Interview: Owen Linderholm

What is press for change?
Press For Change Publishing is a small, independent start-up publishing company that was set up to publish interesting and innovative books that are different from those published by mainstream publishers. In particular it is intended to specialize in online writing and online promotion rather than rely on the current model of big publishing companies selling a small range of blockbuster books through the big bookstores. Digital Dish is an example of this - the book would never have been taken on by a major publishing house and it includes very fresh and original food writing that is not at all like what you would find in Gourmet or Bon Appetit or even the Chronicle food section.

How did you come up with the idea of making a book out of blog posts?
I started a food blog of my own purely as a record for myself and family and friends. And then I noticed that there were other food blogs and that they were really good. The food and recipes were original, the writing was immediate and direct and I thought that there was a place for a compilation of the best of this online food writing.

How did you select the posts?
I picked out about fifty food blogs that I liked a lot and then invited the authors to take part and submit up to five entries taken from the Summer of 2003 to the Summer of 2004 (this was in late Summer 2004). I got into discussions with about 35 or so of them and eventually ended up with the 24 blogs that are included as people dropped out for various reasons. Then I went through and weeded out obvious duplication (no need for four kinds of gumbo) and posts that were a little too controversial. Then I cut out a few not so good pieces that didn't quite match the author's usual standards or that weren't food related. And finally I cut a few based solely on fitting entries into a reasonable length for the book.

Weren't you afraid that the book format would take away from the blog layout? After all, it is much dryer, with few pictures and no color.
Yes, I was, and that is the book's biggest weakness. As a new publisher, using savings to pay for the printing, I couldn't afford a full color book, so I knew pictures were out. However, there are many more book readers than blog readers even now and this would be a new audience, a fresh audience that could be introduced to this fantastic material. Plus the whole book is in fact greater than the sum of its parts. The vitality and breadth of writing and recipes in the food blogging world come through much better in a compilation like this than by randomly browsing from site to site.

Most posts in the books, and blogs in general, are written by non-professional writers. Did you think of editing the prose, tightening the language, etc?

I considered it but only very briefly - the strength of blog writing is its immediacy and its personal voice - and that does come through in the book. I had the book professionally edited and copy-edited, but they were instructed to only correct typographical, spelling and other obvious errors, but specifically not to change errors that resulted from a highly persoanl style or in some cases from a limited ability with the English language since for several of the participants, English is no their native tongue. (Although most still write in English - only one of the included bloggers was translated - and that by themself). The book would have been weaker if it had been homogenized in that manner.

Who is the intended audience for the book?
Anyone interested in food, but especially people who cook for themselves and who enjoy cooking - several of the entries do not include specific recipes but do include enough general instruction that a competent home cook would find it easy to reproduce the dish in question.

Can you describe the San Francisco angle of the book?
Although this is very much a worldwide book, it is also a Bay Area product. Four of the 24 authors included reside in the Bay Area and it is published in the East Bay. The book launches (two of them) were held in Berkeley and Lafayette. San Francisco restaurants and personalities are mentioned by name here and there and the Bay Area food sensibility and the San Francisco attitude that food matters permeates the book and is very much part of how it came to be.

You blog about food in the bay area, which favorite place of yours should we check out?
OK, here we go....
I lived in the city for eight years and here are some favorites.

Best sushi - no arguments and if you disagree you are flat out wrong - Ebisu on 9th Ave in the Inner Sunset. What other restaurant would keep the book your two-year-old toddler had left behind for eight months until you showed up one day with the second baby (newborn) in tow and they whipped it out from behind the counter and handed it over?

Sentimental favorites - we won't go into why....Cafe Jaqueline, Cha-cha-cha, Boulevard, Traci Des Jardins, Mai's (Vietnamese on Clement), Clement Street Bar and Grill, The Beanery coffee shop on Irving (used to have my daughter's picture behind the counter), Thanh Long out on the avenues where once upon a time long, long ago you could see celebs like Robin Williams tucking into the roasted crab and noodles. LaTaqueria at Mission and 22nd(?), Terra Firma Farms organic CSA delivery (still getting that out in the boonies). Zuni Cafe. Mandalay on California Street.

Further afield...
Chez Panisse - in a cosmic convergence, BOTH my children wrote their first words of writing upstairs in the cafe.
Oliveto, Cha Am in Berkeley, Restaurant Peony in Oakland Chinatown, the new India Palace off Mt Diablo in Lafayette, De afghani in Walnut Creek. etc, etc.

Will you be giving book readings?
Yes, we had a couple at the two launch days and we have one coming up in Pleasanton at Towne Center Books:
555 Main Street
Pleasanton, CA 94566
925-846-8826

That will be on July 27th at 7:30 PM.
I am also hoping to hold a couple in San Francisco soon - possibly at Books Etc and Book Passage in the Ferry Building.

Thank you!