HEADLINER
Practical Books
THE LITTLE FRENCH RECIPE BOOK
Le Cahier de recettes, by food journalist Jacky Durand, was published by Stock in 2019 and translated into 19 countries.
"Mr. Henri, the charismatic owner of the restaurant Le Relais fleuri, has always, without explanation, objected to his son Julien becoming a cook. When his father falls into a coma, Julien becomes obsessed with wanting to find the notebook where, since his childhood, he has seen his father write down his recipes and tricks. He then discovers other secrets and understands why Henry let his wife go without a word. Jacky Durand’s novel offers us a wonderful portrait of a man for whom cooking is more than a profession and the daily pleasure of sharing, as well as an insight into how he handles hardships," is how Jacky Durand's Recipe Book is presented on Stock's website.
A big hit: "A well refined family saga", "delectable and moving", "poignant and aromatic”, "a magnificent story as delightful as it is a delicious" which "tickles our taste buds" ... to quote just a few journalists. It sold 6,500 trade quality paperback copies; the pocket paperback was released in March 2020 also to an immediate French success. To draw in the foreign publishers, Stock's team has played the French cuisine card. Thomas Guillaume, Director of Foreign Rights at Stock, recalls: "Before it was released, we were considering how to position the book on the international market. Together with our translator, we chose Monsieur Henri's Secret Recipes as our working title. Our pitch was one line: ‘A tender and mouth-watering story of inheritance taking place in a French bistro’. We just used two words for the author's biography: Culinary Journalist - our way of surfing on the international reputation of French cuisine.
The book was published in April 2019. We started sending it to scouts, sub-agents and partners in the bigger international markets ahead of the London Fair. Ten days later, we had a German pre-emptive offer. This allowed us to recontact other publishers. We then received an English offer, five offers from Italy, two offers from Spain and one from the Netherlands. Then the London Book Fair gave us the opportunity to chat with publishers and share the overall enthusiasm around this novel. We had THE title at the fair, which allowed us to capitalize on other offers, thanks to our knowledge of the markets and targeted prospection work with partner publishers. As we received offers from five other publishers in Lithuania, Taiwan, Israel, Czech Republic and Greece, we kept the publishers who were still reviewing the title up to date on the deals we were closing, this led to further contracts and auctions in Finland, Iceland, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia, Estonia and Russia.
At the same time, we sent an e-newsletter to all the partner publishers, sharing the international press coverage, as well as offering them a supplement which included some of the author’s recipes, to propose to booksellers or to add to their edition to help creative marketing initiatives."
Due to the coronavirus, the book has not yet been published outside France, except for the Netherlands, where the book was published by De Bezige Bij/Cargo and released on April 16th, 2020. To promote it, books and PDFs were sent to Dutch food columnists and well-known chefs asking them to review it and generate quotes. These were later used for online marketing.
Thomas Guillaume (Foreign Rights Manager, Stock), Katja Petrovic (BIEF)
April 2020
Le Cahier de recettes, by food journalist Jacky Durand, was published by Stock in 2019 and translated into 19 countries.
"Mr. Henri, the charismatic owner of the restaurant Le Relais fleuri, has always, without explanation, objected to his son Julien becoming a cook. When his father falls into a coma, Julien becomes obsessed with wanting to find the notebook where, since his childhood, he has seen his father write down his recipes and tricks. He then discovers other secrets and understands why Henry let his wife go without a word. Jacky Durand’s novel offers us a wonderful portrait of a man for whom cooking is more than a profession and the daily pleasure of sharing, as well as an insight into how he handles hardships," is how Jacky Durand's Recipe Book is presented on Stock's website.
A big hit: "A well refined family saga", "delectable and moving", "poignant and aromatic”, "a magnificent story as delightful as it is a delicious" which "tickles our taste buds" ... to quote just a few journalists. It sold 6,500 trade quality paperback copies; the pocket paperback was released in March 2020 also to an immediate French success. To draw in the foreign publishers, Stock's team has played the French cuisine card. Thomas Guillaume, Director of Foreign Rights at Stock, recalls: "Before it was released, we were considering how to position the book on the international market. Together with our translator, we chose Monsieur Henri's Secret Recipes as our working title. Our pitch was one line: ‘A tender and mouth-watering story of inheritance taking place in a French bistro’. We just used two words for the author's biography: Culinary Journalist - our way of surfing on the international reputation of French cuisine.
The book was published in April 2019. We started sending it to scouts, sub-agents and partners in the bigger international markets ahead of the London Fair. Ten days later, we had a German pre-emptive offer. This allowed us to recontact other publishers. We then received an English offer, five offers from Italy, two offers from Spain and one from the Netherlands. Then the London Book Fair gave us the opportunity to chat with publishers and share the overall enthusiasm around this novel. We had THE title at the fair, which allowed us to capitalize on other offers, thanks to our knowledge of the markets and targeted prospection work with partner publishers. As we received offers from five other publishers in Lithuania, Taiwan, Israel, Czech Republic and Greece, we kept the publishers who were still reviewing the title up to date on the deals we were closing, this led to further contracts and auctions in Finland, Iceland, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia, Estonia and Russia.
At the same time, we sent an e-newsletter to all the partner publishers, sharing the international press coverage, as well as offering them a supplement which included some of the author’s recipes, to propose to booksellers or to add to their edition to help creative marketing initiatives."
Due to the coronavirus, the book has not yet been published outside France, except for the Netherlands, where the book was published by De Bezige Bij/Cargo and released on April 16th, 2020. To promote it, books and PDFs were sent to Dutch food columnists and well-known chefs asking them to review it and generate quotes. These were later used for online marketing.
At the same time, we sent an e-newsletter to all the partner publishers, sharing the international press coverage, as well as offering them a supplement which included some of the author’s recipes, to propose to booksellers or to add to their edition to help creative marketing initiatives."
Due to the coronavirus, the book has not yet been published outside France, except for the Netherlands, where the book was published by De Bezige Bij/Cargo and released on April 16th, 2020. To promote it, books and PDFs were sent to Dutch food columnists and well-known chefs asking them to review it and generate quotes. These were later used for online marketing.
Thomas Guillaume (Foreign Rights Manager, Stock), Katja Petrovic (BIEF)
April 2020