with Mary Anne Mohanraj
15 days ’til launch. Eep. I was thinking maybe for the last two weeks, I do ebook giveaways here? How would people feel about 3 ebooks / day, starting tomorrow, posted on my Facebook wall, comment to enter? Exciting, yes? 
Tell me if you want me to do it!
Chicago folks — anyone know what happened to Read It & Eat, our cookbook store? I stopped by yesterday, hoping to schedule an event with them, but there was a ‘for rent’ sign in the window! The website looks completely normal still, very confusing.
Scheduling a book tour isn’t as easy as you’d think…
Four quick things, folks, as we countdown to our March 6 launch (just 16 days away! Eep!): GIVEAWAY, REVIEWS, TREAT SUBSCRIPTION, SAN FRANCISCO
1) Woot! I’m running a hardcover cookbook giveaway on GoodReads for US folks — enter to win (look for the Enter Giveaway link, a little down the page). An international ebook giveaway will follow shortly.
https://www.goodreads.com/…/sh…/51332647-a-feast-of-serendib
2) If you’ve already gotten a copy and are inclined to review Feast (reviews are WILDLY helpful for helping to make the book visible; a simple sentence or two is plenty, and would be MUCH appreciated), you can do that here:
a) GoodReads (link above)
b) Books-a-Million review page is also now live, we think. https://www.booksamillion.com/…/Mary-Anne-Mo…/9781645432753…
c) Amazon will be live on launch day March 6, so please set your calendar reminders. And if you’re planning to buy a book and haven’t yet, buying on March 6 would be VERY much appreciated — if a bunch of people buy (or review) on the same day, it bumps a book’s visibility dramatically
3) I’ve added a subscription option to my Patreon (US-only, sorry), where you can sign up to get edible treats and other goodies mailed to you once a quarter for $30 (sign up at the $10 / month level). Details at Patreon here (which is also where you can join the cookbook club): https://www.patreon.com/mohanraj
4) I’m delighted to note that I’m coming to San Francisco, to cookbook store Omnivore, 3885 Cesar Chavez, to talk about A Feast of Serendib! Tues, March 24, 6:30-7:30pm. Expect me to do a 20-minute talk about Sri Lankan history and cuisine, plus Q&A & signing. Save the date!
I’m trying to schedule some more Bay Area events in March, so do watch this space; when the full schedule is finalized, I’ll let y’all know!
Whew! I think that’s it for now. More soon…
Hey, it looks like people can post reviews on the Books-a-Million site now? Maybe? If someone is kindly inclined and wants to get the ball rolling (and let us know if it works), that would be GREAT.
https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Feast-Serendib/Mary-Anne-Mohanraj/9781645432753
Adding another SF event on 3/24! (Starting to finally feel like a book tour…)
12:30 – 1:30, lunch with me at The Writers’ Grotto. (This event is for Grotto members only — join the Grotto at their website.) https://www.sfgrotto.org.
Hey, folks. Quick check — we’re setting up a Patreon subscription, so that people can get treats from me reliably. (Sadly, food treats can only be shipped in the U.S. right now — anything else is beyond my capacity!)
Here’s the current description — how does it look? Any thoughts?
$10 / month tier:
“Once each quarter, I’ll mail a present to you in the mail! A selection of homemade edible treats, a piece of domestic creative writing, and a tiny extra surprise.”
So it ends up being $30 / quarter, which includes shipping. Does that seem reasonable, pricing wise?
I’m being super unspecific about what the edible treats will be, because I don’t know yet, and as we’re figuring this out, it gives me the flexibility I need. Down the road, we might offer other tiers, and more specificity, but I think that’s more than I can mange at the moment. Thoughts?
I’m not sure how to manage allergies and food preferences — I think I can reasonably easily do nut-free / vegan / gluten-free on request, with the provision that I can’t guarantee a completely nut / gluten-free environment in the kitchen overall.
Bay Area peeps — trying to schedule book tour. TWO QUESTIONS:
1) I’ll be there March 4-8 for FogCon in Walnut Creek, and may have time for a book event. What bookstores / libraries would you recommend in: Marin / Sausalito / San Francisco / Oakland / Berkeley?
• I’m going to contact Omnivore, the cookbook store, later today
2) I’ll be there March 23 – 29, visiting family and friends for spring break, mostly in South Bay, but also up in Marin. What bookstores / libraries would you recommend in: South Bay and Peninsula?
• Jed mentioned Kepler’s?
Contacts particularly welcome, if you happen to know people on staff.
ALSO: If you’re willing to be part of my Bay Area book tour crew (I need a jazzier name for this!), helping to publicize and round up people to attend, would love to know that too! I’ll be sure to send you details so you don’t miss anything, and I may even be able to bring along some special treats for you. I’d love to speak to a packed room. 🙂
[goes off, brainstorming ‘book tour crew’ names. Something with a Sri Lankan mythical beast? Garudas, makaras. Won’t mean anything to most of y’all, though, so that’s a shame. Something with food? Oh, naming things is hard.]
Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all. One of the best bits of the internet is sharing these holidays with you all.
Funniest bit of this morning — Anand was so focused on the show he was watching on his iPad that he walked right past this multiple times (getting his breakfast quesadilla, feeding the pets), before Mommy finally said, “Anand, Happy Valentine’s Day!” And then he looked up and saw this and ran over.
Both kids were most excited by the chocolate-covered strawberries (Kavi is packing some of those and the raspberries up to take to school right now to share with her friends), but the dried fruit will keep better.
If we weren’t hosting an event on Sunday (SLF Chicago chapter meeting, all SF/F readers, writers, and geeks welcome), I’d probably end up freezing some of it for a party (or a rainy day) down the road.
Little hearts courtesy PaperSource — I’ll save them for a craft project for me or the kids…
So, a big question for those who like my stuff. Food stuff, writing stuff, etc. Be my market research.
Kev and I have been talking about what’s manageable for me in terms of cooking and shipping and the like, and we’re thinking one weekend / month is generally do-able for having one of these little flash sales of books and sweets and soaps and the like. Serendib Kitchen / Press / Home / etc.
And we were planning that, but then Kel Bachus suggested that I might want to think about also setting it up as a quarterly subscription, so that people who knew they wanted the little things I make could sign up for them in advance and be sure they would get them, rather than possibly missing out on flash sales.
Which reminded me of back when Gavin and Kelly did their chapbook, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, which I loved, and they offered one subscription level that was the chocolate subscription, which was so brilliant and indulgent — you’d get your magazine, but also get a lovely interesting bar of chocolate to enjoy with it. I loved it.
So with these things in mind — is there interest? I’m honestly not sure what this would look like, but something like:
Base level:
– a little printed chapbook of domestic writings — recipes & gardening and maybe home decor, probably with some fiction and/or poetry thrown in
– some kind of confectionery, probably a new recipe
– a tiny surprise present of some kind — maybe a set of postcards, maybe a little crocheted flower, who knows…
And then maybe some upgrade options:
a) some kind of bath product (soap, bath salts, lip balms, that kind of thing)
b) existing books
c) curry powder
(I’d plan on hiring someone local for packing and shipping and possibly order management too — in fact, whether I do the subscription or not, it’d be good for me to look into that. A nice energetic college student would be ideal, someone who doesn’t mind coming by my place and hauling boxes one weekend / month. If you know someone like that, let me know… That’d probably be something like $15 / hr.)
I don’t know pricing for the subscription yet — would depend a lot on shipping costs, etc. Maybe $30 + shipping for the base level, per shipment? (I’m thinking quarterly at first, can possibly move to monthly if it goes well.) If there’s interest, I can talk to Kevin and Stephanie to figure out if we actually have capacity to do this.
The nicest thing about it, from my point of view, is that I think I can use it as a way of collecting and generating material for the larger nonfiction book I’ve been wanting to work on…
Would you be interested in that kind of subscription, for you or as a gift?
What do you think? Should I do it?