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Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

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book promotion

Get Tips About a Cookbook Tour + Win a Copy of Istanbul & Beyond

December 12, 2017 by diannejacob

Cookbook Giveaway: Istanbul & Beyond

[This post is now closed. Kris Diede is the winner of the cookbook.]

What happens on your first cookbook tour? Author Robyn Eckhard found out when she came to the US and Canada from her home in Italy to promote  Istanbul and Beyond: Exploring the Diverse Cuisines of Turkey. She did around 25 events in 5.5 weeks, traveling with her husband, Dave Hagerman, the book’s photographer. 

If it sounds exhausting, it was. Exhilarating too, she says. In addition to the events, she fit lots of interviews and podcasts into that compressed time.

I’ve known Robyn for years. She is one of those overachiever types who speaks several languages and has freelanced food stories for Saveur and The New York Times. We worked together on her [Read more…] about Get Tips About a Cookbook Tour + Win a Copy of Istanbul & Beyond

Filed Under: Contests, Promotion Tagged With: book promotion, cookbook promotion, Istanbul and Beyond, Robyn Eckhard

Facebook Fan Page is Less Effective if Free

September 17, 2012 by diannejacob 87 Comments

Here’s what Facebook would charge Stephanie Manley to post to fans and friends.

Do you use a Facebook fan page to promote your blog and books? How about Google? Do you depend on Feedburner for free blog feeds?

Free was great, but now it’s over.*

Stephanie Manley of CopyKat Recipes alerted me that Facebook now wants us to pay to promote our posts to viewers. In her case, the cost is $30 per post and $75 per post for fans and their friends. That comes to…let’s see, almost $11,000 annually to send a daily post to her fans! Without payment, only 11.1 percent of her 18,400+ Facebook fans see her Fan page.

That’s not effective at all. But it’s still free.

Facebook says an average of 84 percent of your fans are no longer seeing your posts. They justify it this way. To find out what Facebook is charging you per fan page post, click on the promote button, on the bottom right of your posting window. Surprise!

I emailed another food writer with a huge fan base, David Lebovitz, to get his reaction to this Facebook news. “It leaves a [Read more…] about Facebook Fan Page is Less Effective if Free

Filed Under: Food Blogging, Promotion Tagged With: book promotion, Facebook fan page fees, Feedburner closure, Food blogging, food writing

How Blogging Got My Book Reviewed on Epicurious

August 4, 2010 by diannejacob

All right lissen up, you food writers who are not bloggers. I’m about to tell you how having my a blog got the new edition of Will Write for Food reviewed on Epicurious.com,  a massively popular website, then tweeted to around 50,000 people.

No, it didn’t go like this: I wrote a new book, the publisher sent it to Epicurious as part of its regular mailing, and someone at Epicurious decided to review it. Life would be easier that way, but also duller.

Let’s back up a little so I can tell you how it happened and how this affects you (always the critical part of any story).

First, I started this blog. Then I joined a Google Group called BayArea Food Bloggers, which sends an email around with messages (if you’re local and want to subscribe, see this). Fast forward to July, when an email from a local blogger appeared on the listserv and began this way:

    “Epicurious at the Ferry Building July 20th, Stop by and say hi to editor Tanya Steel!
    Hi Everyone, Christina here from Farm and a Frying Pan. For my day job, I am the PR Manager at Epicurious, and next week kicks off our summer Farmers Market Tour with our first stop at the Ferry Building Farmers market on the 20th…”

A chance to meet the editor-in-chief of Epicurious! I was all over that, even though I didn’t have a food blog and I wasn’t going to interview her about produce and healthy eating. But I had a writing blog, so I had a place to publish our interview. After the interview I asked for Tanya Steel’s card, something that takes nerve but I did it anyway.

Knowing she would never see the post unless I told her about it, I sent an email to Steel, providing the link. (Do you always do this, if you have a blog?) Days later, a response said, simply: “Thanks so much. Great to meet you.” Just remember that she is exceedingly busy and, because she’s a Brit, exceedingly good mannered.

In my email reply to her, I mentioned that I asked my publisher to send her a copy of my new book. I figured it couldn’t hurt, since Epicurious probably receives dozens of new books every week. I didn’t want mine to be lost in the shuffle.

And a few days later, this positive review appeared on Epicurious’s daily Epi-Log. It began with a link to my website and then said my book “should be mandatory reading for everyone who aspires to be a food writer.” After that came an Epicurious tweet to around 50,000 followers, with a link to the review. That’s gold, baby!

Now, why am I telling you all this, and what does it mean for you? A few things:

1. If you are a traditional print author with a new book, you need a blog to take part in opportunities like this.

2. If you are not on Twitter, get with it. Right now. You never know who will pass on your tweets to their readers, potentially building your base of followers.

3. My launch has been so much more successful than the first edition, five years ago, because of my blog and the opportunities it provides for exposure. You never know who’s reading you and who will pass you on to their blog and website readers either. Eater.com, The Food Section, and Publishers Weekly’s  Cooking the Books, for example, have picked up recent posts. I got on Martha Stewart Radio last Monday because the person who contacted me said she “heard it was out.” Since I made the announcement on my blog and on Twitter, that’s how she found out. To top it off, the home page of Martha Stewart Radio is selling my book. And blogger Stephanie Stiavetti has already done a giveaway on Wasabimon.

So that’s my testament to using social media for a book launch. If you have any other tips, would love to hear them.

Filed Under: Cookbooks, Food Blogging Tagged With: book promotion, Epicurious, food writing

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Awards and Honors


Will Write for Food 2022


Will Write For Food 2022


IACP Member of the Year 2022


Will Write For Food 2022


Will Write For Food 2020


Best Essay 2016


2016 Grand Prize
MFK Fisher Award
for Best Essay


Will Write For Food 2016


Will Write For Food 2016


Will Write For Food 2010


Best Essay 2007


Will Write For Food 2005

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