Editor-in-Chief Tanya Steel was in town recently to promote Epicurious.com, home of 30,000 recipes, at the farmer’s market at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza. I thought I’d stop in to get her thoughts about today’s food writing scene.

Over spearmint tisane (for me) and coffee (for her) from Blue Bottle, she said she tries to keep her ear to the ground, stay ahead of trends, and innovate. To do so she scans 10 to 12 blogs and aggregate sites from around the country every day, including The Food Section, Cold Mud, and newspaper food section blogs. Her staff scours social networking sites.

It must be working. Her latest accomplishment, the free Epicurious app, available for the iPhone, iPad, Droid and other mobile devices, has more than 2.5 million copies in circulation, making it a leading app.

When asked how today’s food writer could get ahead, she said every writer should be learning “on a parallel track.”  You must be “platform agnostic,” she advised.”Think of yourself as a brand and expand your writing into every platform.”

There’s no such thing as enough, she continued. Writers should “have a website and blog every day. Whatever excites them is what they should blog about.” Food writers should also be building up expertise at the same time. So “if you’re passionate about meat, take classes on butchering and grilling.”

Today’s writers have to be tech and social media savvy as well. “Everyone should know what SEO is, how to submit to Digg, how to Twitter when you put something up.”

Steel, a former magazine editor turned website editor and apps developer, walks her talk. She has also pushed into a yet another new area, publishing her first cookbook. For less experienced writers who want to write books, however, she’s big on self publishing because there are “so many ways to sell content online.” “You could bypass any publisher and create an e-book, then sell it on Amazon, and with the right keywords and tags you could be on the front page.” She also suggested food writers explore self publishing through sites like Blurb.

When asked about freelancing possibilities for Epicurious.com, she said the daily online food publication already uses “a ton of freelancers,” who write about restaurants, wine and drinks, travel and health. They include many writers she has known from her print days as an editor at Food & Wine and Bon Appetit. “We try to go with people who are experts in their field, people who have a track record and are well established,” she said. Like other national magazine editors, she rarely takes a chance on a new writer.

Is her advice doable or implausible? Exhausting or exhilarating? Profitable or income-starved?Let me know your thoughts.

p.s. Want to win a copy of my book? Head over to Wasabimon and enter.

As you might know by now (because I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops), Will Write for Food, 2nd edition, is out with a new cover. I thought you might like a behind-the-scenes look at how the cover selection process works and how I ended up with my current cover.

Here’s the original cover of Will Write for Food. This cover came in an email from the publisher (Marlowe & Co.). I loved it immediately and danced around the room. People told me how lucky I was to have a great cover on the first pass. It’s an old-school journalism kind of image, and back in 2005, I was an old-school journalism type of gal. I bought matching jewelry, a bracelet of typewriter keys. My agent gave me a necklace with a “D” typewriter key to celebrate the book’s release.

Fast forward to 2010 and the revision of Will Write for Food. The new publisher (Da Capo Press) said they wanted to freshen up the old cover. Even though I loved the old one, I had to recognize that it needed an update for the new generation of people who want to blog or write memoir. It took me a while to come around. Months, actually.

Da Capo needed a new cover image immediately for the catalog. Below is the first pass, a placeholder because they needed something fast.

Months later, my editor sent me three images. I was lucky that she gave me a choice, because many authors do not get that privilege. All three covers had food images — something that seems obvious now. I had heard that sweets and desserts do well on covers, so that was a consideration.

Below is the runner up. I love the black background and the clean lines of this one.

The next cover seemed like a diet book to me, I suppose because of the veggies. And I love veggies! Maybe I was stuck on the dessert idea. Kind of like how Cooking Light magazine wouldn’t bother with a salad on the cover. But chocolate cake, now we’re talking.

And last, the cover of choice. At first I was taken aback by the softness of the new cover, by its scallops and pink-ish background. But now I like it, and it’s perfect for its target audience of women who want to write about food.

You might also notice that Anthony Bourdain’s generous quote is gone. I asked to have it moved to the back cover, and the editor agreed. The focus of the new edition is blogging, so I wanted a blogger’s endorsement. And who better than Ree Drummond, whose not-even-published-yet memoir was already optioned for a movie starring Reese Witherspoon?

I’m thrilled.

Should you go to the International Food Blogger Conference in Seattle August 27-29? James Osland, editor of Saveur, will give the keynote; Victoria Von Beul, executive editor of Bon Appetit magazine will lead a pitch session; memoirist Kathleen Flinn will teach a “Writing With the Senses” class; and I’ll be speaking on a panel about recipes, moderated by Amy Sherman.

These are not good enough reasons!  On a food blogger listserv, the buzz was all about what might be in the goody bags based on what recipients scored last year. Here’s what they said:

“I figure between the goody bag we’ll be receiving (last year’s was insane) and the food we’ll be served, the $350 is actually pretty worth it.”

“I know – I was drooling over that knife people got. I’m not sure if I can
really rely on the goody bag though for ROI who knows what they are
putting in there.”

“The goodie bag alone was at least $350 last year..”

When I mentioned these comments to IFBC  founder Sheri Wetherell, she was pleased. “That’s nice to hear that IFBC is getting buzz on the listservs ,” she wrote me in an email. “Indeed, our goody bag was something to behold. We partnered with our good friends at Sur la Table who organized the whole thing with their various vendors. It ended up being 23 pounds and worth over $600…Here are some of the items:

• 10-inch Shun chef’’s knife
• Kyocera ceramic knife and mandoline set
• Bodum glassware
• Scanpan  omelette pan
• Built lunch bag
• Oxo products (with personalized labels attached to their products thanking the bloggers)
• Sur La Table’s Art of Baking cookbook.”

“We call the goody bags ‘blog fodder’ because everything in them is so quality,” Sheri continued. “As… someone who’s been to numerous conferences of all types, I said to myself, ‘the bags need to useful and beneficial to both parties (blogger and vendor).’ In fact, it was like Christmas day when they got them! ”

“This year SLT has agreed again to compile items from their vendors. From the vendors’ perspective, giving products to food bloggers is much cheaper than paid advertising and they know they are targeting their audience. While we can’t obviously guarantee that bloggers will blog about the contents of their bags, many of them did so and we are still seeing a lot of product appear in their photography, even with no mention of product name. So that in itself is a win for the vendor.”

I wasn’t sure what to think. At first I went into default: I put on my journalism hat, which says you shouldn’t take anything worth over $25 because it will influence what you write. Then I realized I had accepted a Chef’s Catalog goody bag from a party at BlogHer Food last year. Busted! Was that okay because I didn’t write anything about it? Maybe I’m rationalizing. I like a treat as much as the next person.

I thought back to the goodies I got as a participant at last month’s International Association of Culinary Professionals annual conference in Portland: a plastic water bottle, a small synthetic mop brush, a $.30 bag of lentils…was there any comparison? The message was hard to miss: Bloggers are hot. Everybody else, not so much.

It’s clear why Sur La Table thinks bloggers are worth more loot. I had lunch with a food blogger while at IACP. A book publisher already tapped her to write two books, and a literary agent had just approached her. This blogger is not a household name, yet she has more than 1 million annual readers. That’s close to the circulation of Food & Wine and Saveur magazines combined.

She’s just one person. Of course companies want their products on her blog.

Since most bloggers write for free, do they think of this goody bag as a reward for their hard work? Actually, that has nothing to do with it. It’s cheap press. Sheri says so too.

And what’s wrong with that? I can come up with a few arguments, just because I like to:

• If you put one of these knives in your blog’s photo, will you mention you got it for free?
• Do you mind having your blog known as an inexpensive place for promotion?
• Would your readers mind knowing that too?

As usual, I look forward to the discussion. And I hope I won’t get a heated phone call from Sheri.

Update: Amy Sherman has posted a photo of the loot.

In the last week I’ve been editing recipes for two books by food bloggers. Both have short deadlines, and I’ve been working long hours.

That’s okay. It’s so much fun to see such creativity and invention, to fantasize about which recipes I’m going to try, and –yes– to nitpick. Such is the job of an editor. For one book, I make comments in pen and add little colored stickies to the paper copy. For the other, I make comments using Track Changes within the Word document.

And here’s what I’m finding: errors and inelegant phrasings. I thought you might want to know about  the most common mistakes. First though, let’s review the terminology: The list of ingredients is called (funnily enough) the “ingredients list,” and the directions are called the “method:”

1. Ingredients out of order. This is by far the biggest error. List ingredients in the order of use. If the first thing you’ll do is saute the onions, don’t list the  steak first, even if it’s the star of the recipe.

2. Missing ingredient. Make sure you use every item in your ingredients list, in order. Otherwise you’ll get a little note that says, “What were you planning to do with the lime zest?” Similarly, if you refer to an ingredient in the method, make sure it’s in your ingredients list.

3. Wrong amounts. I saw a recipe for 30 cookies that called for 2 1/2 pound of flour (10 cups) and 3 cups of honey. I don’t think so.

I’ve also seen measurements in the ingredient list that don’t match the amount called for in the method. Not that you should be calling for amounts in the method most of the time anyway. (See next item about when to do so.)

4. Overuse of  the term “divided” in the ingredients list. “Divided” comes into play when you use an ingredient more than once. But’s such an imprecise word, and recipe writing is all about precision. “Divided” doesn’t tell the reader anything other than that they will have to pay attention when it comes to using the ingredient.

And as we know, readers don’t pay full attention. Hell, most of them don’t even read the whole recipe first. I’m guilty too. How many times have I dumped in all the sugar, only to read later that I need a “remaining” half cup? (Don’t ask.) Here are a few workarounds:

• Use subheads. Let’s say you’re making a steak salad. You’re using vinegar twice: once when marinating the steak and once when making the salad dressing. Use subheads such as “Marinade” and “Dressing” so you can give the appropriate amount of vinegar for each use.
• State just the ingredient, not the amount. Let’s say you use salt and pepper three times: once when seasoning the meat, then in the marinade, then add it at the end for flavoring. Just say “salt and freshly-ground pepper”  in the ingredients list. Give amounts in the method.
• State both amounts, starting with the largest. Such as “1/2 cup olive oil + more to grease the pan.”

If you must use “1/2 cup vinegar, divided,” state the first amount in the method (1/4 cup vinegar). Write “remaining” 1/4 cup of vinegar” when you use it the second time. The word “remaining” has a purpose. It alerts people like me that it’s time to swear.

5. Listing water as an ingredient. Just bring it up in the method and state the amount. Such as “Add 1 cup of ice water, a few splashes at a time, until the dough comes together.”

6. Calling for prepped ingredient in both ingredient list and method. If the ingredients list says “Grated Parmesan,” there’s no reason to say “Grate Parmesan over pizza” at the end of the method.

7. Saying “season to taste” when it’s not the right time to taste it. If your pasta sauce simmers for two hours, it won’t help readers to season it beforehand. Also don’t ask them to taste batter, raw meat and other uncooked things to season them.  It’s not the right time to taste, and people won’t want to anyway. Just provide the correct amount of salt and pepper when you need it.

I could go on about the excessive use of bacon and chocolate in desserts, or about photos that don’t show what the recipe said, or particularly, about overuse of the word “mixture.”

But I’d rather hear about what drives you crazy when writing recipes or when trying to follow one.

© photo courtesy of Ruhlman.com.

Update: This post also appeared at BlogHer.

Hank Shaw of Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook got a double dip of validation this year: his blog was a finalist for the 2010 best food blog award from both the James Beard Foundation (second year in a row) and the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP).

What’s interesting is that the other finalists were not other individual bloggers, but compilation food blogs on large websites. Compilation blogs are defined by the number of people who write for them: usually the editor writes posts, as do staff writers for the website where the blog appears, and then there are freelance contributors who get paid per post.

For the IACP award, the other two finalists were blogs from alternative weekly newspapers: the SF Foodie blog of San Francisco Weekly; and Eating Our Words, the food blog of sister paper Houston Press. The SF blog includes posts from award-wining restaurant reviewer Jonathan Kauffman. The Houston blog includes posts from award-winning restaurant reviewer and author Robb Walsh.

And wouldn’t you know it? Hank won the IACP award, beating out these two compilation blogs, including content from two distringuished writers.

Then it was on to the Beard awards, where Hank competed with Serious Eats and Grub Street New York. Again, both are compilation blogs that are part of large websites. Serious Eats has a staff of seven plus three interns. A large stable of paid contributors includes Mario Batali. Grub Street has a smaller staff: an editor, a senior editor, and an assistant editor. The staff  contributes content and the blog pays for freelance posts. Serious Eats won the Beard award.

Like other bloggers, Hank writes all his own material. A former commercial fisherman, line cook, and newspaperman, he’s a one-man show, writing about hunting, fishing, gardening, and cooking.

So the question comes up: Is it fair for an individual blogger to compete with compilation blogs? Should there be one category for individual blogs and another for compilation blogs? Or will the best writing triumph, regardless of how the blog is structured or staffed?

I’m for two categories. I was on the executive committee of IACP the year we put compilation cookbooks (best recipes compiled by a magazine) into their own category. Now the compilations compete with other compilation books, rather than with individual authors.

Now tell me what you think.

(Thanks to Amy Sherman, who started a Twitter war on this subject, for bringing it up.)

Photo by Elise Bauer, used with permission.

When three big food bloggers  forwarded an email invitation to me within minutes of each other, I had to take a look. All three were insulted by this offer but knew that other food bloggers would take the companies up on it.

Here’s a condensed version of the invite, with sponsor names deleted:

“We enjoy your culinary blog, and share your passion for cooking and fine cuisine. To provide a fun way to try new recipes with your friends, we offer you the opportunity to host an Easy & Elegant Dinner Party in your home.

“Here’s how it works.You and 1000 fellow foodies across the country will simultaneously host Easy & Elegant Dinner Parties. If selected as a host, you will receive a generous party pack – including two pieces of  cookware, the celebrity chef’s newest cookbook, a food stipend and several gifts – all the tools you need for the gathering (of about 15 people). And, you will have an opportunity to participate in a technique class to see the cookware in action – before your event.

“Through this experience you and your party guests will get a wealth of creative culinary inspiration. Further, as a blogger, you are invited to share these ideas with your readers – and include them in this adventure.

“CLICK HERE to immediately link to the party host invitation site. Hosting opportunities are limited. And, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Said one of the bloggers in her email, “And you thought asking for free content was bad? This pitch represents an all-time low. I felt the need to shower immediately after reading it. But it’s really not that far from what bloggers are being asked to do these days. It would be funny if only it wasn’t so horrible.”

Said another, “Unbelievable. I’m excited to sit back and watch the zillions of people who jump all over it, because you *know* they will.The thing is, this will be effective for them. That’s the irony.”

Said the third, tongue firmly in cheek,  “BUT YOU GET TWO PANS!!!!!! SCORE!!!!!!!!”

If you’ve been reading my blog you already know how I feel about this offer. Bloggers are notorious for writing advertorial because they’re so excited about the freebies and flattered to be asked. I don’t like advertorial, unless clearly marked as such in magazines. I like story-telling, essays or reporting in blogs. The word “awesome” should not appear.

So I hope many food bloggers will decline. Maybe they’ll find only 500. Or 50. I can hope.

Maybe you think I’m wrong. Will the marketer will have any trouble finding 1000 food bloggers to take them up on their offer? Is this a good thing for food bloggers or a bad thing?

Photo courtesy Flickr Creative Commons

You’ll notice something new. It’s an ad, on the right, from BlogHer Publishing Network. 

I know. I’ve crossed over to the other side, and I’m thrilled. It’s because I have redefined myself.  I’m no longer just a blogger whose subject is food writing. I’m the publisher of my blog.

Being in charge overall is new for me. When I was a magazine editor, I headed my department. I directed the editorial content, assigned and edited stories, worked with the art director on layout and images, and strategized how to grow readership. The other heads of departments were in charge of marketing, advertising, production, design (although sometimes reporting to me) and circulation.

Fast-forward to the Internet, where, as a blogger,  I am in charge of editorial and all the other departments too. I might as well also be the publisher, since I am ultimately responsible for the publication, success and quality of my blog. 

So, continuing the magazine analogy, since magazines take ads, so does my blog. And since I’m the publisher, I will personally quash any conflicts of interest. There will be no fawning editorial related directly to ads, nor will I blog for pay. Whew! That was easier than when I was only the head of editorial. It’s great to be in charge.

Why  BlogHer? I’ve met the founders, three powerful, super-smart women whom I admire. Also because they’ve invited me to be part of BlogHer by speaking at their conferences, and it’s been a professional, respectful and well-organized experience.

Some food bloggers think ads clutter their site or signify some kind of journalistic lack of integrity. But others have been taking ads for ages. Where do you come down?

Photo courtesy Flickr Creative Commons.

Remember this guy from the movie "Network?"

Three food bloggers are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it any more.

I’m speaking of the idea put forth to them, in our social media-crazy world, they should be honored to work for nothing in exchange for exposure. (I’ve covered this subject before, from Putting the Free in Freelance to Links are the New Currency.)

In their responses, two writers use humor to get their point across, and one goes for it directly:

1. Matt Armendariz of Matt Bites made his point gently in a letter to a tire company, suggesting he get four tires for free in exchange for “tons of goodwill, some great jokes, and plenty of personal recommendations to his network.”

2. Cheryl Sternman Rule of 5 Second Rule politely gives free tips to those who wish to approach bloggers about working for free. Cheryl, on the other hand, wants to be paid.  “This currency is special for several reasons,” she explains. “It allows me to buy food, which I can then eat; it allows me to pay my mortgage, so I can have shelter; it allows me to buy clothing, so I am not naked; and it allows me to pay my monthly internet bill, so I can make fun of you on my blog.”

3. Aun Koh of Chubby Hubby goes for a more direct approach. He gives it to a publisher who wants his recipes for free for a cookbook, quoting the offer letter: “… to let the world know about your blog, and drive traffic to your site. The inclusions in <TITLE OF BOOK> will be deemed by us to be the best blogs on the internet. Make sure your blog is one of them.”

His response: “To take your argument that once content has been created it should be free, do you think that rationale would work with Reuters or with Getty Photos? Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if every stock photo agency in the world simply said, “Oh well, we’ve already taken the photos… guess they aren’t worth anything. Hey, we’re waiving any licensing fees or copyrights on these images. Whomever wants them, they’re free for use.” Or if every publishing company, magazine or book, said the same thing, that any article or content they have ever published can now be syndicated free of charge since, well, it’s already been produced, is out in the public domain, and now has no monetary value. Let’s see if Conde Nast would be cool with giving away articles for nothing.” 

Excellent points. Bravo to all three.

Now, why do marketers approach food bloggers in the first place? Because they succeed. Most food bloggers blog as a hobby and are not trying to make money from their blogs. Many would be thrilled to take these marketers up on their offers, for no pay. And there are so many more of them than there are of these three, who are trying to make a living. 

Do you disagree?

(Thanks to Traca Savadogo for passing on a link.)

 “My wife was browsing for a good burrito recipe and stumbled on a blog that posted a recipe strikingly similar to one on Food & Wine without giving any credit,” said my friend Ethan in a recent email.

“The blogger had modified the recipe a bit, but clearly a lot of the recipe was cut and pasted,” he continued. “I made a comment, as polite as I could, asking the blogger about it, but I suspect she won’t approve it.”

(I’m not providing a link because I don’t want  you to tear this food blogger a new one. People can get pretty worked up on this blog.)

I was intrigued and went to the food blogger’s site to investigate. While she did not provide credit, her About page said, “A lot of the recipes on this site came from various sources. I do not claim most of these recipes as my own.” 

Well great! Except that it’s not even legal to copy a recipe verbatim and give credit, unless you have permission from the publisher, let alone change a few  things but not enough and not give credit. How hard would it have been to say, “Adapted from Food & Wine?”

You might be surprised to know she rewrote the method and changed quite a few ingredients for her chicken burrito:

• used half as much boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• specified a sliced onion instead of quartered onion
• added two garlic cloves
• used regular sour cream instead of low fat
• used half as much shredded Monterey Jack
• left out the shredded lettuce
• called for a 1/2 cup guacamole instead of a chopped small avocado.

Even so, Ethan and his wife, both enthusiastic home cooks, recognized the doctored recipe right away. So much for the idea that if you modify a recipe, it’s yours.

The fantasy persists. Last week a student in my food writing class said she consulted a lawyer when she left a restaurant. She had developed all the recipes and the owner said they were his property. The lawyer said no problem. All she had to do was change them a little bit, like add a garlic clove, and the recipe would be hers.

Uh, wrong. Now you can see exactly why, particularly when the recipe is already published.

The next time you’re wracking your brain to come up with a blog post idea, choose a number below and see what develops. Or try one of the strategies to draw more people to your blog and increase your chances of comments.The suggestions are in no particular order.

1. Ask a question: “How do you use this vegetable?”
2. Write an essay that expresses your passion for cooking, such as how cooking connects you to your past, how you learn from it, what you hope to pass on from your children, what you love to cook for friends.
3. Have a really strong opinion about a food-based subject in the news.
4. Post a recipe for a classic, old-fashioned dish.
5. Create a recipe for backyard produce used at the peak of its growing season.
6. Get your photo onto Tastespotting or your post on Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchen. 
7. Post more photos than you would do normally.
8. Post a mouth-watering photo.
9. Write about doing something trendy, ex. making cheese at home or attending a butchery or macaron-making class.
10. Post about a foodie movie and invite people to comment on it.
11. Create recipes for dishes that are inexpensive (particularly eggs), comfort food, and/or dessert. Combine all three for a bingo.
12. Write about kitchen disasters. Fires are particularly good. Use humor.
13. Write an in-depth product review comparing two expensive kitchen items, particularly if they’re trendy.
14. Create a recipe for a popular restaurant chain dish. (See a successful blog, Copy Kat, based on this principle.)
15. Tie your recipe to a current event.
16. Use familiar recipe ingredients in a new and intriguing way.
17. Offer useful information on a subject affecting you personally that is not discussed to death online.
18. Write about your ordeal trying to follow a diet.
19. Become an expert on a certain dish and offer inside information on mastering it.
20. Make something difficult and triumph. Document with step-by-step photos.
21. Be part of a cooking event based on making a dish with other bloggers, where you all comment on each others’ outcome.
22. Post on a Tuesday.

Got any more ideas? Anything here you think is dead wrong?