In October, blog-to-book titles trailed the Barefoot Contessa, who topped our Cookbook bestseller list.
#1 Make it Ahead: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter)
In its first week on sale, Ina Garten's ninth cookbook sold more than 130,000 copies, double the sales during the same period of her two previous books—2012's Foolproof and 2010's How Easy Is That? According to Kate Tyler, v-p, director of publicity at Clarkson Potter, In addition to Garten's "savvy social media campaign," in which she amassed 600,000 Facebook fans and 90,000 Twitter followers since 2012, a full-page ad in the New York Times and a traditional media blitz also contributed to the increase in sales. The book's performance in October also landed it on the top of our Hardcover Nonfiction list last week, and the Top Ten Overall list for the week ended November 2. Check out our Q&A with Garten about the book.
#2 The Skinnytaste Cookbook: Light on Calories, Big on Flavor, by Gina Homolka, with Heather K. Jones (Clarkson Potter)
In our roundup of web-to-cookbook titles this fall, we noted that part of the media campaign for blogger Gina Homolka, who heads up the popular site SkinnyTaste, publisher Clarkson Potter would be partnering with Harry & David to include Skinnytaste Cookbook recipe booklets in 800,000 of the company’s pear boxes, sent out from September to January 2015. Clarkson Potter also promoted the book on myfitnesspal.com and advertise on parade.com, blogher.com, and The SAY Media Network. Homolka also pushed the book out via her Twitter account, which has over 35,000 followers, and the SkinnyTaste Facebook page, which has over 800,000 fans.
#3 Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give A F*ck (Rodale)
A publication week scandal didn't keep the Thug Kitchen, the first cookbook from the authors of the blog of the same name, from once again hitting our bestseller list. Just before the book went on sale at the beginning of October, an Epicurious profile revealed that the once anonymous authors of the wildly popular blog were white, sparking accusations of cultural appropriation and protests at book tour stops. In an interview with PW, Rodale publisher Mary Ann Naples said the company stands by the book. "We think their work speaks for itself," said Naples. "Thug Kitchen's goal has always simply been to entertain [by] verbally abusing people into eating some goddamn vegetables."