On April 24th, the book will finally be launched.
If you didn’t know me last year and don’t know Lorraine Elliott (you’d be in a distinct minority), you can see the post I wrote about Lorraine and NotQuiteNigella.com on Food Writer Friday. Make sure you follow her blog posts because you won’t want to miss any posts.
You’ll get to know Mr. NQN and all the wonderful friends that come alive in the pages of her blog. I’m still trying to decide which of her “besties” I want to meet most. At the moment it’s a tie between Queen Viv and Miss America.
The synopsis of her book says that she’s writing what could be the memoir for Generation X – those who had it all and gave it up to follow their dream. I’ll agree with that but what that synopsis doesn’t tell us is the amount of passion, guts and determination it took to bring a blog business from nothing to one of the best in the country. Anyone who has a blog works really long hours to get everything all done.
When I think about how much I work, I shudder to think about the hours Lorraine puts in. The woman posts every. single. day. of. the. year. My fingers hurt only thinking about it. Just optimising the photos alone would take a while.
For instance, look at the amount of time she must have spent making these cookies for her blog. I would have spent more than a day and they would have looked good but how much work would I have backed up? Lots.
I saw a notice in one of Lorraine’s posts last week about a book update and immediately went to buy it pre-launch to make sure I got mine. THEN I wrote to her and asked if I could write a few words and use her book cover. She said yes. Then I asked if I could ask her some questions. (I figured I got one yes, why not go for two.)
Again, she said yes. I know we’re all wondering how long it takes to write and put together a cookbook or memoir like Lorraine has. She did it in a few months. I gasped when I read that because everyone I’ve talked to about a book says it takes forever. Her reason why it took a short time? “It’s a memoir so I had no plots to work out.” We all know she must love to write in order to produce over 4200 pages on her website. That’s right, 4 thousand pages of text and photos.
The main reason the book was delayed was that the real Nigella was coming to Australia and the publisher thought a chapter about the meeting would be great for the book. When the book launch was put off, Lorraine was really disappointed but it gave her time to look at it again and polish it just a bit more.
Want to know how to get a book deal like this? First you have to be incredibly good at what you do and when that happens a literary agent will call you and ask for a chapter and he or she will schlep it around to publishers and hope someone takes the bait. Some people wait months just to get the slip of paper that says thanks but no thanks but Lorraine’s book was picked up in just a couple of days. Then another one made an offer and there was a bidding war with little Lorraine sitting back twisting her fingers into knots. (I made that bit up but from reading her blog for so long, I know I’m right.)
Sadly, due to economic pressure, there will not be a book launch where she’ll sign our books but she is speaking at the Sydney Writer’s Festival and will be happy to sign books for anyone who brings one along.
Want to order a book pre-launch so you’ll be sure to get one? I ordered mine from Bookworld and now I’ll watch the mailbox for delivery.
**Update: Anyone outside Australia who wants to buy Lorraine’s Book can do so by emailing: United Book Distributors.