The International Association of Cookbook Writers – IACBW,  will officially launch on January 14, 2010.  Look for announcements and details coming soon! Meanwhile, Edouard Cointreau has given all cookbook writers something to cheer about.  Pack your bags…we are going to Paris! Read on…

Chairman and founder of Gourmand International, Edouard Cointreau will launch the first annual Paris Cookbook Fair in February 2010. Speaking during an interview with Edward Nawotka from the Beijing Book Fair earlier this year, Mr. Cointreau stated he has decided to launch the first Cookbook Fair in conjunction with the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, an event he started in 1995. This event will be the largest cookbook and wine book trade fair in the world.

The first Cookbook Fair will take place February 11-15, 2010 in Paris at Le104, a hip new industrial exhibition/arts center which opened in October 2008. There will be a reasonably large space provided for publishers, cookbook authors, agents, chefs, journalists, and others to meet and mingle. Cointreau went on to say there would be space for cooking demonstrations, samples, and what he referred to as a “rights center” where deal making could occur. There is also a large bookstore on the site.

Even in the recession, cookbook sales have steadily increased, with sales in the US up 4% over last year. What’s truly exciting about this is that the fastest growing segment of the cookbook business is self-published cookbooks. Cointreau felt this to be one of the most important reasons to start his own fair just for cookbooks.

Referring to undiscovered talent that may not get any attention at traditional book fairs Cointreau said, “We plan to invite all of these authors, including the self-published, to Paris,”  “There’s no reason, provided their books are high quality, they shouldn’t be able to participate on equal footing with all the other publishers. There’s a real opportunity here for cookbook publishers to discover some new talent, particularly from other countries.”

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards have been presented annually in a variety of global locations, from Kuala Lumpur to London, honoring cookbooks in 58 different categories of food and drink. The Gourmand awards are open to any book from any country written  in any language. Books from 126 countries were submitted at the most recent competition.

Cointreau will be looking to capitalize on the geographically vast network he’s established. He’s chosen Paris as the permanent location for the Cookbook Fair. Cointreau elaborated, “Paris is a city that has a reputation for culinary excellence, is halfway between Asia and America, just two hours by train from London, and a place where people from the Middle East are comfortable visiting.”

For more information about this event contact:

Edouard Cointreau
edouard@gourmandbooks.com
CookbookFair.com

You can find more information about self-publishing your own cook book by visiting Cookbook Coach.com … a leading authority for self-published cookbooks .