worry about what we have to do later, what’s next, where we’re going.” A great contemplative practice to help creatives (and anyone!) combat comparison and anxiety.

Eat & Drink:


Over to Jarrett for a new spin on the classic gin and tonic:

Sumac gin and tonic recipe

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Read, Eat, Drink: Long Lost Books by Beloved Authors and “Recipes” for Toast

by Maria

How to get published

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How I Found the Harper Lee Manuscript (Op-Ed by Tonja Carter, Lee’s attorney, in The Wall Street Journal): The story behind the rediscovery of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman just gets curiouser and curiouser. A rifling through of valuable papers with no supervision? An envelope that hasn’t been opened in 50 years? A possible third or even fourth manuscript? Sometimes I’ve believed as many as twelve impossible things before breakfast, but this ain’t one of those times.

The Great Gift of Reading Aloud (Meghan Cox Gurdon for The Wall Street Journal): “To curl up with children and a good book has long been one of the great civilizing practices of domestic life, an almost magical entry point to the larger world of literature.” And even if you don’t have your own little ones, organizations exist all over the country that allow you to curl up with some kids and read a good book to them. (Jarrett and I read to kiddos in our neighborhood through the wonderful The Reading Connection, but Reach Out and Read runs literary programs across the country.)

Dr. Seuss Book: Yes, They Found It in a Box (Alexandra Alter for The New York Times): Why is this the year of discovering long lost books by beloved authors? (Not that I’m complaining.) As Alter describes: “But alongside the orphaned sketches was a more complete project labeled “The Pet Shop,” 16 black-and-white illustrations, with text that he had typed on paper and taped to the drawings. The pages were stained and yellowed, but the story was all there, in Dr. Seuss’ unmistakable rollicking rhymes. ‘We didn’t know that we had such a treasure,’ said the assistant…”  Oh, the places we’ll find books.

New dr seuss book
Photo: The New York Times

Eat & Drink:

Garden-and-Gun-Southern-Food-Issue

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Read, Eat, Drink: The First Chapter of Harper Lee’s GO SET A WATCHMAN! Plus a Cherry Wine Sangria Recipe

by Maria

How to get published

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The First Chapter of Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee Releases Today [!!!] (The Wall Street Journal): IT IS HERE. The day has come. The world’s first look at Harper Lee’s long-lost manuscript was published at 12 am today, exclusively by The Wall Street Journal in the US and The Guardian in the UK. You’ll have to wait until Tuesday to read the full book, but what’s a greater gift to yourself on a sunny summer Friday than sinking into a comfy chair with this first chapter? I plan on reading first the straightforward version on the WSJ, then enjoying the gorgeous interactive version The Guardian created. Here’s hoping everyone has some time today or this weekend to savor this historic literary event!

How Publishers Make Decisions About What to Publish: The Book P&L (Jane Friedman): This is a must-read for aspiring authors. The P&L is the key calculation used at publishers to make acquisitions decisions. I remember when I was an editor and bringing proposals to Pub Board, we’d always hit a certain point where the conversation shifted from what-is-the-book-and-who-is-the-author to talking numbers. That’s when sales managers and marketing managers start estimating how many copies they think the book will sell, and therefore how much they can offer as an advance. That’s why I’m always nagging my authors to put every single relevant thing they’ve done into their proposals–it’s usually the only document brought into Pub Board meetings, and so it’s the only voice the author and agent have at the table. So make sure your proposal is knocking their socks off, Charlie-Brown-strikeout style. (And lucky you, this month I’m running a new series on What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Book, and next week’s post is about writing a proposal! Hooray. Here’s where you can catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.)

21 Content Marketing Predictions for the 2nd Half of 2015 (Joe Lazauskas for Contently): If you’re a writer or blogger, guess what: You are in content marketing. Congratulations, and welcome to your inauguration. Yes, books are the ultimate piece of content marketing, since before anyone even thought to call them that. And if we’re going to gussy things up by slapping some corporate-lingo over things that have been happening for millenia, then let’s really have some fun with it. This prediction for content marketing in 2015 made me burst out laughing: “More and more brands will hire full-time editors. They’ll call them something absurd though, like ‘global audience strategists.'” I just hope we get to call Literary Agents something hilarious too, like Content Development Czars. (Feel free to start calling me this until the end of time.)

3 Common Author Platform Mistakes, Plus How to Fix Them (Maria Ribas for Writer’s Digest): Oh well, lookee here, an article by yours truly. To quote myself, which yes, is an odd thing to do: “Platform-building is not about getting up on your soapbox and asking people to buy your book. It’s actually not about promoting your work at all. The true purpose of a platform is to create a community of like-minded readers—to find the people who like dystopian YA, or historical romances, or the paleo diet just as much as you, and then finding ways to help them. It’s about serving, not selling.”

Eat & Drink:

Cherry Wine Sangria

Cherry wine sangria recipe

Over to Jarrett for some refreshment:

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Read, Eat, Drink: How Should Authors Tell Fans About Their Book?, Plus a Fourth of July Menu

by Maria

How to get published

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5 Real Reasons Agents Are So Darn Picky (Carly Watters): Agents are known for being “no” people. No, no, no, we say to query after query after query. But the funny thing is that we want to be “yes” people. But it needs to be a big enthusiastic “YES!” or no “yes” at all. As Carly Watters explains: “We’re picky because we have to be. We wouldn’t be able to stay in business unless we were choosy about everything we signed up.” Reason #1 on her list is especially important: We’re picky because every single person in the value chain–from the agent to the editor to the marketer to the bookstore buyer to the media producer to, ultimately, the reader–is also extremely picky.

5 Reasons Publishers LOVE Bloggers: Why Blogging Might Be Your Fastest Way to Secure a Book Deal (Chad R. Allen, Editorial Director for Baker Publishing Group, at MichaelHyatt.com): A big “amen!” to every single one of these reasons. As Allen writes: “Anyone who is serious about getting published should consider blogging. It’s a great way to build an audience, field-test ideas, cultivate social credibility, learn the publishing process, and hone your writing skills.”

When Reporters Write Books, Does The Times Win, Too? (Margaret Sullivan, Public Editor for The New York Times):  Well, here’s an interesting one. The case at hand is David Brooks’s new bestseller The Road to Character and his use of outbound links in his column. The links lead to his book’s website, where he invites readers to participate in further discussion and, if they’d like, to purchase his book. Apparently, some readers of the Times are “appalled” by this. Is his column relevant to the topic of his book? Yes. Would his book further an interested reader’s understanding of the topic? Yes. Did he mention his book in a conversational, unpushy way? Yes. It’s hard to see how this is harming readers rather than helping them find ways to learn more about the topic.

It’s interesting because this is a completely acceptable (and encouraged!) practice in nearly every single other media outlet–after all, David Brooks’s platform as an author is the column itself, and his book is an opportunity for his column readership to engage with him in a deeper, longer format (making them more likely to increase their devotion to reading his column and subscribing to the paper). Yet, the Times called foul. As the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal says, “It’s tricky. Books are inherently a commercial enterprise.” (And what are newspapers? Both books and newspapers are commercial enterprises, but they are also in service to the public discourse. And you cannot serve the public well by ignoring a new, important contribution to a topic.)

Eat & Drink:

Is it possible that the Fourth of July is becoming our country’s second most important food holiday? We can all agree that Thanksgiving is THE holiday for thinking of nothing but what we’ll cook, how much we’ll eat, in what order, and with how many extra helpings, but I think the Fourth of July is racing hot for the #2 spot. I determine this ranking by counting how many days I’ve spent daydreaming about the food.

And now it’s been about 4 days of visions of perfectly charred brauts, sauced up ribs, and juicy tomatoes dancing in my head.  I think it’s safe to say my brain is more food matter than grey matter at this point.

Jarrett and I are off to the Leelanau Peninsula in northern Michigan for a long weekend, and we’ll be blissfully in the hands of superior cooks (and I’ll be blissfully facedown in a bowl of black bean salsa that I’ve been dreaming about for two years).

But if anyone else is still scrambling for menu ideas…

How about RIBS? Done 13 different ways on Bon Appétit.

Ribs recipe bon appetit

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