The Business of Writing Cookbooks and Recipes
A while ago, I shared recipes on this site, but the photos were old, the recipes weren’t updated regularly, and there is such good recipe content out there already that I thought it might be time to adapt. To turn to an overused adage, I pivoted.
For the next several posts, I’ll dig a bit more into the business of cookbooks and recipe writing, going over the nuts and bolts of creating food-focused content—whether it be for books or brands or classes or freelance articles or just fun.
A bit about me: I have 15 years of experience writing about food and working on cookbooks. (I had to do the math and am still a little dumbfounded I’ve been at it this long.) In that time, I’ve worked on more than 10 books, which are stacked up in this photo.
This July, I will be coming out with my first solo book, Wine Style. Hooray!
But less about me and more about this space. Here I’ll be writing more about the behind-the-scenes stuff about cookbook creation and recipe development, and any other aspect that comes up about the business of writing recipes. Any little tips I come across that are fascinating or useful, I’ll share here.
For the first few posts, I’ll start with the questions I most get asked: How to write a cookbook. For that, we’ll start at the beginning: the PROPOSAL.
I’ll be looking at what goes into a cookbook proposal, which is what you need if you’re planning to shop your cookbook idea around and find an agent and publisher. There’s no one-size-fits-all instruction manual for cookbook proposals, but I’ll share the most crucial things that you should have in yours. It can be daunting to start, but if you break it down into smaller bits, it can quickly feel more manageable.
Also, if you have any burning questions on writing recipes, writing cookbooks, or anything else food-related, drop me a note and I can post about it. Feel free to stir it up with a debate: Is 1 1/2 tablespoon an OK measurement in a recipe? Is “set aside” still necessary? Can we use “fold” after this Schitt’s Creek episode clearly spells out how confusing this term can be?
I’m wondering about all that, too.
Thanks for stopping by. And stay tuned.