As the food director at Real Simple magazine, responsible for all recipes, Sarah Copeland has lots of opinions — and experience — about [Read more…] about Writing a High-Quality Recipe is Like a Report, says Real Simple Editor
Recipe Writing
Busy Mom Starts Online Recipe Business and It’s a Hit
Aviva Goldfarb writes recipes for busy moms and runs a successful newsletter and website for them. (Photo by Mary Gardella.)
Can someone who writes recipes create a thriving recipe business? Yes.
Aviva Goldfarb founded the The Six O’Clock Scramble in 2003, a menu planning service for busy moms. Now she’s a Today Show and Washington Post contributor, and author of several Six O’Clock Scramble cookbooks. She frequently appears on the The Katie Couric Show and in national publications including O magazine, Real Simple, Working Mother, and Prevention. The American Diabetes Association will publish her fourth cookbook in January, 2016 .
I discovered Aviva’s recipe business when researching my new chapter on making money in Will Write for Food. Here’s how she got started and why her business works:
Q. What is a menu planning company?
A. I make busy mom’s lives easier by planning what they have for dinner and what they need to buy at the store. These moms aspire to cook more so I try to take all that stress out of the process and make it more turnkey for them. I give them a weekly menu of [Read more…] about Busy Mom Starts Online Recipe Business and It’s a Hit
Beautiful Cookbooks with Stories and Personality Sell Best, Says Editor
Ten Speed editorial director Julie Bennett says readers want to learn more about the personality of cookbook authors through their lives, world, culture and food.
I’ve been bugging Julie Bennett, vice president and editorial director at Ten Speed Press, for an interview, ever since we met at a conference a year ago.
It’s because Ten Speed publishes so many terrific cookbooks. As the director of the editorial department, Julie manages nine editors who will put out approximately 70 books this year. She has worked at Ten Speed since 1999.
Julie edited New York Times best selling cookbooks Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson and My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz, and A New Napa Cuisine by Christopher Kostow (IACP Cookbook of the Year), just to name a few.
We talked about cookbook publishing trends, whether all cookbooks need color photos, and what she looks for:
Q. What are the latest trends in cookbook publishing?
A. Today cookbooks have more of a personal narrative element. The trend of blogger-to-book ties into it, and there are cookbook writers who have a lot to say.
There are so many recipes online, but books present readers with [Read more…] about Beautiful Cookbooks with Stories and Personality Sell Best, Says Editor
Blogger Finds Famous Cookbook Recipe Doesn’t Work, but He’s Happy
When a high-end cookbook recipe doesn’t work, how can this story have a happy ending? Somehow, it does.
First, a little backstory. Remember when Julie Powell started her career-changing food blog, The Julie/Julia Project, in 2002? It was about a government drone who makes every recipe from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking over a one-year period. Her blog led to the first blog-to-book deal and a subsequent movie.
After that, a whole bunch of people started blogs about [Read more…] about Blogger Finds Famous Cookbook Recipe Doesn’t Work, but He’s Happy
Frustrated by Smaller Can Sizes for Recipes? I Am.
Do canned goods makers have any idea how it affects recipe developers and cooks when they reduce their can sizes?
…and I was just baking, not developing recipes.
Over the holidays I made a pumpkin bread from a favorite recipe in an older cookbook. The recipe called for one 16-ounce can. Yet cans of pumpkin are no longer 16 ounces, but 15.
The manufacturer removed 2 tablespoons instead of raising the price! I repeat: 2 tablespoons. That’s all it takes to mess up [Read more…] about Frustrated by Smaller Can Sizes for Recipes? I Am.
When Writing Recipes, Do All Ingredients Have a Standard Size?
Fitting dough to a pizza screen for one of around 80 pizzas I made for a pizza cookbook — including one with a questionable ingredient. (Photo by Kris Montgomery)
Based on all the great feedback and discussion on last week’s post about recipe copy-editing, I’m asking about writing recipes with non-standard ingredient sizes.
Case in point: How big is a lamb sausage?
One of the USA of Pizza’s recipes called for “1 lamb sausage link” (not merguez). I purchased the link at a butcher. It weighed 5 1/2 ounces.
The copy editor asked if it should be 6 ounces.
Okay, I thought. Maybe 6 ounces is a standard size. But I didn’t know for sure, so I researched it. I Googled “lamb sausage” and clicked on images. I found [Read more…] about When Writing Recipes, Do All Ingredients Have a Standard Size?
Questions from a Recipe Copy Editor
This smoked salmon pizza in The United States of Pizza includes sliced red onion. This was a source of contention!
If a copy editor has ever touched your cookbook manuscript, you will relate.
And if you haven’t had the experience yet, you will be intrigued — and possibly worried.
Before I start this discussion, however, I want to be clear. I’m grateful for all the goofs our very capable copy editor caught in chef Craig Priebe’s and my new pizza book (The USA of Pizza, October, 2015) manuscript.
But man, some of the queries made us scratch our heads. Here are three [Read more…] about Questions from a Recipe Copy Editor