Greg Achatz, chef and owner of Alinea Restaurant in Chicago and the man behind trapeze bacon, is coming out with a cookbook in Fall 2008. And he will be publishing the book with an approach that is as unique as his cuisine.
Fans can pre-order the book now by visiting this website. Pre-ordering the book also gets you access to the Alinea Mosaic website that will be launched in May 2008. Users with access to the website will be given a sneak preview of some of the recipes and photos that will be included in the book. This approach is pretty much unheard of in the publishing community, which generally believes that publishing content from a book on the internet only serves to cannibalize book sales. But Achatz and his business partner believe that this approach will create an even bigger buzz for the book and subsequently drive more sales. They feel so strongly about this approach that they are foregoing a potential six-figure advance in exchange for the creative freedom.
And I have to say I think they’re right…as I’ve already pre-ordered my own copy of the book. But I look forward to seeing how this all plays out next summer. It will be particularly interesting to see whether or not this ends up being a disruptive approach to book publishing.