Award-winning publisher Unbound has optioned Pete Brown’s next beer book as one of its 25 titles to be published this year via its popular pledge- and rewards-based model.
What Are You Drinking will be a fascinating look at the facts and fantastic stories behind beer’s four main ingredients: water, hops, barley and yeast. Although beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in the world, Brown realized that few people really understand the stories behind these ingredients, and how each one ended up in the beer glass, so he plans to travel to hop fields, maltings, yeast laboratories and artesian wells around the world to uncover the magic behind each ingredient for the curious general drinker.
Unbound offers pledgers an exclusive, limited edition of the books on their list, unavailable elsewhere, together with a range of options depending on their level of support. People can buy an advance e-book edition, an exclusive hardback unavailable anywhere else, a signed limited edition copy, tickets to the launch party or a bespoke, personalized beer tasting for a group of friends.
As well as offering an exclusive deal for readers, the beer industry is being encouraged to engage with the project, either with exclusive patronage of the book or by taking Brown up on a special offer package for top-level strategic and marketing consultancy for their business*. Brown’s recent speech at SIBA’s BeerX about effective brand marketing for small brewers attracted a packed audience.
After the project is funded (which doesn’t include the traditional author advance), a standard copy of the book is distributed as normal into bookshops and online.
Additionally, everyone who pledges gets access to ‘the author’s shed’ – exclusive content and project updates unavailable elsewhere.
Brown says: “There are a lot of misconceptions around crowd-funding, but when it comes to publishing books Unbound simply turns the traditional model on its head: readers get more involvement in advance of publication and the author gets more control and, potentially, a better deal than traditional publishing can now offer. Jonathan Meades, Raymond Briggs and Booker-long listed Paul Kingsnorth have all chosen this route so I’m happy to become the first beer writer to join the list!”
The best-selling Letters of Note was also published by Unbound in partnership with publishing house Canongate.
At the end of 2014, Unbound announced a distribution partnership with the world’s largest publishing business, Penguin Random House, ensuring global reach for its authors.
Brown is also writing a book about pubs through Jacqui Small Publishing, due to be published in 2016. His most recent book, The World Guide to Cider, won the Fortnum & Mason Best Drinks Book award in 2014.
ENDS
Notes to editors
*As well as being an award-winning writer, Brown has won top advertising and marketing awards for his work with some of the world’s best brands, including the Grand Prix at Cannes and the Advertising Effectiveness Awards. He has been a senior strategic brand planner for some of the world’s largest advertising agencies and continues to consult on select drinks industry projects.
http://petebrown.blogspot.co.uk/p/consultancy.html
More information about the book can be found here: http://unbound.co.uk/books/what-are-you-drinking