Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

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A Blogger Takes Me to Task on Freebies

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You know how sometimes things come back to bite you in the butt? It just happened to me.

Recently I wrote a piece about accepting a free water purifier. At the end, I pointed to Katie’s  Nesting Spot, where Katie wrote a long, enthusiastic post about the pitcher and offered it as a giveaway. I wanted to show that even though I was not willing to do this, hundreds of other bloggers were, and here was a good example.

Being new to blogging, I forgot that Katie could see where her hits were coming from. After a few days, she sent a comment to the blog post:

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“I have been watching this comment thread with some interest. I have to say that I do not consider the pitcher a freebie. I consider it a form of payment for the PR post I wrote and giveaway I managed. I consider it along the lines of an advertisement, and unlike ad buttons this one wasn’t up front and center for an extended period of time.

“As one of your readers pointed out, I did clearly state that I was given the pitcher to review and that the opinions I gave were uninfluenced by the sponsor. In fact, I was told to post whatever I wanted even it was negative. No parameters were put on the content.

“I have turned down several compensated posts and review offers because they are not something I would really use or are not appropriate for my family. In terms of review blogs I am very, very, small potatoes so I was rather shocked [Read more…] about A Blogger Takes Me to Task on Freebies

FTC Backpedals on Disclosure for Reviews

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Okay, now this is getting strange. First, as mentioned previously, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) created a big flap a few weeks ago when it said it will fine bloggers $11,000 if they endorse a product without admitting they got the product for free. Now, at least one FTC official is backpedaling or clarifying, depending on how charitable you want to be.

The good news: Book reviewers are safe.  The bad news: Those Amazon links on your website may not be.

According to an article in Publisher’s Weekly, FTC lawyer Mary Engle said at a blogger conference that writers with a “personal blog, writing a genuine or organic review,” did not need to disclose [Read more…] about FTC Backpedals on Disclosure for Reviews

Killer Cookbook Proposal Class Coming Up

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cookbooksI love to teach, but most of my classes on food writing and publishing take place in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live. On a regular basis, someone asks if I’m ever coming to their town.

Usually I’m not, but next month, I’ll be coming to wherever you are,  with a 1-night seminar on writing a killer cookbook proposal. All you need is a phone.

The award-winning writer David Leite and I started talking about teaching for Leitesculinaria.com a few years ago. Now he has a roster of exciting one-night classes on food writing coming up.

My November 10 class tells you How to Write a Killer Cookbook Proposal. If you’ve been working on a cookbook or food memoir, or plan to write one, this seminar tells you exactly how to prepare an irresistible proposal for editors and/or agents, and how the publishing industry works. These days, it’s harder than ever to get published, so learning what’s required will make your book proposal that much less likely to land in the rejection pile.

The class is a 2 1/2 hour conference call, both lecture and discussion, with plenty of time for questions. A private podcast of it, available only to participants, will be posted online for one month at no additional cost. Come join me for a lively discussion, and get the tools and information you need to move forward as a book author.

Take a look at the rest of the roster, too, coming up quickly. You might benefit from a November 2 class on Finding Your Voice with blogger and cookbook author Shauna Ahern of Gluten Free Girl; or the October 29 class on Writing Perfect Recipes or a Winning Pitch Letter on November 5 with Renee Schettler, former Food Editor for Real Simple and Deputy Editor at Martha Stewart Living.

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Who is the Best Food Writer Today?

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images-1While looking through my book, Will Write for Food, over the weekend, I was struck by the writers I quoted just a few years ago, all newspaper and magazine writers and cookbook authors. Certainly they were the big names in print food writing.

But that was then and this is now. So now I’m going around asking: “Who is the ultimate food writer today?”

On a cemetery walk with blogger and cookbook author Romney Steele, we decided it’s not a simple answer, depending on how you define success and food writing. Later she named cookbook authors Jane and Michael Stern, John T. Edge, and Deborah Madison; then  bestselling author Michael Pollan and Tom Philpott for food politics and science. Are these last two truly food writers?

What about from a commercial perspective? The only cookbooks I’ve seen on bestseller lists lately are Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child (sorry, she’s dead) and  Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. I’m disqualifying cookbooks by celebrities and celebrity chefs who would not call themselves food writers, like Rachel Ray and Paula Deen, and Hungry Girl author Lisa Lillien. Does this mean Julie Powell is America’s most successful food writer?

Yesterday, over herbal chai tea with food writer Tara Weaver, I posed the question. Commercially speaking, she offered New York Times writer Mark Bittman as a candidate, a newspaperman who has also mastered the cookbook bestseller lists and blogging.

But she’d rather look at success through the writing. This is where the conversation turned to bloggers, to her friends at Orangette and Gluten-Free Girl, beautiful writers like herself. Tara says she does most of her reading online today, not in books. Are bloggers the best food writers?

I’m still thinking about the answer. I’m interested in knowing what you think. Who gets your vote, and why?

My Bad. I Took a Freebie

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At the 2009 BlogHer Food conference in San Francisco, I passed a booth where I could either take a free water purifier (and lug a bulky box around all day) or have one sent to my address.

My husband Owen and I discussed getting a new water purifier recently. Our old one was crusty from deposits in the water, and no amount of scrubbing removed the stains. So without thinking, I forgot about the third option available to me: keep walking. I gave the public relations person my address.

Back at the office the following Monday, going through cards and flyers, yet another company offered to send me a free chopper and grater. I thought about whether I could use it before acknowledging the truth: my site doesn’t review or mention kitchen products, and I have no business taking one. Then I realized I had no business asking for the purifier either. I felt my throat tighten.

When the  cardboard box arrived on the porch, at first I was excited by having a mysterious package [Read more…] about My Bad. I Took a Freebie

New Disclosure Law for Bloggers: $11,000 Fine

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imagesAs mentioned in a previous (and my most popular) post on accepting freebies, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) now targets bloggers in its updated guides on endorsements and testimonials. If you write about a product or service, and don’t disclose that you got something for free, you risk a fine of $11,000.

Before you freak out, let’s review the categories that might require disclosure if you choose to write favorably about them:

1. Free products or services (also called product-in-kind) including:

  • books from publishers meant for review, even if you’re given a book at an event
  • a goodie bag you get at an event
  • kitchen equipment sent for possible review
  • prepared foods sent for review or mention
  • free service, such as Sur La Table sharpening your kitchen knives.

If you’re involved in a viral marketing program, such as General Mills MyBlogSpark program, you must say so. (If you don’t know about this kind of program, welcome to the new world of inexpensive marketing. According to an article in AdWeek, “General Mills contacted 100 mom and food bloggers in conjunction with the launch of a new blueberry acai flavor of its Yoplait Yo-Plus yogurt. It provided coupons to try the product as well as tote bags and other swag to give to readers. General Mills also sent out key product messages touting the yogurt’s health benefits…Overall, the program resulted in 5 million total impressions and over 8,000 comments with no media costs. [General Mills does not buy ads on blogs, Witt said.]”

2. Free trips or free meals at restaurants or events.

3. Nice blogging gigs for pay, such the National Pork Board, Pork, Knife & Spoon. (Are there other examples? I’d love to hear about them.)

4. Independent reviews in exchange for cash. I’m sure none of you do this, where you get paid to endorse a product by writing positive comments on blogs and websites. Plenty of unethical people are willing even if you aren’t, and I hope  the FTC fines them all. Still, if you get a book for free and write a positive review on Amazon without disclosing, that could be a problem.

Now, let’s get to the wording. I suspect saying “ScharffenBerger sent me this new baking chocolate”  or “a sponsor gave me this” is not specific enough. The FTC rule says “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.” You have to say you got it for free, or that you were compensated. Conversely, if you bought the item, it seems more important than ever to say so, to cover yourself. And if you don’t have a policy on your blog about receiving free products and services, now’s a good time to write one. Of course, if you don’t review items you receive, or if you return them, these rules don’t apply.

The good news is that individual bloggers are not the target of this ruling, according to an interview with Richard Cleland of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. It’s more about going after advertisers, he says. Still, the best practice is transparency in writing, and being held accountable to your readers, who trust you. I hope this new ruling results in fewer positive reviews now that bloggers might feel less beholden, or more honesty about personal reasons for trashing or praising.

Thanks to Mary Margaret Pack, Carole Bidnick and Faith Kramer for sending me links for this post. They were free and I did use them.

So, are you ready for this new law? Do you already have a process in place? Let me know how your food blogging will or will not change.

Farewell to Ruth Reichl’s Gourmet

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Gourmet-MagazineThis morning I was so preoccupied by Gourmet magazine’s closing that I blurted out the news at my 8 a.m. aerobics class. The instructor said she always read it at the dentist’s office,  after People. “Maybe I should have read Gourmet first,” she allowed. Someone in the crowd said Saturn was closing, and the conversation turned. They didn’t know that Twitter and my email were abuzz with the news.

I can’t say I’ve read it forever, but being a journalist, I loved Gourmet as soon as Ruth Reichl became the editor in 1999. I looked forward to how the former newspaperwoman made her mark. I liked the messy photos of half-eaten food, the long literary narratives, the smart farm-to-table conversations, sensuous travel narratives, and the occasional political and green living pieces.

In her editorial this month, she reflects on her first issue 10 years ago,  amazed at the staying power of two new chefs: Thomas Keller and Ferran Adria. How satisfying to be right about their popularity.

Typical of the brutal world of publishing, she didn’t know until today. She tweeted Saturday: “Foggy fall afternoon. Cup of lemon tea. Outside the window a deer is munching on the lawn. About to start the Saturday puzzle. Happy.” Then just now: “Thank you all SO much for this outpouring of support. It means a lot. Sorry not to be posting now, but I’m packing. We’re all stunned, sad.”

While the Gourmet brand of television and its own cookbooks will continue (see Reichl’s letter on Amazon),  this is also a sad day for all the freelance writers who long to be published  in the magazine, in long, beautifully-written narratives they could exclaim over when the magazine hit the newsstand. These days Gourmet wins more awards for the Gourmet website, where the short subject is king and much of the content is repurposed from the magazine.

Reichl has been a cook, restaurant reviewer, memoirist, cookbook editor, website editor and television producer. She’ll certainly survive and thrive. I hope she’ll always be remembered as the editor who tried to make the magazine the New Yorker of food. I think she succeeded.