I have been traveling a lot, mostly on mall tours around the country and I have noticed that people aren’t buying cookbooks the way they used to. I would take it personally but my editor says that with a few notable exceptions (the absolutely hottest new stars on the Food Network) cookbooks aren’t selling well, period.

I was feeling a little frisky at a cooking demo I was doing in Evansville, Indiana and I mentioned right before I started to the front row of viewers that I would be selling and signing my book afterward and they should really pick it up because there were only 8 1/2 months left until Christmas. Well, this one lady replied that she did not buy cookbooks anymore since she could download anything she wanted on the internet!!!!!! I was horrified. So this was the reason nobody was buying cookbooks. Of course I bullied her into buying one but I have been wondering ever since if that indeed was what was going on. I mean, why would you just download any recipe on the internet without knowing if it had been properly tested and developed? Is it all about quantity now and not about quality?