Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

Cookbooks

7 Most Common Recipe Writing Errors

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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

Five Tips on What Makes a Killer Cookbook Idea

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One of the classes I taught at Rancho La Puerta last week (between hiking, eating sensational vegetarian cuisine and taking a cooking class with Denise Vivaldo) was “What’s A Good Idea for a Book?”

Agents and editors often give the same answer to his question: “You’ve got to have something to say.” And what does that mean, exactly? Here are five definitions:

1. The subject is timely. While at the IACP conference in Portland, Literary Agent Lisa Ekus mentioned that Barnes & Noble made “vegan” a permanent category in its cookbook section. What’s the next hot topic and are you part of it?

2. The idea is about your area of expertise. Do you write extensively on your topic? Do you speak on it or teach cooking classes? Are you obsessed? Good.

3. If you’re not a recognized expert, you’re passionate about the subject. Communicating intense enthusiasm, excitement, and knowledge can sometimes carry a book idea.

4. Your idea is well focused. Lack of focus keeps many potential authors from moving forward. If you want to write about “everything” to do with the subject, the task becomes overwhelming. Take a piece of your idea. That’s why there’s a book called Vegan Brunch vs. The Complete Guide to Vegan Cooking.

5. You have a new approach. Michael Ruhlman did it with Ratio, his book on cooking formulas.

Want to learn more? Take my 2-hour teleclass Wednesday night: “How to Write a Killer Cookbook Proposal,” or my Berkeley, Ca. 5-week class “Want to Sell Your Book? Write a Fabulous Book Proposal.”

And if you’ve got a question about book proposals, pose it below and I’ll answer.

Photography by CNP Digital Studio, courtesy of Bon Appetit.

Why Authors Need a Platform More than Ever

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I’ve spoken to three hopeful memoirists recently who were convinced that the strength of their writing alone will be enough to sell their book. They don’t need to work on their platforms, they said.

Now, this would be interesting if these people were famous or rich. But they’re not. They have either a small blog or have never been published. And in the world of memoir, being famous helps. In fact, it’s the first question my agent asks when I mention I’m working with someone who’s hoping to publish a memoir.

Since most of us are not ever going to be famous, the best we can do is build a platform. A platform is [Read more…] about Why Authors Need a Platform More than Ever

Now That's How to Write a Review!

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criticsIt seems that when it comes to reviewing, the food blogging community is more interested in promotion rather than in a balanced critique. I can’t tell you how many bloggers have said, in comments on this blog, they only do positive reviews because “the reader’s time is short” or “I’m only going to write about it if I love it.”

Why? Rave reviews are boring. Totally negative reviews are rare and difficult to do well. How about going for middle ground, where the review is mostly positive, but acknowledges the cons?

Finally, I can point to a few examples from people [Read more…] about Now That's How to Write a Review!

Food Trends — Should You Pay Attention?

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An array of grains on display at the Fancy Food Show

It’s the start of the new year, and everyone has predictions.

The Fancy Food Show just released a list of the top five food trends for 2010, according to a panel of “food critics and food writer experts” on location. They are:

  • “good-for-you” foods
  • coconut
  • gluten-free foods
  • exotic citrus, and
  • “nostalgic” foods.”

Then, adding to the list are are the usual Top Food Trend stories that appear every January. Nani Steele sent me a whole passel of ’em from Market Watch, the Food Channel, Slashfood, Epicurious, Yahoo Lifestyle, and Eating Well. I’ve boiled the trends down to:

  • Comfort food cooking with basic ingredients — lamb and pork are particularly trendy
  • Budget-friendly recipes are still in style
  • Regional ethnic food, particularly those of Korea, Morocco and Japan
  • Good-for-you foods, based on allergies and building immunity.

I’m sure magazine and cookbook editors and literary agents pay attention to these forecasts. Aaron Wehner, publisher of Ten Speed Press, told me they’re drowning in budget-friendly cookbook proposals right now.

Trend stories make me wonder: should food writers jump on these trends and suddenly pitch articles and cookbooks on coconut and exotic citrus, or other trends mentioned in these stories? If you’re a blogger, will you write blog posts with recipes based on these trends? How do these trends guide you, or do they?  What will you do with this information?

(Photo thanks to Stephanie Stiavetti of The Culinary Life)

Food Publishing Still a Crapshoot, Says Editor

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SyndyMiner

Sydny Miner, newly minted Executive Editor at Crown Books.

Recently I spoke with Sydny Miner, about to become executive editor at Crown Books and leave Simon & Schuster, where she edited the Food Network’s Paula Deen and Molly Wizenberg’s first book, A Homemade Life.

Sydny  started working with Paula Deen in 2002, before the food network made Deen a star. What was she like?  “She’s the person you see on TV, maybe a little quieter in person,” says Sydny. We fell in love with her and her great voice. We knew Southern cooking was a perennial subject. We knew her restaurant was a destination.

Yet, she says it was a gut feeling to take Deen on. “We just caught her on the way up.” Sydny might say the same of Molly Wizenberg. An early reader of food blogs, Sydny suggested an agent contact Wizenberg about writing a book [Read more…] about Food Publishing Still a Crapshoot, Says Editor

"Consider the Lobster," a Gourmet Classic

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Photo from Gourmet articlePhoto from Gourmet article, 2004

The other day I sent out a Tweet about a list of best food books of the decade at the UK Guardian. Amy Sherman replied she found the list strange because of two books on Indian food, but then, the British now say they like curry more than fish & chips.

I enjoyed that exchange, but actually, Indian cookbooks were not what I found odd — and ultimately wonderful — about the article. It was because it said, a few paragraphs in, “We had an interesting nomination… David Foster Wallace’s essay Consider the Lobster, written originally for the now defunct [Read more…] about "Consider the Lobster," a Gourmet Classic