Keith McNally’s memoir will be the publishing event of the season.

The restaurateur who owns New York landmarks Balthazar, Pastis and Minetta Tavern announced today that his book would come out Nov. 7, 2023.

Entitled, “I Regret Almost Everything,” the book will obviously be of interest to foodies and followers of the New York cultural scene.

But writers and publishers will also be following closely

McNally may be the best example of someone who has leaned into social media to build an audience for a book. Specifically, creating an Instagram following of more than 108,000.

While many authors“engage” with readers by posting updates on their travails and commenting on questions from fans, McNally has taken it to the next level.

He’s spent the past couple of years effectively posting anecdotes from the draft.

It’s similar to how Dickens serialized the Pickwick Papers in London newspapers during the 1830s, but in McNally’s case the snippets pre-dated publication and arrived out of order.

The strategy helped him both build a following and get pre-publication feedback.

It also generated enormous buzz and publicity for Balthazar, as well as a profile in the New York Times with the headline: “Keith McNally Stirs the Pot.”

McNally flexed that muscle last year when he banned talk show host James Cordon for allegedly being rude to a waiter.

McNally posted about the incident, prompting massive press coverage – coverage he would never have received had he just called the newspapers.

It’s a trend we’re seeing everywhere: politicians, celebrities and increasingly business people bypassing the press and taking their story “direct to the consumer.”

They have learned that the media will follow a good story anyway.

McNally’s strategy flies in the face of the tradition of “holding back” the good stuff for a book.

McNally may have saved some revelations, but much about his stroke and divorce and the sale of a beloved house in the Cotswolds has already come out in the daily circus that is his Instagram account.

McNally told the Times that the candor that distinguishes his social media posts may be the result of the stroke and the fact that he no longer cares “what people think.”