Latest / Cookbook Love Podcast / Episode 422: How to Publish a Cookbook Without Knowing How to Do Everything

Transcript

Episode 422: How to Publish a Cookbook Without Knowing How to Do Everything · Cookbook Love Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker: You are listening to the Cookbook Love Podcast with
• 0:04
  Speaker: Maggie Greene, episode number four twenty two.
• 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.
• 0:35
  Speaker: How's everybody doing today?
• 0:37
  Speaker: As always, hope you are doing well.
• 0:39
  Speaker: We dove in last night to episode
• 0:42
  Speaker: one of The Great British Bake
• 0:45
  Speaker: Off.
• 0:45
  Speaker: It is kind of odd to be watching the show without Prue as one of
• 0:50
  Speaker: the judges, but Nigella Lawson is someone who has been in the
• 0:55
  Speaker: food world for quite a while, and I think she'll be a good
• 1:00
  Speaker: addition to the show, even though I do miss Prue.
• 1:03
  Speaker: But it was fun to watch the first show, and it's always kind
• 1:07
  Speaker: of funny, the first show, like you're getting to know all the
• 1:10
  Speaker: new people, new personalities, their different baking styles,
• 1:15
  Speaker: and I become so attached to them as the season moves on and Im
• 1:21
  Speaker: rooting for them.
• 1:22
  Speaker: But this first show is always a lot of fun.
• 1:24
  Speaker: And boy, the stout cake that they make made really did look
• 1:28
  Speaker: good and made me think about all the baking books I have received
• 1:34
  Speaker: to review and possibly have authors on the show.
• 1:40
  Speaker: Just a lot of baking books.
• 1:41
  Speaker: So everybody seems to be enjoying baking, and I can't
• 1:46
  Speaker: wait to share some of those episodes coming up with you.
• 1:51
  Speaker: But today, I want to talk to you
• 1:52
  Speaker: about something that I hear from
• 1:55
  Speaker: my students and from listeners
• 1:57
  Speaker: of the podcast and people who
• 2:00
  Speaker: write me that are on my email
• 2:01
  Speaker: list.
• 2:03
  Speaker: People who are in my Facebook group talking obviously about
• 2:07
  Speaker: the desire to write a cookbook, and maybe they're stuck.
• 2:12
  Speaker: I even heard from someone the other day that has two cookbooks
• 2:16
  Speaker: in progress, and she asked me if I could help her get unstuck.
• 2:22
  Speaker: And something I want to talk
• 2:25
  Speaker: about is this idea that before
• 2:27
  Speaker: you become a cookbook author,
• 2:31
  Speaker: you have to know how to do
• 2:33
  Speaker: everything.
• 2:35
  Speaker: Like so before you can even think about being an author, you
• 2:38
  Speaker: have to learn how to write the book, edit, photograph, style
• 2:43
  Speaker: the food, design the book, and publish it, and then market it
• 2:46
  Speaker: and sell it.
• 2:48
  Speaker: And if you don't know how to do one of those things, sometimes
• 2:52
  Speaker: people will say, well, I'm just not ready to write the book.
• 2:55
  Speaker: But I want to give you a completely different way of
• 2:58
  Speaker: looking at that today.
• 3:01
  Speaker: Because if you're pursuing
• 3:03
  Speaker: traditional publishing and you
• 3:05
  Speaker: want to become a cookbook author
• 3:06
  Speaker: through the traditional
• 3:08
  Speaker: publishing path, you do not need
• 3:09
  Speaker: to become an expert in all of
• 3:11
  Speaker: those things.
• 3:13
  Speaker: In fact, that's not how traditionally published
• 3:18
  Speaker: cookbooks get produced by you doing it at all.
• 3:22
  Speaker: A cookbook project is a team project.
• 3:26
  Speaker: And even in self-publishing, I'm going to have an author on next
• 3:30
  Speaker: week that self-published a book.
• 3:33
  Speaker: A team was assembled to do the
• 3:37
  Speaker: different parts of the book
• 3:39
  Speaker: project.
• 3:41
  Speaker: So once you understand who's on
• 3:43
  Speaker: the team and what everybody
• 3:44
  Speaker: does, I think it'll change the
• 3:46
  Speaker: way you think about your job as
• 3:49
  Speaker: the author.
• 3:50
  Speaker: And that's what I want to map out for you today on the show.
• 3:54
  Speaker: And first, I want to talk about
• 3:56
  Speaker: what your job is before the book
• 3:58
  Speaker: deal.
• 3:59
  Speaker: So if you're listening to this
• 4:02
  Speaker: and you want to write a cookbook
• 4:04
  Speaker: and you don't have a book deal,
• 4:06
  Speaker: then this is the part where you
• 4:10
  Speaker: are.
• 4:11
  Speaker: Um, this is where we talk about
• 4:15
  Speaker: all the things that you need to
• 4:17
  Speaker: do in preparation for the book
• 4:19
  Speaker: deal.
• 4:20
  Speaker: And then I'm going to talk a
• 4:21
  Speaker: little bit about what happens
• 4:22
  Speaker: after the book deal and the
• 4:24
  Speaker: people on the team that start
• 4:25
  Speaker: showing up to help you create
• 4:27
  Speaker: the book.
• 4:28
  Speaker: So there are some things I see aspiring aspiring cookbook
• 4:32
  Speaker: authors spend a ton of time on that I don't believe personally
• 4:38
  Speaker: are the best use of their time.
• 4:41
  Speaker: And I know this from having been
• 4:42
  Speaker: on different sides of cookbook
• 4:44
  Speaker: publishing.
• 4:45
  Speaker: I worked with the Joy of cooking as an editorial liaison.
• 4:51
  Speaker: I have edited other trade cookbooks.
• 4:54
  Speaker: I've written my own cookbooks,
• 4:57
  Speaker: I've self-published a cookbook,
• 4:59
  Speaker: and I have mentored hundreds of
• 5:01
  Speaker: people through traditional and
• 5:04
  Speaker: self-publishing.
• 5:06
  Speaker: So I've seen this from the author side, the editor side,
• 5:10
  Speaker: the publishing side.
• 5:11
  Speaker: And now I want to talk about it
• 5:14
  Speaker: from the side of a cookbook
• 5:17
  Speaker: writing coach.
• 5:19
  Speaker: And one of the things I've
• 5:20
  Speaker: learned is that we can make this
• 5:22
  Speaker: process seem so much more
• 5:25
  Speaker: complicated, excuse me, than it
• 5:28
  Speaker: actually is.
• 5:30
  Speaker: So let's start with you.
• 5:34
  Speaker: And before the deal, there are
• 5:37
  Speaker: really two things you need to
• 5:41
  Speaker: focus on.
• 5:43
  Speaker: That is, number one, your
• 5:46
  Speaker: cookbook concept and number two,
• 5:51
  Speaker: your Platform.
• 5:53
  Speaker: And when I say platform, I don't
• 5:55
  Speaker: mean how many followers you have
• 5:57
  Speaker: on Instagram.
• 5:59
  Speaker: A platform is a publishing word
• 6:01
  Speaker: for your visibility and your
• 6:04
  Speaker: engagement with people in the
• 6:06
  Speaker: marketplace.
• 6:08
  Speaker: Your ability to connect with
• 6:10
  Speaker: people who care about what you
• 6:12
  Speaker: have to offer could be an email
• 6:15
  Speaker: list.
• 6:16
  Speaker: If you're still writing a blog, many people write a Substack
• 6:20
  Speaker: newsletter, could be a podcast, could be teaching online, could
• 6:24
  Speaker: be teaching offline classes, your professional community,
• 6:29
  Speaker: your presence on social media.
• 6:31
  Speaker: There's a lot of different ways to build a platform.
• 6:33
  Speaker: And I've done many shows about your platform and I've talked
• 6:38
  Speaker: about your platform, so you're welcome to obviously go back and
• 6:41
  Speaker: check out some of the shows, but just remember that the platform
• 6:44
  Speaker: isn't just a follower count.
• 6:46
  Speaker: We don't want to confuse followers who just scroll
• 6:49
  Speaker: through what we do with people who are engaged with us.
• 6:54
  Speaker: So the platform is important in something that you definitely
• 6:57
  Speaker: want to be thinking about before the book deal.
• 7:00
  Speaker: The other thing is your concept for your book.
• 7:04
  Speaker: And this is where I think sometimes we make this harder
• 7:10
  Speaker: than it needs to be.
• 7:11
  Speaker: Also because the the great news
• 7:14
  Speaker: is you don't have to write your
• 7:15
  Speaker: entire book.
• 7:16
  Speaker: You don't have to have every recipe finished.
• 7:19
  Speaker: You don't have to have every
• 7:21
  Speaker: photograph taken or the cover
• 7:23
  Speaker: designed.
• 7:24
  Speaker: You don't even necessarily have
• 7:26
  Speaker: to know exactly what every page
• 7:28
  Speaker: on the book is going to look
• 7:30
  Speaker: like.
• 7:31
  Speaker: What you need before the book
• 7:33
  Speaker: deal is a compelling concept for
• 7:36
  Speaker: your book.
• 7:38
  Speaker: That means who you know, who the book is for.
• 7:41
  Speaker: You know what it does to help that person.
• 7:43
  Speaker: You know that you want to share
• 7:46
  Speaker: and write about this topic with
• 7:48
  Speaker: them.
• 7:49
  Speaker: You know that it's an interesting topic.
• 7:51
  Speaker: You know the recipes that belong in the book.
• 7:54
  Speaker: You know what experience you're creating for the reader.
• 7:57
  Speaker: And that's all the beginning of your cookbook concept.
• 8:02
  Speaker: And eventually the concept and
• 8:04
  Speaker: the platform are part of what
• 8:06
  Speaker: you're going to communicate in a
• 8:08
  Speaker: proposal.
• 8:09
  Speaker: But your job before the book
• 8:11
  Speaker: deal is not to worry about the
• 8:14
  Speaker: finished book.
• 8:16
  Speaker: Develop your idea for the cookbook.
• 8:18
  Speaker: Develop relationships with
• 8:20
  Speaker: people who might want to buy
• 8:21
  Speaker: your book.
• 8:22
  Speaker: That is a very different job
• 8:24
  Speaker: than worrying about the way the
• 8:26
  Speaker: book is going to look, or the
• 8:27
  Speaker: layout, or the design or the
• 8:29
  Speaker: photography, or anything related
• 8:32
  Speaker: to that.
• 8:32
  Speaker: Now, I will say the one thing
• 8:34
  Speaker: that you're before the book deal
• 8:35
  Speaker: work connects to completely is
• 8:37
  Speaker: the marketing and sales of your
• 8:39
  Speaker: book.
• 8:39
  Speaker: After the book is created, your platform will directly connect
• 8:45
  Speaker: with and to that part.
• 8:49
  Speaker: So that's why it's so important for you to work on developing
• 8:52
  Speaker: relationships with people now, so that when it comes time to
• 8:56
  Speaker: market and sell the book after it's finished, it's an easier
• 9:00
  Speaker: thing to do.
• 9:02
  Speaker: So let's imagine that you get a book deal.
• 9:04
  Speaker: Then what happens when the publisher says yes?
• 9:07
  Speaker: What should you focus on then?
• 9:11
  Speaker: So you've developed your idea,
• 9:12
  Speaker: you created a proposal, you've
• 9:14
  Speaker: built a platform, you've pitched
• 9:16
  Speaker: your book to an agent or an
• 9:17
  Speaker: editor.
• 9:18
  Speaker: Um, the agent maybe pitched it to a publisher or you did
• 9:23
  Speaker: through being able to find publishers that accept
• 9:25
  Speaker: unsolicited proposals directly from authors, but they say, yes,
• 9:30
  Speaker: you've been offered a contract, you have a book deal.
• 9:34
  Speaker: And this is the other part I want you to understand is you
• 9:38
  Speaker: don't suddenly, at this point have to become better at
• 9:40
  Speaker: everything, either like the photography or the design.
• 9:45
  Speaker: Um, during the book deal and as the result of a book deal with a
• 9:50
  Speaker: traditional publishing house, you have access now to a team of
• 9:54
  Speaker: people who are going to help you put the book together.
• 9:59
  Speaker: So a publisher is a business.
• 10:03
  Speaker: It's the name on the spine of the book.
• 10:05
  Speaker: But the team of people is what puts the book together.
• 10:09
  Speaker: And the first person you're
• 10:11
  Speaker: likely to have interacted with
• 10:13
  Speaker: at this point is the
• 10:14
  Speaker: acquisitions editor.
• 10:15
  Speaker: I had this question the other
• 10:17
  Speaker: day in a private coaching call,
• 10:19
  Speaker: but the acquisitions editor is
• 10:21
  Speaker: the person who acquires books
• 10:24
  Speaker: and titles and authors for the
• 10:26
  Speaker: publishing house.
• 10:28
  Speaker: They often will become your
• 10:31
  Speaker: first champion inside the
• 10:33
  Speaker: publishing house.
• 10:35
  Speaker: They're the person who fell in
• 10:36
  Speaker: love with you and your idea, who
• 10:38
  Speaker: pitched it to the marketing team
• 10:40
  Speaker: inside the company who fought
• 10:43
  Speaker: for this book to be published at
• 10:46
  Speaker: the acquisitions meetings that
• 10:48
  Speaker: they have.
• 10:49
  Speaker: And I suspect you're probably in some way, shape or form going to
• 10:52
  Speaker: stay in touch with that person throughout the process.
• 10:55
  Speaker: In the books that I've worked on, I know that I certainly did,
• 10:58
  Speaker: and I suspect that it will be the same for you.
• 11:02
  Speaker: And one of the interesting
• 11:03
  Speaker: things about acquisitions
• 11:05
  Speaker: editors, though, is they can
• 11:06
  Speaker: move from publishing house to
• 11:07
  Speaker: publishing house.
• 11:08
  Speaker: I always thought of that a little bit like your hairstylist
• 11:12
  Speaker: moving to a new salon.
• 11:14
  Speaker: So you might follow that acquisitions editor.
• 11:18
  Speaker: You have a relationship with them.
• 11:21
  Speaker: When they go to another
• 11:22
  Speaker: publishing house, they'll take
• 11:23
  Speaker: their relationship with you,
• 11:25
  Speaker: with them.
• 11:26
  Speaker: If it was a good relationship.
• 11:28
  Speaker: And that's why relationships
• 11:29
  Speaker: with people are such a big part
• 11:31
  Speaker: of publishing.
• 11:32
  Speaker: Okay, so you have your acquisitions editor, and then on
• 11:35
  Speaker: top of that, once you turn your manuscript in, which is the full
• 11:40
  Speaker: written book, everything that's going to go into the book from
• 11:44
  Speaker: all the front matter to the chapters to all the recipes.
• 11:51
  Speaker: Any appendix, glossaries,
• 11:52
  Speaker: resources, whatever stories,
• 11:54
  Speaker: whatever you're putting in this
• 11:55
  Speaker: book, you turn in the
• 11:57
  Speaker: manuscript.
• 11:58
  Speaker: Um, then you have an editorial
• 12:00
  Speaker: team of people that come on
• 12:02
  Speaker: board.
• 12:03
  Speaker: And I think also this is where some aspiring authors get a
• 12:07
  Speaker: little bit nervous as well, because the manuscript that
• 12:10
  Speaker: you're going to turn into them does not look like a book.
• 12:15
  Speaker: I always tell my students that when you turn in your
• 12:17
  Speaker: manuscript, it's going to basically look like a big
• 12:21
  Speaker: digital book report.
• 12:24
  Speaker: It's generally a Microsoft Word document.
• 12:28
  Speaker: It's very boring.
• 12:30
  Speaker: It's maybe typed in twelve point
• 12:33
  Speaker: type, double double spaced, no
• 12:36
  Speaker: formatting.
• 12:37
  Speaker: It's not designed.
• 12:39
  Speaker: And that's okay.
• 12:40
  Speaker: That's exactly the way that they're going to Probably want
• 12:44
  Speaker: you to turn it in, because then the editorial team gets to work
• 12:50
  Speaker: on the manuscript.
• 12:52
  Speaker: And this is called the Developmental Editing Stage,
• 12:54
  Speaker: which looks at the big picture of the book.
• 12:57
  Speaker: How are the chapters organized?
• 12:58
  Speaker: Does the book flow?
• 13:00
  Speaker: Does the recipe organization make sense?
• 13:03
  Speaker: Does the storytelling work?
• 13:04
  Speaker: And then there's line editing, which gets to the writing itself
• 13:08
  Speaker: the details, the grammar, the spelling, the consistency, the
• 13:11
  Speaker: accuracy, the measurements, all of those things.
• 13:14
  Speaker: Uh, copy editors and cookbook editors, which I think are
• 13:18
  Speaker: really a very special breed of editor because they're kind of a
• 13:23
  Speaker: blend of a chef and a grammarian and a counselor.
• 13:26
  Speaker: They have to understand food.
• 13:28
  Speaker: They understand writing.
• 13:30
  Speaker: And you have to understand that that person is going to help you
• 13:34
  Speaker: make the book better.
• 13:36
  Speaker: Um, when I worked on the Joy and
• 13:39
  Speaker: when I worked on other trade
• 13:40
  Speaker: cookbooks, I loved being a
• 13:41
  Speaker: cookbook editor because I got to
• 13:43
  Speaker: have a relationship with the
• 13:45
  Speaker: author and help them organize
• 13:47
  Speaker: their material.
• 13:48
  Speaker: Um, turn their material into a
• 13:51
  Speaker: better form and get it edited
• 13:54
  Speaker: before it goes to the next step,
• 13:56
  Speaker: which is actually the design of
• 13:58
  Speaker: the book.
• 13:59
  Speaker: And we've talked a lot about book design recently.
• 14:03
  Speaker: Um, talked about Debbie Byrne as a cookbook designer in a podcast
• 14:08
  Speaker: episode for twenty.
• 14:10
  Speaker: She also has been on the show
• 14:11
  Speaker: talking about what a cookbook
• 14:13
  Speaker: designer does.
• 14:14
  Speaker: But the designer actually then
• 14:16
  Speaker: will take the edited manuscript
• 14:19
  Speaker: and create the visual part of
• 14:22
  Speaker: the cookbook.
• 14:23
  Speaker: And it's fascinating how often people, before they even start
• 14:29
  Speaker: and get the book deal or before they actually write the book,
• 14:33
  Speaker: they think as the author that they have to figure the visuals
• 14:38
  Speaker: out, the fonts, the page layout, the photographs, they start
• 14:44
  Speaker: tinkering around in Canva.
• 14:45
  Speaker: And I'm not saying have having a vision for the book is wrong,
• 14:49
  Speaker: but what I'm saying is that it might not be your job yet to
• 14:54
  Speaker: worry about that, because the design team at a traditional
• 14:58
  Speaker: publisher is going to bring the book to life visually.
• 15:03
  Speaker: You bring the words to life through the manuscript, and they
• 15:07
  Speaker: bring the book to life through the interior layout.
• 15:11
  Speaker: Um, and so you don't have to become a book designer before
• 15:15
  Speaker: you become a cookbook author.
• 15:18
  Speaker: Certainly not before the book deal and even after the book
• 15:21
  Speaker: deal, you don't have to worry about being a book designer.
• 15:24
  Speaker: I love design.
• 15:25
  Speaker: I mentioned this when I was
• 15:26
  Speaker: talking to David Murray and
• 15:29
  Speaker: Leslie Jones.
• 15:30
  Speaker: It's like having someone work on interior design in your house
• 15:34
  Speaker: and maybe you, you love the way a room looks or the way it
• 15:39
  Speaker: feels, but you sometimes need people to help you bring that
• 15:42
  Speaker: vision to life.
• 15:44
  Speaker: That's what a book designer does.
• 15:45
  Speaker: Much like what an interior
• 15:47
  Speaker: designer also does in your
• 15:49
  Speaker: house.
• 15:50
  Speaker: So you get opinions, you get input, but you don't have to
• 15:54
  Speaker: know how to use Adobe InDesign.
• 15:58
  Speaker: You don't have to build your cookbook in Canva.
• 16:00
  Speaker: Someone else is going to help you do that.
• 16:03
  Speaker: And then the other thing that
• 16:05
  Speaker: you don't have to know how to do
• 16:06
  Speaker: is photography.
• 16:08
  Speaker: There's a photography team that will be working on your book.
• 16:12
  Speaker: They will have been paid either by the publisher or if you were
• 16:20
  Speaker: responsible for finding them, you'll know that in the details
• 16:23
  Speaker: of your contract.
• 16:24
  Speaker: But there'll be a photographer, hopefully a stylist, sometimes a
• 16:28
  Speaker: prop stylist, other creative people who work under the
• 16:31
  Speaker: direction of the art director or the managing editor production
• 16:36
  Speaker: manager for the book And their goal isn't simply to take just
• 16:40
  Speaker: pictures of the recipes.
• 16:42
  Speaker: They're going to try to create a feel for the book, based on the
• 16:46
  Speaker: work and the discussions they've had with the book designer.
• 16:49
  Speaker: Is it a rustic looking book?
• 16:50
  Speaker: A modern looking book.
• 16:52
  Speaker: A minimalist looking book.
• 16:54
  Speaker: Um, and sometimes people will
• 16:56
  Speaker: say to me before they write
• 16:57
  Speaker: their book that their biggest
• 16:59
  Speaker: obstacle to writing a cookbook
• 17:00
  Speaker: is photography.
• 17:02
  Speaker: But if you are doing traditional
• 17:04
  Speaker: publishing, I have a news flash
• 17:05
  Speaker: for you.
• 17:06
  Speaker: You don't have to know how to be a food photographer.
• 17:11
  Speaker: You do not have to do the photography.
• 17:14
  Speaker: If you are a photographer and
• 17:15
  Speaker: you want to pitch yourself as
• 17:17
  Speaker: the photographer, that's
• 17:18
  Speaker: different.
• 17:19
  Speaker: But it's not a requirement that you be a food photographer in
• 17:23
  Speaker: order to be a cookbook author.
• 17:26
  Speaker: I love the photography part
• 17:28
  Speaker: again, but I do not like doing
• 17:30
  Speaker: it.
• 17:30
  Speaker: And I was thrilled to have photographers and illustrators
• 17:34
  Speaker: work with me on my books, and I just appreciated so much that I
• 17:41
  Speaker: got to do the part that I love to do, which was the writing.
• 17:46
  Speaker: And then I had other people help me bring the book to life and
• 17:50
  Speaker: create the book.
• 17:51
  Speaker: That's the fun part of being part of a publishing team.
• 17:57
  Speaker: So then we have the marketing and publicity of the book.
• 18:00
  Speaker: Now, this is an area where there also can be a lot of confusion,
• 18:03
  Speaker: because publishers do help market and promote books.
• 18:07
  Speaker: They generally start to really dive in.
• 18:10
  Speaker: Once you sign a book deal, you'll give them some
• 18:12
  Speaker: preliminary information, but they'll start media coverage,
• 18:16
  Speaker: influencer outreach, book tours, promotional partnerships,
• 18:19
  Speaker: podcast appearances, radio appearances, television, um, six
• 18:24
  Speaker: to eight weeks ahead of the book's release in particular,
• 18:27
  Speaker: they'll get really busy about getting all that set up.
• 18:30
  Speaker: And then for a period of time afterwards, the marketing and
• 18:33
  Speaker: sales team is the marketing and publicity team is involved also,
• 18:37
  Speaker: but there's also a sales team out there talking to bookstores
• 18:40
  Speaker: and other retailers about carrying your book.
• 18:44
  Speaker: Um, for my Kentucky books, they
• 18:46
  Speaker: went to Bourbon Trail
• 18:48
  Speaker: Distilleries.
• 18:49
  Speaker: They went to the Kentucky State Parks.
• 18:51
  Speaker: And I love the fact that my
• 18:54
  Speaker: sales team for the publisher was
• 18:56
  Speaker: out there trying to pitch my
• 18:58
  Speaker: book and sell it to these
• 19:01
  Speaker: retailers.
• 19:03
  Speaker: Then they also could help with
• 19:04
  Speaker: book awards, other promotional
• 19:06
  Speaker: opportunities.
• 19:08
  Speaker: But their marketing and publicity efforts are not going
• 19:10
  Speaker: to last forever.
• 19:12
  Speaker: The book is a front list title
• 19:14
  Speaker: when it first comes out, and
• 19:15
  Speaker: then there's a period of time
• 19:16
  Speaker: where the publisher is really
• 19:17
  Speaker: focused on helping you market
• 19:19
  Speaker: and promote your book, but
• 19:20
  Speaker: eventually the ball is going to
• 19:23
  Speaker: come back into your court where
• 19:24
  Speaker: you are going to be doing that,
• 19:26
  Speaker: and that's why your platform
• 19:27
  Speaker: matters.
• 19:28
  Speaker: That's what I spoke about in the beginning, how your platform
• 19:30
  Speaker: connects to marketing, Publicity and sales of your book.
• 19:36
  Speaker: And when the author, the publisher, stops doing the bulk
• 19:39
  Speaker: of the marketing publicity, you're still the author.
• 19:42
  Speaker: You still have people who want to hear from you.
• 19:45
  Speaker: You still have people who've bought the book.
• 19:47
  Speaker: You still have people who are going to want to take classes,
• 19:49
  Speaker: hear you speak, read your newsletter, buy your next book.
• 19:52
  Speaker: So this all goes back still to relationships.
• 19:56
  Speaker: Okay, so what actually should you be focusing on?
• 20:02
  Speaker: Um, in the grand scheme of things, your job is to be the
• 20:08
  Speaker: author of the book.
• 20:11
  Speaker: You have to deliver the manuscript.
• 20:14
  Speaker: You have to develop and test
• 20:15
  Speaker: your recipes, make sure the
• 20:17
  Speaker: information you're writing and
• 20:18
  Speaker: giving the publisher is
• 20:20
  Speaker: accurate.
• 20:20
  Speaker: It's yours.
• 20:22
  Speaker: Respond to editorial feedback.
• 20:24
  Speaker: Review the pages when your book
• 20:26
  Speaker: is in design, meet production
• 20:28
  Speaker: deadlines.
• 20:28
  Speaker: Participate in the launch.
• 20:31
  Speaker: So during the after the book deal.
• 20:33
  Speaker: You don't just sit back,
• 20:34
  Speaker: obviously, and let the team do
• 20:36
  Speaker: everything.
• 20:37
  Speaker: You're the author.
• 20:38
  Speaker: You're an important part of the team.
• 20:40
  Speaker: But I think the message I want
• 20:42
  Speaker: to share with you today is you
• 20:43
  Speaker: don't have to know how to do
• 20:46
  Speaker: everything.
• 20:47
  Speaker: You don't have to be the expert in everything.
• 20:50
  Speaker: That's the distinction.
• 20:52
  Speaker: Your expertise, your recipes,
• 20:55
  Speaker: your relationships with people,
• 20:56
  Speaker: your writing, your ideas, your
• 20:58
  Speaker: stories, your being a
• 21:00
  Speaker: professional partner with the
• 21:02
  Speaker: publisher is what your
• 21:04
  Speaker: responsibility is.
• 21:06
  Speaker: You do get to give input.
• 21:08
  Speaker: You do get to have conversations.
• 21:10
  Speaker: You do get to review things.
• 21:12
  Speaker: You get to say, I don't think this works if you truly don't
• 21:15
  Speaker: think something works.
• 21:17
  Speaker: But I have found through experience that when you let the
• 21:19
  Speaker: people who are the experts on the publishing team do the work
• 21:23
  Speaker: that they are experts at, we all get a much better result.
• 21:28
  Speaker: So for today, before the book deal.
• 21:33
  Speaker: Let's bring this back to where you are right now.
• 21:36
  Speaker: Because if you're listening to this and you don't have a book
• 21:39
  Speaker: deal yet, I want you to know that you do not have to worry
• 21:44
  Speaker: about Canva and book design.
• 21:47
  Speaker: You do not need to worry about photography for all the recipes.
• 21:52
  Speaker: You do not need to worry about the font they're going to use.
• 21:56
  Speaker: Uh, thinking about how you're
• 21:57
  Speaker: going to create the finished
• 21:59
  Speaker: book.
• 22:00
  Speaker: Because if traditional publishing is your goal, the
• 22:03
  Speaker: team of people that the publisher works with or that
• 22:08
  Speaker: work for the publisher is going to do those things for you.
• 22:13
  Speaker: Okay, so you haven't wasted your
• 22:15
  Speaker: time if you've done those up
• 22:16
  Speaker: until now.
• 22:18
  Speaker: But what I want you to know is that we don't want to mistake
• 22:21
  Speaker: making the book look like a book for the development that goes on
• 22:27
  Speaker: before we can create the book.
• 22:30
  Speaker: Those are two different things.
• 22:32
  Speaker: So you're figuring out what the
• 22:36
  Speaker: book's about, who it's for and
• 22:39
  Speaker: what people are actually really
• 22:42
  Speaker: willing to pay for in the
• 22:43
  Speaker: marketplace.
• 22:44
  Speaker: That's what your work is today, and that's the work I recommend
• 22:50
  Speaker: you focus on doing now.
• 22:53
  Speaker: So what I hope that you've heard me say is, maybe this has been a
• 22:58
  Speaker: little bit of relief for you, that you don't have to know how
• 23:01
  Speaker: to do everything, that you don't have to be the person that knows
• 23:04
  Speaker: how to execute all the parts of putting the book together.
• 23:09
  Speaker: But your stories, your voice, the people you connect with, are
• 23:14
  Speaker: what is important.
• 23:15
  Speaker: Before the book deal.
• 23:17
  Speaker: The perfect title won't show up until they create the book.
• 23:21
  Speaker: The fully developed recipes aren't important until you get
• 23:24
  Speaker: the book deal the photos.
• 23:28
  Speaker: The design.
• 23:29
  Speaker: What you want to do is shape the
• 23:30
  Speaker: idea and shape your
• 23:32
  Speaker: relationships so that you can
• 23:34
  Speaker: actually be the cookbook author
• 23:37
  Speaker: that gets a book deal with a
• 23:39
  Speaker: publisher.
• 23:40
  Speaker: So if you want to take out a
• 23:42
  Speaker: piece of paper, think about a
• 23:44
  Speaker: Venn diagram.
• 23:45
  Speaker: These three circles that
• 23:47
  Speaker: intersect and in the middle of
• 23:48
  Speaker: the circles that all the
• 23:50
  Speaker: intersection is where your book
• 23:51
  Speaker: will live.
• 23:53
  Speaker: But if you think about who your cookbook is for in one circle,
• 23:57
  Speaker: that's the people or your ideal reader and the second circle.
• 24:01
  Speaker: What do you want the cookbook to help them do and what they're
• 24:05
  Speaker: willing to pay for a book to help them do.
• 24:08
  Speaker: How will their life change with this book?
• 24:11
  Speaker: And then number three in the third circle, what do you really
• 24:15
  Speaker: want to share?
• 24:16
  Speaker: What do you what are you excited to talk about?
• 24:18
  Speaker: What's your expertise that you are most interested in sharing
• 24:24
  Speaker: with that person?
• 24:26
  Speaker: So when you have the reader, what's you're interested in
• 24:29
  Speaker: talking about intersecting with what they're willing to pay for
• 24:33
  Speaker: in a book and how their life's going to change with that book.
• 24:36
  Speaker: The intersection of all three of
• 24:38
  Speaker: those is where your book will
• 24:40
  Speaker: live.
• 24:40
  Speaker: And if you focus on those three questions now before the book
• 24:45
  Speaker: deal, and then work on pitching your book idea through a
• 24:48
  Speaker: proposal to an agent or a publisher, and then they'll work
• 24:52
  Speaker: on actually creating the book.
• 24:54
  Speaker: Once the book deal is signed, you move through the process of
• 24:58
  Speaker: being a cookbook author without having to worry about doing
• 25:02
  Speaker: everything photography, design, editing, publishing the book,
• 25:08
  Speaker: selling the book to bookstores.
• 25:11
  Speaker: You're going to have a team of people that are going to get to
• 25:13
  Speaker: help you do that.
• 25:14
  Speaker: And that's one of the things
• 25:15
  Speaker: that I truly love about
• 25:17
  Speaker: traditional publishing.
• 25:19
  Speaker: I always thought of myself, and
• 25:21
  Speaker: I love to think of my students
• 25:23
  Speaker: as idea creators, concept
• 25:25
  Speaker: developers, people who are
• 25:27
  Speaker: building lists and email lists
• 25:29
  Speaker: and their audience and talking
• 25:31
  Speaker: to people.
• 25:32
  Speaker: And then they're able to generate ideas for book deals.
• 25:36
  Speaker: And that's how cookbook authors
• 25:37
  Speaker: get more than one cookbook deal,
• 25:39
  Speaker: because you become the
• 25:40
  Speaker: professional who generates the
• 25:43
  Speaker: ideas.
• 25:44
  Speaker: Working with publishing teams who create the book.
• 25:48
  Speaker: So if you're listening to this
• 25:50
  Speaker: thinking, okay, um, I have a lot
• 25:53
  Speaker: of ideas, but maybe need some
• 25:54
  Speaker: help turning these ideas into a
• 25:56
  Speaker: concept.
• 25:57
  Speaker: I have something special that you can download.
• 26:00
  Speaker: There's a link below in the show
• 26:02
  Speaker: notes called My Cookbook Concept
• 26:04
  Speaker: Map to help you organize your
• 26:07
  Speaker: cookbook idea.
• 26:08
  Speaker: This map will walk you through who your reader is, what your
• 26:12
  Speaker: idea for your book is, what your expertise is, and the pieces
• 26:16
  Speaker: that need to come together to create the book so that you have
• 26:21
  Speaker: a concept that you can pitch to an agent or a publisher.
• 26:26
  Speaker: So the link is down in the show notes.
• 26:29
  Speaker: I love it.
• 26:30
  Speaker: If you'd sign up, you can print that out.
• 26:32
  Speaker: It might take about thirty minutes to go through the
• 26:34
  Speaker: concept map, but really help you to become the cookbook author
• 26:40
  Speaker: that you can be right now before the book deal, without having to
• 26:45
  Speaker: worry about how to do everything to get the book published.
• 26:50
  Speaker: So that is it for today's
• 26:52
  Speaker: episode of the Cookbook Love
• 26:54
  Speaker: Podcast.
• 26:55
  Speaker: This is your host, Maggie Greene.
• 26:57
  Speaker: And until next time, have a
• 26:58
  Speaker: great day and keep loving your
• 27:01
  Speaker: cookbooks.
• 27:05
  Speaker: Thanks for listening to the Cookbook Love podcast.
• 27:08
  Speaker: You can find out more information at w w w dot
• 27:11
  Speaker: cookbook dot co.