Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food
Useful Tips, Interviews, and Stories to Inspire Food Writers and Bloggers
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
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
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
A Guest Post by Marcy Goldman
I never wanted to self-publish. I imagined continuing Random House and Harper Collins book deals for my growing baking author platform and features in leading newspapers and online venues. I envisioned more Christmas baskets from my publishers, help with my blog and website, and publicists to set up my interviews and promotional spots.
Marcy Goldman, a traditionally published bestselling author, chose to start her own imprint.
Instead, I am now River Heart Press, my own imprint, and I am boldly going where I went when I was 12 years old and self-published my own street newspaper, The Goldman Times.
After 25 years of great publishers, great cookbooks and what I thought was an upward spiraling career, I wasn’t getting a response to my next book idea from traditional publishers. So I [Read more…] about I Self-Published a Cookbook, Despite it All
A guest post by Nancy Baggett
Something new for these two authors: a Kindle book for $3.99 that must be promoted online for best results.
After writing 16 cookbooks for mainstream American cookbook publishers over nearly three decades, I just co-published my first Kindle book. It’s a 250-page co-authored work called The 2 Day a Week Diet Cookbook, with 75 recipes and 50 color photographs for $3.99.
What made this project different was that, from the beginning, my co-author Ruth Glick and I planned to create a Kindle book. We never considered pitching it to publishers. Ruth had already written a number of Kindle books (mostly novels), and when she proposed that we collaborate, I promptly agreed.
In retrospect, I can see how this self-publishing process would be daunting for inexperienced authors. Going the indie Kindle route meant foregoing a publisher’s hand-holding and the usual editorial, production, and marketing assistance. Having written numerous cookbooks, we felt confident doing the recipe development, editing and proofreading, and even writing blurbs. The jobs that were less familiar, particularly [Read more…] about Author Tries Kindle After 16 Cookbooks
It took Kitty Morse 10 years to write her memoir. Her agent couldn’t sell it, even though she was an award-winning cookbook author. (Photo by Owen Morse.)
A guest post by Kitty Morse
As a cookbook writer with nine books under my belt, I always harbored a desire to write a memoir centered around Dar Zitoun, the riad that my father willed my brothers and me 50 miles south of my native Casablanca. I fantasized about writing my own story, free of editorial constraints such as word counts. But how? I was just a cookbook writer.
Frances Mayes’ bestselling Under the Tuscan Sun provided the impetus I sought. Her stories of restoring a Tuscan farmhouse struck me as similar to those I experienced at Dar Zitoun. I too was living on two continents and learning to deal with [Read more…] about Agent Couldn’t Sell Her Memoir, so Cookbook Author Publishes it Anyway
(Disclosure: After working on this post, I bought this cookbook. I love foraging and viewing beautiful images of plants, and these two women impressed me. If you wish to do the same, act now, as time is running out.)
Herbalist Dina Falconi teaches people about plants, herbs and foraging in the wild, and has done so for about 30 years. Now that foraging for edible plants is trendy, she decided the time is right for a crowd funded cookbook. As the writer of Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair, a recipe book for body care products published in 1998 from a small press, Falconi knew about the process.
Her book idea took shape about three years ago, when Wendy Hollender, a professional illustrator, moved to Falconi’s New York neighborhood. Falconi asked Hollender if she wanted to ilustrate a cookbook on foraging and feasting. “With her skills, I could direct her art to be [Read more…] about Kickstarter Campaign Reaches Nearly $100,000 to Pre-Sell Cookbooks