Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

Useful Tips, Interviews, and Stories to Inspire Food Writers and Bloggers

diannejacob

Gratitude

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Thanks to food blogger Lisa Waldschmidt for capturing this shot at the Cleveland Fabulous Food Show bookstore in November. This is the kind of thing that keeps writers humble.

To all of you who read my blog — to the silent ones, the stalkers and the enthusiastic regular responders; to the occasional posters; to the deep thinkers who have helped me work through the thorny issues of blogging and food writing; to the newbies and the superstars who take time to comment; to those who correct my typos — I am deeply in your debt for making Will Write for Food worth reading.

Thanks for a whole year of enthusiastic discussion. I can’t wait to dive into 2011, with your support.

Here are my top six posts of the year:

  1. Is Food Blogging Too Much Work?
  2. Giving Recipes Away a Big Subject at IFBC
  3. Adjusting a Recipe Doesn’t Make it Yours
  4. Outrageous Blogger Request, and the Outcome
  5. 7 Most Common Recipe Writing Errors
  6. Should Food Bloggers Write Sponsored Posts?

My best wishes to you for a successful year ahead in food writing.

Happy New Year,

Dianne

p.s. My quarterly newsletter on food writing just came out. If you’d like to receive it, sign up by clicking on the link above.

Should Food Bloggers Write Sponsored Posts?

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An urgent email from a p.r. person offered me payment of $50 per post if I would write 9 to 15 posts about a bakery chain over the next three months.

Obviously, she had never looked at my blog, because I don’t qualify. And anyway, I wouldn’t do it.

The question remained, however: Should food bloggers write sponsored posts, and under what circumstances?

In the email, the p.r. person took it upon herself to suggest what I might post about:

  1. Sharing recipes from the bakery
  2. Talking about what breaking bread means to you
  3. Sharing your thoughts on going to the bakery
  4. Linking to video assets of cooking /baking lessons.

(And if I wrote the maximum of 5 posts per month, that would be 15 posts @$50 each = $750.)

The p.r. person also wanted me to drive traffic to the bakery’s website on Facebook and participate in a Twitter party. I’d get a few free meals from the bakery. I’d also get a guaranteed minimum payment of [Read more…] about Should Food Bloggers Write Sponsored Posts?

5 Ways to Write Posts On a Schedule

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Do you write a new blog post only when inspiration strikes, or only when you have  “something to say? ”

I’ll bet that if you answered yes to either, you don’t post very often, or with any regularity.

Waiting for inspiration can be a trap. What if no inspiration strikes, or does not strike with any regularity? When it does strike, you might be busy. You may not get to your computer to develop it, or you might forget. You might write down your idea and then not come back to it. The result: you post nothing, or you post infrequently.

Waiting to have something to say works the same way. What if you don’t have anything to say for several days? Or you fail to develop the “something” when you did think of it.

Did you notice the key word? It’s “waiting.” Waiting is a waste of time. What matters is “doing.”

Blogging regularly takes forethought and a strategy, particularly if you’re a recipe poster. With a little planning, you can improve your blogging quantity. Here are 5 tips on how to post regularly:

1. Establish a schedule and stick to it. What is the right amount? Posting at least once a week is realistic. If you’re more ambitious or have more time, go for more. I post twice a week, and if I hadn’t made that decision, I’d probably post a lot less.

Whatever you decide, be sure it’s an amount that you can handle, every week, no matter what. Don’t start out with guns blazing and then fade out from exhaustion when you can’t keep it up. Be honest about what you can handle, and you’ll be more likely to succeed.

2. Pencil it in. This is an old trick. If you block out the time in your calendar, you’re more likely to get the work done. Figure out what times are best for you. Maybe you only blog at night after the kids go to bed. Maybe you’re best in the morning, before reading email. Figure out how much time you need. Don’t schedule an hour when you need three.

3. Focus. When the time comes, put your bum in the chair and don’t get up until you’ve got a draft. Don’t check email or social media or answer the phone. If you’re still drawing a blank, spend 15 minutes (set a timer so you don’t get sucked in) scanning the net, reading news items or blog posts that might inspire you. If you have the luxury, come back to your draft for a final edit before posting. You’ll always find something to improve.

4. Make a list of upcoming blog topics. It’s a sure-fire way to have “something to say.” Make it long and varied, such as a book review, an event, an essay, and a recipe. List some subjects you can write at any time, and some that require planning. Think of some short posts, a minimum of 200 words. The more you mix it up, and the longer your list, the easier it will be to pick what suits you. If you can’t come up with topics, try keywords. Or write down ideas for a series.

Stick with topics that excite you or that you know a lot about, rather than what you think you should write about.

5. Take photos to inspire you. You might decide to write about a cookie exchange, a dish you found on a trip, or a restaurant meal, all because you took photos at the time that are good enough for a blog post. Use events in your daily life to springboard into a post.

I’m not going to tell you to stockpile posts, because I can’t figure out how to do it. I remember David Lebovitz astonishing the crowd at the first BlogHer Food when he admitted he had dozens of posts in various stages of development. I can only aspire.

Got more tips on how to be a regular blogger? I’d love to know.

Is Food Blogging Too Much Work?

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Last night I gave a 2-hour talk at 18 Reasons, a hip San Francisco space in the Mission District for D-I-Y types, on how to start a food blog. Some people did not seem to like the answers I gave to the question, “How do I get people to read my blog?”

They included:

Food Writer’s New Source of Income: A Game Show

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Cookbook author Greg Patent

When people say they want to write about food I’m always making suggestions like:

  • Don’t quit your day job
  • Find a patron
  • Win the lottery
  • Don’t write for free
  • Supplement your income with other food-related jobs like catering and teaching cooking classes.

But I’ve never heard this way to make money as a food writer: Compete as a contestant on the national American game show, Wheel of Fortune.

That’s exactly what cookbook author and freelance writer Greg Patent did on Friday night. A puzzle freak and watcher of the game show since 1975, Patent auditioned when [Read more…] about Food Writer’s New Source of Income: A Game Show

Let Your Story and Identity Shine Through, says Cookbook Publisher

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Kirsty Melville, president and publisher of the book division of Andrews-McMeel Publishing, based in Kansas City, MO.

When you submit a cookbook proposal to a publisher, what are your chances?

At Andrews-McMeel in Kansas City, MO, only 10 percent of the books its publishes are cookbooks. That’s 20 cookbooks a year.

Of those 20, perhaps half the books spring from ideas generated internally.

How many proposals compete for the remaining 10 spots? About 5,000 per year, estimates president and publisher of Andrews-McMeel’s book division, Kirsty Melville, who started the cookbook division in 2007.

That makes your chances about  one in 500.

Wait, don’t give up. Melville is always looking for new authors. If you’ve been to the International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC), or the Greenbrier Symposium for Professional Food Writers in the past year, you might have met her.

“I’m proactive, more entrepreneurial,” she explains. “I like to meet and talk to people.” Her attendance at the first IFBC conference in 2009 led to publishing the Foodista Best of the Food Blogs Cookbook earlier this year.

The cookbook department may be new, but it’s already launched best-sellers (Cake Wrecks and Bon Appetit Desserts) and national award-winners (My New Orleans: The Cookbookby chef John Besh; and The Art and Soul of Baking, a Sur Le Table book by Cindy Mushet). Recently Melville won an auction for Top Chef star Kevin Gillespie’s next two cookbooks, showing the publisher’s new clout in attracting star power.

What does it take to be published by Andrews-McMeel? “Being a good writer and [Read more…] about Let Your Story and Identity Shine Through, says Cookbook Publisher

It's the "Mixture" Quiz! Answer These Questions Correctly and Feel Superior Immediately!

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A "mixture" of beets? Nope. (Photo by Owen Rubin.)

I’ve been editing a cookbook this past week. Doing so always leads to a new blog post where I need to vent.

This time the food writer is too fond of  the word “mixture.” (What, you thought my favorite over-used word was “delicious?”) So, in an homage to cookbook editor Judith Jones, I’ve been deleting as many “mixtures” as possible and inserting more specific words.

Instead of my usual venting this time, I invented a little game for you to play. It’s my very first “Mixture” Quiz!  (Vigorous applause from our studio audience.) I hope you’ll play. Choose an answer to each question below. Correct answers follow.

Let me know how many of the following seven questions you got right, and whether you think I’m wrong about any of them or have some new ideas for me. There is no reward for correct answers,  just a feeling of superiority. Good luck!

Questions:

1. Combine the evaporated milk, garlic powder, and the Italian seasoning. Bring the _____ to a boil.

a) milk  b) sauce  c) mixture d) Get rid of second sentence and write “and bring to a boil.”

2. Combine the mashed garbanzo beans, garlic salt, and egg. Divide the ____ into 8 patties.

a) beans  b) Edit second sentence to read “Divide into 8 [Read more…] about It's the "Mixture" Quiz! Answer These Questions Correctly and Feel Superior Immediately!