DIRTY DINING - Launch Success

We both felt a huge amount of excitement at the idea of launching Lisa’s Cookbook DIRTY DINING at this years Overland Expo West at Flagstaff. There were also palpable waves of anxiety.

We’ve created DIRTY DINING: An Adventurers Cookbook, ourselves, from just an idea that was first mentioned at the end of a tough days ride in Mongolia (see the story here).

We’d borrowed the money to print the first limited-edition 100 copies, and neither Lisa nor I had seen a proof or even held the book until we peeled back the tape of the first delivered box at the Expo on the day the book was set to launch.

From the discomfort of our tent, it’s taken us 3-years to create, write, test, photograph and design the layout for Lisa’s first cookbook, each recipe’s been tested by friends, food lover and professional chefs, the results distilled and the recipes refined.

To say we’re proud of DIRTY DINING would be an understatement. However, like any parent presenting their kid to the world for the fist time we had concerns. Had we been overly optimistic when deciding to print 100 copies in the hope of selling them all in three days. Would people like the book? Crucially would people that didn’t know of Lisa or I or our journey actually hand over their hard earned cash and buy the book?

The Answer was a resounding YES!

Lisa signs a copy of DIRTY DINING for a client.

 The DIRTY DINING crowd at the Overland Expo gathers ready for prize draw to be called.

The Launch and success of DIRTY DINING has exceeded our wildest imaginings. To say it was well received would be an understatement. We totally sold out on DAY ONE!

All 100 signed pre-production, limited-edition copies were bought in a matter of hours from our stand in the main authors tent. The overwhelmingly positive comments about the simplicity of the recipes and our choice of stories and images, floored both of us, and left us with smiles that will have to be surgically removed. So many purchasers flicked through the book and commented, “this is so much more than just a cookbook”.

To add to the buzz and excitement we ran a prize draw with the book launch. Each book purchased came with a free ticket and entry to the draw, which offered over $2000 worth of prizes. Of course Lisa and I want to say a huge thank you to our friends and sponsors who contributed the prizes and support our book launch.

We want to thank Roseann Hanson, founder and owner of the Overland Expo for providing us a great spot in the Authors tent, from where to launch DIRTY DINING, but most of all we wanted to thank everyone who supported us and purchases a copy of DIRTY DINING.

Check out the gallery below to see a few of our pic's from the day and a few of the luck y prize winners.

We’re currently working on sourcing the funding that will allow us to order a larger book print run. If you are interested in investing or getting involved please get in touch we’d love to hear from you.

See you down the road.

Lisa Thomas: making Adventure Taste Better.