cookbook writing

Questions from a Recipe Copy Editor

November 25, 2014 by diannejacob 62 Comments

This smoked salmon pizza in The United States of Pizza includes sliced red onion. This was a source of contention!

If a copy editor has ever touched your cookbook manuscript, you will relate.

And if you haven’t had the experience yet, you will be intrigued — and possibly worried.

Before I start this discussion, however, I want to be clear. I’m grateful for all the goofs our very capable copy editor caught in chef Craig Priebe’s and my new pizza book (The USA of Pizza, October, 2015) manuscript.

But man, some of the queries made us scratch our heads. Here are three [Read more…] about Questions from a Recipe Copy Editor

17 Super-Useful Links for Food Writers and Bloggers

November 11, 2014 by diannejacob 25 Comments

Vibrant tomato sauces, captured courtesy of photographer Donna Ruhlman.

Who has time to keep up with all the tips and irresistible stories on the Internet?

Now you do! I’ve saved you hours by aggregating this tomato-sauce colored list of links about food and recipe writing, successful bloggers, book promotion, and freelance [Read more…] about 17 Super-Useful Links for Food Writers and Bloggers

Should Recipes Still be About Meals?

October 14, 2014 by diannejacob 34 Comments

Are we raising a nation of snackers?

As The New York Times reported recently, “sitting down to three square meals is going the way of the landline.” People now graze throughout the day and some 40 percent of Americans eat only snacks, not meals.

And yet, we still write cookbooks for one-pot meals and recipes for dishes meant to be consumed by more than one, sitting around a table. We still organize cookbooks by appetizers, side dishes and entrees, oblivious to this new development.

I’ve been thinking about how new cookbooks might be organized to address this trend. There would be no sections for breakfast, lunch or dinner, because [Read more…] about Should Recipes Still be About Meals?

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

Who Buys Cookbooks and Why?

April 8, 2014 by diannejacob 52 Comments

Women buyers still predominate cookbook buying. And look! She’s already got her credit card out.

If you’re a cookbook author or hoping to become one soon, do you know who would want to buy your cookbook and why?

Adam Solomone, associate publisher of Harvard Common Press, answered this question for attendees at the recent IACP conference, where he gave a slide presentation of data collected by Nielsen, in conjunction with several North American publishers. Answers came from a core group of 2500 cookbook purchasers, a subset of 80,000 book buyers, based on the the last book they bought.

Here are the top findings:

1. Sixty-five percent of all cookbook buyers are women. You’re probably not surprised. Most buyers are college-educated. About [Read more…] about Who Buys Cookbooks and Why?

After 40 Cookbooks, David Joachim’s Secrets to Success

March 11, 2014 by diannejacob 14 Comments

Author, co-author, ghostwriter, and reference writer Dave Joachim has the drive to do it all.

Dave Joachim has 40 books under his belt, almost all of them cookbooks, including the “A Man, A Can, A Plan” series of five books which has sold more than 1 million copies.

I spoke with Dave about his latest book and his thoughts about cookbook negotiating and writing:

Q. Congrats on your latest book, Global Kitchen. Is it a work-for-hire with royalties, from Cooking Light? That’s an unusual arrangement.

A. Actually, I got an advance for this book. The material I created – apart from my 30 recipes — was a work-for-hire. The publisher, Time Home Entertainment Inc., owns Cooking Light and several other publications and they own the rights to use the material in Global Kitchen elsewhere.

Regarding the 30 recipes, the publication has the right to the material for a certain time, and then the rights revert to me. So if I want to [Read more…] about After 40 Cookbooks, David Joachim’s Secrets to Success

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