• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Bio
    • Freelance Writing
    • Media Mentions
    • Teaching and Speaking
    • Contact Me
  • Services
    • Coaching and Editing
    • Book Clients
    • FAQ
    • Testimonials
  • Books
    • Will Write For Food
    • The United States of Pizza
    • Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas
  • Events
  • Categories
    • Awards
    • Cookbooks
    • Career
    • Contests
    • Ethics
    • Food Blogging
    • Freelancing
    • Literary Agents
    • My workshops and conferences
    • Personal Stuff
    • Photography
    • Promotion
    • Proposals
    • Radio interviews and writing
    • Recipe Writing
    • Restaurant Reviewing
    • Self Publishing
    • Social Media
    • Travel Writing
    • Uncategorized
    • Useful Links
    • Writing
    • Memoir
    • Writing Apps
  • Resources
  • My Newsletter
  • Blog

Martha Hopkins

Self-published Cookbook Author Sells 300,000+ Copies

March 6, 2012 by diannejacob 31 Comments

What is it like to sell more than 300,000 copies of your self-published cookbook? It’s rare. Extremely rare.

But Martha Hopkins did it, starting when she was 25 years old and didn’t know any better. Her 1997 erotic and visually stunning cookbook, InterCourses, is still selling, especially as a wedding gift.

Martha will be speaking on self-publishing and marketing (see her fantastic website) at a March 27 full-day class in New York, Creating and Selling Your Dream Cookbook, along with food stylist and cookbook author Denise Vivaldo, photographer Jamie Tiampo, and myself. I was so impressed with her success that I thought I should share it, as a preview of what she’ll cover in the class:

Q. You were so young. How did you hit upon this subject of aphrodisiacs?

A. Honestly, my business partner and I went through a whole slew of ideas over the phone. We thought about an Oaxacan cookbook because I spent a summer there, and then we thought about aphrodisiacs. Food and sex! Sounds like fun, I thought.

We picked aphrodisiacs that tasted good and would look good in photos, like asparagus and [Read more…] about Self-published Cookbook Author Sells 300,000+ Copies

Filed Under: Cookbooks, Photography, Self Publishing Tagged With: cookbook publishing, cookbooks, food writing, InterCourses, Martha Hopkins, self-publishing

Primary Sidebar

My Books





Awards and Honors


Substack newsletter 2024


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

Member

Secondary Sidebar

Subscribe to my Free Monthly Newsletter on Food Writing Here

Food Blogger Pro Ad
Cookbook Publishing Course

Categories

  • Awards (17)
  • Career (72)
  • Contests (23)
  • Cookbooks (122)
  • Ethics (60)
  • Food Blogging (230)
  • Freelancing (54)
  • Literary Agents (12)
  • My workshops and conferences (35)
  • Personal Stuff (24)
  • Photography (7)
  • Promotion (27)
  • Proposals (10)
  • Recipe Writing (73)
  • Restaurant Reviewing (22)
  • Self Publishing (20)
  • Social Media (23)
  • Travel Writing (3)
  • Useful Links (23)
  • Writing (139)
    • Memoir (15)
  • Writing Apps (3)

Archives

Popular Posts

  • So Many Ways to Organize A Cookbook 6 views | posted on November 22, 2016
  • An Interview With Anthony Bourdain: “Absolute Fearlessness is Essential” 6 views | posted on June 11, 2018
  • 10 Food Writing Prompts to Try 5 views | posted on April 14, 2020
  • How to Write a Great Recipe Headnote 4 views | posted on August 31, 2021
  • Update: Yes, You Can Still Write Off Business Meals 3 views | posted on January 29, 2019
  • Adapting a Recipe Doesn’t Make it Yours 3 views | posted on March 17, 2010
  • Frustrated by Smaller Can Sizes for Recipes? I Am. 3 views | posted on January 6, 2015
  • Recipes for Subversion: Women’s Suffrage Cookbooks Turn 100 3 views | posted on September 1, 2020
  • Questions from a Recipe Copy Editor 2 views | posted on November 25, 2014
  • 5 Ways To Boost Productivity When Writing About Food on the Side 2 views | posted on January 2, 2019

Copyright © 2026 · Dianne Jacob      Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2026 · Genesis Sample Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Get Dianne’s free newsletter on food writing and blogging delivered to your inbox!

Subscribe