{"id":1705,"date":"2013-05-29T21:10:01","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T01:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heather-maclean.com\/?page_id=1705"},"modified":"2016-03-21T16:13:14","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T16:13:14","slug":"sample-skinnyitalian","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/sample-skinnyitalian\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Write a Non-Fiction Book Proposal<\/u><\/font><\/a>
The Competition: Sample from Skinny Italian<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few interesting notes: even though Teresa Giudice was on a TV show, she did not get a book deal handed to her. We had to fight for it. Hard. In 2009, four “Housewives” had released books that all bombed. The word in publishing was: “No more Housewives books. Period.” The only exception was Bethenny’s book “Naturally Thin.” And you’ll see that our book was originally pitched as “Skinny Jeans & Spaghetti” since there were no new “skinny” titles in the market (Bethenny hadn’t yet launched “Skinnygirl;” she was still “Bethenny Bakes”).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Competition<\/strong><\/u>
\nSkinny Jeans & Spaghetti<\/strong> is a brilliant blend of the successful French Women Don\u2019t Get Fat<\/em> and Giada De Laurentiis\u2019 best-selling Everyday Italian <\/em>that promises to also enchant the same audience of who devoured Bethenney Frankel\u2019s Naturally Thin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

French Women Don\u2019t Get Fat<\/em> by by Mireille Guiliano<\/u>
\nJudging by their covers, Skinny Jeans & Spaghetti<\/strong> most resembles the New York Times<\/em> #1 ranked cultural memoir French Women Don\u2019t Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure<\/em> by Mireille Guiliano (Knopf, 2004). But while Guiliano and Giudice do share the same philosophy of eating for pleasure, French food \u2013 complicated, expensive, and not kid-friendly — is not as easily accessible or pleasurable as Italian food is to most Americans. Nor is French-born-and-raised Guiliano, the CEO of luxury champagne company Veuve Clicquot who eats 300 meals a year in restaurants.<\/p>\n

Giudice, an American mom with deep Italian roots, takes the idea of living the lifestyle of another culture and makes it more amenable, enjoyable and practical. Giudice\u2019s food stories are engaging and familiar; her recipes simple, delicious and family-oriented. Giudice encourages readers to see the best in themselves, to count their blessings, and reminds them life should be savored, not suffered.<\/p>\n

Everyday Italian<\/em> by Giada De Laurentiis<\/u>
\nEveryday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes<\/em> by Giada De Laurentiis (Clarkson Potter, 2005) shares Giudice\u2019s goal of helping readers prepare simple, but beautiful Italian food, highlighting fresh ingredients and non-fussy preparation. <\/p>\n

Like De Laurentiis, Giudice is an authentic Italian beauty with great cooking skills, but she is easier for a regular girl to relate to than a classically trained celebrity chef who cooks in a flawless studio setting. Giudice immediately welcomes readers, stating, \u201cI want you to feel truly at home here, together in our little Italian book;\u201d and then promptly confesses that during her first \u201cmarried\u201d meal, she \u201creached for the phone, called my own ma, and cried like a baby (in Italian, of course).\u201d Even though Giudice grew up in her mom\u2019s kitchen, like most American women, she didn\u2019t really learn to cook by herself until she got married. Her tutelage occurred mostly during frantic dinner-time-is-almost-a-disaster phone calls. <\/p>\n

Skinny Jeans & Spaghetti<\/strong> appeals to both the first-time home cook and the cultivated culinarian. It is a true Italian primer plus, stuffed with cooking basics, food fundamentals, historical facts, little-known methods from the motherland, and authentic Italian recipes even the most persnickety food critic will applaud.<\/p>\n

Naturally Thin<\/em> by Bethenney Frankel<\/u>
\nA competitive comparison would not be complete without fellow Housewife Bethenney Frankel\u2019s best-selling Naturally Thin <\/em>(Fireside, 2009). Like Giudice, Frankel is one of the favorite personalities on her season (“The Real Housewives of New York”), but since the New York and New Jersey seasons air at different times of year, fans of the entire franchise can happily embrace both books. <\/p>\n

Frankel\u2019s most practical and delicious advice in Naturally Thin<\/em> comes on page 56, under the heading \u201cThink like an Italian.\u201d For just a precious few paragraphs, Frankel talks about how the Europeans approach, cook and eat food leads to a healthier lifestyle and skinnier figure. Giudice couldn\u2019t agree more! With Skinny Jeans & Spaghetti<\/strong>, full-blooded Italian Giudice picks up where Frankel just hinted, giving readers an entire book on how to mimic the Mediterraneans. <\/p>\n

Giudice brings the same broad food appeal and easy health advice to follow as Frankel, as well as a larger following. Besides delivering double the television audience of Frankel, Giudice also brings new fans to the table. While both authors are adored by single young women and men, Giudice, married for a decade with a real-life brood of four, also appeals to the married and parent demographics. <\/p>\n

<< RETURN to The Competition<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few interesting notes: even though Teresa Giudice was on a TV show, she did not get a book deal handed to her. We had to fight for it. Hard. In 2009, four “Housewives” had released books that all bombed…. Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3288,"href":"https:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1705\/revisions\/3288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}