Foodies in The Media
In this new digital age, You Tube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs enable new food, drink and gardening writers and presenters to showcase work across the globe, building careers and a following of readers and viewers along the way. This is a totally new phenomenon, and one that is rapidly changing the way in which the consumers of food and drink media align their allegiance and expenditure.
Over 200 000 new book titles have been published this year in Great Britain, and of the £3 billion sales that the publishing industry generates per annum, £90 million alone are spent on food and drink books. That figure represents 10% of the whole of the non-fiction market. The vast majority of food and gardening book and magazine sales can be directly attributed to the stars of primetime celebrity television shows such as Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Lorraine Pascale, The Hairy Bikers and the presenters of Gardeners World.
Since 1996 Deborah McKenna Limited has been managing the careers of some of Britain’s most respected food, garden, drink and lifestyle writers and presenters. Its co-founder Borra Garson, originally from Montreal, managed the early years of both Gary Rhodes and Jamie Oliver’s careers. Since then the writing, restaurant, television and radio careers of Nathan Outlaw, Sophie Grigson, Susy Atkins and Alys Fowler have all flourished under her agency, which, she says, is driven by the challenge of finding a talented and inspirational unknown and turning them into a household name. She writes a Blog at www.borragarson.com, revealing the highs and lows of her challenges.
Greene & Heaton Limited was founded in 1963 and is one of London’s premier literary and media agencies. Antony Topping has been with company since 1995 and he is a highly respected agent looking after the careers of many prominent authors, presenters and their businesses, among them Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and River Cottage, Henry Dimbleby and Leon Restaurants and Thomasina Miers and Wahaca Restaurants.
The Foodie Bugle asked them both to comment on a variety of issues that centre around the new and future landscape of food, drink, gardening and lifestyle media. Here is what they told us.
Question:
Do you think that the role of literary and talent management agencies such as yours will become increasingly challenging because up-and-coming food, drink, gardening and lifestyle writers and presenters will be selling their skills and talents directly to TV production companies, editors and publishers, or easier because you will be able to find talent more readily?
Answers:
Antony Topping:
Our role at Greene and Heaton is not simply to find the talent. We advise our clients about all aspects of their career; we negotiate all their deals with publishers, TV production companies, and all other media; we give extensive editorial advice; we make sense of the media landscape for our clients, so that they can concentrate on their interests. In that sense, we’re not just panning for gold. Our clients don’t come to us simply for us to make introductions to the people who hold the cheque-book. That said, the means of distribution is certainly changing. For example it is very interesting how people are building significant profiles for themselves on YouTube – sometimes huge followings, which can generate not insignificant advertising revenue. It’s fascinating too to track the very large handful of people who have made it big by self-publishing on Amazon. It is too early to tell, however, the long term impact of all of this – but the early signs make me feel that these are exciting times, full of opportunity.
It is certainly so much easier these days for people like me to come across brilliant people pursing their passions, and to chance upon wonderful writing – writing which makes me immediately excited about sharing it with more people. Of course now countless blogs have been turned into books, but I still vividly remember when a friend directed me to www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com. This became one of the first food blogs to cross the line and become a book. The moment I started to read the website, I could visualise the book – and, crucially, the book editors to whom I would love to pitch the book. So I approached the creators and I think it is fair to say that writing a book was the furthest thing from their minds – but we made the book happen and it was a fantastic success.
Borra Garson:
My role will always remain the same, because I act as a filter, finding and meeting new people and bringing the right talent to the attention of executive producers at television production companies and commissioning editors at publishing companies. They quite simply do not have the time to see every unsolicited candidate request. I bring years of experience to the job of finding good people who are right for television or right for publishing.
Question:
In The Foodie Bugle we try to focus on true artisans, who are specialists in their fields. In general, many artisans cannot afford PR and many are not published, or below the “radar”. They are not deemed to be “influencers” but we believe their knowledge base is extensive and valuable. Surely the era of the “celebrity generalists” is nearly over?
Answers:
Antony Topping:
The big broadcasting channels and, to a slightly lesser extent, the big publishers have a duty to play to the largest crowd, so I think the “generalists” are here to stay. There’s a small but important distinction to be made between artisans who want to reach the widest number of people with their knowledge/experience/product, and artisans who also have ambitions to have a “media career”. The internet and social media in general are creating a fascinating level playing field in terms of small producers finding customers, and in terms of their being able to broadcast about their passion and their product. The downside for these people is that they are always very busy running businesses, and I’m sure it’s hard for them to strike the right balance between pursuing their business/passion and constantly having to “sell” themselves online.
Borra Garson:
You are right, the very specialist mushroom grower, for example, may well have their moment in the sun because they have a very specialist knowledge base. If you look at someone like Rick Stein, his work has been to promote food heroes, so specialist people do get found and their work showcased. But then we also need generalists who have a wider, broader sphere of influence.
Question:
Many literary agencies and talent managers tell their clients that they must write a Blog, be on Facebook, Tweet every day and build up a following. Do you think that the age of silent and dignified allure is completely over?
Answers:
Antony Topping:
Well, it’s true enough that blogging and tweeting are now an invaluable part of being visible, in all walks of life. But blogging and tweeting alone are not a long term recipe for success. If you are a passionate ice-cream maker, for example, you should focus and work hard on making the best ice-cream, and in making sure that you have a route to market – the physical market, that is — that best showcases your craft..
One example that I’m fascinated about at the moment is Yianni Papoutsis, who started the Meatwagon burger van (www.themeatwagon.co.uk/). Here’s a guy who put a lot of time, thought and effort into how to make the perfect burger. Everybody agrees that here’s the guy who can make the perfect burger. He tweets so that people know where to find him, what are the opening times, things like that. But it’s the rest of the blogosphere who give us the detail: exceptionally good writers give us careful, joyful accounts of the pleasures of eating one of Yianni’s burgers, illustrated with no-holds-barred food photography. Result: Yianni has recently changed gears, and launched a Soho restaurant. It may look like an overnight success, but I’m sure it doesn’t feel like one to Yianni and his business partners. The internet helped create this success, but Yianni has not been a slave to it – he has been a slave to his passion.
Borra Garson:
Of course, in times gone by, most people in the media led very private lives. Nowadays social media is used as a marketing tool, but I do not believe it is for everyone. If a writer already has a long standing reputation, and a great body of work behind them, then I would definitely not urge them to set up a Facebook or Twitter account. Nowadays there are PR companies hired to manage your online reputation, to bury bad news with scrolling good news. I would definitely exercise caution. For example, some of the people following me on Twitter have nothing to do with my industry, and I ask myself “Why on earth is this person interested in following me?” It is not the quantity of followers that matters, but rather the quality and relevance.
Question:
Good food, drink and gardening writing comes with age, wisdom, experience and consistency. Yet the media is obsessed with youth and “the next new, bright thing”. Do you think that the age of reference, reverence and silver sages is due a come back?
Answers:
Antony Topping:
I watched with interest when Antonio Carluccio, Gennaro Contaldo and Mary Berry all made a come-back on our screens. Are we simply nostalgic for the cooking – and pleasures – of the past in these difficult times? But of course I accept that these are exceptions. Ageism is rife, not just in the world of food and drink. We live in a youth centred society, but I certainly do not view the world that way. I look after over 50 clients, across fiction and non-fiction, and I think that if a person’s “footprint” is truly inspirational and unique, if their writing amazes me, age is not relevant to the underlying work.
Borra Garson:
All media hanker after new and fresh faces,that is the nature of the business. We see this all the time, particularly with beautiful, young women, such as Lorraine Pascale. In the case of Sophie Dahl her family background may have been a decisive factor in her getting several series. Where you see a long and involved story, like that of River Cottage, you can understand how the TV producers have developed the series over years. But it is not just about age: remember that the people who catch producers’ eyes are sometimes maverick, sometimes odd, a little different, amusing, riveting and entertaining. That cannot be created, and has nothing to do with age.
Question:
Of the clients that you manage, what special attributes and circumstances would you say have underpinned media careers that have shown both longevity and continuity?
Answers:
Antony Topping:
I think that the key here is that those are people who have a deep seated obsession and are pursuing it, working extremely hard and they are not waiting for lady luck to shine on them. They are pushing the frontiers.
For example, Henry Dimbleby used to travel on business and discovered that most fast food outlets served awful food. He was determined to change that: and now everyday he lives, eats, breathes and thinks healthy, delicious, affordable fast food. What has emerged from that passion, shared with his business partner John Vincent, is truly amazing. It’s a matter of some pride for me to be associated with all such clients.
Borra Garson:
What needs to be remembered in terms of a television career, for example, is that is a numbers game: if you have 2 million viewers or more then the commissioners will sign you up for a second series. The television controllers need to satisfy the advertisers. If you look at the survivors, like Rick Stein, who started his presenting career at the same time as Gary Rhodes and Sophie Grigson, and if you analyse the work of Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, albeit the latter two are young, they are all considered authentic, genuine, and entertaining. Good ratings are key to longevity.
In terms of success, in the long run, it is very rare for a food writer who does not have a TV series to sell huge numbers of cookbooks over time. Yotam Ottolenghi has succeeded in selling hundreds of thousands of his books (“Ottolenghi: The Cookbook” and “Plenty”, both published by Ebury), but he also writes for The Guardian and has a small chain of restaurants that have aided his popularity.
Huge bookstores, like Waterstones, have in the past done promotions for particular cookery books which PR agencies have paid many thousands of pounds to set up, in order to have a certain food writer’s book on the very front table. This may be changing now that the floor managers of bookstores will have greater power in choosing the layout of books. This will, in turn have a great impact on sales, and therefore the success of individual authors, and their continuing appeal.
Question:
What advice would you give to the many young and new food, drink and gardening bloggers who have never contacted an agency before, but are actively writing, submitting work and using social media in the hope of earning a living from their passion?
Answers:
Antony Topping:
If bloggers are doing all those things you listed, then they are already on the right path. Blogging and sharing for free is its own reward, but the question for those who wish to get paid for writing and sharing their knowledge is how they are going to become attractive to the paying media. I think it is important for food and drink artisans not to become obsessed with social media as an end in itself: focus rather on what you are producing in the real world instead. To give one example from within my experience: the River Cottage series of handbooks have been written by brilliant experts, the likes of Mark Diacono, John Wright and Pam Corbin, none of whom have or had been searching out “fame”. They were and are simply astonishingly good and sure-footed at what they do. Yes, there were contributing as experts at River Cottage, but they had been chosen for those roles because of their expertise, and their cherished ability to share that expertise, not because any pre-existing profile they may have brought with them.
Borra Garson:
You have to analyse what is already out there and stand out from the crowd. Be unique, be fresh. Make sure that when you write to an editor or a literary agent that all your spelling, punctuation and grammar are completely correct. You have to sell yourself. Go for gold, aim your work at the very best newspapers and magazines. Be very polite in your covering letter and tell them where you have been published before, and send in completely finished articles, not just small drafts. You may need to work for free for a while to get your foot in the door.
When Jamie Oliver published his very first book (“The Naked Chef, Michael Joseph, 1999) he used to drive round the bookstores on his moped meeting the bookshop owners. He would offer to sign each of his books and he did this for weeks and weeks and weeks. It is a very competitive industry, where prices are constantly being undercut and you have to work really hard to sell your own book. I think that you need to look to traditional methods, look outwards more. Maybe even resort to guerrilla tactics: leave copies of your book at friends’ houses, at the doctor’s surgery, on the tube. People will pick it up, read it and talk about it. Word may spread how good it is, and more people will buy it.
Contact Details
Borra Garson’s website: www.deborahmckenna.com
Follow Borra on Twitter: @borragarson
Greene & Heaton: www.greeneheaton.co.uk
Follow Antony Topping and all the team on Twitter: @GreeneandHeaton
