By Dennis Abrams
TasteBook, the Random House food community and blog, has announced the launch of The Bookshop, a cooking-focused online bookstore with over 10,000 cookbooks and food-related titles across all publishers. The leading recipe resource on the web shares its tastes in books in a curated way for cooking enthusiasts to discover food reads and purchase titles from their retailer of choice (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBookstore, Indiebound) in the format of their choice.
The Bookshop offers thousands of both new and classic cookbooks and food-related titles in a variety of formats across 18 categories such as celebrity chefs, entertaining, memoir, and more. The online bookshop will help home cooks discover new titles with an author spotlight section, lists, and featured cookbooks. The recipes and content on TasteBook as well as the TasteBook Blog will also include links to cookbooks on The Bookshop.
The newly created Bookshop is designed to round out the TasteBook offering, providing home cooks the ability to discover, save, and share recipes, along with a blog that serves up daily posts with recipes and inspiration. TasteBook members can also create custom recipe books using personal recipes and those from the site for just $34.95 with the option to add additional recipes for $.29 each at any time.
(Current bestsellers features on The Bookshop include The Chopped Cookbook by Food Network Kitchens from Clarkson Potter; My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz from Ten Speed Press; The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon from Avery; The Hungry Girl Diet by Lisa Lilllen from Macmillan; and Eat What You Love Everyday by Marlene Koch from Running Press.)
“We know that TasteBook’s half-a-million members are avid cookbook collectors who heavily rely on print cookbooks as tools and for inspiration,” said Lilly Kim, Associate Director, Digital Channel Development, who has spearheaded TasteBook efforts at Random House. “The Bookshop provides cooking enthusiasts an easy way to discover and purchase new cookbooks. It’s a great resource for frequent and occasional cooks who seek out new flavors and inspiration for everyday meals and entertaining”
And in an exclusive interview with Publishing Perspectives, Kim added, “Prior to launching The Bookshop we surveyed the TasteBook community to learn what would enhance their experience on the site. We learned that our members value print cookbooks and want to learn about new books as they explore recipes and food related content on the site. The Bookshop allows home cooks who visit TasteBook in search of recipes from their favorite chefs to discover an author’s entire catalog of cookbooks and easily purchase them.
“The Bookshop is one of many ways Penguin Random House connects readers to the books and authors that matter to them. A goal of TasteBook and the new online bookstore is to aid discovery in the food category and provide a platform for authors to connect with food enthusiasts.”