with Mary Anne Mohanraj
Well, that’s nice to see — Vegan Serendib, still holding IngramSpark’s #1 and #2 positions in Indian and South Asian Cooking. 
I mean, it’s not kazillion units, as you can see, but it’s not nothing. And I’m hoping we’ll sell quite a few more as we approach the holidays and Christmas shopping kicks into full gear.
(IngramSpark is the big printer / distributor we use.)
A second lovely 5-star review of Vegan Serendib on Amazon — keep the reviews coming, folks! They make a huge difference to visibility / discoverability! (And they don’t have to be 5-stars, really. )
“Mary Anne is an artist in the kitchen (I’ve had the privilege of sampling many of these dishes prepared by her hands), and this book is a gift to the world for vegans like myself! Also makes a great holiday gift (and a delightful incentivizing nudge for on-the-fence omnivores).”
Yes, we’re still shipping out Kickstarter and pre-orders of Vegan Serendib. We will be doing this until the end of time.
No, not really, Stephanie Bailey assures me that we’re more than halfway through at this point, and of course, when I say we, I mostly mean her, because all I do is wander through periodically and sign / personalize things for her. She’s doing all the hard work.
The really tricky part is organizing it — it’s nice to give people options, but the options multiply the complexity, and there end up being gazillion different packages, which definitely slows things down a lot. This is a particularly challenging task for an ADD brain; I get super-confused, super-fast, because every time I lose focus, I have to start over. Oof.
On the other hand, it’s lovely to be able to pack up personalized books — someone from South Africa sent a book to someone in Edinburgh, hoping the book would remind them of their honeymoon in Sri Lanka, which is terribly sweet. And some orders get curry powder, and some orders someone got a paperback for themselves and a hardcover gift for someone else, and it’s just nice being able to give people what they actually want.
AND we’re getting to the point where some of the orders will have soaps and tea towels and such in them, so that’ll be fun too. We probably won’t get to that before I leave town for Thanksgiving, but it’ll be the first thing I do when I get back, so they should all go out in good time for holiday delivery.
Locals, quick note that Carnivore Oak Park now has hardcovers AND softcovers of both A Feast of Serendib and Vegan Serendib (all signed by the author), AND jars of homemade curry powder.
There are also some free recipe cards if you just want to stop by and pick some up to try out!
(Yes, there have been many jokes about selling a vegan cookbook at a store named Carnivore. In our defense, they do carry quite a few vegetables as well!)
Little pleasures — I ordered a roll of ‘signed by the author’ stickers, to have on books I’m selling at events, dropping off at bookstores, etc. Very satisfying putting them on this morning.
This batch will be going over to local store Carnivore Oak Park, probably later today.
I got to write a gift card yesterday (you can add on a handwritten message on a gift card for a dollar when you order Vegan Serendib or Feast from me), and it was fun. 
This one was a card I’d designed, based on a picture Kavi drew, of a little fire lizard, cupped in a brown hand, lighting a candle. Seasonal, too…hope they like it!
Aw, someone left a really lovely first review on Vegan Serendib. I’m blushing. (Reviews are SUPER-helpful, but please don’t feel like you need to write one this extensive — a sentence or two is just fine!)
*****
“I’m not sure I’ve ever reviewed a cookbook before, so please bear with me. Also, I should note that while Ms. Mohanraj and I have not met in person, we have had several interesting conversations on Facebook Messenger when I had questions about recipes from her blog. I was also a supporter of both this book, Vegan Serendib: Recipes from Sri Lanka, and her first cookbook, A Feast of Serendib on Kickstarter.
That said, I was really knocked out by Vegan Serendib: Recipes from Sri Lanka! There are so many recipes in there that I want to try, especially as I have been trying to get more non-meat foods into my diet. I’m especially looking forward to trying some of the eggplant, beet, Brussels sprouts, okra, and cauliflower dishes since those are among my favorite vegetables. Savory dishes, however, are not the only things that Ms. Mohanraj covers. She also covers breakfast dishes, party dishes, desserts, and beverages.
In this volume, she keeps the storytelling to a minimum, which I kind of miss because she is an excellent storyteller, but I understand that she opted to include more recipes instead. She also has a small glossary, beautiful pictures of the foods, and advice on substitutions, which is very helpful for those of us not living in Sri Lanka.
I have no idea how she made the time to do this book: Ms. Mohanraj is not only a cookbook author, she writes science fiction/fantasy, runs several organizations promoting Desi literature, is a full professor of literature, has sat on a library board, and on a school board. She also designs beautiful fabrics, and now has taken on running a small press. Just listing all she does makes me dizzy!
Still, I hope she writes more cookbooks and explores her culture in them more deeply. If you like cookbooks, ethnic foods, excellent writing, and information, this is a book you need to add to your cookbook shelf and use often.”
My kitchen smells so good. We spent a few hours toasting spices for the Vegan Serendib Kickstarter orders and pre-orders, and I’m grinding this morning. Nummy.
Well, THAT is nice to see. Does that mean I get to call it an Amazon bestseller now?
Aw, you guys. Vegan Serendib has jumped to #45 on Amazon in Indian Cooking, Food & Wine (I mean, it’s not Indian, but we’ll let that go…), and perhaps more impressively, #327 in Vegan Cooking (Books). Thanks so much to everyone who pre-ordered, who ordered on launch day, who ordered today, who orders tomorrow….
Ordering details in comments. Please like / comment / share!
