MPC Press International

We sat down recently with the author of Lawrence the Laughing Cookie Jar, a book that is generating a new wave of attention ever since the recent publication of Rhyme.  The author of both children’s books, Will Marks, while media shy, agreed to spend a few minutes with us after we promised to avoid the subject of his personal life.

MPC: After the successful publication of Lawrence the Laughing Cookie Jar or “LLCJ” (not to be confused with LL Cool J), it was obvious that you would pen another children’s book.  But, it took you more than 10 years after your first book, No More Mac and Cheese, A Bachelor’s Guide to Cookie with Ease, to publish LLCJ.  Why did you wait so long?

WM: After the bachelor’s cookbook hit shelves, I was exhausted.  From book tours, to interviews, I never seemed to have any time to myself.  Don’t get me wrong, people were kind…I would check into hotels and they would charge me half price.  I was flattered, until I remembered that everyone was paying half price; it was 1991 and we were in a recession.  Whatever the situation, I needed time to cool off.  I relaxed, earned a degree, but then fell into some sort of funk.

MPC: OK, so you took a long break, but what made you want to be back on stage?

WM: Like everyone who has had a hit and then a subsequent burnout, there is a time to get back on your feet.  So, in the words of Mr. Mister, I decided to “take these broken wings and learn to fly again.”  You could say that Lawrence the Laughing Cookie Jar saved my life. 

MPC:  Saved your life?

WM:  That’s actually an exaggeration, but I’ve heard others use the phrase, and it’s pretty powerful.  Really, I was bored with lying on the couch and staring at the ceiling.

MPC: But why a book about a cookie jar?

WM: When I was in business school, learning about interesting things such as how supermarkets can efficiently reduce the number of checkout lines and why the four P’s of marketing don’t work for commodities, my mind would wander.  One day, I was eating a cookie and I thought back to the times of taking cookies from my parents’ jar.  It was impossible to steal a cookie and replace the lid without at least a slight noise, which was all it took to send a signal across the house to wherever my folks were sitting.  In the story, I decided to personify the cookie jar; Lawrence laughs when cookies are pilfered, sending the same signal.  One day, the parents in the story are outside, the kids steal cookies, and Lawrence the Laughing Cookie Jar’s laughter cannot be heard.  The children are safe from trouble and they eat too many cookies and are sick to their stomachs.  I don’t want to reveal too much more or else no one will buy the book.

MPC: Don’t take this personally but do people really still buy the book?

WM: You bet.  Lawrence is ranked 2,445,391 on amazon’s list of bestselling books.  That puts it ahead of…well, really not that many books, although LL Cool J (Hip-Hop Stars) is ranked 2,529.346.

MPC: Thank you Will.

WM: My pleasure.

Tags: cookie, hip hop, Lawrence the Laughing Cooke Jar, LL Cool J, Mr. Mister, rhyme

New platform effective today; MPC continues to focus on customers.  During the past 18 months, most major U.S. corporations have cut jobs and slashed other costs in a manner not seen in decades.  We at MPC know that headcount reduction is among the most difficult decisions that a company can make, and we do not take it lightly.  Our people (and our books) are our assets.  We also understand that the quality of our business could suffer if dramatic changes are made to our product.  You, our readers, deserve only the finest in product and service.  Taking all of this into account, we have painfully concluded that we will need to postpone the launch of our next title.  Publication of our third children’s book was projected to take place in 2013, but we have delayed the launch until 2014.  While the math isn’t quite clear, this should save us an estimated amount of money, at some point, over time.  As for headcount reduction, we are very proud to announce that MPC will not be making changes to its workforce.  This was a decision that clearly came from the top but is obviously a welcome relief for those of us internally and our clients, who will continue to enjoy the same MPC.  With that said, MPC’s current staff of 1 does seem necessary, to keep the site and business running.

Tags: books, customers, economy, headcount, jobs

When was the last time a U.S. President’s son lived in the White House?  It was about 45 years ago, when JFK and JFK Jr. inhabited America’s number one address.  Is it possible that the President truly needs to tuck in a son at night in order for him to make pragmatic decisions?  Let’s hope not, but worth thinking about for a few seconds.  Barack, W, and Clinton only have daughters.  George H. W. Bush has four sons and a daughter but his youngest son was 32 when President Bush moved into the White House in 1988.  Reagan’s youngest son was 22 when President Reagan was inaugurated.  Carter has three sons and a daughter, and only his daughter lived in the White House.  Ford’s youngest son was 17 when Ford became president, but he did not live on Pennsylvania Ave (he was all set to head to college at Duke but instead moved out West to pursue a dream of being a cowboy).  Nixon and LBJ each had two daughters and no sons.  This brings us to JFK, whose young daughter and son joined him in the White House.  The average age of a President on inauguration day is a little over 55 years old, so we cannot expect every President to have young children.  But there have been nine presidents who have followed John F. Kennedy, and five bore only daughters, including Clinton, W, and Barack (so it has been 16 years since we’ve had a President with a son).  What does this all mean?  Really nothing, but I’ve been thinking a lot about Presidents lately.

Tags: Baines Johnson, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Gerald Ford, JFK, Jimmy Carter, John F. Kennedy, LBJ, Lyndon Baines Johnson, president, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan

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.

Tags: Al Boar, chicken, Julia Child, Mac and Cheese, MPC, Mrs. Fields, Mrs. GoodCookie, Otis Spunkmeyer, rhyme

The phone rang at about 8:00 p.m. on a Friday night. It was 1991, and No More Mac and Cheese, A Bachelor’s Guide to Cooking with Ease had just been published, with enormous fanfare in the U.S…really in California…actually Northern California…maybe more specifically San Francisco…ok let’s be completely truthful–the few blocks surrounding my apartment.  In all fairness, this was a grassroots effort and we (the author of the book and MPC Press, the publisher) were truly surprised that initial sales of this tome totaled well over 1,000 units after only a couple of months (and I don’t have 1,000 friends and family).  Back to the story…while not that interesting, I did receive a call at about 8:00 p.m. on a Friday night, and it was my friend Matt Pear, asking some specifics about A Pretty Good Burger (page 19 of No More Mac and Cheese).  Matt was in the middle of cooking a meal for his date, who was in his kitchen with him at the time of the call.  My first questions to Matt were, “Why are you making a burger?” and “Do you like this girl?”  His response was that he couldn’t cook, period, and that A Pretty Good Burger was a dish he felt he could tackle.  Besides, he reminded me that his date had showed up late and that the first line of the recipe was indeed:  “It’s not always cool to fix burgers for a date, Unless your guest shows up an hour late.”  His question to me was fairly simple, and during the next several months, as the book gained popularity, I received hundreds of similar questions. (Reminder: Be careful where you print your phone number.)  Matt asked, “Do I need to add red wine to the burger, as you suggest?”  I obviously noted that it wasn’t essential but it simply added flavor.  He was relieved because his cellar included exactly zero bottles of wine, and he instead was serving Pabst Blue Ribbon beer to his date.  The calls from bachelors like Matt did come in regularly, and the questions were never complex.  I conclude that the success of No More Mac and Cheese is due to the need by many for a very simple bachelor’s cookbook.  However, as per the phone calls, a bachelor’s cookbook can never be too simple.  And, for those wondering, Matt Pear called delighted the next morning, saying that he had made it to second base.

Tags: bachelor, bachelor's cookbook, burger, Pabst Blue Ribbon, wine