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Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

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self-published cookbook

Why I Won’t Self-Publish a Cookbook Again

July 20, 2021 by diannejacob 11 Comments

Image for post about why not to self-publish a cookbook againA guest post by Sara Bir

I’ve written three cookbooks. The second two I did with traditional publishers, but the first one I self-published. Would I self-publish a cookbook again? That was the question I faced last year when I decided to do an expanded version of The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook, my first book.

Pawpaws are a little-known fruit that grow in less than a third of the country and aren’t sold at grocery stores. They are in season for two months a year, max. I live in Ohio, where they grow abundantly, and I’m totally besotted with them.

So of course I thought this under-the-radar food deserved its own cookbook. But a pawpaw cookbook doesn’t exactly spark a bidding war among conventional publishers.

Still, I decided a slender cookbook devoted to pawpaws was a great idea for [Read more…] about Why I Won’t Self-Publish a Cookbook Again

Filed Under: Cookbooks, Self Publishing Tagged With: Belt Publishing, Sara Bir, self publish versus traditional publishings, self-published cookbook

Why My Free E-Cookbook Turned Out Better Than I Ever Imagined

July 7, 2020 by diannejacob 2 Comments

A guest post by Jamie Schler

Free ebook project-- photo of the book cover.

We chose a photo of the Meringue-Topped Rice Pudding with Apples because it is visually striking and filled the cover space. I named the book Isolation Baking because that was the name of my Twitter project that led to the book, and it was familiar to people. The subtitle “Recipes from my (post) confinement kitchen” signaled that the cookbook wasn’t limited to the period of Covid confinement.

My first e-cookbook came about by accident. And so did giving it away for free. Nevertheless, my free e-cookbook has been a big success and led to some other positive events.

Here’s the backstory: As the world went into lockdown I began sharing recipes on Twitter under the hashtag #IsolationBaking. After panic-shopping, people found themselves with lots of ingredients they didn’t know what to do with, and lots of meals to cook.

They were also looking for a distraction. Social media had become a lifeline for human contact. I started thinking about what I had to offer this huge community now hanging out online.  

The answer was recipes. I wanted to reconnect with [Read more…] about Why My Free E-Cookbook Turned Out Better Than I Ever Imagined

Filed Under: Self Publishing Tagged With: free e-cookbook, Isolation Baking, Jamie Schler, self-published cookbook

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Archives

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