Food for thought

I can still remember exactly what it was like to hold the first book in my hands. Now I had two pallets totaling 2000 muffin cook books waiting in storage, but no buyers yet. I took a box of 50, put them on the housewares dealer’s table, and asked him to sell them on consignment. When I met him the other day, he told me: “I remember that very well. You were just pretty persistent!”

To create a muffin market in the first place, I placed an ad in the Sindelfingen and Boeblingen newspapers. And it happened that in my parents’ Renz hardware and building materials store there were also cook books for sale. Well, the first letter was the same! (explanation: in German the term bauen for building starts with the same letter as baking ).

By the way, the word muffin was not yet listed in the German “dictionary” in 1995. Funny!

The food magazine “Essen & Trinken” featured the book in its “New Releases” section and immediately gave my telephone number (direct line) at the hardware store office. The phone rang incessantly. Since my phone was constantly busy, our building material salesmen had to take muffin book orders. The lady at the Darmsheim post office was totally thrilled when I walked in at ten to five with 500 book shipments.

I inquired how to get a book wholesale. How fortunate that the largest book wholesaler in Germany was in the immediate vicinity, namely in Stuttgart-Vaihingen. I made an appointment with the purchasing manager at Koch Neef Oetinger. As I handed out fresh muffins to each clerk, I heard from all directions: “Mmmh, delicious”.

Mr. Jaiser, who had previously been somewhat skeptical, took heart and listed my book in the bar assortment. At the time, I didn’t even have an ISBN number. The nice man then gave me another helpful tip: “Just let the other colleagues know that we have it listed.”

The way was paved. Now all customers could purchase the books nationwide, and in any bookstore. The only problem was that very few Germans knew what the little cakes were all about. Until the end, I delivered the boxes of 50 books to the wholesaler myself. It was always fun when, instead of a giant truck with a trailer, my little blue Golf rabbit TDI stopped at the barrier and asked to be let in. In the meantime, the gatekeepers had gotten used to my little “delivery truck”.

I also sent a copy to the Weltbild publishing house. Promptly, an order for 2000 books arrived. I quickly had to reprint a new edition. How fortunate that we had a forklift at my parents’ company. Without it, nothing would have worked back then.

Over the years, numerous baking books have been written in which I conveyed to the readers the joy of baking and the variety of muffin creations. If you are looking for a timeless and tasteful gift for your relatives, friends, acquaintances or yourself, you will find the appropriate link to Amazon on the baking books.