Self Publishing

8 Answers to Copyright Questions About Recipes and Books

December 6, 2016 by diannejacob 53 Comments

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

September 27, 2016 by diannejacob 6 Comments

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

September 13, 2016 by diannejacob 4 Comments

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

January 19, 2016 by diannejacob 22 Comments

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:

Leanne Brown, Good and Cheap: $144,681
Hank Shaw, Buck, Buck, Moose: $93,763
Emily Kaiser Thelin and Andrea Nguyen: UNFORGETTABLE: $91,465
Anna Watson Carl, The Yellow Table Cookbook: $65,815
Leslie Jonath and 18 Reasons, Feed Your People: $40,805

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

July 7, 2015 by diannejacob 37 Comments

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

I Self-Published a Cookbook, Despite it All

April 29, 2014 by diannejacob 77 Comments

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

Author Tries Kindle After 16 Cookbooks

February 25, 2014 by diannejacob 48 Comments

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