EAT UPdreaming big
As discussed in the previous post, the importance of selecting the right person to write the book’s foreword is paramount. The most appropriate candidates for “Eat Up” fall within the categories of food writer, community activist, designer, and practitioner. Ideally, a prominent person in one of these fields will accept the invitation to write the foreword, thereby promoting their own goals while contributing to the growing rooftop agriculture movement. Writing the foreword could help the following authors to promote their own initiatives by addressing:
– Food author: food systems, food access, food equity, organics, nutrition
– Community activist: community building, education, food justice, public health
– Designer: roof access, building codes, integrated design
– Practitioner: feasibility, cost, sales outlets
My dream team top pick shall remain unnamed, but I searched high and low for a personal connection to this literary superstar. The one connection that I found did not yield the results that I hoped for, an so the jury is out on whether to approach the author via email, mail a manuscript and written letter, or schedule an appointment and fly across the country to talk.
Might I suggest that you cross-fertilize to take it out of your somewhat academic realm? That is, look for a non-literary superstar, someone who already has a “large media” soapbox, like on TV or popular magazines. For instance, target the editor of Men’s Health or Mother Jones or even Home Repair DYI mag/TV (double-media outlets have bigger soapboxes). Find someone who would be so intrigued by this “new” idea (at least, it’s new to the superstar) to be driven to air it to the masses, thus creating the next generation of rooftop architects & attracting corporate interest as well.
Have you thought of a tagline for your book? Considering the economic times, I was thinking “Save money on veggies while saving the planet: be a rooferBee.”