Promotion

What I Learned in My Year of Cookbook Promotion

November 17, 2015 by diannejacob 28 Comments

Yes really, Cathy Barrow ran around the US for a year to promote her cookbook, taking every opportunity. (Photo courtesy Allrecipes.com)

By Cathy Barrow

It was a year of saying “Yes” to every cookbook promotion opportunity.

In November 2014, my cookbook, Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry, hit the shelves. My publicist planned nearly 50 events in the first four months after launch.

As enthusiastic as I was about those first crazy months, I wanted to give the book a full year of my attention. It took a year to write it, so shouldn’t it take a year to tell everyone about it?

After many long talks with my spouse about how to structure the year, I decided to limit travel to one week per month and appearances to two weekends a month. We committed resources and time (and airplane miles and hotel points) and leaned heavily on the kindness of friends.

Over the past year, there were more than 50 flights, not to mention so many hotel rooms, train trips, bus rides, and car trips. I criss-crossed the country twice, drove through a bit of the Midwest, appeared here and there in the South, dawdled in Seattle, dined and dished in the Bay Area, jammed in New England, and made pork barbecue with all the condiments across the state of Texas. I slept in guest rooms, on couches, in swanky [Read more…] about What I Learned in My Year of Cookbook Promotion

Cookbook Publicist Dishes on What Works and What to Expect

August 4, 2015 by diannejacob 22 Comments

Publicist Ron Longe works under contract with publishers and individuals.

Want to know more about cookbook launches and how to work with your publisher?

Chef Craig Priebe and I are working with our publicist Ron Longe on promotion for The United States of Pizza (due out Sept. 22, 2015), so I took the opportunity to interview him on your behalf. Even if you are already a published author, you’ll be interested in Ron’s insider perspective.

Ron is the founder and president of Ron Longe Public Relations, a boutique PR agency. With more than 25 years of experience (I know, he looks so young! ), he has worked in the publicity departments of many New York [Read more…] about Cookbook Publicist Dishes on What Works and What to Expect

How Bryant Terry Sells Cookbooks Through Appearances

March 3, 2015 by diannejacob 15 Comments

Cookbook author Bryant Terry’s book promotion plan includes singing, rapping, and tying into social activism.

(Photo by Paige Green)

Four-time cookbook author and food activist Bryant Terry loves to perform, whether addressing a conference crowd, singing, or demonstrating how to cook a dish. It’s all part of getting his message across that good food should be a right, not a privilege. At all of these events, he’s also selling cookbooks.

I’ve attended a few of my fellow Oaklander’s events and enjoyed the innovative ways he gets his message across while selling books:

Q. You seem to have more creative ways to sell books than the average cookbook author. You read from your book during a pop-up dinner by another chef, for example.

A. Philip has been a supporter of my work for a couple of years. We came up with the idea and co-planned the menu together. I did some speaking between courses, some rapping and some entertaining.

I have done events with chefs before. On a book tour, a restaurant hosted me for a book event. The kitchen made recipes from Afro Vegan and they did a [Read more…] about How Bryant Terry Sells Cookbooks Through Appearances

Think Visually with an Infographic and Create a Valuable Marketing Tool

August 12, 2014 by diannejacob 14 Comments

Here’s the top of one of Laura’s pressure cooker infographics. She’s made three so far. Click on the image to see the entire infographic.

A guest post by Laura Pazzaglia

Infographics are taking the web by storm. They can be read and understood in a flash and shared, shared and shared. The best infographics tell a story (albeit very short) and convey useful information in a fun way.

I’d always wanted to make an infographic but didn’t think I had the tools or design skills to do so. Then I saw two posts from a marketing blog that promised [Read more…] about Think Visually with an Infographic and Create a Valuable Marketing Tool

Selling 16,000+ Cookbooks on QVC in Minutes

June 24, 2014 by diannejacob 22 Comments

A guest post by Rebecca Lang

My heart leapt when my publisher, Oxmoor House (now Time Inc Books), told me I was going to sell my cookbook on QVC, the television shopping channel network.

Before becoming a talent on QVC, though, I had to be trained on the [Read more…] about Selling 16,000+ Cookbooks on QVC in Minutes

Canadian Author Sold Millions of Cookbooks

October 29, 2013 by diannejacob 19 Comments

Cookbook Author Anne Lindsay, now retired and my hero.

After a long day of work, I want to make a quick, easy meal that tastes great. And one that’s light and healthy.

That’s a tall order, isn’t it? Those of us who have written and tested recipes know.

Just three cookbooks I’ve used in the last decade fit the bill. Until recently, I took these books for granted. I didn’t think about the author as a professional in our field. I was too busy cooking, grateful to be a home cook using good recipes that worked.

Earlier this year I went to Canada for a food blogging conference. I decided to find this cookbook author whose no-fail recipes I used for years. Her name is no secret to Canadians: Anne Lindsay. The weathered and stained cookbooks on my kitchen bookshelf — gifts from my sister in Vancouver — are

Lighthearted Everyday Cooking (1991)
Anne Lindsay’s Light Kitchen (1994)
The Lighthearted Cookbook: Recipes for Healthy Heart Cooking (1998)

She wrote these cookbooks with health organization partners: The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, The United Way of Canada, and the Canadian Heart Foundation. (You’ll learn in a minute why this was a brilliant [Read more…] about Canadian Author Sold Millions of Cookbooks