Clumsily splattering a cookbook with bacon grease is one thing. Doing it to an iPad is quite another. By JULIE BOSMAN, New York Times, Published: October 4, 2011
Paul Child/WGBH
Julia Child, television's “French Chef,” picked up her mallet in 1963 and taught America how to cook.Right - Julia Child in her Paris kitchen.
A digital version of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”
That may explain why cookbooks have been late bloomers in the e-book revolution, lagging behind other categories, like fiction, that have been widely embraced in digital form.
Yet cookbooks have recently begun to show signs of strength in the digital book market, bolstered by publishers who are releasing e-book editions of new titles simultaneously with the print versions and converting older, classic cookbooks into digital form.
On Wednesday Alfred A. Knopf will release the e-book edition of one of the most famous cookbooks: “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” by Julia Child, immortalized in the best seller “Julie & Julia” and its film counterpart, starring Meryl Streep.
The introduction of “Mastering” to the e-book library is not just a testament to the book’s venerable status and enduring popularity, but also to the publishing industry’s willingness to embrace digital publishing with all its quirks, including, for cookbooks, shorthand measurements like “2 tbsp finely minced shallots,” which appear in smaller type.
While most novels and nonfiction books are easily converted into black-and-white e-books, which can be read on anything from an iPhone to a Nook to a Kindle, cookbooks are not so straightforward.
“Cookbooks often have incredibly complex layouts,” said Jennifer Olsen, the manager of digital production for the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. “They are very tricky to produce as e-books.”
Full story at The New York Times.
On Wednesday Alfred A. Knopf will release the e-book edition of one of the most famous cookbooks: “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” by Julia Child, immortalized in the best seller “Julie & Julia” and its film counterpart, starring Meryl Streep.
The introduction of “Mastering” to the e-book library is not just a testament to the book’s venerable status and enduring popularity, but also to the publishing industry’s willingness to embrace digital publishing with all its quirks, including, for cookbooks, shorthand measurements like “2 tbsp finely minced shallots,” which appear in smaller type.
While most novels and nonfiction books are easily converted into black-and-white e-books, which can be read on anything from an iPhone to a Nook to a Kindle, cookbooks are not so straightforward.
“Cookbooks often have incredibly complex layouts,” said Jennifer Olsen, the manager of digital production for the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. “They are very tricky to produce as e-books.”
Full story at The New York Times.
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