food writing

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

12 Super-Useful Links for Food Writers and Bloggers

April 15, 2014 by diannejacob 22 Comments

Champagne chocolates on display at Dean & DeLuca.

It’s time again for my list of useful links, which I have culled from dozens more to find the most valuable ones for you. As always, they are excerpted from my recent quarterly newsletter. If you’d like to receive the entire list of links next time, sign up to receive my four newsletters per year. Now, on to the goods:

1. How Much Should I Charge? Part 1 and Part 2, from the Food Bloggers of Canada website, details all the issues to consider, particularly in Part 2.

2. Publishers Weekly did a good webcast recently about selling single subject cookbooks in unusual places.

3. What does a successful food stylist do? Check out [Read more…] about 12 Super-Useful Links for Food Writers and Bloggers

David Lebovitz: How Writing a Book is Different than a Blog

April 1, 2014 by diannejacob 49 Comments

Food blogger and cookbook author David Lebovitz. (All photos by Ed Anderson.)

Writing books is both a struggle and a joy. That was David Lebovitz’s experience for his latest cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. It’s full of stories of his life in Paris, with gorgeous photos for classic and modern recipes. I caught up with David on email, to ask about his writing process and philosophy:

Q. Why did you want a book with so many stories? The recipes often have a story in front of the headnote! That’s a lot of work.

A. We all spend so much time online, madly scrolling through things and clicking around, that I’ve realized how much I miss sitting in a chair (or curling up in bed), with a book. The idea of My Paris Kitchen was to present a personalized picture of Paris. I like telling stories and the story of the book is how I [Read more…] about David Lebovitz: How Writing a Book is Different than a Blog

How to Write Recipes That Are Harder to Steal

March 18, 2014 by diannejacob 52 Comments

I’ve written many times about how individual recipes can’t be copyrighted here in the US. But did you realize that you can defend a copyright if parts of your recipe contain “substantial literary expression?”

What exactly is that, and why should you bother?

“Substantial literary expression” establishes the information in a recipe as yours. That could be just as important as copyright, when it comes to theft.

Let me explain. US copyright law defines substantial literary expression as: [Read more…] about How to Write Recipes That Are Harder to Steal

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

7 Edits that Will Improve Your Blog Post

February 11, 2014 by diannejacob 37 Comments

Think editing is complicated? It doesn’t have to be. But it’s critical to becoming a better writer.

Writing is rewriting, as the saying goes. And while it’s true, do you know what to look for when you read your first draft, or how to improve it?

Here’s what I look for when I edit both my own posts and the work of others:

1. Keep your focus. Do you start by moaning about a cold, move to the merits of a new smoothie you made for breakfast, and end with a recipe for chocolate cake? Stick to a [Read more…] about 7 Edits that Will Improve Your Blog Post