Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

Blog

7 More Most Common Recipe Writing Errors

by

© photo courtesy of Ruhlman.com.

People get worked up about recipe writing on this blog, me included. It used to be that my posts on taking freebies got the most responses, but now my “Most Popular” list (on the right) is mostly about recipes.

So excuse me for pandering to the crowd, but I spent all last week editing recipes written by bloggers, and I’ve got another seven nits to add to my original list of 7 Common Recipe Writing Errors. Here they are:

1. Vague titles. “The Ultimate Cookie” doesn’t tell the reader anything other that, in your opinion, this is a darn good cookie. And so it should be. Why else would you blog about it?

The other issue is SEO. Let’s say your recipe is for Snickerdoodles. If potential readers type “Snickerdoodle [Read more…] about 7 More Most Common Recipe Writing Errors

Snaps from My Seattle Food Writing Class

by

A few Saturdays ago I taught a day-long class on food writing to about 50 people (about half of whom were bloggers, and some of whom drove up from Portland) at the oh-so-chic Seattle Fairmont Olympic. Keren Brown of Foodportunity organized the event and invited me. Professional photographer and blogger Jackie Donnelly Baisa wrote a post about it and made her images available, so I thought I’d share a few with you.

I must say, I’ve never taught a class in such elegant surroundings. We had a large private room with an entryway for coffee, tea and sponsor displays. [Read more…] about Snaps from My Seattle Food Writing Class

Inside an Author’s Cookbook Advance and Expenses

by

One of the benefits of being a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals is the insider information I get in the monthly teleforum for the Editors, Publishers and Writers section.

Recently a first-time cookbook author provided  real numbers about her experience. That’s rare.

While I can’t direct you to the presentation, I can give you a few nuggets that lift the veil on what happens in a food writer’s first book deal and in subsequent marketing of that book.

First, let’s look at the costs to produce the cookbook. The publisher paid the author a $15,000 advance. From that she:

  • paid a photographer $7,000
  • spent $7,000 on food ingredients
  • spent $1,000 on props and incidentals.

What was left for her? Do the math. Nada.

Her book came out in Fall 2009. The lone publicist at her publishing company handled the [Read more…] about Inside an Author’s Cookbook Advance and Expenses

Best Takeaways for Food Writers From BookExpo

by

I’ve been scouring the web to see what happened at BookExpo America 2010, the book industry’s annual trade show, and what it might mean for food writers. Here’s my 4 most interesting trends, quotes, and statistics:

1. DIY publishing is changing fast. Kindle has most of the e-book market. Can you come up with a Kindle e-book and sell it directly to Amazon?

From a Publisher’s Weekly report: J.A. Konrath, blogger of A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, said on a panel that he self-published on Kindle a number of the books he never sold to publishers. “He priced those books at $1.99, thinking they would be loss leaders to bolster his print sales. Instead he said he made $3,000 on the [Read more…] about Best Takeaways for Food Writers From BookExpo

Dissing Food Can Be Dangerous

by

Remember back in 1996 when Texas cattle ranchers sued Oprah Winfrey for discussing mad cow disease on her show? The ranchers lost in an appeal, but the lawsuit had a lasting effect.

Or did it? Did you know that we have to be careful when writing critically about any food or ingredient?

Food libel laws, like the ones in Texas and in 12 other states, are still very much alive. They allow a food manufacturer or processor to sue for what they believe are disparaging remarks about their products. Apple growers sued CBS a few years ago after the Alar apple scare, and McDonald’s has sued two environmental activists in England over a critical pamphlet.

Carrie Vitt of Deliciously Organic reminded me of these laws recently. She’s working on a book based on her blog, and her publisher is concerned about what she says in print. “I am allowed to say, “I don’t eat conventionally grown spinach because when I do I get a severe migraine. That would be OK because it’s just my opinion and I’m not telling [Read more…] about Dissing Food Can Be Dangerous

Food Blogger Conference Offers Killer Goody Bag

by

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 [Read more…] about Food Blogger Conference Offers Killer Goody Bag

7 Most Common Recipe Writing Errors

by

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 [Read more…] about 7 Most Common Recipe Writing Errors