America’s Test Kitchen Turns Up the Heat on Retail Last year America’s Test Kitchen had two New York Times bestsellers, The Science of Good Cooking and Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook. Together with Slow Cooker Revolution, the title helped the Brookline, Mass.-based cookbook and magazine publisher sell more books at retail than it has in many years. This fall, ATK (which owns such magazines as Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country) anticipates another boost in retail stores. Not only is Pressure Cooker Perfection off to a strong start with over 100,000 copies in print since its March release, but volume 2 of Slow Cooker Revolution is just out and the press is about to release its first photo-driven cookbook, The America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook, with 2,500 color photos. It launches next month with an 80,000-copy first printing. The 832-page oversize cookbook, which Jason Smith, co-owner of The Book Table in Oak Park, Ill., predicts will be his store’s biggest book of the year, grew out of one of ATK’s largest projects in recent years--the 2011 opening of its online cooking school. To create the school, which was built by Barry Kelly, v-p of technology, product development, who also built the online music school for Berklee College of Music, under the creative leadership of Jack Bishop, editorial director of ATK, the press created thousands of visual assets. Directions on making a pot roast, for example, could take as many as 50 or 60 photos. Given the availability of so many photos, ATK design director Amy Klee suggested that the press repurpose the photos for a book. Even so ATK had to shoot nearly 825 more photos to add some foods not yet covered by the online cooking school, like quick breads.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 05:03:18 +0000