Grub Street: Anne Dolamore spills the beans

Grub Street is a publishing phenomenon. It has carved out a very comfortable niche, reprinting old favourites and building up a library of world cuisine titles, along with essential books on basic cooking. Anne Dolamore of olive oil fame is the force behind this successful small publishing house and she spoke to the Good Web Guide about the company, which celebrates its 10th Anniversary this year.

Background
Anne Dolamore was a marketing consultant for most of the big publishers from 1982 to 1988, advising them on selling books in areas outside of normal book traders. She met her partner to be, John Davies, who ran Grub Street packaging books. A business venture followed with Anne helping out on special sales of one of Grub Street's books, 101 Uses of a Condom. At the time, Anne had just written a book on olive oil for Macmillan.

Where did it all begin?
They set out publishing their own titles on cookery and military aviation with a bit of humour thrown in. They were later to abandon humour titles as the market became dominated by television tie ins. They decided to concentrate on food, wine and cookery, working on their strengths. They quickly built up a reputation in those areas as they knew the market inside out.

Committed
Anne is personally interested in food and wine and spent four years on the Committee of the Guild of Food Writers and two in the Chair. She is a trustee of Sustain, an organisation that campaigns for farming. To her, food is more than just publishing. It is a way of life and she believes that people should be eating better and be able to cook. She publishes from the heart and says ‘If I wasn't prepared to go out and buy the book myself, why am I doing this?'

Anne also feels that one of the secrets of their success is being able to judge moods, where interests are going and being there when it has got to that point when a book will sell. They managed this with The Essential Olive Oil Companion, which was first published in 1988. Bookshops weren't interested but sales steadily started to rise and it meant that Grub Street was there when everybody finally woke up and wanted to read about olive oil. The upshot of this success has been that if anybody needs an authority on olive oil, they wheel Anne out.

Of the ten years that Grub Street has been in business, most of their titles are still in print. They have dropped only six in all that time, which again shows their perfect judgement of the market.

Awards
In 2000, Grub Street was voted International Publisher of the Year at the World Cookbook Awards in Perigueux. They found this immensely satisfying as they were up against Hachette and Random House, big corporate publishers. They were recognised for doing something different. They certainly wouldn't want to compete and do the same as everyone else. Their books are recognised as a quality brand.


TV Tie Ins
One of the problems that Grub Street face is that the market is dominated by the glossy television tie ins. Their reps find it difficult to convince buyers, who are heavily into these television books, especially as the Grub Street titles by and large have no pictures and lots of text. Their books have always been supported and well reviewed by food journalists. People were complaining that they couldn't find their books in their local bookshop. But all this has now changed with greater access to online shops, such as Amazon and BOL.

The Everyday Diabetic Cookbook
Seven years ago, when Grub Street approached Smiths with The Everyday Diabetic Cookbook, they were told that it was far too specialised. ‘We had more single copy orders for that book than any other we had done, which showed the public were out there.' They kept returning to Smiths, with their impressive statistics and at the same time, telling them that the number of under thirty year olds with non dependent diabetes was rising. They suddenly changed their minds and have never looked back. A large proportion of people diagnosed with diabetes do not have a clue how to cope with their diet. Generally they would find their way to Smiths and expect to find something to help them. Since then, Smiths have stocked their five Everyday cookbooks, covering wheat and gluten free diets, diabetes, dairy free diet and the light-hearted cookbooks.

Out of print classics
This has become more difficult as a lot of the bigger publishing houses are waking up to the fact that if Grub Street can do it, why can't they? Their first was Four Seasons by Margaret Costa. Delia Smith wrote the foreword, they had quotes from Simon Hopkinson and Nigel Slater and it continues to sell.


Anne realised that you could no longer buy some of the Elizabeth David titles in hardback and that if you wanted to give a present, you would want an attractive edition. Anne knows Jill Norman, Elizabeth David's executor, and the hardback rights were available so she snapped them up. Other titles on their list include Spices, Salts and Aromatics by David, Jane Grigson's Charcuterie and Claudia Roden's Picnics.

They have built up such a reputation that everyone is dragging out their old favourites. Anne is not interested in doing period pieces just for the sake of nostalgia; they have to stand up to being used today. It has to be a commercial proposition.


Health
Anne believes that 'A whole host of illnesses and conditions can be coped with by diet.' Recently they have published Eat Smart Eat Raw. Its author, Kate Wood, was the editor of a magazine called Fresh and she manages to feed herself and her two young children on a nearly raw food diet. When Anne saw the proposal, it seemed so convincing and made so much sense. Given that people are interested in putting themselves on a cleansing detox diet every now and again, Anne felt the time was right to go ahead with this book.

Ethnic Library
The books in this list are all written by authorities on particular countries. They have immersed themselves in the local culture and the books are not just a collection of recipes, but give you an insight into the country as a whole. Catalan Cuisine, written by Colman Andrews, has had three reprints. There are 350 pages with no pictures and it is a book about a region of Spain. It just shows once again that Grub Street has got the market taped. Charmain Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook has been around for quarter of a century. Clarrisa Dickson-Wright, a dear friend of Grub Street, put them in touch with her and they were able to buy the UK rights. Again, this is another huge success.

The Basic Basics
This series is a tried and tested format, which has provided Grub Street with some of their best sellers. Everybody who buys a microwave will buy The Combination & Microwave Handbook. It is not just recipes but tells you how to heat up an ingredient and how to cook on the various heat settings. This is continually reprinting and likewise, Microwave Cooking for One and Two.


Marguerite Patten
Marguerite Patten is now in her eighties and is still beavering away. With over 160 cookery books to her name and a lifetime spent in the food world, her association with Grub Street is a privilege. Anne says that ‘If all my authors were like her, I could take six months off every year.' Marguerite is a true professional and Grub Street was thrilled when they published Century of British Cooking. The first print run of her book on Jams, Preserves and Chutneys Handbook sold out in the first six weeks.

History of British Food
Published recently, this is a massive work by Colin Spencer. This epic work has been published in association with Fortnum & Mason, who have given over four front windows for the display of the book. It is a humdinger and one that will be around for a very long time. Even the colour of the cover boasts Fortnum & Mason's livery.

The Biography of James Beard
This is indeed a sad tale and the story of one of America's greatest food writers. When Anne was sent the text by an agent, she sat up for two nights in a row gripped by this fascinating story. ‘It was a brilliant piece of American social history set against the changes in American eating, the history of prohibition and its knock on effects in the rise of the milk and coffee bars.' The book received fantastic reviews and Matthew Fort of the Guardian likened it to reading the history of the Sun King. It just didn't sell, although they sat with it for four years before removing it from their list.

Proposals
Anne receives about six proposals a week and one or two a year look like possibles. And she knows when she strikes gold. Anne had wanted to work on a Japanese food book for a long time. All the books on the market were written by native-born Japanese and she didn't feel they were getting to grips with the culture as seen through a Westerner's eyes. Shirley Booth was put in touch with Anne and she sent in her proposal. Shirley had made a television programme on Japanese food fallen in love with the country and stayed there for six years. Anne felt that as she had lived in Japan, she was the perfect translator for taking that mystery and culture of the food and being able to put it on paper.


Anne looks after her first time authors. There is great skill in writing recipes and the test of a recipe and it is here that she can lend her capable hand. But she says ‘Teaching somebody is fun.' Her role at Grub Street is very much hands on with Anne choosing paper, talking to the designer about the jacket, typeface or even art directing the photography.

The future
Anne will stick to publishing twelve books a year. ‘I want to be able to pick a book and say I am proud of this. I don't want to do twenty-four books, where twelve are excellent and twelve are just filling in slots.' Anne believes that there are fewer and fewer good writers around as it's difficult to find places where a writer can cut their teeth. ‘It is easier to get on telly than get a book published.'

But no fear, Grub Street will carry on doing what they do so well.

‘If the best book has been done on a subject, why do another one? That is why I like reissuing books. Leave it be and try and find something new.'

For more information on Grub Street, click here.