After gradually introducing U.K. food writer Diana Henry’s cookbooks to the U.S. market, Octopus Publishing’s imprint Mitchell Beazley sent Henry on her first U.S. author tour for 2015’s A Bird in the Hand, her ninth book. “Social media has undoubtedly been a great help here,” says Denise Bates, Octopus’s group publishing director. “Diana became a Twitter maven”—her follower count is currently nearly 19,000—“and was able to further build up her U.S. following prior to arriving in person.”
The cookbook took home the 2016 James Beard Award in the single-subject category, and with a “solid and expanding U.S. following,” Bates says, Henry will embark on her second American tour this fall to promote Simple, which goes on sale September 6. “Her increasing success has also allowed us to double back and reissue her earlier books in the U.S. for the new legion of fans coming to her work.”
At other houses, the method for breaking new authors is a bit different. Emilia Terragni, Phaidon’s cookbook publisher, says that instead of looking for authors with an established platform, the company aims to sign up the food world’s rising stars on the ground floor. “If the authors are not known in the U.S., or outside of their country, our book is the perfect means to spread the word,” Terragni says. “We start our relationship with each author to build his or her presence internationally, and early.”
She cites 2010’s Noma by Danish chef René Redzepi, which has sold more than 22,000 print copies per Nielsen BookScan, as an early example of Phaidon nurturing a nascent cookbook author. Other successes include 2012’s Fäviken by Magnus Nilsson of Sweden, which has sold more than 14,000 print copies per BookScan, and Massimo Bottura’s Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef, which, per BookScan, has sold almost 7,000 print copies since its 2014 release.
Another international author who has made a splash stateside is Yotam Ottolenghi, the celebrated London-based chef famous for putting vegetarian cuisine front and center. Ottolenghi made his U.S. debut with Plenty, released by Chronicle Books in 2011. The cookbook has now sold more than 302,000 print copies, according to BookScan, and Ottolenghi has gone on to write four more bestselling cookbooks (published with Ten Speed).
“Foodies here, both in the media and some home cooks, were already fans of his columns for the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper and would make the pilgrimage to Ottolenghi delis on visits to London,” says Chronicle publisher Christine Carswell. “So we knew there was a core group who’d be excited about the book being available in the U.S.”
Chronicle brought Ottolenghi over twice to promote the book “because of that very human connection,” Carswell adds. “People were passionate about Yotam’s food. It helps to have the same things you’re looking for in an American author—charm, graciousness, and a willingness to promote the book in every channel.”
