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Episode 374: From Recipes to Revenue: How Writing Fuels our Life and Business · Cookbook Love Podcast

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  You are listening to the Cookbook Love podcast with Maggie
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  Green, episode number 3 74.
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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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  As always, hope you're doing well and we just wrapped up our get paid to get
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  published launch, and I am excited.
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  To be meeting with our members of that program this week.
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  They are actively inside the program working on building their platforms,
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  shaping their cookbook concepts, writing cookbook proposals, and preparing
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  to pitch their ideas to publishers.
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  So I love working with them and.
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  It is a program where we see progress.
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  We see people doing amazing things, and of course the exciting thing is
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  when they get a book deal, they're able to work on writing their
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  cookbook and then having it published.
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  So I also, this past weekend spent time at a female author event here
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  in the city I live in, and I spent the day surrounded by readers.
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  And book writers, and we talked about books and creativity and of course
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  I got on to talking about the value of cooking at home because I was one
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  of the few cookbook authors there.
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  And the value of cooking not only for our health for ourselves, but our families and
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  our communities, and of course that just.
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  Blossoms out into our whole world.
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  So if you're concerned about your health or the health of your family or
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  things going on in your community, I always say head to the kitchen, cook
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  a meal, share a meal with people.
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  And I had this realization when I was at this author event that
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  the reason I was in that room was because I was a published author.
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  That the book and being a published author is what opened the door for me.
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  It wasn't a social media following.
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  It wasn't luck.
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  It wasn't perfect timing.
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  It was the act of being published and behind.
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  That was the act of writing.
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  Writing my book.
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  Word for word in a steady and faithful way.
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  That's what got me there.
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  And so I've been thinking a lot since then about book publishing
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  and the fact that prior to book publishing, we need to be writers.
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  We need to be writing a book and.
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  I'll tell you something.
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  I've always had this call to write even more than I've ever had a call to publish.
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  I've always had a desire to, uh, have a notebook and a pen and to be reflective
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  writing or writing for publication.
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  I've talked about that on the podcast before, and publishing is is truly
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  wonderful in making our writing public is wonderful, but writing is where
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  all of these book projects begin.
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  Writing is where we get to transform what we notice and what's happening
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  in our reality, what we're feeling and what we're thinking about into something
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  that can feed others in either a.
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  Physically nourishing way or feed their intellect or feed their soul.
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  Um, words have the potential to do that.
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  And it's funny because I don't think that in that way when we think about words
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  that it's a lot different from cooking.
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  So let me see if you can follow me here for a minute.
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  When we cook, we begin with ingredients such as vegetables
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  or spices or herbs or grains.
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  And we mix them or we measure them, we heat them, we cook them, we bake them.
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  We stir fry them, however we cook 'em and, and sometimes we don't
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  always cook everything, but we mix them with seasonings and they're
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  transformed into meals that feed people.
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  So we have a cook, we have ingredients, we have the transformation of the ingredients
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  into a meal, and that meal feeds people.
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  A writer on the other hand has words.
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  Which could be the same thing as the ingredients we have.
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  Nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, and we mix and measure and transform
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  these words into stories and recipes that feed our readers.
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  They also feed people.
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  Both cooking and writing are acts of creation.
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  They take practice.
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  To get better at them.
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  They take rhythm to turn them into habits, and they require our care.
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  But both of them have the potential in our lives to create income for our
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  businesses and impact on other people.
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  If we cook, we can sell things, we can sell food,
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  restaurants do this all the time.
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  Uh, food processing companies do this all the time.
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  Uh, baker that sells bread or cookies or baked goods at a farmer's
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  market does this all the time.
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  We're selling the cooked food, the baked item in exchange for money with writing.
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  It's the same thing.
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  We sell our words through recipes, stories, um.
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  Whatever it is that creates impact on people and we exchange that for money
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  could be turned into a book, could be turned into a lot of different things.
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  But this need to write in this desire to write is really the foundation
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  of any book, project, or writing project or publishing project.
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  So there's seven different things that we really need to have if we want.
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  Want to write.
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  And number one is the desire.
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  Do you have that inner spark that is calling you to the page?
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  Now, not everyone who wants to write a cookbook feels this desire, and
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  it's possibly the one reason why.
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  Even though you want to write and have a book, be an author, the
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  desire to sit down and to write.
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  Needs to be there.
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  Most of the time.
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  It's almost like it's something that we can't not do.
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  All of us have innate desires that we are born with, and usually at the end of the
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  day, the desire of course, is to be happy.
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  This desire is God-given.
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  It's there for a reason.
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  The way that we all end up making it from point A to point B from our desire
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  to happiness is, which really at the, at another whole level, which is another
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  conversation, is really, uh, what brings us back in relationship with God.
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  That's my belief.
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  But writing for me is that place.
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  I absolutely love it, and I use it reflectively.
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  I use it for prayer time.
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  I use it for documentation, and I use it as one way that I
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  generate income in my business.
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  Through the writing of books I.
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  So in order to be a published author, we need that.
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  If you have it and you want to, um, expand on that, you want to build on
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  that, you wanna capitalize on that desire.
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  It's a wonderful thing, and I'm gonna give you some ideas here at the end.
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  But the second thing we need then, once we have the desire, is we do need to
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  have a habit of writing, a routine, of writing a regular rhythm that creates.
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  The that keeps this creative desire and fire burning.
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  If we don't keep it burning, the desire will get covered up with other things.
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  But I don't believe that our innate desires ever really go away.
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  And for me, and for many people, there is a habit of writing that's
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  a regular rhythm that every day.
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  We put words on the page.
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  I know I've mentioned Steven Pressfield before, but he believes
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  that you need to treat your craft, which for him is writing also like.
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  It's a blue collar job.
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  You show up to it and you write.
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  We show up to work habitually and we show up to our writing habitually.
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  The third thing that we need is space to write, and I'm talking about a physical
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  place where you can go and write, be it a desk, a corner of the kitchen table.
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  A lot of people that write for, um, income and for business.
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  Um, have maybe some tokens there, some things that they look at
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  that inspire them creatively.
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  I happen to have a peacock feather on my desk.
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  I think peacock feathers are one of the most.
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  Incredible, um, things that I have ever seen because if you look at one
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  single peacock feather, just the length of it, the quill part of it, the tiny
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  feathers off the sides of it, and then the beautiful eye of a peacock feather.
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  And I look at that and I, uh, just.
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  And feel so inspired by the colors, by the shape, and by the mere fact that
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  this is just one feather off of one bird, and it just kind of takes my mind
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  down, uh, several different rabbit holes.
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  So in your space, maybe some, you know, pens that you enjoy, notebooks
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  you enjoy, um, things that really help you to get excited about writing.
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  And then also.
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  Mentally having some space to write, and I've talked on the show before about using
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  writing for for cognitive offloading.
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  Which means that when we are overthinking, it's typically because we are overthinking
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  about ourselves and we need to cognitively offload all those thoughts
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  we have about ourselves, stories we're telling about ourselves, things that
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  are going on in our life so that we can create space in our brain to write.
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  The next thing that we need to write, and if it's for other people, the
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  next thing that we need to write for publication, the next thing we need
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  to write and share and creating mental space is important to be able to do that.
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  The fourth thing that we need is something that, um, is not often
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  talked about, and I believe it limits many people, is privacy and safety.
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  To explore writing without judgment.
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  I have a friend and one of the reasons she will not journal is because she's
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  afraid someone's going to read it.
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  The second reason she won't journal is because she's afraid of what will
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  come out of her brain through the pen onto the page when she writes.
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  She's not safe.
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  She doesn't feel safe with herself.
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  She doesn't feel safe with the people that she lives with.
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  And so she just refuses to do it because of a safety issue.
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  And I read a story once about a woman who was raising young children,
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  and she got into the habit of.
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  Journaling and her children would ask her, you know, what she was writing
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  about and she just would say that this is, uh, private, it's just a
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  place where I write down my thoughts.
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  And they didn't really understand what she meant.
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  So she got into the habit of giving them a gift of a notebook
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  and a pen on a regular basis.
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  And what she said was that, here's the agreement, uh, you can write
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  in this notebook anything you want, and I will not read it.
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  And.
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  Anyone else in our house that has a notebook and a pen and they're
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  writing in it, we make a pact to each other that no one will read it.
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  And we have to have this sort of safety and space to be able to write reflectively
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  in order to write effectively for public.
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  I firmly believe that because we have to be willing to write for ourselves.
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  Get over our own self-judgment of what we're putting on the paper in order to
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  leap the hurdle of writing for the public and not being afraid of the judgment that
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  will come when we show our writing in public safety and privacy is huge, and
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  it's something that I have not ever really talked about on this podcast before, but.
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  I believe that it's possible that we are either limiting ourselves from writing
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  because of our own self-judgment, or we're afraid of other people reading our work.
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  Um, I have a ton of notebooks here in my home.
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  I probably fill up one about every four to six weeks.
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  So, you know, it's often crossed my mind like, what am I
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  gonna do with these notebooks?
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  I rarely go back and read them.
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  Um, there's not a ton that's incriminating in it, in them.
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  Uh, you know, but if something happens to me, I mean, all these
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  notebooks are gonna be available and, um, should I get rid of 'em before?
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  Should I, um.
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  Should I destroy them?
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  What should I do with them?
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  And I think that that happens probably to a lot of writers.
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  But privacy and safety are important, and you need to be safe with yourself.
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  You need to know that your work is safe without judgment, at
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  least from the reflective stage.
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  And then when you get into writing for publication and you have an
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  editor, they're not judging you.
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  They're helping to make your work better.
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  Okay, number five.
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  We also need to have time to write and.
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  It's not as much about having the time.
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  It's about taking time.
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  We ha already have been given to write.
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  Our time is our life.
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  Our life can be used in the pursuit of writing and to protect the time that
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  you want to spend to write, and that accumulates into progress with writing.
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  If I write an hour every day or three pages every day over the course of
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  a month, that's a hundred pages.
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  It's the compound effect and it takes time to write.
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  If any of you're working on a book project, you know exactly what I mean,
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  but we need to protect our time to write.
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  The sixth thing is, is if you were once a writer and you have stalled, I believe
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  that we need courage to begin again.
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  Courage to start over.
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  Courage to pick up where we left off.
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  Sometimes when we abandon projects, we feel ashamed for doing it, and
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  it's not because we've done anything wrong, but because we think differently
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  about ourselves when we don't continue a project that we started.
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  So I encourage you to find the courage to begin again.
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  No one's ever going to, you know, shame you unless you shame
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  yourself about, um, not writing.
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  And I say if it's something that you really want to do, finding the courage
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  to start over and to pick up where you left off is sometimes one of the things
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  that's really holding people back.
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  And then number seven of what we need is we need opportunities to learn.
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  We need opportunities to grow.
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  There's education courses for journaling, for writing.
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  Um, I teach about cookbooks and recipes, but you know, there's so much more that we
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  can do with our words than just cookbooks.
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  And I, I was really thinking about this today, is that, um, there's a
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  lot of different things and I came up with a hundred different things
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  that we could use our words for.
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  To create revenue in our businesses.
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  I mentioned we can sell what we cook.
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  We can teach cooking classes.
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  We can develop recipe for clients.
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  We can cater food events, but we can also create revenue with our words, our
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  stories, our recipes, our reflections.
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  They all hold value as well, and they can be shared and published and sold in ways
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  that help others while supporting our own.
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  Uh, creative work in the kitchen.
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  So if you're a cook or a baker and you use ingredients to
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  create meals or baked goods.
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  Think of yourself also as potentially a writer who can use words to
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  create stories, and both of the revenue from the food and from
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  the words can feed your business.
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  So I created a free guide that you can download at the link
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  below called 100 Ways to Turn Your Recipes and Writing Into Revenue.
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  And if you go to the um, show notes here at the bottom, you can click the link.
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  It actually is@cookbookwritersacademy.com slash.
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  Uh, 100 ways and you can, uh, read through my list of 100 ways to turn your
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  recipes and your writing into revenue.
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  So I thought I would talk about five examples of some, um, things that
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  are from this PDF, just to give you a taste of what I have prepared for you.
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  All with the goal of thinking of your words as just as valuable as
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  your ingredients, your stories, your recipes, and the way you
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  put written material together.
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  Just as valuable as meals number one.
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  Recipe, PDFs and digital cookbooks are a way that you could be publicly
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  written, publicly published with your best recipes, your experiences,
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  your um, tips or tricks, and turning them into digital booklets or themed.
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  Collections.
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  If you're cooking, you already have the foundation of almost everything you
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  need for recipes and then turning them into a digital product that can be sold
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  over and over and over again without requiring any sort of outside publisher.
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  Number two, meal planning guides.
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  If you are good at meal planning, and this is your gift, you can create a principle.
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  Workbook or download that helps people plan their meals.
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  You can translate what you cook and what you know into words that
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  help people solve the problem of not knowing how to plan a meal.
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  I always say cooking is a series of steps.
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  To get a meal on the table takes a series of steps.
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  We gotta plan what we're gonna cook.
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  We have to shop for ingredients, we need to prepare the food, we need to serve it,
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  and then we need to clean up the meal.
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  Planning is just one slice of that.
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  Use your words to help people.
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  Plan meals, write meal planning guides.
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  Number three, paid newsletters either through your website or on substack.
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  You can write about food, cooking life in the kitchen.
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  Share the stories behind your recipes and invite your readers to
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  subscribe for exclusive content.
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  Your words can become someone's weekly nourishment.
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  Number four.
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  Cooking classes or workshops.
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  Use your recipes and stories as teaching tools.
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  Each class becomes both the culinary and a written word.
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  Experience where your written work, the recipes, supports your spoken lessons.
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  The class, another one.
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  Um, number five is publishing a family cookbook.
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  Offering to help other people in your family preserve their recipes
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  through a book that you put together.
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  And this could be published as a digital download, PDF, it could be published,
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  um, self-published on KDP, on Amazon.
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  But you're not only writing the book, but you're helping other people preserve
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  their recipes, their heritage in a way.
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  That lasts because it's in a print book.
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  This is only five examples.
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  In this download, I came up with a hundred different ways that we can use.
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  Our words and our recipes to generate revenue and income in our business.
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  So again, if you want to download this free resource, go to cookbook
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  writers academy.com/ 100 ways you can download the resource.
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  And as we move into this cozy season of cooking and gathering here in
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  the us, Thanksgiving is coming up.
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  This is a perfect time to start documenting and
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  writing what you are doing.
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  I perhaps say this every year on the podcast, and I know I tell say it to my
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  students is, you're going to be cooking things over the next 60 days that you
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  don't cook any other time of year.
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  Document what you do, write things down.
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  Make some space to write.
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  If you have a desire to write, it's a perfect time of year to build
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  a reflective writing practice.
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  It's gonna be getting cold outside.
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  We're gonna be spending more time indoors, and I encourage you to write again.
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  When you cook, you transform ingredients into meals that feed the body.
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  When we write, we transform words into stories that feed people's souls,
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  and when you share both, you create something very powerful in your business.
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  And a business that nourishes others while sustaining you because you're in
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  business and you're generating revenue.
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  So that is it for today's episode of the Cookbook Love podcast.
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  This is your host, Maggie Green, and until next time, 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.