Help My Cookbook?!
Answers: How can I write my own cookbook, and get it published does anyone know. I have some delicious easy recipes good for everyone, even those who don't and don't know how cook....???
1 Decide what sets your recipes apart from the cookbooks already on the market. You will need a theme that catches someone's eye and makes them want to buy. As an example, are you promoting home cooking, international meals or 30-minute recipes? All of these are good examples of cookbook themes.
2 Gather the recipes you will use in the recipe book. You can publish the recipes from your personal stash of treasures. Check with your relatives for your family's tried-and-true recipes. If you are part of club or school that is publishing the book, get recipes from every member. Get as many recipes you can, since it is better to have too many to publish than too few.
3 Take pictures of every dish. Even if you don't use all of them, you will be glad you have them standing by.
4 Work on formatting the recipe book. Add photographs and pull quotes and tidbits of information pertaining to the theme. If you have a desktop publishing expert or graphic designer who is a good friend or part of the group, so much the better. This will save money as you with expenses.
5 Put the recipes together with the graphic designer to see how it all looks in draft form. This will help you to see if you have enough recipes, pictures and other art work.
6 Check into binding processes. Do you want to use a plastic spiral binding or will you be going for more of a "hard-bound" type of recipe book? Check with the publishers. Some publishers may only work with certain types of books.
7 Use a publisher! This is very important. A publisher is responsible for printing and distributing your recipe book. There are so many rules that an uninformed individual or club would be at a loss to remember them all. Shop around to find the publisher that is right for you.
8 Find out as much information as you can up front on how much the process will cost. You don't want to have any nasty surprises.
Tips & Warnings
There are several organizations that are in business simply to publish one-of-a-kind books. These will be helpful in publishing school and club fundraising cookbooks.
Protect yourself by checking out the publisher you choose. Check with the Better Business Bureau to see what is being said about them.
Work closely with your publisher or literary agent and keep track of all of the expenses.
just write out a manuscript and send it to publishing company
So you have good recipes.
What sets your recipes apart from others?
Even if those recipes are good, why would anyone want to buy the cookbook?
I have taken photgraphs for three published cookbooks and my wife was involved in one by contributing recipes.
This is the story:
no. one:
my wife contributed recipes to a cooking book. The recipes were all tried and tested. Each recipe was hand picked by the editor, my wife's cousin. He is a perfectionist and made sure the design and recipes were the very best. He is also a cheap skate and took the photographs himself. Final result: all good recipes and easy methods, excellent design layout but the photos were of poor quality. But the book sold on reputation. A recipe book printed by a cultural society. People thought the book was for charity. Every year, he prints a new limitted edition and every year it sells.
no. two:
the recipes were by a rich lady who had average recipes - nothing special. In fact, nothing special with the method of the recipes either. But the book sold thousands. She had adverts in the book and the book was paid for even before a single copy was printed. She donated the proceeds of the sale to charity. She didn't care about the money but we were all paid; the designer, the photographer, etc.
no. three:
a female who booked some lecture halls at the local college and proceeded to give lectures on cooking, after office hours. She could boast on her resumé that she was a lecturer in cooking, sort of the master. The beauty is that she is not that good but was good at marketing. Suddenly, she called her cooking school a cullanary school and the natural progression was to print cooking books. She actually learnt to cook as she went along teaching others :-) brilliant.
People like her books because the methods are easy to follow. She explained it in such a way that even a male could follow them. She employed this technique of explaining to make it simple for herself to follow.
The design was stunning and the photographs brilliant, good recipes and easy to follow. Every 2 years or so, she releases a new cook book and it sells as she had built up a reputation.
no. four:
the rich lady has another book - ordinary recipes, but this time the photographs are taken with the help of a food stylist. No adverts, too. It's her book and she doesn't want to share the limelight with anyone else. Besides, she can afford to have zero sponsors - this makes the book even more exclusive.
Design is still poor but the photos are out of this world. I just took the photographs but the food stylist deserves all the credit for arranging the food in a most exquisit manner.
The book is selling and another book is being planned.
The photographs have been taken which are even more stunning then before but I think she wants the design to be even better.
So there you go, you don't need to be a good cook.
But this helps:
good recipes which are easy to follow
stunning photographs
eye catching design
and to promote the book:
a good reputation beforehand ie being a lecturer in cooking or owning a restaurant or bistro etc
this helps sell the book beforehand
or if you are rich or have a rich husband that would help the most
Unfortunately, just having good recipes is not enough. You have to build up a reputation as an excellent cook to sell recipe books.
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