The cover of The Ethical Carnivore published by Bloomsbury September 2016
After much deliberation, The Ethical Carnivore has a cover and the build up to publication has begun.
The book is about my time only eating animals I killed myself. It sounds brutal, but really it is about compassion and facing head-on the ethical questions about where our meat comes from. I learnt how to fish, shoot and stalk, as well as tracking livestock all the way from the farm to the fork.
It has been a tough winter writing 100,000+ words but I am now starting to enjoy the fruits of my hard work. It is fifteen chapters, each focusing on a species of animal, that in most cases I killed and ate.
Months of research have paid off. I think I have pretty comprehensively covered the subject, from put-and-take game to intensively farmed chicken and from wild sheep to McDonald’s burgers.
The editing process is challenging at times but has improved the text and brought out themes that I feel readers can really get their teeth into, from butchering pigs to veganism. It will certainly cause some debate at book clubs! I am thrilled with the result and believe it will encourage people to think more about where their meat comes from and perhaps eat less.
It sounds exciting and it is, but if you want to know the truth I am frankly terrified.
A slightly lighter aspect of finalising the book has been working with the illustrator Sam Goodlet, who has done some wonderful ink drawings for the start of each chapter.
Here’s a sneak preview of one of the illustrations that didn’t make it into the final copy, for that you’ll have to buy the book.
A sketch for Ethical Carnivore by Samantha Goodlet that didn’t make it into the final draft.
Choosing the cover has also been good fun. The Bloomsbury in-house designer, Sutchinda Thompson has done a wonderful job. I was lucky enough to be consulted all the way through the process. We considered using a plate as a target:
A cover option designed by Sutchinda Thompson for Bloomsbury. Pls do not copy.
But we decided that a target is too violent and the book is actually quite gentle and philosophical in parts. Sutchinda came up with the idea of using antlers as a knife and fork. This neatly encapsulates the two main themes: eating and animals. When you read the book, you will also see it has deeper connotations involving stalking and deer. We then started playing around with different colours.
A cover option designed by Sutchinda Thompson for Bloomsbury. Pls do not copy.
We tried many different colours: purple, green, brown. In the end we chose the vibrant red, white and yellow combination to make it stand out on the shelves. On screen it looks very bright. But the texture of the paper on the actual book (still can’t believe it will be an actual book) will mean the colour is toned down and more earthy.
I have also had some fancy author pics done by my mate Nancy Macdonald, which involved a day messing about in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh and changing outfits in the public toilets.
Author pic by Nancy Macdonald.
I am now in the final edits and beginning to send out bound proofs to influential readers (fingers crossed).
It has been difficult to keep blogging while I had an actual book to write, but I hope I can continue to use this forum to answer questions on aspects that might not be covered in the traditional media.
The publication date is September 22nd and I can’t wait to hear what readers think.
Did I mention you can pre-order?
