Increasingly, recipe writers are finding their own content appearing somewhere else.

Part of the problem is how ridiculously simple it is to lift work verbatim. On the net, just copy and paste. Some online companies write code that does it. In print, just retype a recipe verbatim, and present it as yours.

Here’s what Gwen from Bunky Cooks said in the comments of a previous post here in Will Write for Food:

“I was amazed at the number of people who came up to me after I spoke on a panel on ethics at IFBC in New Orleans last year. They said they had no idea that there were ethics they should be adhering to when writing their blogs.

“Isn’t some of this just common sense? Aren’t we responsible for our words and actions just as you would be in a job or at school? Why do some people think the internet is a place where everything is free and anything is yours just for the taking?”

Good questions. At least she and I got the opportunity to educate. I also spoke on an ethics panel for IFBC last year, and talked for 50 minutes on the subject last weekend at Food Blog South in Birmingham, AL.

Here are some new developments from last week where both individuals and companies are involved:

1. Recipes ripped off as an e-book. Elise Bauer got Amazon to shut down a page where someone in Bangkok scraped the content of Simply Recipes into an e-book and sold it on Kindle. A reader of her site tipped her off. One week later, eight more Kindle e-books appeared on Amazon that ripped off Bauer’s recipes.

2. Recipes appear on a recipe database site — surprise! A food blogger emailed me to say she recently stumbled across several of her recipes on Tastebook. She didn’t add them. She has contacted the company but has not heard back from them yet.

Similarly, some big bloggers are fighting with Velvet Aroma and Feastie, which scrape blog recipes into their sites, without permission.

3. Recipes ripped off by a future cookbook author. That’s right, people don’t just steal online content. An editor at a publishing house emailed me to say that, after receiving a cookbook manuscript, she discovered two plagiarized recipes during a taste testing.

“Someone at the table said something like, ‘I swear this is just like a (celebrity chef’s/magazine’s) recipe I’ve made.’ We went online  and found the original recipes in a matter of minutes. Everything’s nearly a straight copy-paste, including a typo!

“We had an intern spot-check some of the recipes the author had submitted, and we found a third had also come from the Internet. We talked with the author, who blamed an assistant. The author sent us replacements and assured us they were original recipes and not taken from other sources. The plagiarized recipe we discovered today was one of those replacement recipes.”

I introduced the cookbook editor to Amanda Hesser, who deals with this issue of lifted recipes during Food52 contests. She suggested a search of recipes at Eat Your Books. The site won’t show you the entire recipe, but shows a list of ingredients that appear in recipes in cookbooks, magazines and blogs, so you can take a first step in determining which are similar.

What can you do if you find someone’s stolen your recipes verbatim? First, take a deep breath. Second, read Bauer’s post about copyright theft, and read all the comments. Not everyone who does this is evil. Some people are simply naive. I hope, if this has happened to you, the person is in the latter category.

Photo by chanpipat from Freedigitalphotos.net

Has anyone not heard of David Lebovitz? He’s a super successful American food writer blogger living in Paris. He’s also a gorgeous photographer, author of five cookbooks and one memoir, and author and co-author of two apps.

I first met him on email in 2005, when he endorsed my book, Will Write for Food. Recently we spoke about his success and philosophy on food blogging, writing cookbooks, social media, and how he finds the time to get it all done:

Q. Why do so many people adore your blog? What is it about you and your subject matter?

A. It’s a combination of things. Part of it is I started a long time ago so I’ve had a long time to practice, to learn about blogging and build a site. Part of it is I live in Paris and that interests people. Plus I worked as a professional chef, which is part of the mix. People say they feel my blog is very personal; they know the person behind it.

My blog is largely about cultural differences because I’m a foreigner living abroad, and the longer you live somewhere, the more it gives you more credibility. And perhaps people can relate to being an “outsider.” Years ago I was more of a critic of certain aspects of French culture, but now I’m more of an observer and I try to be more neutral. The longer you live somewhere, the more you understand how people are and I’ve become more integrated, too, and understand the culture better.

Q. How has your blog changed since you started your website in 1999? What kinds of posts do you no longer do?

A. Now I microblog on Twitter (105,000+ followers) and Facebook (26,000+ followers). I used to do link round-ups on my blog, but now I’ll put links and short things on Twitter, and pictures on Flickr or Instagram.

Q. How do you decide what to put on Facebook and what to put on Twitter?

A. Facebook is more about linking. Twitter is more about thoughts. When I’m out and about I can easily tweet a social observation or a photo of a bakery. I find that when people link to too many things their Twitter stream becomes less interesting because it’s no longer about them.

Q. How many times should a blogger refer to his or her most recent post on social media?

A. Once. You’re allowed to do it twice, but only if you sincerely believe people missed it and it’s a truly exceptional, amazing post that will revolutionize the world of food blogging.

Q. What was the turning point for your blog, when you knew it was successful?

A. The day I actually ran my fingers through Michael Ruhlman’s hair.

Q. Right, I was there! It was at the Food Blogger Camp in Mexico.

A. Yes, it was. Actually, I don’t look at statistics very often. It’s kind of a waste of time. When I was selling my current book, I saw that they were looking to base the advance somewhat on my online readership so I did check then. In general, book sales have been healthy because of my site. That’s what every author wants.

Chocolate Mint Brownies (Photo by David Lebovitz)

Q. Are your posts getting longer and longer?

A. My goal is to write a post that someone can read in 3 minutes or less. Even if it seems long, there are a lot of photos that people can scroll through. But I aim to write something readable in a relatively short amount of time.

Q. What’s the most important change you’ve made on your blog in the last year?

A. Moving to WordPress and switching servers. WordPress is so much easier to use, compared to Movable Type — which is for developers, because you have to know code. I had a wonderful web guy who was a Movable Type expert and then he stopped working with clients and I couldn’t find anyone who did Movable Type work, which led me to change.

Q. Which is your first love: writing books, blogging, photography, or social media?

A. I actually like blogging. It’s more fun than writing books because I can write something and post it the same day. I like the immediate feedback. And I can go back and edit things.

Cognac press trip (Photo by David Lebovitz)

Writing a book is interesting, though, because the process is longer and I learn a lot when I’m developing recipes. It’s difficult in a small apartment to deal with the recipe paperwork and the notes, though. And, of course, all the leftovers!

Q. Do you have one post that you think is amazing?

A. My posts on food blogging, food photography, and Paris information get lots of feedback.

Q. On your post about food blogging, you suggest bloggers “find your niche.” Some people worry that they will get bored with their niche. How do they avoid that? Can you chance a blog into something else?

A. You have to start a blog about what interests you. Now I’m branching out doing more savory recipes, because there are only so many desserts. I don’t make chocolate tarts every day.

People should blog about what their life is about. You can start or stop a blog, but I never get bored with my blog so it’s not been an issue.

Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream (Photo by David Lebovitz)

Q. I was at a conference recently where someone told me that recipes are meant to be shared, so what’s wrong with sharing them on a blog?

A. Music and movies are meant to be shared, too. But you can’t copy and redistribute them. If you have nothing to add to the recipe, you should just link to it. That’s sharing. Otherwise you should adapt it and write it as you made it.

Q. My sense is that you are interested in technology and often one of the first to jump on new media. Is that essential to be a food blogger or social media maven?

A. If you mean apps, my publisher provided my first app. For the Paris Pastry app, I wanted to do a pastry guidebook back in 1993 when I first moved to Paris. (It’s amusing because I still have those notes!) So when a friend who is a publisher approached me, we did it together. But in terms of being a techie, I can’t read CSS, I have no idea what it is, and I have no idea how to switch servers.

Q. Do you hire technical people?

A. Yes. They oversee my site, dealing with any technical stuff like WordPress upgrades, changing a font, cleaning up pages, or having something redesigned to be cleaner to read. I’ve hired web developers since 1999 and I think they’re a worthwhile investment.

In 2000, just after I started out, someone else who was starting out said they wanted to do it all themselves. I said, “Do it yourself and you take that time away from your baking and writing.”

Q. Let’s talk about product placement. How do you decide which trip to take or which product to feature, such as cognac or a ride on the Queen Mary? Are you bombarded with offers?

A. I only do things that I would really want do on my own, or that give me an opportunity to learn.  For example, I didn’t know much about cognac. It’s part of life in France and visiting the region makes me learn and understand more about not just the item, but the culture and terroir surrounding it. I’ve been on a few press trips, which are important in France, because it’s very hard to get access to places unless you’ve had a formal introduction. It’s much, much easier to go see a place, and meet the people, if all the arrangements have been made in advance.

As for products, if someone wants to send me a spatula to try out, I would take it if I were actually interested in it. (Especially because it’s often extremely complicated to get something delivered here.) I was interested in green non-stick pans, and the Actify fryer so I gave them a try, and put my impressions on my blog.

Most important is that there’s nothing worse than losing the trust of your readers. It’s not worth a spatula, a piece of kitchen equipment, or a bag of nuts if readers get the impression you are just trying to get freebies.

Q. How do you feel about sponsored posts?

A. I’d feel funny about having a company pay me to write something on my site. If I wanted to make a lot of money or have a lot of visitors I would do three chocolate desserts a week instead.

Q. Of all your ads, which is the best moneymaker?

A. BlogHer ads. Like the line at Costco, it’s important to stick with something for a while and not jump around to what looks to be better elsewhere. I don’t judge it from month to month. The thing I like about them is that they’re bloggers. All my interactions with them have been extremely professional.

Lime Meringue Tart (Photo by David Lebovitz.)

Q. You have other ads and affiliate programs too.

A. I have a BlogHer ad between posts, plus Amazon, Google Adsense, and Platefull in the sidebars. The ads are geotagged and only show in the US so I can’t see a lot of them. A lot of my readers are outside the US and I don’t make money from those that appear outside the US, but I love working with BlogHer.

Q. How do you carve out time to start a new project?

A. It’s very challenging. I’m starting to write a book now, and the blog takes up a lot of time, and I live in a country where there’s a heavy amount of administrative tasks. Life is a little more difficult here day to day. Things take longer. For example, if you need an orange or a sack of sugar for a recipe and it’s 9 p.m., there’s not necessarily somewhere nearby to get it. You need to wait until the next day, or when your market is open.

It’s hard to find the time, and it’s something I struggle with. For my last two books, I’ve gone out to the country for a couple of weeks where there’s no Internet access just to finish things without distractions.

I don’t have a schedule for writing. Today I started at 5:30 a.m. and I tested a recipe this morning. It took 1.5 hours to prepare and cleanup took 1 hour. It’s been in the refrigerator for 8 hours, and now it’s probably ready to taste. It’s the fourth time I’ve made it. Doing the math, you can see how long it takes to get work done!

Since I work a lot with the US, people there are waking up at 5 p.m. my time and they expect me to respond to e-mail. I have dinner at 8:30 p.m. and then I don’t want to go back to the computer, so I have to log off. Otherwise I make myself crazy.

Q. Do you think people really know you as a result of reading your blog? Or have you invented a character?

A. It’s really me. I’m writing about my life. I’m probably more open about certain things than other people are, like flushing meringue down the toilet. I’m often presenting a realist view of the city I live in. I feel like I’m pretty open and honest about everything on my site.

Q. Any final messages?

A. Food bloggers should think of themselves as part of a community. Don’t swipe material from other blogs. It’s not “passing along information.” Create your own content for your readers, and link to other people. That’s what the world wide web is all about.

You might also like:

• David’s post on Writing Your Own Cookbook
• David’s posts on Food Blog Alliance

Food writing students working on writing assignments in our beautiful Honolulu teahouse.

I met Hawaiian food blogger Mariko Jackson of The Little Foodie through this blog. A year ago she was a frequent commenter, and told her I wanted to come to Hawaii. I asked if she could help me set up a class. To my surprise, she said yes. Before this point, I had only taught classes for schools, bookstores, or conferences, so I was a newbie at planning my own event.

Our strategy didn’t go smoothly at first. I thought we needed a swanky restaurant lunch to attract food writers, because that strategy had worked well in Seattle. But it cost too much, and not enough people responded. Mariko lowered the price and dumped the restaurant, and to our delight, 20 food writers and bloggers signed up.

Lots of bighearted Hawaiians and mainland Hawaii lovers helped me get the word out. Hawaiians RT’d announcements of the class on Twitter; Amy Sherman of Cooking With Amy suggested some contacts; Catherine Toth, a prominent Honolulu food writer, interviewed me; the Hawaiian president of Les Dames Escoffier told members about the class and invited me to pupus (appetizers) at a trendy

I had just started working with a food blogger on a book proposal when she got a call from a literary agent, who said he might be able to get her a book deal.

That’s exciting, but how do you know if it’s true, or if this person has the right credentials?

Literary agents, just for review, represent writers. Once you write a book proposal, they find a publisher and negotiate the book contract .

My client had a long talk with the agent and he seems like a good match. I checked him out too. Now, what if you get the call? Here are 5 tips to increase your chances of working with a worthwhile literary agent and getting a book deal:

1. Listen politely and do not commit. Sure, you’re honored and humbled (my two favorite blogger terms to make fun of), but you probably don’t know this person, so you don’t yet know if you want the agent to represent you. Maybe you haven’t even thought about writing a book. Thank the agent, seem interested, and say you’ll get back in touch soon.

2. Ask the agent if he or she represents food-based books. You want an agent who has expertise in your area. If you forgot to ask during the call, check the agency’s website to see if he or she has represented cookbooks, food memoir, reference books or guidebooks — whatever type of book you want to write. If your search comes up blank, be skeptical. In your next call, politely ask about the interest in your kind of book if it is not something the agent has represented before.

3. Ask more questions. You’ll be entering into a business relationship with this agent, and you want to be informed. On this or a subsequent phone call, ask such questions as:

• How long have you been in business?
• Do you represent authors who might have competing books?
• Do you have an author-agent contract?
• Will you send on rejection letters to me?
• Are you a member of the Association of Authors’ Representatives?

After the call, do a search on the agent’s name and agency name and learn as much as possible, if you haven’t already.

4. Be clear about fees. Most agents charge a flat 15 percent of whatever money you get from a publisher. Some charge for office expenses and faxes, but these days, most work is done online, so there’s not much to charge for anyway. If the agent says there’s a fee to work on a proposal, steer clear. That’s supposed to be part of their fee. (And if you want help crafting an impressive book proposal, that’s my territory.)

5. Don’t promise to write a book proposal within a few weeks. If the agent wants to work with you, you’ll need to write a book proposal they use to sell your book to publishers. Book proposals are long, strategic documents that take months to write correctly, if they’re going to get into the 2 percent that succeed. Rushing it is a sure way to get into the great majority that fail, not to mention disappointing yourself and your new agent.

(Photo from freedigitalphotos.net)

You might also like:

• Most Book Deals Originate with Publishers Not Authors, Says Cookbook Agent
• Want to Write a Cookbook? Top Editors Reveal Best Subjects and Formats
• Five Tips on What Makes a Killer Cookbook Idea
• Finding an Agent for Your Book

If you can get a sentence down, then a paragraph, then an essay, and maybe an entire manuscript, this is the season to be grateful. While 81 percent of the public says they want to write a book, most of them never get to that point. Because it’s hard.

At a workshop I conducted recently, one of the students said she hasn’t been able to write a blog post for the last four months. I have wrestled with my critic for more than 30 years of being published, and it is still a struggle. I can relate.

So this holiday season, I’m grateful I can produce the words. Being grateful, it turns out, is a mood changer. The other day I heard Dr. Andrew Weil discuss his new book, Spontaneous Happiness, where he talked about how inner contentment can lift depression:

“I was very surprised in writing this to discover how much scientific evidence we have for the power of gratitude to improve mood. There’s two aspects to this. It’s feeling grateful and expressing it. And the good thing here, there’s nothing in the way of doing it. All you have to do is remember to do it. You know, forgiveness also has great power, but that’s tricky. There’s a whole lot in the way of being forgiving.

But there’s nothing in the way of expressing gratitude. There’s a simple exercise from positive psychology called keeping a gratitude journal. You get a little notebook, keep it by your bed; during the day, make mental notes of things you have to be grateful for, jot them down when you go to bed. Doing that for one week can cause improvement of mood for up to six months. And that’s pretty dramatic.”

In light of his words, I’m dedicating this post to telling you how grateful I am – - to you, for making this blog such a big part of my life and so satisfying. Thank you for all the comments, conversation, education and friendships born over the past 2.5 years. This blog has been more fun and more fulfilling then I ever thought possible.

Here’s to writing more, writing longer, and putting the “Happy” in Happy Holidays.

Dianne

(Photo courtesy of maple, FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

People who want to write a cookbook contact me all the time.

Often these potential authors have no background in writing, cooking, teaching, or any other credential that would make them appealing to a publisher. But they’re passionate about cooking.

Don’t write a book first, I suggest. Start with a blog.

But but but, they protest. Whenever they bring their chocolate-bacon cupcakes into the office or serve their lamb shanks scented with cinnamon, people tell them they should write a cookbook, because their cooking is just that good.

Great, I say. But it’s not that simple. Enthusiasm from friends, family and fellow employees is not what excites a publisher. What turns on publishers is a cunning idea, writing chops and a platform. Now if these potential authors would start a blog instead, they might get to a published book.

Literary Agent Lisa Ekus, who represents only cookbooks, said recently at a blogging conference that more than 80 percent of book queries to her agency come from bloggers.That’s perfect. The bloggers who contact her are writing about their passions and expertise in a blog, and they’re building a community of followers. Blogging gives them a cunning idea, writing chops, and a platform. Sense a pattern here in what I’m saying?

A book is not the only way to express a love of cooking. In fact, it’s a ton of work and can take several years, by the time you solidify the idea, create a proposal, find an agent or publisher, write the manuscript, and get it published.

A blog, on the other hand, has three main benefits:

1. It’s immediate. You launch it and it’s out there. Boom. You’re published on whatever you’re passionate about.

2. It helps you figure out what to write about. Some people start a blog and have no idea where it’s going, other than that it’s about food. After a few months, a theme emerges. They sharpen their ideas, zero in on a topic, and a solid focus emerges that might become a book.

3. You engage with future buyers of  your book. If you start a blog on the subject of your book, you start a relationship with readers who might buy it. A former student just got a book deal. When she began the book proposal a year ago, she started a blog at the same time.

“By the time the proposal was in, the blog was well underway and became part of what sold the project,” she wrote me in an email. ” The blog has also been a great way to connect with my audience and get to know what their needs are in a cookbook.”

A blog delivers on the main reason people want to write books: It gets their writing published, immediately. So why, do you think, is there so much resistance?

You might also like:

• Pile of Food Blogger Cookbooks in the Works
• Why Authors Need a Platform More than Ever
• 5 Tips on what Makes a Killer Cookbook Idea

(Photo by Stuart Miles, FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)

Why go to a conference or workshop? I can think of a million reasons. It’s fun. It’s a great way to hear speakers you admire, or people you only know online. You’ll be energized, you could make contacts leading to more writing assignments, and you’ll definitely get out of your usual routine.

In the sessions, even if you think you’ve heard it all, you could:

• Be inspired to reach for a new goal
• Remember something important that you need to work on
• Think about a current project in a new way, breaking through clutter or obstacles
• Hear messages you’ve heard before, but this time they sink in!

Whether you’re a food writer, food blogger, or food historian, here’s a big list of upcoming food-based conferences to tempt you (and some where I’m speaking):

December 9 – 10, Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Conference. Held at the University of Las Vegas campus, this conference attracts academics who speak on agriculture industry, geography, culture and aesthetics and policies. Las Vegas, NV

January 28, 2012, Food Blog South. This year’s one-day conferences features a keynote by Kat Kinsman, managing editor of CNN’s food blog Eatocracy, and vice chair of the James Beard journalism committee. I’ll be speaking on food blog ethics, a favorite topic. Birmingham, AL

February 9 – 11, The Roger Smith Cookbook Conference. Tracks on the past, present and future of the cookbook, with panelists from the cookbook, agenting, publishing and literary worlds. New York

March 16th – 18th, Food Sense: 8th Annual MU Life Sciences & Society Symposium. This symposium investigates “how our taste for food is shaped by biological triggers, cultural norms, economic activity, and social surroundings and will examine how individuals, communities, and societies can make healthy choices about food in this context.” Columbia, MO

March 27, Creating and Selling Your Dream Cookbook, a one-day class by publishing insiders. I am one of the speakers. New York

March 30 – April 4, International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) annual conference. I’ve attended this conference almost every year for the last dozen years. Next year’s theme is Fashioning Food, where speakers will “examine, challenge and celebrate the ways in which the food world interacts with other cultural events.” New York

April 13, Nourished Food Blogger Conference. A one-day conference for bloggers with special diets. I’ll be teaching a writing class.

April 15 - 16, Eating, Cooking, Culture: The Politics and History of Food, University of Wisconsin. Features author Jessica Harris and distinguished food scholars. Milwaukee, WI

April 20 – 21, TechMunch. connecting 100 local bloggers with speakers in a technical format. Tampa, FL

April 23 – 28, Food Writing Workshop in Tuscany. Speakers include Barbara Fairchild, former editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit, blogger David Lebovitz, and cookbook author Nancy Harmon Jenkins. Tuscany, Italy

May 4 – 6, Camp Blogaway. Not your usual hotel location, but cabins with decks in the wilds of California, and fewer than 100 attendees. Angeles Oaks, CA

May 8 – 11, Food and Love, 34th conference of the International International Commission on the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition. (ICAF) The conference will feature papers on the subjects of food and sex, nutrition and affection, and food and emotion. Daroca (Zaragoza), Spain

May 18, TechMunch, connecting 100 local bloggers with speakers in a technical format. New York

May 18 – 21, Plate to Page, food photography and writing workshop. A hands-on, 2.5-day writing and photography intensive. Somerset, England

June 8 – 9, BlogHer Food. Last year’s conference reached around 500 attendees, which makes this the mother of all food blogging conferences. Seattle, WA

June 20 – 23, Meetingsof the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS), Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS), and the Society for Anthropology of Food and Nutrition. In addition to sessions on “Cities, Agriculture, and the Future of Food Systems,” this conference includes tours, such as rooftop gardens and foraging in Central Park. New York

July 6 – 8, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, St. Catherine’s College. This year’s subject is “Wrapped and Stuffed Foods” from every culinary tradition. “Papers are invited on the cultural, practical and historical context in which these diverse preparations exist.” St. Catherine’s College, UK

August 18 – 21, 18th International Ethnological Food Research Conference, Societe International d’Ethnologie et de Folklore. Turku, Finland

August 24 – 26, International Food Blogger Conference. Brought to you by the founders of Foodista. Portland, OR

Other events where organizers have not announced dates yet:

Big Summer Potluck. Cookbook author Pam Anderson‘s summer event, held at her home in Pennsylvania with daughters Sharon and Maggy.

Eat. Drink.Blog. A conference that brings food and drink bloggers together. Australia

Eat Write Retreat. Hands-on panels include photography, food styling, and culinary workshops. US

Food Blog Forum. Regional events focused on food photography, technology, and social media. US

Food Blogger Connect. A conference for food bloggers, based on inspiring and nurturing creativity, innovation and professionalism. London

Food Blog Camp. Several days at a luxury tropical resort with blogging luminaries such as David Lebovitz, Matt Amendariz and Jaden Hair teaching photography, branding, writing and technology. Mexico

Food Buzz. “Annual Blogger Festival” for subscribers, usually held in November. San Francisco

Okanagan Food & Wine Writers’ Workshop. Held in picturesque farm and wine country. This summer event focuses on professional development and food and wine education. Penticton, Canada

The Symposium for Professional Food Writers at the Greenbrier. The grandmother of all food writing conferences is now in its 21st year. White Sulphur Springs, WV.

So, I know it’s a long list, but what did I miss? If I’ve left out other good reasons to attend conferences, please add them.

You have a friend with more followers than you on Twitter. Another blogger gets more comments than you on her blog. Your friend who wrote a cookbook got nominated for an award.

You read the bios of food bloggers and food writers online, and feel envy about how much media attention they get, or whom they write for, or how clever they are. Or you spend hours on Facebook and Twitter, admiring how some writers craft a witty sentence, and seeing how many “Likes” and comments and RTs they get.

Then you try to comment but you find you don’t have anything brilliant to say. And then you get mad because you’re supposed to spend time in social media, building followers and having conversations and leaving comments, but you’re spending too much time on it and not getting any writing done.

And what does this get you?

Exactly.

Just in case you’re wondering, I compare too. I compare myself to other speakers, other teachers, other coaches, other writers. I read beautiful writing and I realize I am never going to be that talented. I doubt myself.

Comparing is evil. But it’s normal too. I try not to let it crush me. When it does I can’t write anything because I am too busy beating myself up.

Fortunately, the moment passes. I tell myself there is always someone doing better than me, but I am doing better than lots of other people. It’s still a comparison and it’s silly, but it calms me. Then I redirect myself to what matters: crafting the best possible book, blog or article I can, remembering that I love what I do, and that I am fortunate to even get to do it.

These thoughts came up when I read a provocative blog post from My Mezzaluna, sent to me by Arva from I Live in a Frying Pan. I’ll leave you with passage from the blogger, Edwina Cottino, who wrote  this in the comments:

“After falling apart for a while and questioning myself and all my abilities the one thing that brings sanity is to stay true to yourself and keep in mind why you are doing this in the first place. Many want to find fame and fortune through blogging and photography, and many do. Most don’t. My feeling is if you follow your passion it will pay off in some shape or form eventually. Perhaps only to give you pleasure. Just as digital photography has suddenly turned millions into photographers, so blogging has given many of us the opportunity to be published, even if our work is only seen by those who follow us.

To stay happy and content with ourselves we absolutely must never compare ourselves to others. We all have something different and unique and for me, being the square peg in the round hole, fits. The moment I begin trying to fit in with what everybody else is doing I start to stress. Thank you to all of you for confirming to me that doing something that has value is more important than being famous.”

Amen sister. We all go through this questioning from time to time. Just yesterday I just sent an email to a food blogger, a former client, who hasn’t posted for months, and asked what’s going on. “It’s complicated,” was the answer. It always is.

(Photo by IdeaGo on Freedigitalphotos.net)

How often do you think about farm workers when you choose your food, cook it, or write about food? Yeah, I thought so. Me too.

Last week I went to a talk about agriculture and social justice by writer Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation; Greg Asbed, co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW); and Lucas Benitez, co-director of the coalition.

Schlosser spoke plainly about how conditions for farm workers have not improved since he took a year to write about the servitude of strawberry pickers for the Atlantic in 1995. In fact, he said, it’s worse now. Minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, is now one-third less than pay in the 1960s and 1970s. And on top of poor working conditions and pay, some states have passed draconian anti-immigration bills that have terrorized farm workers and cost farmers money.

What struck me most about what Schlosser said is how the food movement does not seem to care. As food writers, we’re part of the food movement too. We write about food, farmers, even animals, but we don’t write about who supplies our food. Yet we should be grateful to farm workers for making it possible for us to eat healthy food every single day, he argued, and help them earn a living wage, with decent working conditions.

So as food writers, how likely are we to cover this topic, and how does it fit in with the writing we already do? Granted, most of us aren’t going to choose a career as investigative reporters, such as Schlosser or Barry Estabrook. A contributing writer to Gourmet, Estabrook wrote about tomato pickers in 2009, with a provocative subtitle: “If you have eaten a tomato this winter, chances are very good that it was picked by a person in virtual slavery.” I’ve read that former editor Ruth Reichl said one of her proudest moments as Gourmet’s editor-in-chief was publishing that article. Estabrook went on to write Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit, with an endorsement from Reichl on the cover. If you haven’t read the book, it’s an eye-opening look about how our thirst for tomatoes on burgers creates human misery.

It might be easier to take action outside our purview as food writers. We can educate ourselves on this subject, and it might affect decisions we make. We could ask the farmers at the farmer’s market we frequent about how they treat their workers, for example. Or we might write a letter to Trader Joe’s for not supporting the penny-per-pound increase desired by the CIW.

But if you write about about the pleasures of eating, or if you educate people about the food system and where our food comes from, where does the subject of compassion and fairness for the people who pick our food come in? What is our role?

Jenny McGruther quit her job as an office manager last year to devote herself to her online cooking business, Nourished Kitchen. (Photo by Kevin McGruther)

Do you dream of making enough money from food writing online to quit your day job? Do you want more income as a self-employed writer and educator?

Jennifer McGruther started down a path to lucrative self-employment in 2006, when she switched to a traditional foods diet. She defines this style of eating as “the foods that your ancestors ate prior to the industrial revolution in the 19^th Century and the green revolution in the mid-20^th Century.” The focus is on raw dairy, cultured and fermented foods, broth, offal, and grains and beans that have been soaked, fermented or sprouted. Protein sources must be grass fed, pastured or wild-caught.

She had trouble finding enough information about traditional foods (Sally Fallon’s Weston A. Price Foundation and her book, Nourishing Traditions, are pioneers). So in 2007, McGruther started a blog as a way to track the recipes she developed.

Based on the amount of interest in her blog and her newsletter (begun in 2009), she launched an online business of teaching people to cook traditional foods. She charges by the month and by the class for her online cooking classes and healthy meal plans. Hundreds of people sign up. Last year, she quit her day job as a Colorado office manager to work full time at her business, Nourished Kitchen.

Today, her newsletter has more than 21,000 subscribers. (Her Facebook fan page has more than 22,000 Likes.) Now she has a full website that sells two kinds of products: meal plans and recipes ($10 per month/ $85 per year) and video cooking classes ($149 for 13 installments), all aimed at an audience interested in pursuing the traditional foods diet.

We spoke recently about how her online business evolved and how it works:

Q. What’s interesting is that your readers are willing to pay for recipes, even though the web — and your blog — offer so many recipes for free.

A. When you develop a relationship with your readers, they are wiling to pay something more. I have solid, well-tested recipes that can be reproduced easily, and people value that.

When I decided to branch into premium content, I had about 2000 newsletter subscribers, and about 80 ended up making purchases. Their feedback was excellent and it gave me the confidence to continue providing premium content in addition to the free content offered on the site.

Q. That’s a good number, as a start. What came next?

A. In February, 2010 I launched free daily emails based on giving up processed food for a month. I increased my newsletter subscriptions by 1500 subscribers and was featured on CNN. That taught me people were interested in getting more involved. They kept emailing me with questions. I realized they didn’t know how to cook unprocessed food.

The daily emails were my pilot program for unveiling cooking classes. I worked with several other bloggers to create online cooking classes. We work together to cross-promote each other’s premium content, which helps us all to reach a broader audience. We also share suggestions, tips and technical advice with one another.

In May 2010, I launched a 12-week video cooking class on preparing traditional foods. There were 24 videos on things like how to truss a chicken, make sauerkraut, and make kombucha. My husband and I shot the videos together.

The new cooking classes are on making cultured and fermented foods. For $149, each class offers between eight and 13 installments, and each installment covers a particular topic, with 3 to 6 videos, print materials, and recipes, which usually amount to about 20 pages of content.

(To see an example of a video, watch this one on How to Ferment Anything.)

Q. How many people will buy these cooking class series?

A. Typically, each cooking class sells to several hundred people.

Q. How did the first one go?

A. There were lots of learning curves. I offered lifetime access to the site. People kept coming back and asking for help, asking if I was offering more classes. They were struggling with time management and kitchen management issues, such as remembering to soak oatmeal for breakfast 12 hours in advance.

Strawberry, rhubarb, eggs and homemade cream. (Photos by Jenny McGruther.)

That’s what led to the meal plan program. I also felt I needed a range of price points, so I allowed people to subscribe to the program for only $10 per month.I found that people couldn’t commit to traditional food seven days a week, so I gave them plans for three days a week.

(For the meal plan program, customers receive three full dinner menus each week: For each menu, there’s one dessert, one ferment recipe, one soup, a to do-list, a shopping list, cooking tips, and make-ahead lists. There’s one slow-cooker meal. See this sample of a meal plan.)

I’ve found that some people stick with the program for six months, and then they have enough recipes. Others make every single recipe every single week. And some use it to access new recipes.

Q. How many subscribers do you have for your meal plan?

A. Several hundred per month.

Q. I can see why. I’m amazed by the amount of information you provide, not just recipes but a lot of handholding and explaining so people can understand exactly what they’re getting. How did you know to create all that material?

A. I determined what I would like to see before I purchase something. With a physical product, you can see it. With digital information, it’s a little more challenging. I did my best to make sure it was very clear to see exactly what people were getting. That helps me create informed buyers who are not confused about the product.

Q. Why do you think your programs are successful?

A. They provide info on what people need, and they know exactly what they’re getting. The price points are effective, between $50 and $200, and work for most people. Plus, I was fortunate to be one of the first people to tap into this particular niche, so my site is more prominent. People get that one-on-one information and attention from a trusted source, and that’s enormously valuable. Also, I’m accessible. If a subscriber called me about cookware recommendations, I am happy to provide one-on-one information.

Q. What is challenging about this new business for you?

A. I get hundreds of emails and it’s really challenging for me to go through all of them. And when I go through them, that’s time I don’t spend developing new recipes for my blog and time I don’t spend with my family. It’s exhausting! I got an assistant for customer service, but an assistant can’t help with specialized expertise. I try to answer emails in two business days. Now I’m looking into an assistant who has specialized knowledge in traditional foods.

When I do a launch, I’m working an 80-hour week. I launch the cooking classes about three times each year with large promotions, though they’re open for enrollment at any time. I haven’t done a large promotion or launch for the meal plans yet, but I promote them periodically by social media or in blog posts.

Q. So what are the lessons for people who are still trying to figure out how to make a living from food writing?

A. They need to build a devoted audience based on their specialized knowledge. Once they have a way to convey that knowledge to their readers, they need to make it very clear about what the product will do for their readers. If they outline it directly and hit a price point that provides substantial value, they’ll be in a good position.

(Disclosure: I met McGruther when she contacted me about working together, and she is a client.)

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