An Idea is Born

You know how some ideas are born out of simple conversations..? A thrown away comment that just wouldn’t stay ‘thrown away’?  Well that was the way it was with ‘Sharpe Chefs’.

I was on a message board for Sean Bean when one day I suggested it might be fun to share recipes as we were from all over the world. Someone mentioned that we should do a book and everyone laughed.

“Why not?” I said. “Why not do a charity cook book in aid of one of the charities Sean is a patron of,

to ‘thank’ him for getting us all together as friends.

We knew he was a patron of the National Osteoporosis Society because of his Nan’s involvement with them in the past, so after putting the idea out to all the ladies involved, this was the charity we chose to benefit from the book. Voila, the idea was born.

Ladies started posting their favourite recipes and ideas for the book starting flying across the world over the Internet. After a few months or so the planning started to get more serious and it was decided to move the project to its own home.

The Process Begins

We had nothing, no name and no real idea as to what we wanted the book to look like. One particular lady dove right on in with me and took the role of pulling the contents of the book together. I took the role I am most suited to (being a chatterbox), the role of PR. Twenty four other ladies from all around the world came with us to start the project in earnest.

For anyone who does not want to spend hours on the phone, on the computer or on e-mail, never consider doing this sort of project!! I have lost count of the hours spent talking to people, cajoling people and begging people.

While my counterpart Melise, was busy collating the recipes our fellow ‘chefs’ had sent her, I had the task of trying to find a publisher that would take us on. We had decided against the idea of internet publishing or vanity press if we could help it and we wanted to keep the publisher in Sheffield if possible, to stay true to Sean’s roots. I searched for the contact details of the publishers who had published a book about Sheffield United he was involved in, Sadly, they were not publishing at that time but I was able, through a very good friend of mine who lives in Sheffield, to contact another publishing house, Pickard Communication.

To my amazement, the gentleman there was interested in the project and asked me to get something ready for them to look at. I called my counterpart in the US to tell her the good news and then her huge job began. She had to get something credible together so that the publishers would see it as a viable proposition. We had all decided that all author royalties were to be paid directly to the charity and because of this, the publisher agreed that if they took the project on, they would give a larger than normal percentage to the charity.

At the same time, I had contacted the charity itself, The National Osteoporosis Society and asked them to endorse the project. They were thrilled with the idea and readily agreed to write a clinical piece for us, explaining the disease and the work of the charity.

All the ladies were busy getting their recipes correct and ensuring that they were originals. Things were really starting to move.

Then suddenly, came a boost from a surprising source...

--Adele James

Stay tuned to read what came next for Adele and her crew next week.