Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

Food blogging

Should Freelancers Not Mention Their Blogs?

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That’s me, barely visible on the left, talking in the demonstration kitchen of Kendall College in Chicago. My book, Will Write for Food, came out in July and I’m still in promotion mode.

At a recent talk at a culinary school in Chicago, I told the audience of food writers about an outrageous request a company made of a food blogger, showing that food bloggers aren’t taken seriously when it comes to pay. A woman raised her hand and asked whether to omit that she is a food blogger when pitching a publication for a story.

“That depends,” I responded. “Are you already established in print?”

She said she was. And then I thought: This woman in the audience is brilliant. Because she will be taken more seriously and offered more money than if she says she is a blogger.

Signing books after the talk. That’s Scott Warner on my right, program chair of the Culinary Historians of Chicago, host of my talk.

How do I know this? Print publications sometimes ask bloggers to work for free. And while many print food writers have started food blogs to stay current, saying so might [Read more…] about Should Freelancers Not Mention Their Blogs?

BlogHer Food, the Love Fest

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Shauna James Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, Michael Ruhlman of Ruhlman.com and Molly Wizenberg of Orangette at the closing BlogHer Food keynote, talking about why they love to write and what it means to them. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Yu of Use Real Butter.

BlogHer Food ’10 this past weekend in San Francisco built on its second year as a love fest where 250 attendees (mostly food blogging women and gay men) thrill to be in each other’s presence. If you weren’t into hugging and making this noise called “Squeee!” you didn’t belong.

Southern California threesome: Carrie Vitt of Deliciously Organic, Brooke Burton of Food Woolf, and Gaby Dalkin of What's Gaby Cooking.

The two-day conference was less about the sessions and more about seeing friends, making new friends, partying, and swag. Attendees met heroes they had previously seen only on the page, and discovered [Read more…] about BlogHer Food, the Love Fest

Outrageous Blogger Request, and the Outcome

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Food blogger Amy Sherman of Cooking With Amy

First I just Tweeted about this offer because it was so outrageous. Then I decided no, it’s worth sharing with you.

Amy Sherman of Cooking with Amy sent me an unsolicited email she received from a company that wants her to feature its product on her blog. That’s not unusual, right? But read on, and you’ll find some crazy requests. Here’s how the email begins:

“The event is at a culinary trade show in Italy. You would be picked up at the airport  for the event, lasting two days. We would put you up in a hotel and cover all meal expenses for the 2 days of the show. “

Sounds reasonable so far.

The Request

But now it gets suspicious [Read more…] about Outrageous Blogger Request, and the Outcome

A Food Bloggers Union?

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I got an email a few days ago from the daughter of a famous cookbook author, who feels sympathy for how little food bloggers make and wants to do something about it. Here’s what she wrote:

“My mom and I have been traveling for her book tour. My mom is Pam Anderson, she is a food writer and cookbook author and has a new book out called Perfect One-Dish Dinners. I do most of her publicity and travel with her and in each city we’ve been meeting up with our blogging friends along the way.

“You might not be surprised to know that a lot of what we talked about was how bloggers aren’t getting paid anything near what they should be (if at all). The ladies were really fed up and frustrated. We all want to make a career out of this, but the money just isn’t there. We’re tired of e-mails asking for us to promote products for free or create content and photos for a measly $50.

Bloggers don’t know what to charge

“Part of the problem is that many people don’t know what they should be asking for. I think people don’t ask because they aren’t informed and there is no standard. We thought, what if we set up [Read more…] about A Food Bloggers Union?

Epicurious EIC Recommends You Do It Yourself

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Editor-in-Chief Tanya Steel was in town recently to promote Epicurious.com, home of 30,000 recipes, at the farmer’s market at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza. I thought I’d stop in to get her thoughts about today’s food writing scene.

Over spearmint tisane (for me) and coffee (for her) from Blue Bottle, she said she tries to keep her ear to the ground, stay ahead of trends, and innovate. To do so she scans 10 to 12 blogs and aggregate sites from around the country every day, including The Food Section, Cold Mud, and newspaper food section blogs. Her staff scours social networking sites.

It must be working. Her latest accomplishment, the free Epicurious app, available for the iPhone, iPad, Droid and other mobile devices, has more than 2.5 million copies in circulation, making it a leading app.

When asked how today’s food writer could get ahead, she [Read more…] about Epicurious EIC Recommends You Do It Yourself

An Evolution of Five Book Covers

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As you might know by now (because I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops), Will Write for Food, 2nd edition, is out with a new cover. I thought you might like a behind-the-scenes look at how the cover selection process works and how I ended up with my current cover.

Here’s the original cover of Will Write for Food. This cover came in an email from the publisher (Marlowe & Co.). I loved it immediately and danced around the room. People told me how lucky I was to have a great cover on the first pass. It’s an old-school journalism kind of image, and back in 2005, I was an old-school journalism type of gal. I bought matching jewelry, a bracelet of typewriter keys. My agent gave me a necklace with a “D” typewriter key to celebrate the book’s release.

Fast forward to 2010 and the revision of Will Write for Food. The new publisher (Da Capo Press) said they wanted to freshen up the old cover. Even though I loved the old one, I had to recognize that it needed an update for the new generation of people who want to [Read more…] about An Evolution of Five Book Covers

Food Blogger Conference Offers Killer Goody Bag

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Should you go to the International Food Blogger Conference in Seattle August 27-29? James Osland, editor of Saveur, will give the keynote; Victoria Von Beul, executive editor of Bon Appetit magazine will lead a pitch session; memoirist Kathleen Flinn will teach a “Writing With the Senses” class; and I’ll be speaking on a panel about recipes, moderated by Amy Sherman.

These are not good enough reasons!  On a food blogger listserv, the buzz was all about what might be in the goody bags based on what recipients scored last year. Here’s what they said:

    “I figure between the goody bag we’ll be receiving (last year’s was insane) and the food we’ll be served, the $350 is actually pretty worth it.”
    “I know – I was drooling over that knife people got. I’m not sure if I can
    really rely on the goody bag though for ROI 🙂 who knows what they are
    putting in there.”
    “The goodie bag alone was at least $350 last year..”

When I mentioned these comments to IFBC  founder Sheri Wetherell, she [Read more…] about Food Blogger Conference Offers Killer Goody Bag