Cookbooks

4 Who Beat the Odds to Publish a Cookbook

November 10, 2020 by diannejacob 9 Comments

Since the pandemic, I’ve been teaching Zoom classes about how to publish a cookbook. Once I explain how difficult it is, some hopeful authors decide to self-publish, and others give up.

If you’re a prospective cookbook writer, you should know that there are always exceptions to the rule in traditional publishing. So here are the experiences of four authors who beat the odds to publish a cookbook or food-based book. (Two books are forthcoming, and another is a collection of essays with recipes).

I’ve asked the authors to talk about their experience in their own words. Their stories are refreshing, because there is so much pressure these days to build a big social media following, if you want a cookbook. But none of them had a big platform when they approached their publisher.

Here are 4 authors who beat the odds to publish a cookbook:

Recipes for Subversion: Women’s Suffrage Cookbooks Turn 100

September 1, 2020 by diannejacob 3 Comments

A guest post by Becky Libourel Diamond

The year 2020 commemorates 100 years since the passage of the 19th Amendment, which secured women’s constitutional right to vote. The U.S. suffrage movement began in 1848, when women demanded the vote at the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY. The battle continued for 72 years. Women lobbied, marched, picketed, and protested for the right to cast their say.

While these demonstrations are well documented, there were other, more subversive ways to spread their message: women’s suffrage cookbooks. These cookbooks were compilations of recipes submitted by women devoted to [Read more…] about Recipes for Subversion: Women’s Suffrage Cookbooks Turn 100

A New Model for a Mini Cookbook?

May 12, 2020 by diannejacob 6 Comments

image for bing bread cookbook What if you want to get just one really great recipe out into the world? How do you get it published? Kevin Pang figured it out. He and the owners of Parachute restaurant in Chicago published one recipe as an illustrated mini cookbook. Called The Parachute Bing Bread Book, they created it through a successful Kickstarter campaign. And Pang has plans for more mini cookbooks, with chefs.

The 32-page cookbook covers a recipe for just one menu item that has a cult following. The recipe for bing bread is 5,000 words.

Now, obviously, this bing bread is no ordinary [Read more…] about A New Model for a Mini Cookbook?

Build a Platform with a Self-Published Cookbook

February 4, 2020 by diannejacob 12 Comments

A guest post by Susie Norris

I sent off the proposal for my third cookbook with a hopeful heart. I had a good agent, a new IACP Digital Media Award for FoodMarketGypsy.com, my culinary travel blog, and thousands of Twitter followers. Creating a self-published cookbook was not on my mind.

But the news was bad: traditional publishers now found my platform too modest. After a lifetime of baking and teaching the classics, I knew I had [Read more…] about Build a Platform with a Self-Published Cookbook

5 Editor Pet Peeves About Cookbook Manuscripts

December 4, 2018 by diannejacob 6 Comments

A guest post by Jennifer Kurdyia

Every editor is different, but as a cookbook editor for The Experiment Publishing, I’ve read enough proposals and cookbook drafts to have developed a few editor pet peeves. I know where the most common shortcomings among my writers lie.

Avoiding them requires a simple but challenging mindset that most first-time writers wouldn’t ever consider: You are teaching people how to cook. Pretend they know nothing about cooking, let alone have made your recipes as many times as you have. As soon as you accept that, your editor will open your email not with butterflies in her stomach, but with a grumble, hungering for what’s inside. [Read more…] about 5 Editor Pet Peeves About Cookbook Manuscripts

What I Learned Writing a Cookbook as a Late Bloomer

October 30, 2018 by diannejacob 13 Comments

A guest post by Sara Bir

My whole life I’ve dreamed of writing a cookbook. But even with formal culinary chops and years of experience as a writer, it seemed like no one in the publishing industry took me seriously. So I guess you could say I’m a late bloomer.

It probably didn’t help that my two previous book proposals were hardly mainstream. There was my idea for The Great Big Book of Hot Dogs, which I envisioned as a lavish cultural history of hot dogs; and The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook, a book with nothing but pawpaw recipes. Do you even know what pawpaws are? Most people don’t. [Read more…] about What I Learned Writing a Cookbook as a Late Bloomer

Deborah Madison is Done After 30 Years of Cookbooks

July 31, 2018 by diannejacob 16 Comments

image for Deborah Madison post Multiple-award winning author Deborah Madison is calling it quits on cookbooks, after 30 years, but she’s not done with writing. To the contrary, she’s working on a memoir.

She wrote 14 cookbooks during those three decades, which comes down to an average of just over one book every two years. It’s a grueling [Read more…] about Deborah Madison is Done After 30 Years of Cookbooks