Cookbooks

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

Micro Influencers Can Get a Cookbook Deal Too, says Agent

July 17, 2018 by diannejacob 15 Comments

image for micro influencer post Are you a micro influencer? I am. I’ll never have huge numbers, but people do seem to trust me and I have decent engagement. That’s my definition, anyway.

But if you feel discouraged that you can’t get a book deal without a huge platform, here’s hope. Literary agent Sally Ekus says [Read more…] about Micro Influencers Can Get a Cookbook Deal Too, says Agent

Get a Decent Social Media Following First to Get a Cookbook Deal, says Gibbs Smith Editor

May 15, 2018 by diannejacob 7 Comments

Michelle Branson says she wants cookbook authors with a decent social media following. She’s Senior Editor and Contract Administrator of Gibbs Smith, in charge of cookbooks acquisition team, and a member of the children’s books acquisitions team.

The question, though, is what constitutes a “decent social [Read more…] about Get a Decent Social Media Following First to Get a Cookbook Deal, says Gibbs Smith Editor

Hire an Intern for Your Next Cookbook!

March 6, 2018 by diannejacob 14 Comments

A guest post by Clotilde Dusoulier

Recently I made a key decision: to hire an intern to help me with my new cookbook, Tasting Paris. It’s my fifth book in 11 years, and releases this month. I am proud to say this is the one that finally made me feel I had “turned pro,” in the words of Steven Pressfield (see his book Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work).

Hiring an intern helped me in [Read more…] about Hire an Intern for Your Next Cookbook!