Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

Promotion

4 Ways to Use Instagram Strategically

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A guest post by Cheryl Sternman Rule

In our social media ocean, most of us swim, flail, float, glide, and sputter, sometimes all in a single day. We do our best not to drown as we navigate crowded platforms, with varying degrees of success, enthusiasm, and begrudging obligation.

We also play favorites.

I, for one, love Instagram. Instagram has grown my network in ways I both couldn’t have imagined and didn’t know I needed.

Yes, I use other platforms, too, but my heart belongs to [Read more…] about 4 Ways to Use Instagram Strategically

How Bryant Terry Sells Cookbooks Through Appearances

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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

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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

Canadian Author Sold Millions of Cookbooks

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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

6 Secrets to Selling Cookbooks at Events

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Author and and television personality Joanne Weir tells you how she works the audience into buying her latest cookbook.

A guest post by Joanne Weir

I’ve been really lucky with book sales and people often say “Oh, I forgot that you always sell a lot of books.” I want you to know that it took me a while to get the hang of selling books, but I do have a few pointers that work for me:

1. I hold the book in my arms the whole time, with the title facing out, and I [Read more…] about 6 Secrets to Selling Cookbooks at Events

A New Cookbook Author Scores a Google Talk

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Food writer and cookbook author Jody Eddy, before her talk at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA.

It’s not every day that a new cookbook author joins the ranks of dignitaries such as Al Gore and Tina Fey. But Jody Eddy did, by speaking at Google headquarters.

The co-author of Come In, We’re Closed: An Invitation to Staff Meals at the World’s Best Restaurants, Jody’s oddessey to the Googleplex began when publicist friend Carrie Bachman made a request.

Cliff Redeker, who books speakers for the Google talks, wanted travel information about Iceland for a future trip. Eddy is working on a cookbook with an Icelandic chef, Gunnar Karl Gislason, so she and Redecker began a conversation. Eventually, he invited Jody to speak about her new cookbook.

The Google speaker series began in 2005 and features hundreds of authors, musicians, chefs, economists and politicians. Redeker now arranges [Read more…] about A New Cookbook Author Scores a Google Talk