before you write a cookbook

A guest post by Kate Leahy

Before writing a cookbook,  I didn’t know exactly how my finished book would look. But I knew a cookbook was the right vehicle for sharing a restaurant’s inner world with the outside world.

For my first cookbook, A16 Food + Wine,  I could envision how the recipes, wine descriptions, and restaurant stories would be layered into a physical book. Since then, I’ve grown to understand that not all ideas about food, restaurants, or home cooking make sense within the structures of a cookbook. There are many other ways ways to tell a story. Today’s technology makes it easier than ever to explore other forms of media, from videos to podcasts and e-newsletters and many things between.

But if cookbooks are only one way to approach food storytelling and recipe sharing, how do you know if pursuing a cookbook is right for you? (I’m talking about a traditional publishing route. For self-publishing, it’s somewhat different, though much of what I say below will still apply.)