A guest post by Clotilde Dusoulier
Recently I made a key decision: to hire an intern to help me with my new cookbook, Tasting Paris. It’s my fifth book in 11 years, and releases this month. I am proud to say this is the one that finally made me feel I had “turned pro,” in the words of Steven Pressfield (see his book Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work).
Hiring an intern helped me in more ways than I had anticipated. I want to encourage you to do the same, especially if you also blog.
Here are five reasons to hire an intern for your next cookbook:
1. You can keep blogging.
Writing a cookbook consumes time, energy, and inspiration. With my previous books, I had to slow things down on my food blog, Chocolate & Zucchini. I posted once every two weeks instead of weekly, and shared recipes only when I could. It felt frustrating and counter-productive since a blog is, in large part, what helps sell the cookbook.
This time, having someone help me with both the blog and the cookbook meant I could maintain my regular editorial schedule on Chocolate & Zucchini.
2. You will stay focused on what you do best.
In writing a cookbook, my job as an author is to:
- Maintain the overall vision for the book
- Develop rock-solid recipes
- Write the recipes with clarity
- Compose eloquent headnotes.
Longtime food blogger Clotilde Dusoulier’s fifth book in 11 years, where she finally delegated some of the work to an intern.
But there are many more tasks that can be successfully delegated to someone else, such as:
- Grocery shopping and dish-washing on recipe testing days
- Coordinating a team of recipe testers and compiling their feedback, or
- Gathering research material to write cultural or historical sections.
I progressed much faster by having my intern handle those tasks. My intern also alleviated my blogging workload by:
- Handling my social media schedule
- Coordinating guest posts and giveaways
- Putting together round-up posts, and
- Taking care of tasks that are necessary and useful but don’t need to be uniquely handled by me.
3. You’ll be super efficient and organized.
Working as a two-person team required me to be proactive, organized, and on-schedule. For example, if my assistant was to grocery shop in the morning on testing day, I had to make a list the day before, or I would waste her valuable time, and mine. This made me more efficient than self-imposed deadlines ever did, and indeed, we stayed on track throughout the process.
4. You’ll love the company.
Writing a cookbook can feel solitary and daunting. Not so with an assistant. If I had doubts, a hard decision to make, or dilemmas or difficulties, I could discuss them with my intern and solutions emerged quickly. Any successes and wins along the way, we celebrated together. I was fortunate also to find an intern who shares my sense of humor, so we kept things light and had fun.
5. It is money well spent.
I hired my intern part-time (15 hours per week) for a limited duration, following French regulations. Check your local labour laws to see what possibilities exist.
It wasn’t a huge investment to hire an intern, and so worthwhile because it made the process of writing a cookbook more efficient. It also freed up my time to pursue other higher-paying opportunities. And, I believe that having help increased the quality of my book and my confidence in it, which will result in higher chance of success.
Working with my intern (her name was Anne) transformed my book-writing experience so completely that I dedicated Tasting Paris to her! It felt good to provide recognition for her hard work and dedication. So if you have a cookbook or other big project coming up, I hope I have convinced you to hire an intern.
Now, have you ever worked with an intern or assistant on your book or other projects? What’s been your experience?
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Clotilde Dusoulier is a French food writer based in Paris. She runs the award-winning food blog Chocolate & Zucchini, in which she shares her passion for all things edible. She is the author of The French Market Cookbook, a book of French vegetarian recipes, and the upcoming Tasting Paris, a cookbook that conveys the flavors of Paris through 100 recipes. (If you pre-order the book, you will receive a free audio walking tour along her favorite market streets in Montmartre. Claim it here with pre-order receipt.)
I hired a friend when I had a big recipe development project. She shopped, washed dishes, took notes, retested some recipes and was fabulous company! I primarily hired her because I had a tight deadline, but I’d do it again if budget permitted, regardless of the timeline.
I had a friend who helped me cook and washed the dishes. Oh gosh that was fantastic. I’d definitely do it again too.
Thank you Amy, I agree, working with a friend can be really lovely! I was lucky to gain a friend in the process. 🙂
This is great. I can’t help but wonder whether there’s a better word than intern which usually implies an unpaid role, when clearly this was a part-time paid position. Especially since we in the writing industry have pushed hard to not just work “for exposure.”
That’s an interesting point, Gayle. I am French, and in France, the stage (= internship) can be a paid or unpaid position, but more typically paid, though not a full salary. The main idea is that the intern is someone who is a student or a recent graduate seeking to gain hands-on experience, so the responsibility of the employer is to make sure there is a lot of learning involved. The internship has to be sanctioned by a university or school, the topic has to fit within the intern’s training, and there is a report at the end.
I was curious about your use of the term “intern”, too. I suppose the distinguishing factor between an intern and an assistant is their earning credit toward a degree or certificate or some such. But your emphasis on learning, Chloe, says a lot, too. In any case, I had two assistants work on my cookbook, and it was worth every penny. It helped me feel less isolated, too.
I also have mine type all of my testing notes, too, into the recipe template format. Then from there I elaborate, fine tune. Huge help. I also trained her to do my nutritional analyses and do the metric conversions.
That’s really helpful! Anne was doing note-taking during the testing sessions, too, but I liked to reformat things myself afterward as it was usually a time of reflection and strategizing for new tests as needed.
Anyone in Edmonton, Canada wishing to embark upon a cookbook or related research project? I would be interested in being that part time assistant !
Good luck Kim!
I have hired interns (don’t have a better word) to work with me on cookbooks, usually a student from one of my classes, and it was always worthwhile. But the best part was paying it forward, or perhaps backwards in my case: my first job out of culinary school was assisting a cookbook author who had been one of my teachers. That is how I learned to shop efficiently, do thorough research, stick to a testing schedule, and to be forthright about tasting feedback and fixing recipes. The experience launched my publishing career and I always wanted to do that for someone else. I’m happy to say my two best interns have gone on to huge careers in cookbook publishing. So it is not only good for you, the author, to hire an intern, but you can help launch a career. And often they become great friends, right Clotilde?? Thanks for the post.
That warms my heart, Tori, as it is exactly my mindset. You must feel so proud of your ex-protégés’ success, and I’m sure they have lots of gratitude for what you shared with them.
So much good information here! Like, “develop rock solid recipes.” Sage words. Thank you!!
Thank you Susie! Definitely rule #1 of the Cookbook Writing Club. 😀