Peaches in April! Thanks to climate change, these appeared at my Oakland, CA farmer’s market last weekend.
Who has time to keep up with everything going on in our food writing world?
You do! Just click on the peachy links below, especially the fun ones.
This list first appeared in my last quarterly newsletter, a free compendium of links for food writers and bloggers. If you’d like to subscribe, please sign up here. If you’re already a reader, thank you! Here we go:
1. Wondering who’s selling the most cookbooks? Here are the bestselling cookbooks of 2014. As usual for the last few years, Ree Drummond/Pioneer Woman and Ina Garten duked it out for the top spot. Garten sold the most copies of her cookbook, but Drummond sold the most copies of all her books. Two blog-to-book cookbooks also made the list.
2. Want more shares of your blog post? The Mommy Blogger Academy (seriously) tells you how.
3. In the same vein, this piece tells you how to get more blog traffic.
4. While this piece overpromises (a six-figure book deal — really?) there are solid tips here on how to land a book deal.
5. Want to write personal essays? See this list of publications that take them. And see this list of why so may pitches to publications fail.
6. Here’s a Food Blogger’s Guide to SEO.
7. Also, if you want to structure your blog as a business, read this article, also from Food Blogger Pro.
8. Want to shoot food photos at night? Learn how.
9. Former reviewer Ruth Reichl dishes on what restaurants should know about critics.
10. In this article, big cookbook authors discuss how people plagiarize their recipes.
Just for Fun
11. See The Most Proportionally Popular Cuisine by State. Apparently Californians are obsessed with Taiwanese food, while Maryland folks love Peruvian dishes.
12. Can a supercomputer write recipes? I’d say to Watson, “Don’t quit your day job!”
13. I do love a good rant from Eater’s Helen Rosner. This one’s about restaurant reviewing, a response to a chef critical of “food writers.”
14. Read these inspiring stories: From Recipe Tester to Anthony Bourdain’s Assistant, and How Being a Line Cook Ruined Me.
15. Don’t Ask What I’m Writing suggests not to ask fellow writers what they’re working on.
16. Here are 20 Food Blog Trends That Need to Die. I love this snarky annual post.
17. Eat your heart out! It’s Bon Appetit’s new test kitchen, and it’s gorgeous.
Want more? See past posts with useful links.
Thank you for the work you do to help us! I truly appreciate this post, and many of your posts.
Lovely. You are most welcome, Annie. I hope you find something useful in the links.
I have my reading list for today – thanks for these terrific links, Dianne. I don’t know how you come across so many articles with so much rich info.
You’re welcome and it’s my pleasure. People send them to me, they arrive in email and I find them through social media.
Great post, Dianne!
MERCI!
Ca ne fait rien, Kitty. Avec plaisir. (Okay that’s the limit of my French.)
I love these posts Dianne – thank you for the useful and entertaining links!
I love when you put these type of posts together for your readers. There is always plenty there I haven’t run a across yet and a lot that is super interesting. Found the cuisine by state thing fascinating. Who knew we liked Taiwanese food so much in California? It’s not something I hear people ever mentioning .. Even in LA or Sacramento.
I do have a friend who hosted a Taiwanese-inspired lunar new year party, and I have been obsessed with Taiwanese pork belly since tasting it for the first time when a friend of a friend brought it to a tamale-making party. It sure was good mixed with masa harina!
20 Food Blog Trends that have to die link just had me shouting yes, yes, yes at the computer 🙂
Hah, yes it was a good one. I think they have a great time writing it as well.
Omg! This is so great! Thank you very much! Keep up the awesome work! !!
Dear L, thank you. Hope you find something useful — or entertaining — here.
Thanks for the link! DJ