Real Food Fermentation Amazon Bestseller Campaign Worked!

We publicized Real Food Fermentation massively yesterday. The goal was to get a lot of Amazon.com orders within a short period of time, so that the book would jump up in Amazon's rankings and attract other buyers.

It worked extremely well. I was thrilled with the results!

With your help, Real Food Fermentation climbed as high as:

#1 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Diet > Healthy
#1 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Canning & Preserving
#1 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Vegetables & Vegetarian
#1 in Movers & Shakers in Books
#1 in Hot New Releases in Cookbooks, Food & Wine
#1 in Hot New Releases in Special Diet Cooking
#1 in Hot New Releases in Canning & Preserving
#1 in Hot New Releases in Vegetables & Vegetarian Cooking
#3 in Hot New Releases in Diets & Weight Loss
#5 in Hot New Releases in Health, Fitness & Dieting
#18 in Hot New Releases in Books
#59 in Books

I don't even know what other categories exist on Amazon, where else the book might show up, or whether the above numbers were the absolute peaks. Amazon lists are hard to navigate.

Anyway, a big thank you to everyone, especially those of you who were able to buy the book.

And HUGE thanks to blogging compadres who supported me by reviewing or mentioning it:

• Jenny at Nourished Kitchen
• Ann Marie at Cheeseslave
• Kelly the Kitchen Kop
• Annabelle at Kombucha Fuel
• Erin at Erin's Eco List

My publicity plan consisted of the following:

• Asking a few fellow bloggers to look at the book, and do reviews if they were moved to. (More coming…)
• Stepping up my own blogging
• Emailing EVERYONE I know. Really. Twice. At least. In the process of this, I discovered that a good quarter of my address book no longer worked. I also discovered that gmail cuts you off if you send too many emails too quickly!
• Facebooking and tweeting vigorously throughout the day—and trying to reply or respond to every interaction that anyone had with me.

To be continued…

Make Real Food Fermentation A Best-Seller: Buy It Today

I want to sell a lot of copies of my book. But not so that I can make money. I didn't write the book because I thought it would make me rich. I wrote it because I have an important message that I want to share with the world:

Know where your food is from, and how it was produced. Learn to prepare it yourself. Make yourself healthy and whole. And have some fun, while you're at it!

I am encouraging everyone who's interested in my book to buy it today, June 18 2012, if possible. (Of course if you are reading this post after June 18, I would still love for you to buy my book...)

If a lot of people buy it from Amazon today, then it will have a much better chance of becoming a "best-seller" there. If this happens, other people will see it on the best-seller list, and they'll figure it must be good, so they'll buy it too!

Click here to buy it from Amazon

Alternatively, if there is an independent bookseller in your town, then by all means call them up or wander in; ask them if they have it; ask them to order it for you if they don't; and go buy it from them. By doing this, you will be directly supporting your local economy, which is really important, although your purchase may not have the potential snowball effect of a focused online purchase.

Either way, THANK YOU!!!

Fermentation In The News: Sandor Katz On NPR

Sandor Katz, grand-daddy of the modern fermentation revival, author of Wild Fermentation, and one of my inspirations in my fermentation work and in my life, was on NPR yesterday talking about fermentation and his new book, The Art of Fermentation. The segment was entitled: 'Fermentation': When Food Goes Bad But Stays Good.

Hah!

I am glad that fermentation is getting mainstream airtime. The more people hear about it, the better for everyone.

Sandor's book, The Art of Fermentation, is a masterwork on the subject of fermentation: how to do it, why, history, philosophy, biochemistry—everything. It is ideal for folks who want to know as much as possible about fermentation and fermented foods, who are already actively fermenting things, or who are not afraid of jumping in with both feet.

My book, Real Food Fermentation, is better suited to folks who want to get started with simple fermenting recipes in their home kitchens, who prefer something closer to a more typical cookbook format, and who want a beautiful book with pictures that make the food come alive. I will add that the first 60 pages of my book aren't recipes—they are a discussion of food preserving in general, "real food", sustainability, health, how to choose ingredients, what kitchen equipment to get, and other topics.

Buy one, buy the other, or buy them both!

(If you are buying my book, please consider buying it this coming Monday, June 18, to spike its popularity on Amazon!)

(And in either case, please consider buying from a local independent bookstore rather than online. If we stop buying books from local bookstores, they will all go out of business, and we will be sorry.)

First Review Of Real Food Fermentation

Someone I don't know posted this extraordinarily accurate and thorough (and positive!) review of my book on Amazon.com. He understood exactly what I was trying to do, and why, and how, and all of the decisions I made.

If you would like to know more about my book, I strongly recommend that you click here to read the review. He says it all better than I could.

We all feel misunderstood sometimes. Today I felt really understood. Thank you, Brandon Curtis, if you are reading this!

PS:

If you choose to buy my book, please buy it at your local independent bookstore (which you can find on this awesome list that my friend Paula sent me), or else buy it from Amazon.com on June 18 (or any other day).

I Wrote A Book: Real Food Fermentation

Dear Readers,
I have written a book called Real Food Fermentation. It will be on sale any day now. I have been working on it for over a year, and I'm very excited for its launch! If you don't mind, please wait until June 18 to buy it. If enough people buy it from Amazon on the same day, it will show up on their best-sellers lists, and more people will see it.
Here's why you should buy it:
It is a photo-illustrated, step by step cookbook that shows you how to make fermented foods. The photos really make the recipes come alive (pun intended!). And they are beautiful photos; my photographer is an ace. There are other fermentation books out there, including some new ones, but to be honest, mine is the prettiest by far, and the step by step pictures make my recipes very easy to follow.
Here's when you should buy it:
Please wait until June 18 to buy my book. If everyone buys it on the same day, then my book will rise on Amazon's best-sellers lists, and more people will notice it and buy it.
I'll post a couple more times before then with more details about the book.
(If you want the book but you don't want to wait until June 18, or you think you'll forget about it in the meantime, then of course buy it now!)
Click here to see it on Amazon: