Child’s Play
Feb 24th, 2010 by MPC Press
There’s an old saying in the book industry: “Better off are you, with a pre-press review.” If a new book hits the shelves with a comment on the back cover (which will obviously be a positive one), it can only help book sales. “Love the story, 3 Cheers, Couldn’t Put it Down, I was howling!”—Rickey Jacobs, The Skokie Post. Of course, most books are reviewed after publication; many reviewers don’t want to touch an unfinished product. At MPC, we strive to put a review on each cover. We were off to a slow start with “No More Mac and Cheese, a Bachelor’s Guide to Cooking with Ease.” Given that it is a cookbook, we first thought we had hit paydirt when word came out that Julia Child was sending her thoughts ahead of our first print run. Note that we already had a high degree of confidence that a rhyming bachelor’s cookbook would sell. The Chicken Cordon Orange recipe (page 20) had by now achieved cult status in focus groups:
“Chicken Cordon Orange you might never have tried—
A nice breast of chicken, ham and cheese inside.
It’s not Cordon Bleu, the blue you never see.
With Chicken Cordon Orange, cheddar cheese is the key…”
While Ms. Child’s kind comments did arrive (and may she rest in peace), unfortunately she chose simply to mimic the rhyming style of our cookbook and give holiday greetings at the same time, without offering any relevant thoughts that we could print on our cover:
“Thanks for the copy of your No More Mac and Cheese.
It is a book which will surely please!
I wish you well and great success,
And joyous holidays filled with much happiness.
All the best and Bon Appétit!”
So, there is no review on the cover of “No More Mac and Cheese”. For “Lawrence the Laughing Cookie Jar”, we called Mrs. Fields, Mrs. GoodCookie, Otis Spunkmeyer, and others, but no one responded. With our latest title, “Rhyme”, we had no choice. Early signs of a challenging economy made it clear that this book was going to make or break MPC Press. While we were unable to secure a review from any major publication, celebrity, or a politician, we did what any sleazy and deceitful publisher would do. We forged a review…sort of. Note that the back cover of Rhyme shows the following quote from Al Boar: “Rhyme is unbeatable!” Who is Al Boar anyway? We’ll let you in on a little secret—we made up the name, just like we made up the old saying that, “Better off are you, with a pre-press review.” But, the most intelligent of minds will discover that the name, Al Boar, sounds distinctly like the name of a former politician. Aha! Very clever, aren’t we? Rhyme is about politics, so let’s find a politician to review the book (and one who sounds like he could be a character in the story)…and if no one returns our calls, then let’s create a fictional politician, and have him speak nicely of our work. So far it’s paying off; sales are strong, and we haven’t been sued.
