Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

Self Publishing

A Self-published Cookbook Author Gets Her Own Magazine

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Melissa Joulwan has always done things her own way. Now she gets her own magazine! She started a blog, built a following, wrote three award-winning self-published cookbooks, and recently, moved to Prague with Dave, her husband and photographer.

I’ve written about her success as a self-published cookbook author: 5 Things I learned from Selling Almost 300,000 Cookbooks, and Self-publishing Success wth a Paleo Cookbook.

But this! She gets her own magazine?

I didn’t find out about Melissa’s latest venture until a friend showed me [Read more…] about A Self-published Cookbook Author Gets Her Own Magazine

How to Create a Gift Shop Cookbook

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A guest post by Nancy Bagget

Selling a gift shop cookbook can work with many culinary subjects and venues, from gourmet tea, coffee, cheese, wine and spirits to spa cuisine and country inn cooking. Almost every product or topic has a supporting trade or members’ organization. And they tend to be receptive to participation by writers in their field.

I didn’t set out to write a gift shop cookbook. Eventually I realized that if I self-published, gift shops could be an excellent way to reach and sell to a key audience.

A few years ago, I began experimenting with culinary lavender when I wrote Simply Sensational Cookies. I was bowled over by how it [Read more…] about How to Create a Gift Shop Cookbook

8 Answers to Copyright Questions About Recipes and Books

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Copyright attorney Lesley Ellen Harris.

When Copyright Educator and Author Lesley Ellen Harris asked if I had any copyright questions for a blog post, I put the word out on social media. Food writers asked several questions. Lesley has generously answered them — in plain English.

Here are 8 answers to copyright questions about recipes and books:

1. When someone re-publishes my recipes word for word (headnote, instructions, variations, etc.)  without attribution, I usually write to them and try to work it out. But if that goes nowhere, is there a legal avenue?

Copyright law doesn’t protect the list of ingredients in a recipe. However, the language used to describe the recipe’s instructions and the headnote are protected by copyright. Attribution may be a [Read more…] about 8 Answers to Copyright Questions About Recipes and Books

5 Things I Learned From Selling Almost 300,000 Cookbooks

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Melissa Joulwan has sold almost 300,000 copies of her two self-published paleo cookbooks. Her newest cookbook, WellFed Weeknights, debuts in November.

A guest post by Melissa Joulwan

Five years ago, my husband Dave and I decided to self publish our first cookbook, Well Fed. We had only the vaguest idea of what we were getting ourselves into. I’d written a previous book for a major publisher and didn’t enjoy the experience, so we knew what we didn’t want. But we were naïve about all the steps it would take to move our book from “great idea” to retail bookshelves and bestseller status.

Since then, we’ve released Well Fed 2, and sold almost 300,000 copies of both books. We’re about to launch our third book, Well Fed Weeknights. I’ve learned it’s wildly rewarding to [Read more…] about 5 Things I Learned From Selling Almost 300,000 Cookbooks

14 Million Deer Hunters: Hank Shaw Wants to Meet Them All

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Author Hank Shaw has already begun his self-financed, cross-country US book tour, which continues from now into 2017.

After traditionally publishing two cookbooks through Rodale and Ten Speed, Hank Shaw wanted  a third. But when publishers passed on a cookbook based on “Deer, Elk, Moose, Antelope and Other Antlered Things,” Hank gambled on his readers. He decided to self publish.

He knew there was [Read more…] about 14 Million Deer Hunters: Hank Shaw Wants to Meet Them All

7 Tips to Successfully Crowdfund a Cookbook

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Author Kathy Strahs raised more than $21,000 on Kickstarter to publish The 8×8 Cookbook. The project was named a Staff Pick, boosting its visibility.

A guest post by Kathy Strahs

Over the past 18 months, both first-time and established authors learned to crowdfund a cookbook on Kickstarter, and raised good money. Here’s a sample:

Mine was one. After writing The Ultimate Panini Press Cookbook with a traditional publisher in 2013, I published The 8×8 Cookbook this past fall by establishing a publishing company, Burnt Cheese Press, and crowdfunding my cookbook on Kickstarter. I raised [Read more…] about 7 Tips to Successfully Crowdfund a Cookbook

Blogger Finds Famous Cookbook Recipe Doesn’t Work, but He’s Happy

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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