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Episode 417: Publishers Are Waiting For You · Cookbook Love Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker: You are listening to the cookbook Love Podcast with
• 0:04
  Speaker: Maggie Greene, episode number four hundred seventeen.
• 0:10
  Speaker: Welcome to the cookbook Love
• 0:12
  Speaker: Podcast, a podcast that
• 0:14
  Speaker: celebrates cookbook readers,
• 0:16
  Speaker: buyers, collectors, writers, and
• 0:18
  Speaker: clubs.
• 0:19
  Speaker: And now your host, cookbook
• 0:21
  Speaker: author, culinary dietitian, and
• 0:23
  Speaker: cookbook writing coach, Maggie
• 0:24
  Speaker: Greene.
• 0:31
  Speaker: Hi, everybody.
• 0:32
  Speaker: Welcome back to another episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast.
• 0:36
  Speaker: How's everybody doing today?
• 0:38
  Speaker: Hope you are all doing well.
• 0:40
  Speaker: As always, I'm taking advantage of my quiet house here in the
• 0:43
  Speaker: cookbook bunker to get some episodes of the podcast recorded
• 0:49
  Speaker: and scheduled in September.
• 0:51
  Speaker: I have taken a big look at my next ninety days and have
• 0:57
  Speaker: several different things going on with my clients, with my
• 1:01
  Speaker: customers, with my family, including hosting Thanksgiving
• 1:05
  Speaker: at the end of November.
• 1:07
  Speaker: So as I head into this next ninety days, I have something
• 1:12
  Speaker: that has been on my mind that I want to share with you.
• 1:17
  Speaker: Today, I want to offer you a
• 1:18
  Speaker: podcast about the belief that
• 1:22
  Speaker: publishers are waiting for us,
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  Speaker: and they're waiting for you to
• 1:27
  Speaker: send them our ideas, and that
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  Speaker: agents are waiting for us to
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  Speaker: query them for representation,
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  Speaker: and that they're actively
• 1:34
  Speaker: waiting for us to send them
• 1:37
  Speaker: something so that they can make
• 1:39
  Speaker: a decision about whether they
• 1:40
  Speaker: want to publish us or represent
• 1:42
  Speaker: us.
• 1:44
  Speaker: This is a concept that I
• 1:48
  Speaker: encourage all of my students to
• 1:50
  Speaker: believe, because it really is
• 1:52
  Speaker: true.
• 1:53
  Speaker: Because if you think about it,
• 1:54
  Speaker: and I've said this on the
• 1:55
  Speaker: podcast before, agents earn
• 1:58
  Speaker: their income from
• 1:59
  Speaker: representation.
• 2:00
  Speaker: They need people to represent,
• 2:02
  Speaker: and publishers earn their income
• 2:06
  Speaker: from the sale of books and
• 2:08
  Speaker: reaching readers.
• 2:09
  Speaker: And they do that through
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  Speaker: publishing words that are
• 2:12
  Speaker: written by people like us, in
• 2:14
  Speaker: cookbooks and other people who
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  Speaker: write all different kinds of
• 2:17
  Speaker: books for all different kinds of
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  Speaker: publishers.
• 2:20
  Speaker: And of course, the two
• 2:21
  Speaker: publishing models that I'm
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  Speaker: talking about for this are
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  Speaker: traditional publishing, with one
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  Speaker: of the big five publishers, and
• 2:27
  Speaker: then traditional publishing with
• 2:29
  Speaker: any other type of traditional
• 2:31
  Speaker: publisher that may not require
• 2:33
  Speaker: an agent, but they still require
• 2:35
  Speaker: writers to provide information
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  Speaker: for them.
• 2:38
  Speaker: And I started thinking about
• 2:39
  Speaker: this because I attended a
• 2:42
  Speaker: coaching call for business
• 2:44
  Speaker: owners about relationships with,
• 2:47
  Speaker: you know, building your
• 2:48
  Speaker: clientele in a business, which I
• 2:50
  Speaker: do.
• 2:51
  Speaker: But this whole thought that people are really interested and
• 2:55
  Speaker: waiting to be sold to or to be offered an opportunity to buy.
• 3:01
  Speaker: And when you think about even looking through a magazine and
• 3:05
  Speaker: looking at recipes for cakes or cookies this time of year, we
• 3:09
  Speaker: always see advertising.
• 3:10
  Speaker: There's always advertisements placed in front of us.
• 3:14
  Speaker: And that's because the creator of that product spent money to
• 3:19
  Speaker: have that ad put there so that we would see it, because they
• 3:24
  Speaker: have the belief that there are people like us who want to buy.
• 3:29
  Speaker: There are people like us who are shopping and interested and
• 3:32
  Speaker: perhaps buying their product.
• 3:34
  Speaker: And that's what advertising is
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  Speaker: all about, is just paying for
• 3:38
  Speaker: that placement.
• 3:39
  Speaker: So people like us can see the ad for their product.
• 3:42
  Speaker: So when we think about us as
• 3:44
  Speaker: cookbook writers, though, we
• 3:45
  Speaker: have to remember that we are
• 3:50
  Speaker: almost taking on the role of
• 3:54
  Speaker: someone who is offering a
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  Speaker: product for sale, which is the
• 3:58
  Speaker: words that we're putting in our
• 3:59
  Speaker: book, and we have to get our
• 4:03
  Speaker: ideas out there in front of the
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  Speaker: people who would buy them, which
• 4:07
  Speaker: is the agents and the
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  Speaker: publishers.
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  Speaker: Otherwise they'll never know.
• 4:10
  Speaker: I was talking to someone yesterday on a private call for
• 4:16
  Speaker: a potential working with someone one on one and coaching, and I
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  Speaker: use this analogy when I think about us letting our ideas be
• 4:26
  Speaker: known and be seen, knowing that people are waiting.
• 4:30
  Speaker: And if you work in a kitchen and
• 4:31
  Speaker: you are familiar with stainless
• 4:33
  Speaker: steel bowls, when you work in a
• 4:34
  Speaker: commercial kitchen, they come in
• 4:36
  Speaker: all shapes and sizes, and it's a
• 4:38
  Speaker: dome of stainless steel,
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  Speaker: obviously, and we use it to mix
• 4:42
  Speaker: things.
• 4:42
  Speaker: I have several stainless steel bowls.
• 4:44
  Speaker: I've had them for years.
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  Speaker: They're virtually
• 4:45
  Speaker: indestructible, but I've mixed
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  Speaker: tons of different things in
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  Speaker: them, from kale salad to
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  Speaker: fruitcake two big batches of
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  Speaker: coleslaw.
• 4:54
  Speaker: Whatever I'm mixing.
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  Speaker: I love my stainless steel bowls, but if you imagine that I took
• 4:59
  Speaker: that bowl and I turned it over and put it over the top of my
• 5:03
  Speaker: head or your head and were hiding underneath this bowl.
• 5:09
  Speaker: We are not being seen by the people that need to see us.
• 5:16
  Speaker: And in this instance, agents and publishers, we have to imagine
• 5:19
  Speaker: that we flip that stainless steel bowl over, set it on the
• 5:23
  Speaker: floor and stand on top of it, and let ourselves and our ideas
• 5:29
  Speaker: be seen and evaluated by people who could potentially buy.
• 5:35
  Speaker: So I want to offer you this thought that people are waiting
• 5:40
  Speaker: for you to send out your ideas.
• 5:43
  Speaker: And if you truly believe this, if you really believed that they
• 5:47
  Speaker: were waiting and lined up waiting for you to offer them
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  Speaker: something in terms of an idea for a book, in terms of the
• 5:55
  Speaker: expertise that you have, in terms of the readership and
• 5:58
  Speaker: community that you've built.
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  Speaker: If you truly believe that they
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  Speaker: were waiting for this, lined up
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  Speaker: out the door, waiting for you to
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  Speaker: connect with them, what actions
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  Speaker: might you take differently if
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  Speaker: you knew that it was possible
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  Speaker: that today, an agent or an
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  Speaker: editor could appear out of the
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  Speaker: blue and ask you to send them an
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  Speaker: idea for a cookbook, or thank
• 6:21
  Speaker: you for sending them an idea for
• 6:22
  Speaker: a cookbook?
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  Speaker: What might you do differently?
• 6:27
  Speaker: And I want to tell you a little
• 6:28
  Speaker: bit of a story that connects to
• 6:30
  Speaker: this, because I have had this
• 6:32
  Speaker: experience with publishing in my
• 6:35
  Speaker: own life.
• 6:37
  Speaker: About ten years ago, I volunteered at a charity event
• 6:40
  Speaker: where I was randomly struck up a conversation with a lady who was
• 6:43
  Speaker: attending the event.
• 6:44
  Speaker: I was there as a judge at the
• 6:46
  Speaker: dessert competition, and she was
• 6:48
  Speaker: there as an attendee, and she
• 6:51
  Speaker: proceeded to ask me through the
• 6:53
  Speaker: course of the conversation,
• 6:54
  Speaker: because I told her a little bit
• 6:56
  Speaker: about what I what I did in my
• 6:58
  Speaker: professional life.
• 6:59
  Speaker: If I had ever thought about writing a cookbook of my own.
• 7:03
  Speaker: And after we chatted a bit more,
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  Speaker: she handed me her business card
• 7:07
  Speaker: and she looked at me and she
• 7:09
  Speaker: said, if I ever had any ideas
• 7:12
  Speaker: for a cookbook to send them to
• 7:13
  Speaker: her.
• 7:16
  Speaker: So what that meant to me is that she was interested in my ideas,
• 7:21
  Speaker: and she would be waiting then for me to send them to her.
• 7:26
  Speaker: Do you know that I sat with that business card on my desk in my
• 7:30
  Speaker: cookbook idea, bottled up inside of me for a whole year?
• 7:35
  Speaker: One year it was February of two thousand and eight when I met
• 7:40
  Speaker: her, and I did not take any action except total brain spin
• 7:45
  Speaker: and total, rumination on this for about a year.
• 7:50
  Speaker: When I finally decided to put a pen to paper and to come up with
• 7:53
  Speaker: a concept for the book.
• 7:55
  Speaker: And I want to tell you, it wasn't because I wasn't cooking,
• 7:58
  Speaker: and it wasn't because I wasn't in my kitchen all the time.
• 8:01
  Speaker: That was a very busy time in my life as a food writer.
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  Speaker: It was a busy time in my life as
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  Speaker: a cook and as a mom, and as
• 8:10
  Speaker: someone who was working as, uh,
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  Speaker: with some freelance jobs that I
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  Speaker: had.
• 8:16
  Speaker: I was busy work wise, busy in the kitchen, always around food.
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  Speaker: But the reason I didn't send her
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  Speaker: the idea was not at all because
• 8:23
  Speaker: I wasn't around food and cooking
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  Speaker: and didn't have ideas about what
• 8:27
  Speaker: I thought my book might be
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  Speaker: about.
• 8:30
  Speaker: The reason I didn't email her when I look back on this whole
• 8:34
  Speaker: story is because I didn't think that what I was cooking or
• 8:39
  Speaker: baking was unique enough, original enough, good enough, or
• 8:44
  Speaker: publishable enough for that particular publishing house.
• 8:50
  Speaker: You guys, that was the work that I had to do.
• 8:54
  Speaker: I had to start to believe that
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  Speaker: publishers were waiting, which
• 8:58
  Speaker: they were.
• 8:59
  Speaker: I had proof of that.
• 9:00
  Speaker: And I also had to believe that
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  Speaker: what I cooked day in, day out on
• 9:05
  Speaker: a day to day basis, and I used
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  Speaker: to create the concept for my
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  Speaker: book was unique enough, original
• 9:10
  Speaker: enough, good enough and
• 9:12
  Speaker: publishable enough.
• 9:14
  Speaker: And when I finally mustered up the courage to send her my idea
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  Speaker: for my cookbook, she loved it.
• 9:21
  Speaker: The idea landed a book deal, and from that book deal on, I had.
• 9:28
  Speaker: I had two more publishers reach out, which led to three
• 9:31
  Speaker: different book deals over the next seven years.
• 9:36
  Speaker: So from two thousand and eight
• 9:38
  Speaker: to twenty eighteen, I wrote four
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  Speaker: cookbooks, three different
• 9:42
  Speaker: publishers and lots and lots of
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  Speaker: ideas.
• 9:46
  Speaker: Because I was cooking all the
• 9:48
  Speaker: time, I was in my kitchen all
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  Speaker: the time.
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  Speaker: It was the thing that I did, but
• 9:52
  Speaker: it was not that they weren't
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  Speaker: waiting for me to send them
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  Speaker: ideas.
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  Speaker: It was because I didn't think
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  Speaker: that they were waiting, or I
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  Speaker: didn't think that what I had to
• 10:02
  Speaker: offer them would be original
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  Speaker: enough, good enough, publishable
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  Speaker: enough for their publishing
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  Speaker: house.
• 10:10
  Speaker: Now, here's the other thing about this.
• 10:12
  Speaker: When I talk to you, you guys email me.
• 10:16
  Speaker: I, um, I have a email that goes out every week for my cookbook
• 10:22
  Speaker: coaching services and you guys write to me.
• 10:26
  Speaker: And here's the kinds of things
• 10:27
  Speaker: that you tell me after I send an
• 10:31
  Speaker: email, you'll, you'll write me
• 10:34
  Speaker: an email back and you'll say,
• 10:35
  Speaker: okay, Maggie, I'm trying, but I
• 10:37
  Speaker: feel discouraged because I keep
• 10:39
  Speaker: having agents and publishers
• 10:40
  Speaker: tell me you need more followers
• 10:42
  Speaker: on Instagram.
• 10:44
  Speaker: You talk too much about your mother and grandmother.
• 10:46
  Speaker: Nobody wants to talk about that anymore.
• 10:49
  Speaker: Um. You have too many recipes for common foods like tomato
• 10:52
  Speaker: soup and kale salad.
• 10:53
  Speaker: Does anybody really need that anymore?
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  Speaker: Your idea isn't commercially viable.
• 10:58
  Speaker: There's no market for your book,
• 11:00
  Speaker: and you don't have a big enough
• 11:01
  Speaker: platform.
• 11:01
  Speaker: So just keep building your platform.
• 11:03
  Speaker: And they always feel put off and discouraged by these comments
• 11:06
  Speaker: from agents and publishers.
• 11:08
  Speaker: But when I submitted my idea to
• 11:11
  Speaker: this publisher ten years ago,
• 11:14
  Speaker: actually, it's been longer than
• 11:15
  Speaker: that now.
• 11:15
  Speaker: It's been fourteen years ago.
• 11:19
  Speaker: And I landed the deal and then three more book deals over the
• 11:21
  Speaker: next seven years.
• 11:23
  Speaker: Here's the important part.
• 11:24
  Speaker: I want you to hear what I offer to them.
• 11:29
  Speaker: Was not contingent on the fact that I had tons of followers on
• 11:33
  Speaker: Instagram because newsflash, we didn't have Instagram.
• 11:36
  Speaker: That Instagram is a relatively new thing.
• 11:39
  Speaker: We didn't have that.
• 11:40
  Speaker: Um, I hadn't stripped out
• 11:42
  Speaker: conversations about my mother or
• 11:43
  Speaker: grandmother.
• 11:44
  Speaker: I hadn't eliminated recipes for comfort foods.
• 11:47
  Speaker: I hadn't magically cracked any code on how I could grow my
• 11:49
  Speaker: platform to enormous, um, Ina Garten size proportions.
• 11:53
  Speaker: I hadn't done any of that.
• 11:54
  Speaker: I firmly believe I got the book
• 11:56
  Speaker: deal because my cookbook and the
• 11:59
  Speaker: ideas I presented to her looked,
• 12:03
  Speaker: smelled, and tasted exactly like
• 12:05
  Speaker: me and the food I cooked every
• 12:07
  Speaker: single day.
• 12:08
  Speaker: The idea that I sent for my
• 12:10
  Speaker: cookbook was an embodiment of
• 12:12
  Speaker: me.
• 12:13
  Speaker: My concepts were true peeks inside my kitchen where I plan,
• 12:19
  Speaker: shop, cook, feed, clean up the dishes every single day, day in
• 12:23
  Speaker: and day out.
• 12:24
  Speaker: The root of my published books
• 12:27
  Speaker: is that I believe that cooking
• 12:30
  Speaker: and feeding others is very, very
• 12:33
  Speaker: valuable.
• 12:34
  Speaker: It can be a lot of fun and it's extremely worthwhile.
• 12:41
  Speaker: So you see, I believed I didn't really know that they were
• 12:43
  Speaker: waiting for me, but I believe so much in the value of cooking and
• 12:47
  Speaker: feeding people that it was something that I had to do to
• 12:53
  Speaker: learn how to believe in that value and transmit that into my
• 12:57
  Speaker: cookbook, my books.
• 13:00
  Speaker: If you pick them up and look at any of them, Kentucky Fresh
• 13:04
  Speaker: cookbook tasting, Kentucky, sort of because those are contributed
• 13:09
  Speaker: recipes, but I tested them all here in my kitchen.
• 13:12
  Speaker: I picked things that I thought I would enjoy.
• 13:14
  Speaker: Um, and then my essential
• 13:15
  Speaker: pantry, an essential plant based
• 13:16
  Speaker: pantry.
• 13:17
  Speaker: They're all peeks inside my Kentucky kitchen where I plan
• 13:22
  Speaker: and shop and cook and feed and do all those things.
• 13:25
  Speaker: So if you were to come spend a day with me, you would probably
• 13:29
  Speaker: find that the things that I wrote about in my cookbook and
• 13:31
  Speaker: the things I talk about in my life and the things that I enjoy
• 13:35
  Speaker: are represented in the books that I wrote.
• 13:39
  Speaker: My books taste, smell, and sound
• 13:43
  Speaker: like the value that I find in
• 13:45
  Speaker: cooking at home on a regular
• 13:48
  Speaker: basis.
• 13:49
  Speaker: And I was able to communicate that to my publishers and
• 13:52
  Speaker: ultimately to the readers.
• 13:55
  Speaker: So I have a question for you.
• 13:58
  Speaker: Two questions to think about as
• 14:00
  Speaker: you're heading into this holiday
• 14:01
  Speaker: season and just thinking about
• 14:03
  Speaker: potentially being a person that
• 14:05
  Speaker: can write a cookbook and get it
• 14:07
  Speaker: published.
• 14:08
  Speaker: Number one, do you believe that publishers and agents are
• 14:12
  Speaker: waiting for people like us?
• 14:16
  Speaker: And number two, if you did
• 14:17
  Speaker: believe that, what might you be
• 14:19
  Speaker: doing different knowing that an
• 14:20
  Speaker: agent or publisher could appear
• 14:22
  Speaker: out of the blue today and ask
• 14:25
  Speaker: you if you had an idea for a
• 14:26
  Speaker: cookbook?
• 14:28
  Speaker: And then the third thing is, I want you to think about your
• 14:32
  Speaker: kitchen work And why you find great value in it.
• 14:37
  Speaker: What does kitchen work do for you?
• 14:43
  Speaker: What are the emotions you feel when you create food and serve
• 14:49
  Speaker: and share it with other people?
• 14:51
  Speaker: Because that is what your secret sauce is.
• 14:55
  Speaker: That's where you shine as you create the ideas for your books
• 14:59
  Speaker: that look, taste, and smell like you and your kitchen, and not
• 15:03
  Speaker: like me and my kitchen.
• 15:06
  Speaker: And every cookbook author has
• 15:07
  Speaker: their own look, smell, and
• 15:10
  Speaker: taste.
• 15:12
  Speaker: There are an abundance of
• 15:13
  Speaker: publishers and agents who are
• 15:15
  Speaker: ready for cooks and bakers to
• 15:17
  Speaker: put their unique perspective on
• 15:19
  Speaker: display.
• 15:22
  Speaker: They like the way that smells.
• 15:23
  Speaker: They like the way that tastes.
• 15:24
  Speaker: They like the way that it looks,
• 15:26
  Speaker: and they want us to send them
• 15:29
  Speaker: our ideas.
• 15:31
  Speaker: So I'm going to leave you with
• 15:33
  Speaker: that for today, asking if you
• 15:36
  Speaker: can join me in believing all of
• 15:38
  Speaker: those things.
• 15:40
  Speaker: And if you can, uh, we can work on writing a cookbook together.
• 15:45
  Speaker: And even if you can't, sometimes that's what we have to do first
• 15:49
  Speaker: to get published is work on the way we're thinking about a
• 15:52
  Speaker: cookbook publishing project, and the way we're thinking about the
• 15:55
  Speaker: food that we are so good at cooking all the time.
• 16:00
  Speaker: So that is it for today's
• 16:01
  Speaker: episode of the Cookbook Love
• 16:02
  Speaker: Podcast, this is your host,
• 16:04
  Speaker: Maggie Green.
• 16:05
  Speaker: And until next time, have a
• 16:06
  Speaker: great day and keep loving your
• 16:08
  Speaker: cookbooks.
• 16:13
  Speaker: Thanks for listening to the Cookbook Love podcast.
• 16:16
  Speaker: You can find out more information at w w w dot
• 16:18
  Speaker: cookbook dot co.