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Busy Mom Starts Online Recipe Business and It’s a Hit

September 29, 2015 by diannejacob 12 Comments

Aviva Goldfarb writes recipes for busy moms and runs a successful newsletter and website for them. (Photo by Mary Gardella.)

Can someone who writes recipes create a thriving recipe business? Yes.

Aviva Goldfarb founded the The Six O’Clock Scramble in 2003, a menu planning service for busy moms. Now she’s a Today Show and Washington Post contributor, and author of several Six O’Clock Scramble cookbooks. She frequently appears on the The Katie Couric Show and in national publications including O magazine, Real Simple, Working Mother, and Prevention. The American Diabetes Association will publish her fourth cookbook in January, 2016 .

I discovered Aviva’s recipe business when researching my new chapter on making money in Will Write for Food. Here’s how she got started and why her business works:

Q. What is a menu planning company?

A. I make busy mom’s lives easier by planning what they have for dinner and what they need to buy at the store. These moms aspire to cook more so I try to take all that stress out of the process and make it more turnkey for them. I give them a weekly menu of [Read more…] about Busy Mom Starts Online Recipe Business and It’s a Hit

Try These 3 Pizza Recipes from the United States of Pizza

September 22, 2015 by diannejacob

Beautiful Cookbooks with Stories and Personality Sell Best, Says Editor

September 15, 2015 by diannejacob 29 Comments

Ten Speed editorial director Julie Bennett says readers want to learn more about the personality of cookbook authors through their lives, world, culture and food.

I’ve been bugging Julie Bennett, vice president and editorial director at Ten Speed Press, for an interview, ever since we met at a conference a year ago.

It’s because Ten Speed publishes so many terrific cookbooks. As the director of the editorial department, Julie manages nine editors who will put out approximately 70 books this year. She has worked at Ten Speed since 1999.

Julie edited New York Times best selling cookbooks Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson and My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz, and A New Napa Cuisine by Christopher Kostow (IACP Cookbook of the Year), just to name a few.

We talked about cookbook publishing trends, whether all cookbooks need color photos, and what she looks for:

Q. What are the latest trends in cookbook publishing?

A. Today cookbooks have more of a personal narrative element. The trend of blogger-to-book ties into it, and there are cookbook writers who have a lot to say.

There are so many recipes online, but books present readers with [Read more…] about Beautiful Cookbooks with Stories and Personality Sell Best, Says Editor

What’s Your Biggest Question About Finding Your Voice?

September 8, 2015 by diannejacob

When you write, is your voice identifiable? Do your readers recognize it is you?

I can’t tell you how many times food bloggers and interviewers ask me “What can I do to make my blog stand out?”

My answer is always the same. The best food bloggers have a strong voice. But what, exactly, does that mean?

You might wonder, for example:

How can I write about typical dishes and foods in a way that’s new?
How can I distinguish myself from other food bloggers who write about my subject (such as paleo, gluten-free or baking)?
How much personal information should I include in a post?
What is the right amount of personal narrative before readers get to a recipe?
Why should anyone care about my life?
How do I get humor across?

“Blogger Blackmail” Surfaces as a Trend

August 25, 2015 by diannejacob 91 Comments

What is “blogger blackmail?” One blogger demanded about $150 worth of macarons, marshmallows, and other goodies in exchange for a blog post.

How ironic. Last week I wrote a post defending hobby bloggers. This week the subject is “blogger blackmail!”

By now you may have heard about the Twitter thread called #bloggerblackmail. It chronicles, among other things, when food bloggers demand payment in kind for blog posts, including free meals at nice restaurants.

One story that came to a head began when a hobby blogger who writes London restaurant write-ups emailed a bakery and suggested she be “invited to review” their products in exchange for a blog post.

Here’s how things went downhill for the food blogger:

When she got to the bakery, workers offered her tea and [Read more…] about “Blogger Blackmail” Surfaces as a Trend

5 Reasons Not to Bash Food Bloggers

August 18, 2015 by diannejacob 69 Comments

Last week the New Yorker featured a snarky piece on food bloggers, called So You want to Write a Food Blog. Yes, it’s cute and clever, but wrong.

My main gripe is that the writer — Julia Edelman, a comedy writer and filmmaker, according to LinkedIn –has reduced all food bloggers to goofy incompetents. That’s not right, or fair.

The piece made me want to defend food bloggers, so here are my points:

1. Most food bloggers are hobbyists. Edelman doesn’t seem to [Read more…] about 5 Reasons Not to Bash Food Bloggers