Go fetch some laughs today at the Ryland Peters & Small booth (4235) at 4:30 p.m., as they celebrate the launch of CICO Books’ humor imprint, Dog ’n’ Bone. Billed as “unapologetically off the wall,” the imprint promises to “look at the lighter side of life.”
RPS/CICO publisher Cindy Richards explains that the new imprint was created to appeal to the male customer, since RPS and CICO’s lists “are quite girly, concentrating on interiors, crafts, and body, mind, and spirit. Plus, our readers [request] gifts for the men in their lives. Dog ‘n’ Bone will not be totally for men but with them in mind.” The first seven books pub in the fall, with such titles as Tits & Ass: A Guide to the Animal Kingdom’s Rudest Residents; World’s Worst Travel Destinations: 50 Travel Experiences You Will Want to Miss; and Mary Jane’s Hash Brownies, Hot Pot, and Other Marijuana Munchies.
Who thinks these up? Blame 20-something commissioning editor Pete Jorgensen, based at the house’s London offices. “Cindy knew that I had a strong interest in humor and pop culture, the areas they wanted to target in order to reach nontraditional book outlets, so they asked me to put together the list.” For Jorgensen, everything’s an idea source: stream of consciousness, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as “nights with friends, weekends walking around the city, an evening spent looking at random stuff on the Internet.”
Explaining the imprint’s name, Richards says, “We wanted something quirky. We were talking about Cockney rhyming slang, which was traditionally used by market people. And we were in a bar, I admit it.” Jorgensen elaborates: “Cockney rhyming slang is a type of dialect used by people from East London. How it works is, you take a word, then replace it with a rhyming two-word phrase. For example, apples ’n’ pears—stairs (I’m going up the apples ’n’ pears to bed), trouble ’n’ strife—wife (I’ve left the trouble ’n’ strife at home while I’m off down the pub), and dog ’n’ bone—phone (’ere, I’ve got Diane Patrick on the dog ’n’ bone for you).”
As for those who might not get the joke, Jorgensen notes, “The visual of a dog with a bone in its mouth had the potential to make a good logo, so even if the Cockney rhyming bit was lost, the name would still work.”
