You are
about to embark on the most exciting enterprise of your life --
cookbook publishing! You will soon learn that writing a cook book is
truly a fun, exciting and challenging project - more than you can
imagine. Like me, you can publish your own wildly successful cook
book. And if you ask me if I think publishing a cook book is
worth the time and effort? You bet I do!
My cook book, Fit to Cook - Why 'Waist' Time in the Kitchen? sold over
250,000 copies (with, I might add, less than 10% of those sales coming
from book stores). However, I wasted a great deal of time,
back-tracking and scrambling in order to sell all those books because
in the beginning I did not have a complete grasp of the publishing
industry and the process of marketing a cook book.
Before you rack your brain figuring out how to write a cookbook, and
more importantly, how to publish a cook book, take some time to
thoroughly research the why and what you are writing about, who you are
writing for and when is the best time to launch your book.
Whether you want to get published or whether you want to self publish
your cook book, the same basics apply - you need a good understanding
of the publishing industry. Without the basics, will you know if your
contracts are in order, that your book is the best it can be and that
your cook book marketing plan is actually an effective strategy? No -
but, knowledge is power. It is crucial that you take enough time to
educate yourself about the entire publishing industry.
Understanding publishing, and the marketing of books, will clearly help
you to identify why you are writing a cook book. Perhaps you are
writing a cook book just to record secret family recipes or to have all
of your own favorite recipes in a book format; maybe you are writing a
cook book for a community or church fundraiser; or best of all, your
goal is to create a bestseller. Cook books that are written for a very
small group do not require business and marketing plans because you
already know how many books will be purchased and who the buyers are.
However, if you are planning to publish your own cook book for the mass
markets, you need to understand that you have moved beyond author to
publisher. That means that you are now a business person whose primary
goal is the creation of a product to sell. There is no point in
printing a book that no one will want to buy.
When I began writing my own cook book, I naively thought that it would
be a two or three month process, and that in no time I would have a
book on every book store shelf in the country. Ha, ha, ha, chuckle
chuckle ... Experience is a great educator, but who says that you have
to
learn the hard way? Obviously I had no idea how to publish a cook book
in the beginning! However, through this article and via the publishing
course that I and my partners have created, I intend to help you avoid
losing time and money.
How did I create such a successful cook book? The short answer is
research, research, research, and then more research. Thankfully I had
the wisdom to do the research before going to print. But research can,
and did, take years.
In my experience, after I learned how to write a cook book I had to
learn all about cook book publishing:
- copyright
- trademarks
- ISBN numbers
- cataloging in publication data
- printing terms like cover stock,
bindings, signatures and bluelines
- learning how to obtain printing
quotes, (crucial in knowing how many books you can afford to print)
- barcodes
- graphic design (makes the
difference between great sales and no sales)
- editing (cannot, and I mean
cannot, be done by yourself, friends or family)
- titles and subtitles (they can
make or break a book)
- title search (avoid duplicating
someone else's title)
- distribution
Next, I had to learn about how to start a business:
- business plan
- incorporation
- toll free numbers
- corporate logos and identity
- websites
- shipping arrangements
- accounting principles
Most importantly I had to become wise about marketing:
- writing a plan
- researching competition
- understanding target markets
- going through the difficult but
crucial process of choosing a book title
- discovering the importance of a
book's cover - both the front cover and the back cover - and how to
design the cover
- looking outside book stores for
buyers
- learning the importance of
publicity
- discovering the essential need for
a stellar media kit and how to create one
- approaching the media and the
importance of a good publicist
I learned, and I will share with you, a key point to consider when you
are discovering how to write a cook book. Before you even begin to
write your cook book, you must identify your target market. Who will
actually buy your cook book? It is amazing that so many authors think
that "everyone" will want their book, but that is not so. Not
"everyone" is a target for anything! - not even the Bible.
Know who will actually buy your book. Interviewing the owners of cook
book stores and specialty cooking stores can help you to identify cook
book trends so that you know what people are actually buying. It is
also a good idea to think of corporations and organizations that might
benefit by using your book as a promotional item. Approach them even
before you go to print, offering them special discounts, opportunities
to place their information in a special printing of the book,
advertising chances to offer your cook book as a "freebie" with the
purchase of their product - just to name a few cook book marketing
ideas.
If your cook book is targeted to busy families, the recipes must be
easy to prepare in a short time period; if it is targeted to gourmet
cooks, the recipes must be of the quality that you would expect to find
in a four or five star restaurant; if it is targeted to a specific
ethnic group, the recipes must be authentic; but if it is targeted to
the mass market, your cook book must have a very wide scope with
recipes that make any mouth water, and the ingredients must be readily
available in grocery stores.
Once you have identified who will buy your book, you can target your
marketing plan and your book design with your customers in mind, such
as:
- Where do they shop?
- Where do they play?
- What style of book appeals to them? - (research
your competition
closely).
- What price are they willing to pay?
- How many pictures do they want in a cook book?
(a lack of photos can
kill book sales)
- What colors attract them? (spend time in book
stores and libraries,
learning which books have the most appealing appearance)
- What size of book is currently popular?
- What type of book binding increases sales?
- Are they concerned about health or other issues?
- Do they appreciate little stories, jokes,
cooking tips or other
information in the book?
Sometimes I took two steps forward then had to take one step back, but
at other times I took one step forward and two back. Don't waste time
the way that I did - use my experiences to your advantage (in Recipe
for Success you'll find my cookbook publishing secrets and many
resources and templates to help you). Once you have a grasp of the
basics, you can actually begin to put your cook book publishing and
marketing plans into action.
Of course, publishing a cookbook has special challenges that other
books may not have. Your primary goal is to give people unique,
delicious recipes that they can create successfully in their own homes.
That means that you have to measure exactly and your instructions must
be clear and simple. You will have to test each recipe over and over
until it turns out perfectly every time, then you will have to enlist
other people to prepare those recipes independently of you. No matter
what their comments, you must take the critiques of your testers
seriously because if they do not achieve great results the chances are
very good that your customers will be unhappy with their "flops".
Finally, it is a good idea to have the recipes tested by a professional
home economist or other food expert.
Depending on the focus of your cookbook, you might want to include
nutrition information such as calories and fat content. Fortunately,
there is now computer software that will do the calculations for you.
You must also provide an index at the back of the book, and thankfully,
software is available for this chore also.
Food photography is a special challenge of its own, requiring many
tricks to make good look appealing. A good food photographer is a vital
part of your cook book publishing team. Great attention must be paid to
every minute detail, down to the grains of pepper in a dish and to the
bubbles on top of a cup of coffee. Each photograph can require four
hours of shooting time, if not more, so plan adequate time for the
photo shoot.
The services of a food stylist are very helpful, but with research you
can do a great deal of the food styling yourself. Find as many books as
you can on the subject and practice in advance of the photo shoot. I
learned simple tricks like:
- sticking sandpaper to the plate to
prevent food from slipping
- using whipped icing or shaving
cream in place of ice cream or whipped cream
- placing a shot glass under a very
thickly cut slice of lemon to prevent the lemon from absorbing the
liquid underneath
- using beef bouillon in place of "coffee"
- using dish detergent to create
bubbles in the "coffee"
- using a blow torch to make meat
appear cooked
- and the list goes on
Food styling is such fun, but it requires a great deal of time, even in
advance of the photo shoot. You will need all of your "props" in place,
such as dishes, cutlery, flowers, table linens, food items and
backgrounds. Many companies will happily lend these items to you in
exchange for a credit in the book - this can appear on the Cataloging
in Publication data page at the beginning of your book.
When your book is ready to go to print, it is time to put your cook
book marketing and publicity campaign into gear:
Decide on the best time of year to launch your book. September is
usually the best month for Christmas sales, but you also face steep
competition. Try to think of a time that is appropriate for your book,
such as January for a healthy eating book, late Spring for a barbecue
book, Valentine's Day for a romantic book, Heart and Stroke month for a
heart-healthy book, etc.
- Produce galley copies.
- Send galleys to appropriate book clubs (look at
their websites to learn
their submission requirements).
- Research appropriate catalogs and send galleys
to them.
- Have your publicist approach magazines that
review cook books
(magazines have long lead times).
- Stay in contact with any corporations and
organizations that might use
your book for promotions.
- ind a reputable distributor to have your book
accepted by the book
store trade, as well as other retailers.
- Contact non-book store book sellers.
When your book is ready to roll off the press, get your publicity
campaign into high gear. You can have the best book in the world, but
if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. The easy part is over -
publicity and marketing now become your life. This part is the most
fun, as you now reap the rewards of all of your efforts. Your goal now
is to turn your cook book title into a household word. Go for it --
publish your own cook book!
Copyright 2004 Ink Tree Ltd.
Ink Tree Ltd. helps authors publish, market and sell books. If you are
considering publishing a cookbook, we will help you make it a success.
http://www.inktreemarketing.com
**For more information
on cookbook publishing and to find out how to
publish your own cook book, Click Here. **
