Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

self-publishing

How to Create a Gift Shop Cookbook

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A guest post by Nancy Bagget

Selling a gift shop cookbook can work with many culinary subjects and venues, from gourmet tea, coffee, cheese, wine and spirits to spa cuisine and country inn cooking. Almost every product or topic has a supporting trade or members’ organization. And they tend to be receptive to participation by writers in their field.

I didn’t set out to write a gift shop cookbook. Eventually I realized that if I self-published, gift shops could be an excellent way to reach and sell to a key audience.

A few years ago, I began experimenting with culinary lavender when I wrote Simply Sensational Cookies. I was bowled over by how it [Read more…] about How to Create a Gift Shop Cookbook

The Joy of Passive Income, Through Self-Published Books

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A Guest Post by Jill Nussinow

Jill-Nussinow

Culinary Educator Jill Nussinow sells print-on-demand cookbooks on her website, which lead to passive income.

Just last week, I made almost $100 in e-book sales with almost zero effort. The cost was a minute or two of my time to login to e-junkie.com, enter the buyers’ information and hit the Send button. The money showed up in my PayPal account like magic. Who wouldn’t love that?

I got the idea to sell a downloadable cookbook in March 2011, when I hired a designer to format my manuscript. Within a few weeks, I had something saleable but wasn’t sure how to sell it. A publisher mentioned [Read more…] about The Joy of Passive Income, Through Self-Published Books

I Self-Published a Cookbook, Despite it All

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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

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

Self-published Cookbook Author Sells 300,000+ Copies

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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

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