Crowdsourcing Irish Grannies – Send in your recipes

Via Kieran and via Eoin is a new website that will be used to create a book and some money will go to charity. Mercier press have done Our Grannies Recipes.

The blurb:

A site that gathers together the recipes that have been favourites of Irish families for generations. Using the recipes posted on the site, Mercier Press will publish a book called Our Grannies’ Recipes in October 2008 as a hardback priced at €14.99. For every copy sold Mercier will donate a royalty to Age Action Ireland

Nice idea.

12 Responses to “Crowdsourcing Irish Grannies – Send in your recipes”

  1. Adam says:

    Nice idea, although I’d much rather see them giving an actual figure on the royalties they will give to Age Action Ireland per book sold.

    I’m always instantly suspicious of anything that promises to give “a percentage of sales” or “a donation” to a charity for every item sold.

  2. Branedy says:

    Roast grannies comes to mind, but slow cooked BBQ grannie is better.

  3. Eoin Purcell says:

    Hello Adam and everyone else!

    We have been discussing whether or not to put the royalty up nternally over the last few days.

    We decided to go live without saying the exact figure but we are considering putting the exact figure up early next week, following feedback from a few people.

    For the record, the figure is set in stone and won’t change!

    All the best
    Eoin Purcell
    Commissioning Editor
    Mercier Press

  4. Eoin Purcell says:

    By the way Damien,

    Thanks for the link!
    Eoin

  5. Adam says:

    You want to roast grannies, Branedy?

    Whatever floats your boat, I guess…!

  6. Niall O'K says:

    They’d be a bit tough, surely…

  7. Grannymar says:

    If you need a home cured granny, I’m here! 😉

    As Adam says I would like to know an actual figure on the royalties they will give to Age Action Ireland per book sold.

    I was ready to offer a recipe but stopped for this very reason.

    Eoin & Co get credit for a book with the free input of the generous public. For me it is like News programmes asking the public to phone in with news as it happens. I thought that is what the journalists on massive expenses were paid for!

  8. errrrrrr I think they’d be gone off, they’ve both been dead for over 50 years, aren’t we s’posed to love our grannies?

  9. Eoin Purcell says:

    Hello Grannymar,

    I have updated the site with the actual figure €1 per book sold which averages around 12.5-15% depending on discount.

    the general idea is to ensure contributors don’t feel exactly the way you expressed, like we have taken them for a ride. Instead of paying an author royalty the royalty fee is going to a charity. I hope you’ll agree that’s a fair compromise. One way or the other feel free to drop me a line about it if you have any more questions.

    Eoin

  10. elly parker says:

    As an update, Eoin from Mercier stopped by grannymar’s blog and left a comment stating that €1 per book sold will be donated to Age Action Ireland, which I think is a very generous percentage.
    See post here for details: http://www.grannymar.com/blog/2008/02/06/grannies-and-cooking/

  11. Rahood says:

    “Instead of paying an author royalty the royalty fee is going to a charity.”

    I’d like to see you do it @ cost to be honest. I’m still a little taken aback having only just realized just how little my charity of choice made from the box of Christmas Cards I purchased in good faith.

  12. Eoin Purcell says:

    Hello Rahood,

    The charitable donation is not so much because the book is in aid of a charity as it is to reassure contributors that we value their time and effort in taking part. It was more to make clear that while we were crowd sourcing material, Mercier will make nothing extra by doing so.

    I should have made that clearer from the beginning in my initial statements.

    Feel free to get in touch if you have any queries!

    Eoin