VSC Book Project

"Veg-Feasting in Colorado" 

Here's the cover on a similar book which covers the Pacific Northwest.  

The VSC has been approached by the Book Publishing Company and the Vegetarians of Washington to help with a major book project -- publishing a book with the title, "Veg-Feasting in Colorado." It would have lists of restaurants, natural foods stores, and farmers' markets in Colorado, with thumbnail reviews of each. It would also have articles on nutrition, staying healthy, reasons for vegetarianism, and articles specifically on the VSC and its work and of course membership forms, etc., for the VSC.

"All of us on the staff of Book Publishing Company are vegetarians and members of The Farm, the country's largest vegetarian community," said Cynthia Holzapfel of the Book Publishing Company. "Our interest in this project goes way beyond any financial gain, but is seamless with our vegetarian values. We're very excited about working with vegetarian organizations around the country to promote the cause and get out more information."

If you would be interesting in helping or coordinating this project, please contact Sondra Kahler through the VSC -- give the VSC a call at 303-777-4828. 

The publisher would be the Book Publishing Company in Summertown, Tennessee. It appears that we would have no financial risk for the project, just the investment of our own time. Furthermore, there are articles which we could reprint on health, etc., although if any local authors want to make contributions, that would be most welcome. Finally, we might make a small amount of money on the book, which would go to the VSC.

This has already been done for the Pacific Northwest (Washington and Oregon), and the book is out, with the author being the Vegetarians of Washington. The book is titled "Veg-Feasting in the Pacific Northwest Vegetarian Dining, Shopping, and Living." Griggs Irving is the managing editor of this project -- he's with the Vegetarians of Washington -- and would be our point of contact. Basically, all we need to do is to "regionalize" the book concept by supplying our list of restaurants and natural foods stores. We already have an online dining guide, so even this aspect is already substantially under way.

Because restaurant information is so volatile, the book would only be current for about two years, then we'd have to either discontinue the book or issue a revision.

This is a form of outreach which promotes vegetarianism, plus it has helped the Vegetarians of Washington greatly in their organizing efforts. The Book Publishing Company is pleased with the result and wants to extend this to other regions. The main things the VSC would supply which would require effort would be

1. Brief restaurant reviews, and natural foods store reviews -- they have forms which those who are doing the reviews could fill out on each restaurant or store.

2. Brief article or articles on the VSC, with membership forms, etc.

3. Hopefully, recruitment of some local authors to write articles about vegetarianism which would give it "local color."

4. Coordinating the project by getting photos for the cover, making sure all the needed material is in place, and so forth.

5. Help with publicizing the book in the community by mentioning in our newsletter, web site, etc.

The main organizational effort the VSC would provide would be items 1 and 4. If any local authors wanted to contribute for item 3, that would be most welcome, but it's not absolutely necessary for the project to go forward. An article on the VSC and application form could be cloned from our membership brochure, and we could publicize it just by issuing a press release and using our other channels of communication. We would be looking at a time frame of about a year to complete this and get the material to the publisher.

-- Keith Akers