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Episode 369: The Value of an Email List to a Cookbook Author · Cookbook Love Podcast

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  You are listening to the Cookbook Love podcast with Maggie
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  Green, episode number 360 9.
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  Welcome to the Cookbook Love Podcast, a podcast that celebrates cookbook readers,
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  buyers, collectors, writers and clubs.
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  And now your host.
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  Cookbook author, culinary Dietician, and Cookbook writing Coach Maggie Green.
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  Hi everybody.
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  Welcome back to another episode of the Cookbook Love podcast.
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  How's everybody doing today?
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  It is a quiet morning here in my cookbook bunker.
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  This has become my favorite time of day to record the podcast.
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  Early in the morning, I'm dressed to go out for my walk, but always anxious to
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  talk to you guys, give you an update on what's going on, and, uh, share with you
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  some things that are going on behind the scenes here in my cookbook author life.
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  First of all, I wanna let you know that, um, cookbooks on KDP is rolling along.
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  I enrolled new students a couple weeks ago.
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  We are setting up our KDP accounts, getting our Canva all set up, and I'm
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  so excited to work with these students to help them publish their recipes
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  and stories in a book on Amazon.
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  So if this is something that you are interested in doing, uh, stay
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  tuned of course to the podcast.
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  I'll be offering another group in 2026.
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  And would love to have you join me then, especially if you have an interest
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  in doing, uh, a book of your own and you like the design part of it.
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  You're interested in maybe doing something for your family or you
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  would like to learn to self-publish.
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  It's a repeatable process that you can do on Amazon.
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  Also behind the scenes.
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  As always, I'm working with my students inside, get paid to get published, which
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  is my flagship group coaching program for food, culinary, and nutrition experts
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  who want to get paid to write a cookbook.
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  So they don't have to spend their own money to edit, design or print the book.
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  This is the opposite of cookbooks on KDP because we talk all about the
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  traditional publishing model and how they can leverage their expertise,
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  put it into a concept for a cookbook proposal, and pitch it to a publisher.
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  It's a wonderful way to get published and, um, something that I've always
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  enjoyed and have been involved in.
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  Four times with my cookbooks and, uh, working with the publishing
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  team is just a beautiful thing.
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  But one of the reasons I wanted to, uh, talk today about your
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  email list is because there's a misconception floating around out
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  there about publishing that cookbook.
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  Authors have to chase publishers and agents that our job is to find them.
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  And that is true.
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  Uh, we do need to find a publisher that publishes cookbooks and find public
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  agents that help cookbook writers.
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  But the, in my own life and in the lives of my students who've gotten
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  published and in the lives of the authors I've interviewed on the show,
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  what I realize and what I want you to realize is that the opposite is true.
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  The publishing industry is open to all of us.
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  I talked about this in a show a couple of weeks ago about permission.
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  It's really about us saying yes to our dream, to becoming a cookbook
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  author, and that publishers and agents are running businesses where they
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  are looking for people like us too.
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  Be ready for them to help publish our books.
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  Whether Amazon loves to have people publish books on their platform, uh,
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  cookbook and culinary literary agents love to work with cookbook authors who,
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  um, have value to offer to the world.
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  And publishing industry is built on publishing and creating beautiful
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  books, but they have to have someone write the books for them.
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  So if.
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  Instead of us feeling like we have to chase the publishers
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  and chase down the agents.
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  My question for you today is how would, how would they find
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  you, the expert that you are,
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  how would they discover you?
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  The ex with the expertise that you have.
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  And that's exactly what I'm gonna talk about today.
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  So there's a word in the publishing industry, and I've used it before
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  and it's kind of thrown around, but it's the word platform.
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  That's a word that the publishing industry uses.
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  You've maybe seen it before, but what does it really mean in simple terms?
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  And what I like to think about my platform is how do people find me?
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  This is a big, huge world we live in and you have value to share with other people.
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  I have value to share with other people.
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  But how are people finding me or finding you most often?
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  The first place they turn to is, uh, they search for us online.
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  Okay.
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  And.
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  You're either present, have an online presence or you don't.
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  So you can check that out.
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  And, um, if you have a business, you probably do already
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  have an online presence.
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  If you are a home cook and you're thinking about starting a cookbook
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  project and you wanna create income, you will be sort of creating a
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  small business model for yourself.
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  Um, the only time you wouldn't do this is if you're truly just generating this book
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  for your family, and there will be no.
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  Cash exchange.
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  You don't wanna have an online presence.
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  So if I, I'm talking to those of you that have an online
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  presence or want to build one.
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  Um, how are people finding you online?
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  Through what channels?
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  And do you have a way that you can connect with them consistently?
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  Consistently means that when you post something or when you send
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  something out, you can guarantee that it lands in the email box or on
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  the uh, screen or the phone of the person that you're trying to reach.
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  That's consistently, they can hear from you.
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  They can, you can connect with them.
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  And do you have a way to demonstrate that people actually want to hear from you?
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  So when you strip it all down, a platform is not about being on
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  every single social media channel.
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  That's the best news ever because often we spread ourselves too thin.
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  You don't have to be everywhere.
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  But I wanna encourage you today to build a strong foundation that
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  allows people, including future clients, future customers, future
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  book readers, publishers, agents.
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  People, other people to find you online to be able to reach you online.
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  And I wanna talk about the heart of what the platform
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  really is, is your email list.
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  So let's simplify this even a little bit more.
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  Okay.
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  So, um, when I work with my students, we, we talk about building their platform.
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  I talk about having a home or a hub on the web.
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  This could be a simple website.
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  A simple place where people can find you.
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  If you haven't built this at all yet, then you have some options
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  about building a simple website.
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  There's, uh, platforms like Square and Wix and WordPress, uh, simple
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  websites that are easy to build.
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  Uh, also sometimes people, if they're just starting in the food space and
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  they want to write and publish more, they maybe even build a home or a
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  hub through a Substack newsletter.
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  And then they send that out to people.
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  Remember, Substack is not a platform that you own though.
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  So I often recommend that you start with a home or hub on the web, on a
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  platform, not to confuse that with your author platform, but like in a space
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  or a property that you actually own.
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  Um, my word website is built on WordPress and, um, it.
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  Is my Homer hub on the web Green apron.com.
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  If you go there, you, that's where you can find me.
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  Um, so when people search for Maggie Green, they probably land on Green Apron.
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  That's where everything kind of revolves around for my business.
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  Okay, so the Homer hub on the web and then connected to that is an email list.
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  The beauty of an email list is that you can regularly communicate with
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  people on your email list and you.
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  Have a guarantee that unless something ha unusual happens, your message
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  to them will land in their inbox.
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  And the reason it lands in their inbox is because they want to hear from you.
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  They have given you their email address.
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  And if for some reason along the way they change their mind and they don't wanna
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  hear from you, they can unsubscribe.
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  But the, the thing that's different about an email list is that.
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  You can say that you regularly communicate with people and that
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  your message lands in their inbox.
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  This is different than Instagram or Facebook or TikTok where
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  the algorithm determines who sees what you put out there.
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  But an in an email list.
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  And an email landing in their inbox is a direct communication with
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  people who want to hear from you.
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  So there's a difference between the number of email subscribers you have and
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  the number of followers you might have.
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  And in particular in publishing with traditional publishers, they have
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  an easier time translating email subscribers to potential readers.
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  More so than followers on TikTok, followers on Instagram who maybe
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  would never even buy a book from you, but they do perhaps like
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  the content that you put out.
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  Now, some followers will translate into readers, but not all do.
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  So the email list is a really great concrete way to not only reach people
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  on a regular basis, send them a message in their inbox, give them a
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  chance to subscribe or unsubscribe.
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  That leaves the choice up to them.
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  But also that it's, uh, a tool that publishers really like.
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  Plus it belongs to you.
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  It's a very valuable way for you to, uh, communicate with people.
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  So.
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  Then what happens?
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  You have your home or hub on the web, your website, you have your email list.
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  And by the way, Substack does collect email addresses and you do build an
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  email list through a Substack newsletter.
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  I'm only throwing that out there for people that maybe don't have
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  anything started, and you're looking for a way to start.
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  But the third thing then you wanna do is pick one, uh, social media channel.
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  Or one, uh, way that you talk to people or share with people that the,
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  the link in that space drives people back to your email list, usually
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  through the download of a free.
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  A resource, a checklist, or a PDF or a video series or something like that, so
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  that in exchange for their email address, you're giving them something of value.
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  Um, so my main channel is my podcast.
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  I also have, uh, I'm on Instagram and I also post my, uh.
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  Podcast audios on YouTube and I have a way for people obviously to get on
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  my email list through my website, and I have a free, uh, download that I'm
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  gonna offer to you here at the end in exchange for your email address so that
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  you can kind of see this in motion.
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  But.
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  Wherever you're, you are on social media and as you build these channels
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  out, your link should always drive people back to the freebie, which
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  puts people on your email list.
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  You wanna have a way to capture and gather these names, and this
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  is valuable for several reasons.
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  First of all, you own it.
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  Social media followers can come and go disappear overnight.
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  The algorithm can change.
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  People can subscribe to my podcast, they can unsubscribe.
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  I don't even really get to know them unless they're on my email list.
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  But the email list belongs to you and it's permission based and it's portable.
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  You can take your email list with you, even if you switch, uh, email
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  service providers, you can use it to, um, communicate with your people on a
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  regular basis and people are on your email list because they want to be there.
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  Secondly, and the email list shows publishers that you
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  have an engaged audience.
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  A strong list demonstrates to them, uh, that people want to hear from
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  you and it demonstrates that you wanna communicate with them and
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  that you can communicate with them directly once the book is published.
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  This is the beauty of it.
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  And the third thing is, is that
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  we are doing the work we do for the benefit.
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  Of ourselves and other people.
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  Everything in online presence and even offline presence.
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  But let's just talk about online presence is about people.
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  Don't forget that you can talk to people through email.
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  You can listen to people through email.
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  You can help solve their problems through email.
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  You can use.
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  Words that, and explain things in a way that they understand and
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  ultimately help them get what they want in their life through email.
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  Whether it's feeling better, learning something, having some
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  fun in the kitchen, whatever it is.
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  Email is so valuable, not just as a marketing tool, but to
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  build relationships with people.
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  I love my email list, and I build and grow my email list organically
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  and through Facebook ads.
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  I have people coming onto my email list all the time.
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  I have people unsubscribing all the time.
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  I have people that have been on my email list for a long time and
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  some that just joined today, but.
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  The, my purpose for I, my email is to help people and to build a
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  relationship with these people, and there are several people on my list.
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  I hear from on a regular basis, I'll write something, they write me back.
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  Uh, when I talked about having to have our cat put to sleep in June, people on
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  my email list that, uh, know me and people that have um, gotten to know me because
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  of my email list, uh, they wrote back.
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  It's, it's a communication tool.
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  There are people reading our emails.
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  I'm a person, they're a person, and we can share something through an email.
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  So the quick win I want you to take away from this episode today is twofold.
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  First of all, um, don't just think of your email list as a bunch of email addresses.
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  I want you to think about your email list as a list of people who want
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  to hear from you that think you have something valuable to offer them.
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  If you already have an email list.
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  I encourage you to reengage.
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  If you haven't engaged for a while, even if it's small, reignite the connection.
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  Get them engaged.
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  What you want people to be doing is opening your emails and
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  clicking links in your emails.
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  Usually if you put a link in an email, you don't want to put more than one
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  link, give it, give 'em something simple to do, or you can ask 'em to
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  reply, maybe ask a question, but you want some engagement from your audience
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  Related to the email, you can share a story, you can ask a question.
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  You can offer a resource or a recipe, but reignite that connection.
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  Because when you regularly start to show up for your audience via your email,
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  email list, and I recommend you email them at least once a week, you build trust.
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  And when publishers and agents find you, because remember, they're looking for
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  you, they will see in you someone who knows how to connect with other people.
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  Would potentially be someone who would read your book, but
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  they see an engaged audience.
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  That is the value of the email list is the connection and the
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  relationships you build through regularly communicating with people.
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  Week in, week out, getting new people on your list, letting them unsubscribe.
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  But the reason they unsubscribe is because your content just
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  isn't of interest to them anymore.
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  But the good news about that is if you can really define what it is you
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  wanna talk about, if they unsubscribe, it just means they're not interested
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  in talking about that anymore, and you let them go just as easily as
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  you let people come onto the list.
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  So the takeaway is
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  we are not chasing.
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  Publishers and we are not gathering email addresses.
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  We are working in a way that we are connecting with people.
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  Publishers and agents right now are looking for people to write
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  their next books, I promise.
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  They're trying to fill out their list for 20 26, 20 27.
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  What books are they going to work on?
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  So they're already looking for us.
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  I, I know that for a fact.
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  Our job is to build a platform in a way that we're present online that
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  makes it easy for people to find us and at the heart of the platform.
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  The email list is the most beautiful thing that we have available to us.
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  So to put this into action, I want you to head to the show notes.
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  Click the link for my free cookbook author platform checklist.
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  It is a, uh, usable download.
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  Talks about your author platform in a little bit more detail.
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  Gives you a nice checklist about the things that.
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  Are essential for cookbook authors to have on their check on their, uh,
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  platform and things that maybe are optional ways that you can build it out.
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  But at the end of the day, it's all about ways that you can build
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  relationships with your readers.
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  It's a simple resource.
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  It's a very helpful resource.
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  You can download it today, uh, by clicking the link at the bottom in the show notes.
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  And then, uh, once you sign up, check your inbox.
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  The email list will, or the checklist will be there, and then you'll be
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  on my email list and you get to hear from me on a regular basis.
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  And if it's something that doesn't appeal to you, you always
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  have the option to unsubscribe.
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  But I love my email list.
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  I email on a regular basis.
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  It's a fun way to communicate and share stories with you.
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  So go on and head down to the cookbook author platform checklist,
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  download the free checklist and place yourself on my email list.
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  So that is it for today's episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast.
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  Until the next time.
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  This is your host, Maggie Green, and I hope you all have a great
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  day and keep loving your cookbooks.
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  Thanks for listening to the Cookbook Love podcast.
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  You can find out more information@www.cookbooklove.co.