Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

food writing

Anatomy of A Book Revision

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I thought you might like to know how a book revision works, and in doing so I’ll discuss how I approached a large writing project and how I interview.

It seems that hard and fast rules about what constitutes a book revision don’t exist. Usually it’s because the author or the publisher feels the information needs updating. And that’s how it happened.

Last year I decided to update Will Write for Food, mostly because of advances in blogging and social media. I couldn’t go back to the editor I worked with and discuss it, because a new publishing company (Perseus) acquired the original publisher of my book (Avalon). So I met with my new editor at Da Capo Press, an imprint of Perseus.

A girl needs to be prepared, so I brought her a list of what I thought I could enlarge upon from the first edition.  I wanted a big new chapter on food blogging. I wanted to incorporate information from bloggers in other chapters such as freelance writing and how to get started. I had co-written a cookbook in 2008 and wanted to say more about the process of writing and production, photography and collaboration. Self-publishing had changed, particularly when it came to e-books and print-on-demand. And freelance writing had changed, some of it drying up. There had to be a positive way to approach that.

She said a revision had to be 25 percent larger than the original book. That meant adding 20,000 words, about 80 pages of 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper, double spaced. We spoke in pages, though: 50 pages on blogging, 7 more pages on freelancing, 9 more pages on cookbooks. Fortunately, our meeting [Read more…] about Anatomy of A Book Revision

Here it Is: The New Edition of Will Write for Food

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Last year, based on the success of the film Julie & Julia, my agent persuaded my publisher that Will Write for Food needed an update. “EVERYONE who has seen the movie wants to write a food blog,” she said, “and Dianne has already been received as an expert on the subject.”

Published in in 2005, the first edition of Will Write for Food needed an update, as it did not say much about food blogs. Back when I wrote it in 2004, the print world ignored bloggers as unproven and unedited. And I had a background in print.

How things have changed in five short years. Now food bloggers are the darlings of the food writing world, and some blogs have higher readerships than national food magazines. Some bloggers have higher incomes than the executive editors of those magazines too. And then there are the blog-to-book deals, the opportunities to write for print, and all kinds of other doors that opened as bloggers blasted into international consciousness by embracing easy blogging software and appearing online immediately. Now, every print publication and most general websites have begun blogs as a way of staying relevant.

A year ago I launched this blog as a way to research my new version of Will Write for Food and to build a platform for its sales. I couldn’t say so because I didn’t want sales of the existing version of my book to come to a halt, so all this time I’ve been waiting to make this announcement.

Meanwhile,  it’s been fun learning how to blog, build an audience, figure out what resonates with readers, and become part of an enormous online community. Along the way, I interviewed the most successful food bloggers, writing a 17,000-word chapter on  food blogging (about 70 pages double spaced) that will answer your questions, inspire you, and provide resources and insider information.

In addition to the new chapter on blogging, the new edition of Will Write for Food incorporates tips on using social media as a freelancer and a blogger; updated info on book publishing, whether traditional or self-publishing; and updated info on the newer, more competitive freelancing market. There’s a foreword by the multi-talented David Lebovitz, a successful food blogger, author and freelance writer and one of the first to champion my book (and note comment from Cooking With Amy, way back then too). You’ll also find insider information based on 75 interviews with the most successful authors, writers, editors, agents (and bloggers) in our business, plus a bibliography of more than 200 books, and a resource guide of magazines and websites that take freelance writing.

I hope you’ll check it out. The new edition is 25 percent bigger, clocking in at around 100,000 words, and the price of $15.95/$20 Canada has not changed. I’ve grown to appreciate the new cover, a departure from the oh-so-journalistic typewriter keys.

My new edition should be in stores by the end of this month, or pre-order it online or at your local independent bookstore. And as soon as it’s out, I’ll be running around the US and Western Canada to appear at conferences and bookstores to promote it, so I hope you’ll come by and say hello.

Food Writer Busted on Free Wedding Meal

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Befriending chefs and purveyors when you’re a food writer can be perilous. Worse yet, the practice can come back to bite you in the butt.

And that’s exactly what happened to Josh Ozersky, a food writer who got married recently in New York and showed poor judgement when planning for his wedding.

The trouble started when he accepted food from his buddies in the business as  presents: free bread, dips, seafood, lasagna, strip loins, and a free place to hold the event.

Then he devoted his column on Time magazine’s website to promoting the food and purveyors, never mentioning that his buddies supplied the goods for free, and saying most caterers “aren’t really good cooks” anyway.

Another food writer, Robert Sietsema of the Village Voice, busted him in an open letter, suggesting the food and venue could have cost $24,000 and asking whether he paid. And then the New York Times did a fascinating story about not only Ozersky but the whole issue of restaurants getting an increasing number of requests for free meals.

Time got so many comments on Ozersky’s column that they [Read more…] about Food Writer Busted on Free Wedding Meal

The Blog Turns One

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Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me…oh, hello there. My blog has made it to the one-year mark and I’m celebrating. Want to join me?

I know I’m a piker compared to many of you, but when I started blogging about food writing, I didn’t know if I could continue posting at least twice a week, or if I’d have enough to say (hah!).

I just looked back at my first post, and I think I’m still delivering what I promised: a useful place to read and comment on the world of food writing. I also said you’ll find  links to lots of articles and sites on food writing, and while that’s true,  you can now find more in my tweets, so people can read them right away. I had no idea why Twitter was valuable back then.

Launching the blog has been exhilarating. Here are some of the benefits, for those of you who might [Read more…] about The Blog Turns One

All the Other Jobs We Do

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Food writing doesn’t pay the bills. I hope this isn’t news to you. Sure, a few people are employed full time to write about food. Did you notice the key word? Few.

To make ends meet, the rest of us self-employed types take other jobs: cooking classes, private cheffing and catering, consulting for corporations, more lucrative forms of writing, and editing. And a lot of people have real jobs during the day and write about food on the side.

The thing is, we’re still obsessed with food. So how can we get  jobs working on what we love?

Enter two books. The first, self published in 2008 by the wickedly funny Irena Chalmers, teacher of food writing at the Culinary Institute of America, is Food Jobs:150 Great Jobs for Culinary Students, Career Changers and Food Lovers. Now, I can’t be objective about this book because I have adored Irena since I heard her speak at an International Association of Culinary Professionals annual conference years ago. She was hilarious and wise, and I vowed to get to know her.

I have, and now we are friends. I was a guest speaker at her class last year, and she published an excerpt from my book, Will Write for Food, in Food Jobs. So of course I think this book is good reading, practical, and jammed with good ideas and insights.

Coming from a culinary school perspective, Irena [Read more…] about All the Other Jobs We Do

Crazy for Produce, from Dad to Daughter

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On the prowl for food with my father, Moses Jacob, with me (on right) and my sister.

On Father’s Day yesterday, I thought about my dad, a food-obsessed poet and songwriter who loved produce more than anyone I’ve known.

It sounds funny to say that he was obsessed with produce. But my dad lived for it. He grew vegetables in our Vancouver back yard, specializing in a Chinese green called celtuce. All summer long he cut down the stalks and sliced them into juicy green batons that floated in a bowl of water in the fridge. While other kids ate Popsicles, I fished out those crisp, green stems for a refreshing treat.

In winter, he pickled turnips with beets and carrots, turning them hot pink in their tall Mason jars. We ate them at dinner with meat stews my mother cooked, brimming with bamboo shoots and peas, cauliflower or lima beans.

For dessert in spring, we ate artichokes, at least one for each of us. My father loved how, when he washed them down with a glass of water, his mouth filled with sweetness. For fall dessert, my mother roasted a pan of  sweet potatoes, cooked until the sugars wept out and caramelized in pools around the sides. They reminded my parents of Shanghai, where they purchased sweet potatoes from street cart vendors.

Even when we gathered around the television at night, my father appeared with a dinner plate piled with crisp wedges of iceburg lettuce in summer; slices of apples and oranges in winter.

When I was around 8 years old, my dad convinced a produce vendor in Chinatown to order a box of mangoes from the Philippines just for him. In the 1960s there were no mangoes in the supermarkets, and he ached for the fruit he remembered from China. Once the mangoes ripened in our basement, my parents covered the dinner table with newspaper, then brought in armfuls of ripe yellow fruit. We ate them with spoons, the sicky juice running down our faces.

My dad’s been dead for 28 years, but I carry on his obsession. He would’ve loved the farmer’s market I visited yesterday, overflowing with beets, peaches, cherries and lettuces. I’m still looking for celtuce, though. The last time I tasted it was in China,  maybe 8 years ago. It was a diamond-shaped green served in a breakfast dish, and when I bit down on it, all the memories of those stalks in the fridge flooded back.

Writing Contest: Similes Make Food Writing Fun

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It’s been a while since I’ve held a food writing contest on this blog, so I thought I’d blast out another one, just for fun. This time, let’s have a simile writing contest.

Similes are comparisons that starts with “like” or “as,” for comparing two unlike things. Why would you want to use them? You need as many tools as possible in your writing toolbox. Similes are a welcome alternative to adjectives. They’re playful, making your writing fun to read. Restaurant reviewers are particularly good employers of similes because [Read more…] about Writing Contest: Similes Make Food Writing Fun