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Episode 366: The Secret Ingredient Behind the Best Cookbooks · Cookbook Love Podcast

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  You are listening to the Cookbook Love podcast with Maggie
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  Green, episode number 360 6.
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  Welcome to the Cookbook Love Podcast.
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  A podcast that celebrates cookbook readers, buyers,
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  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.
• 0:31
  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, episode 360 6.
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  If you divide 360 6 by 52, that means that I have been releasing a show.
• 0:49
  Every Thursday for the past seven years.
• 0:52
  Getting ready to start my eighth year next week.
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  And I want to announce that right off the bat to tell you first of
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  all, uh, how proud I am of myself for continuing this project.
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  How grateful I am to you, my beautiful, lovely listeners, and
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  to those of you who are listening who have published a cookbook.
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  Because I know you're out there.
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  I know you're listening and you have written or published a cookbook maybe
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  on your own through what you've heard here or through some of the programs
• 1:29
  and, uh, courses that I teach.
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  I just want you to know how proud I am of you.
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  One of the things that I think makes the biggest difference when it comes to
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  talking about what we do in our lives is being able to share the results of
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  what people have been able to accomplish because of the work that we do.
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  This is the highest level of talking about what we do.
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  It's not just me, Maggie, what I do, it's not just you and you listening, but it's
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  what you have been able to accomplish as a result of, uh, listening to this show.
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  And even if it hasn't been publishing a cookbook or taking a course that I offer.
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  That's, that's great.
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  This, uh, podcast has been my gift to you to discover new cookbooks perhaps.
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  Uh, get some tips about things I've been cooking in my own kitchen
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  that you can take to your kitchen.
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  And really, truly experiencing more love and joy and fun in your
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  life because of this podcast.
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  That is why I do what I do, not just in the podcast, but it's why I do
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  what I do when I write cookbooks, when I teach people about writing
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  cookbooks, and even when I talk about.
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  Marketing and promoting cookbooks because the highest thing that we
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  can aspire to do is help someone have a better life and then talk
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  about those results to other people.
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  So down below in the show notes, I am going to link to
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  some episodes of students.
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  Of mine that have published cookbooks.
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  So, uh, if you look below, you're going to see several links.
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  These are people who have achieved the results of publishing a
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  cookbook through the work that I do.
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  And also, as you know, there are are hundreds of episodes of interviews with
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  other cookbook authors that have published cookbooks, not as a direct result of.
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  Anything that I taught them, but it's just so fun to have them on the show to hear
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  about their cookbook publishing journey.
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  And I've been able to talk about a lot of different types of
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  publishing and obviously the three main types are self-publishing,
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  where you wear all the hats of the writing and publishing process.
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  You build your own team to help you edit, design, and produce the book.
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  Then there's traditional publishing, which is where you write a book for
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  a traditional publisher and they take care of all the production of the book,
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  and you get royalties off the book.
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  And then the third way is hybrid publishing.
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  I've talked to authors who have hybrid published beautiful cookbooks
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  that are packaged and created by.
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  Publishers, they look just exactly like a traditionally published book,
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  but the financial, uh, responsibility for the creation of the book is up
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  to the author and not the publisher.
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  But that works beautifully for many of the people who I've talked
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  to who have wine stores or wine wineries, uh, successful food blogs.
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  Bakeries restaurants where there's already a built-in business with, uh, large
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  following of people, a large customer base that is interested in buying the book.
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  So, um, it's been great to talk about publishing, talk about these people, but
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  I'm gonna share some links below, again, with people who have, uh, published
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  books as a result of the work that.
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  They've done here in my programs.
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  'cause I think sharing the results is important.
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  You know, and this takes time.
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  That's one reason I continue to do this podcast, is because
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  publishing is not an overnight thing.
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  I could literally teach you all how in one day to publish
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  a low content book on Amazon.
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  It is, um, something you could do in a project just for a day.
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  You could have a journal or some sort, sort of a low content book
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  published on Amazon, but to write a book and create the content for a
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  book and to get it published, it's a trajectory of at least 90 days.
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  And for traditional publishing, perhaps a lot longer than that.
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  The links that I'm gonna share below are the people that I
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  have directly worked with.
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  I've gotten to know as friends.
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  I'm so proud of them and of the work that they have done.
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  But behind all of this, behind them and the other hundreds of
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  cookbook authors I've talked to.
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  I wanna talk about something today that we don't talk about nearly enough, and
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  think about this as the hidden beginning of publishing or the secret ingredient
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  of the best cookbooks because this part of the journey happens before
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  there's ever even outlines for a book.
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  Before we write manuscripts for a book.
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  Um, and it's from where you re this, from this place where
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  you realize that publishing is the next logical step for you.
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  And uh, I just want you to, um, listen in as I talk about this
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  hidden beginning of publishing.
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  So the first thing that I want to talk about, it's gonna be three parts,
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  is, uh, the opportunity to publish.
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  Now in last week's show, actually two weeks ago, I talked about
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  gatekeepers in publishing and how the publishing industry has changed
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  so much over the past several years.
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  Publishers are more open to a wide variety of.
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  Stories and cultures and writing.
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  Traditional publishers are agents want to represent different kinds of writers,
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  and that also self-publishing has changed in terms of the platforms we can use, the
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  tools we can use to help design our books.
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  Um, all the things that go into book publishing.
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  It's really a change.
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  So my conclusion when I talked about the gatekeeper is that the only gatekeeper
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  really for publishing is ourselves.
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  We need to.
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  Sort of, I guess in a short way, I don't wanna say the whole episode over
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  again, but give ourselves permission to enter this publishing space.
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  But what does that mean?
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  This, this episode?
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  Um, but the first thing you're gonna wanna think about is, um, when you giving
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  yourself permission is just to see the opportunity that publishing really is.
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  When someone wants to write a cookbook, it is because they are filled with knowledge
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  related to food, cooking or nutrition, or they have gathered knowledge from
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  other people that they want to publish.
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  This is exactly what Irma Rombauer did when she self-published the first
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  edition of The Joy of Cooking in 1931.
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  She was not a particularly good cook or baker.
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  No, that's not true.
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  She wasn't a particularly good cook.
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  She loved, uh, cakes and she loved baking and so she knew where to get
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  the best recipes from the people that she was in contact with and
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  in connection with, um, in St.
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  Louis.
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  And she self-published the first edition of Joy 3000 copies.
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  And it went on to become what we know as one of the best American
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  published cookbooks of all time, and something that I had the honor.
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  Of being involved with in the 2006 edition, which was the 75th anniversary
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  edition of Joy in meeting Ethan Irma's grandson, working closely with him,
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  and then meeting John, his son, and his, uh, lovely life, Megan, who
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  ultimately, um, have gone on to publish the 2019 edition of Joy, which was, uh.
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  The last time the book was revised, uh, right before the pandemic.
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  So this really wasn't supposed to turn into a discussion about joy
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  of cooking, but I just want you to know that Irma, when she wrote the
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  first Joy, had s had a desire to do it, and she had the knowledge in the
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  information she had collected from other people, and she wanted to publish it.
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  This is true for us when we are dieticians, culinary pros, family
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  recipe collectors, whatever it is, you have a collection of knowledge, and
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  right now they're sitting in scattered notebooks, files in your memory
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  on note cards, but the opportunity for publishing is to turn them into
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  something permanent, something shareable.
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  Something that I think really gives dignity to all this
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  knowledge that you have.
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  You no longer have a risk of things being lost.
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  It preserves the recipes.
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  You can multiply your reach and go into kitchens where you've never even thought
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  about entering because it multiplies who you are and your ability to help people.
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  It dignifies your voice and it dignifies your recipes when they're published.
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  It can create income for you if you're interested in creating an
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  income stream, and it helps make cooking easier, more joyful and
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  more meaningful for other people.
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  Plus for people that never even really cook or bake a lot.
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  Cookbooks provide a lot of joy and meaning for people who love to read cookbooks.
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  Never forget that, especially when you're writing your cookbook, that there are a
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  whole group of people, many who listen to this show who just love to read cookbooks.
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  So there's a huge opportunity for you opportunity.
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  Take this knowledge that you have and turn it into something that is publishable.
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  The second thing that happens is.
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  When we see this opportunity and we decide we're going to publish, the thing
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  that changes, and this is number two, is that we become a cookbook author.
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  We add something to who we are that so many people dream about,
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  but never do they, I dunno if they don't see the opportunity or they
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  don't want to invest the time in it.
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  I'm not exactly sure.
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  I have a hard time believing that so many people have so much knowledge in their
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  head, so much knowledge they've collected and they would not want to do this.
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  But I was so convicted to do it, and I was so determined.
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  That I, um, of course, have made this my life's work, writing cookbooks,
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  helping people write cookbooks, talking about cookbooks, because I believe it's
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  a beautiful way to help people heal, learn, and have fun in the kitchen.
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  So once we become a cookbook author, I. Doors open in a lot of ways
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  that never would have even opened when we're just sitting there
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  with this unpublished knowledge.
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  Opportunities to participate in media, print media, digital media.
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  This happened to one of my students recently.
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  She got asked to host this show for a whole week because
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  of a cookbook that she wrote.
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  You get invited to events.
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  You get asked to be on panels.
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  You get to be invited to summits.
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  You get to do collaborations.
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  You'll have credibility in your field.
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  It is almost like a passport into a whole new world just because of this cookbook.
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  And I think that actually the emotional weight of the knowledge is lifted when
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  we finally have a shareable way to preserve and, uh, give and share the
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  recipes and the stories that we have.
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  Plus the impact it has on people.
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  People we've never even met.
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  My cookbooks have sold all over the world.
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  I have no idea who a lot of the people are who bought them.
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  I met many people if I would go out to events, but that's the neat thing about
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  a cookbook is, um, where they can reach, who they can reach, the kitchens they go
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  into, and then, uh, sometimes hearing back from these people and the impact of joy.
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  Connection, confidence, tradition that we're sparked by
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  what you put into a cookbook.
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  I have a woman that every Thanksgiving I probably can expect to get an
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  email from her where her family cooks out of Kentucky Fresh.
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  The menu that I put in there for Thanksgiving and the recipes that go along
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  with it because they work and they made her Thanksgiving life so much easier.
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  They have become part of her family tradition.
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  That is amazing and uh, that's a result that I think is just terrific.
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  Then the third thing that happens is opportunity, and then what
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  changes is that we really have to own our decision to publish.
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  Unfortunately, even if you hire a ghost writer, you have to
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  make the decision to publish.
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  Nobody else can make that decision for you.
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  It's our responsibility, first of all, to own the knowledge that we have, or
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  own the recipes that we've collected or own the recipes that we've written, and
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  to decide that we are going to invest our time to turn them into a book.
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  We also have to be committed to it once we decide.
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  We say, okay, I'm in it to win.
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  I'm in it to get this published.
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  I'm in it to get to the finish line.
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  My vision is to finish this book.
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  And then the third thing is, um, f. Showing up to the work, choosing a
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  concept, setting deadlines, making decisions, doing what you need to
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  do, asking for help, building a team, uh, becoming part of a coaching
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  program, whatever it is, so that you can actually reach the finish line.
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  I have had students do this in 12 weeks.
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  I've had students do this in six months.
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  I've had students do this in five years.
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  And the time doesn't really matter because everybody moves at a different pace.
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  But it's just important to know that if you start and if you're
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  committed to it, you can get results.
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  If you, the only way you won't get the result you want is if you quit.
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  That's it.
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  It may not be as fast as you thought.
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  It may not be as easy as you thought, but the only way that you.
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  Will not get the result of a finished book is if you quit the process.
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  This kind of makes me reflect tomorrow is, uh, my wedding anniversary.
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  Been married to Warren for 38 years and the only way that I will ever not get
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  the result of being married, uh, for life for to one person is if I, if I
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  stop and, uh, there's no reason to stop.
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  It's kind of the way I feel about this podcast.
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  I don't really have any reason to stop.
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  I'm committed to it.
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  I'll keep going.
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  I've owned the Green Apron Company, which is the overarching S corp
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  for my business for 31 years.
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  I've done a variety of things with under, under this umbrella, and if I
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  wanna continue to get the results I'm having, I just keep on going every
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  day, showing up, except on the weekend, I'm pretty protective of my weekends.
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  Um, especially, uh, well, yeah, protective of my weekends.
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  I've always kind of been that way.
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  I structure my life so that I can really enjoy, uh, working during the
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  week and then having the weekends off.
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  Um, I'm even to a point where I'm really good at boiling it down a lot of what I do
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  into Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
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  Giving me some flexibility on Monday and Friday for, um, having long weekends.
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  For example, tomorrow we're taking the day off to celebrate our anniversary, and
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  then Saturday going to watch University of Kentucky play Ole Miss in a football game.
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  So, uh, love being able to have this flexibility and this time freedom
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  that I've created in my business.
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  But that's what ownership looks like, is, um, investing in it and knowing that.
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  You can own the responsibility, the commitment, and that, uh, once
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  you publish the book, um, this will carry you over into the marketing and
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  promotion of your book, which really at the highest level is just talking
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  to your people about the results that you help people get in their kitchen.
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  That's how you make your marketing and promotion feel less salesy, less like
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  you're just tooting your own horn.
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  You're not doing that.
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  You're talking about how you're helping people in their kitchen and getting
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  in touch with your readers and your community and showing them how they can
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  get better results in their kitchen, how your book can help them, and
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  then reporting back on those results.
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  So in closing, the secret ingredient.
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  Is love.
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  Love of the life you have made in your kitchen.
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  Love of the life that you have created, collecting and amassing this knowledge
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  and the opportunity that you have there.
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  And then love for the people.
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  That you are the person you are and the people that you can help.
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  Uh, is the, is the middle part the change that could take place.
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  And then the last part, owning this decision to publish and love for the
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  process of publishing, love, for creating the book and the results that come from
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  committing to finishing it and the love.
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  For sharing your book with other people and the results that they
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  are going to get in their kitchen.
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  So to me, that's what the secret ingredient is before we ever start our
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  cookbooks or before we ever publish, it's a hidden ingredient, but it's love.
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  And to me that's what cookbook love really means.
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  It's not necessarily love of this book.
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  Which is an object, but the love that spills over into my life and into your
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  life because of this book and because of the way these books bring us all together.
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  Help us be the people we want to be.
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  Help us share more joy with the world and help us to help other people
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  have the same results in their life.
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  So if you see the opportunity for you to package your information, your
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  recipes, whatever you have that you want to package, and you understand
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  that this is going to change who you are and you're ready to decide to publish.
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  I do want to let you know that cookbooks on KDP for the fall
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  session of 2025 is currently open.
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  This is a group coaching program where I help cooks bakers
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  culinary pros, dieticians.
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  Package and publish their recipes in a book on Amazon.
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  I'll also teach you about Ingram Spark if you want to have a place
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  for your books to be ordered by bookstores, et cetera, and you're
• 21:12
  gonna be able to learn all about that.
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  So head on over to www cookbook writers academy.com/kdp.
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  You can read about the program.
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  The doors close this Saturday, September the 13th.
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  So if you are interested and you're hearing this message, you have about
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  48 more hours to decide to enroll.
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  I will not offer this program again until 2026.
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  So this is your time to join if you want to learn all about the path to publishing
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  through the self-publishing model.
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  So that is it for this episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast.
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  This is your host, Maggie Green, and until next time, have a great
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  day and keep loving your cookbooks.
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  Thanks for listening to the Cookbook Love podcast.
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  You can find out more information@www.cookbooklove.co.
• 22:28
  You are listening to the Cookbook Love podcast with Maggie
• 22:30
  Green, episode number 360 6.
• 22:36
  Welcome to the Cookbook Love Podcast.
• 22:39
  A podcast that celebrates cookbook readers, buyers,
• 22:42
  collectors, writers and clubs.
• 22:44
  And now your host.
• 22:46
  Cookbook author, culinary Dietician, and Cookbook writing Coach Maggie Green.
• 22:57
  Hi everybody.
• 22:57
  Welcome back to another episode of the Cookbook Love podcast.
• 23:01
  How's everybody doing today, episode 360 6.
• 23:06
  If you divide 360 6 by 52, that means that I have been releasing a show.
• 23:14
  Every Thursday for the past seven years.
• 23:18
  Getting ready to start my eighth year next week.
• 23:21
  And I want to announce that right off the bat to tell you first of
• 23:26
  all, uh, how proud I am of myself for continuing this project.
• 23:32
  How grateful I am to you, my beautiful, lovely listeners, and
• 23:39
  to those of you who are listening who have published a cookbook.
• 23:44
  Because I know you're out there.
• 23:45
  I know you're listening and you have written or published a cookbook maybe
• 23:50
  on your own through what you've heard here or through some of the programs
• 23:54
  and, uh, courses that I teach.
• 23:57
  I just want you to know how proud I am of you.
• 24:02
  One of the things that I think makes the biggest difference when it comes to
• 24:05
  talking about what we do in our lives is being able to share the results of
• 24:12
  what people have been able to accomplish because of the work that we do.
• 24:18
  This is the highest level of talking about what we do.
• 24:25
  It's not just me, Maggie, what I do, it's not just you and you listening, but it's
• 24:32
  what you have been able to accomplish as a result of, uh, listening to this show.
• 24:37
  And even if it hasn't been publishing a cookbook or taking a course that I offer.
• 24:42
  That's, that's great.
• 24:44
  This, uh, podcast has been my gift to you to discover new cookbooks perhaps.
• 24:51
  Uh, get some tips about things I've been cooking in my own kitchen
• 24:55
  that you can take to your kitchen.
• 24:57
  And really, truly experiencing more love and joy and fun in your
• 25:03
  life because of this podcast.
• 25:06
  That is why I do what I do, not just in the podcast, but it's why I do
• 25:12
  what I do when I write cookbooks, when I teach people about writing
• 25:15
  cookbooks, and even when I talk about.
• 25:18
  Marketing and promoting cookbooks because the highest thing that we
• 25:23
  can aspire to do is help someone have a better life and then talk
• 25:28
  about those results to other people.
• 25:32
  So down below in the show notes, I am going to link to
• 25:36
  some episodes of students.
• 25:39
  Of mine that have published cookbooks.
• 25:42
  So, uh, if you look below, you're going to see several links.
• 25:46
  These are people who have achieved the results of publishing a
• 25:50
  cookbook through the work that I do.
• 25:53
  And also, as you know, there are are hundreds of episodes of interviews with
• 25:58
  other cookbook authors that have published cookbooks, not as a direct result of.
• 26:04
  Anything that I taught them, but it's just so fun to have them on the show to hear
• 26:09
  about their cookbook publishing journey.
• 26:12
  And I've been able to talk about a lot of different types of
• 26:14
  publishing and obviously the three main types are self-publishing,
• 26:19
  where you wear all the hats of the writing and publishing process.
• 26:23
  You build your own team to help you edit, design, and produce the book.
• 26:28
  Then there's traditional publishing, which is where you write a book for
• 26:32
  a traditional publisher and they take care of all the production of the book,
• 26:37
  and you get royalties off the book.
• 26:39
  And then the third way is hybrid publishing.
• 26:42
  I've talked to authors who have hybrid published beautiful cookbooks
• 26:45
  that are packaged and created by.
• 26:48
  Publishers, they look just exactly like a traditionally published book,
• 26:53
  but the financial, uh, responsibility for the creation of the book is up
• 26:57
  to the author and not the publisher.
• 26:59
  But that works beautifully for many of the people who I've talked
• 27:02
  to who have wine stores or wine wineries, uh, successful food blogs.
• 27:09
  Bakeries restaurants where there's already a built-in business with, uh, large
• 27:14
  following of people, a large customer base that is interested in buying the book.
• 27:19
  So, um, it's been great to talk about publishing, talk about these people, but
• 27:24
  I'm gonna share some links below, again, with people who have, uh, published
• 27:28
  books as a result of the work that.
• 27:30
  They've done here in my programs.
• 27:32
  'cause I think sharing the results is important.
• 27:35
  You know, and this takes time.
• 27:36
  That's one reason I continue to do this podcast, is because
• 27:40
  publishing is not an overnight thing.
• 27:43
  I could literally teach you all how in one day to publish
• 27:48
  a low content book on Amazon.
• 27:51
  It is, um, something you could do in a project just for a day.
• 27:56
  You could have a journal or some sort, sort of a low content book
• 28:00
  published on Amazon, but to write a book and create the content for a
• 28:04
  book and to get it published, it's a trajectory of at least 90 days.
• 28:09
  And for traditional publishing, perhaps a lot longer than that.
• 28:13
  The links that I'm gonna share below are the people that I
• 28:16
  have directly worked with.
• 28:18
  I've gotten to know as friends.
• 28:19
  I'm so proud of them and of the work that they have done.
• 28:24
  But behind all of this, behind them and the other hundreds of
• 28:27
  cookbook authors I've talked to.
• 28:30
  I wanna talk about something today that we don't talk about nearly enough, and
• 28:35
  think about this as the hidden beginning of publishing or the secret ingredient
• 28:41
  of the best cookbooks because this part of the journey happens before
• 28:48
  there's ever even outlines for a book.
• 28:50
  Before we write manuscripts for a book.
• 28:53
  Um, and it's from where you re this, from this place where
• 28:57
  you realize that publishing is the next logical step for you.
• 29:01
  And uh, I just want you to, um, listen in as I talk about this
• 29:07
  hidden beginning of publishing.
• 29:09
  So the first thing that I want to talk about, it's gonna be three parts,
• 29:14
  is, uh, the opportunity to publish.
• 29:17
  Now in last week's show, actually two weeks ago, I talked about
• 29:20
  gatekeepers in publishing and how the publishing industry has changed
• 29:24
  so much over the past several years.
• 29:27
  Publishers are more open to a wide variety of.
• 29:32
  Stories and cultures and writing.
• 29:35
  Traditional publishers are agents want to represent different kinds of writers,
• 29:40
  and that also self-publishing has changed in terms of the platforms we can use, the
• 29:45
  tools we can use to help design our books.
• 29:48
  Um, all the things that go into book publishing.
• 29:50
  It's really a change.
• 29:52
  So my conclusion when I talked about the gatekeeper is that the only gatekeeper
• 29:56
  really for publishing is ourselves.
• 29:59
  We need to.
• 30:02
  Sort of, I guess in a short way, I don't wanna say the whole episode over
• 30:07
  again, but give ourselves permission to enter this publishing space.
• 30:10
  But what does that mean?
• 30:12
  This, this episode?
• 30:13
  Um, but the first thing you're gonna wanna think about is, um, when you giving
• 30:18
  yourself permission is just to see the opportunity that publishing really is.
• 30:26
  When someone wants to write a cookbook, it is because they are filled with knowledge
• 30:34
  related to food, cooking or nutrition, or they have gathered knowledge from
• 30:41
  other people that they want to publish.
• 30:44
  This is exactly what Irma Rombauer did when she self-published the first
• 30:49
  edition of The Joy of Cooking in 1931.
• 30:53
  She was not a particularly good cook or baker.
• 30:57
  No, that's not true.
• 30:58
  She wasn't a particularly good cook.
• 30:59
  She loved, uh, cakes and she loved baking and so she knew where to get
• 31:05
  the best recipes from the people that she was in contact with and
• 31:09
  in connection with, um, in St.
• 31:11
  Louis.
• 31:12
  And she self-published the first edition of Joy 3000 copies.
• 31:18
  And it went on to become what we know as one of the best American
• 31:24
  published cookbooks of all time, and something that I had the honor.
• 31:33
  Of being involved with in the 2006 edition, which was the 75th anniversary
• 31:38
  edition of Joy in meeting Ethan Irma's grandson, working closely with him,
• 31:44
  and then meeting John, his son, and his, uh, lovely life, Megan, who
• 31:48
  ultimately, um, have gone on to publish the 2019 edition of Joy, which was, uh.
• 31:56
  The last time the book was revised, uh, right before the pandemic.
• 32:00
  So this really wasn't supposed to turn into a discussion about joy
• 32:03
  of cooking, but I just want you to know that Irma, when she wrote the
• 32:08
  first Joy, had s had a desire to do it, and she had the knowledge in the
• 32:14
  information she had collected from other people, and she wanted to publish it.
• 32:19
  This is true for us when we are dieticians, culinary pros, family
• 32:24
  recipe collectors, whatever it is, you have a collection of knowledge, and
• 32:32
  right now they're sitting in scattered notebooks, files in your memory
• 32:36
  on note cards, but the opportunity for publishing is to turn them into
• 32:41
  something permanent, something shareable.
• 32:45
  Something that I think really gives dignity to all this
• 32:50
  knowledge that you have.
• 32:53
  You no longer have a risk of things being lost.
• 32:56
  It preserves the recipes.
• 32:59
  You can multiply your reach and go into kitchens where you've never even thought
• 33:03
  about entering because it multiplies who you are and your ability to help people.
• 33:09
  It dignifies your voice and it dignifies your recipes when they're published.
• 33:16
  It can create income for you if you're interested in creating an
• 33:19
  income stream, and it helps make cooking easier, more joyful and
• 33:24
  more meaningful for other people.
• 33:27
  Plus for people that never even really cook or bake a lot.
• 33:32
  Cookbooks provide a lot of joy and meaning for people who love to read cookbooks.
• 33:37
  Never forget that, especially when you're writing your cookbook, that there are a
• 33:43
  whole group of people, many who listen to this show who just love to read cookbooks.
• 33:49
  So there's a huge opportunity for you opportunity.
• 33:52
  Take this knowledge that you have and turn it into something that is publishable.
• 33:58
  The second thing that happens is.
• 34:02
  When we see this opportunity and we decide we're going to publish, the thing
• 34:09
  that changes, and this is number two, is that we become a cookbook author.
• 34:16
  We add something to who we are that so many people dream about,
• 34:22
  but never do they, I dunno if they don't see the opportunity or they
• 34:27
  don't want to invest the time in it.
• 34:29
  I'm not exactly sure.
• 34:31
  I have a hard time believing that so many people have so much knowledge in their
• 34:37
  head, so much knowledge they've collected and they would not want to do this.
• 34:42
  But I was so convicted to do it, and I was so determined.
• 34:47
  That I, um, of course, have made this my life's work, writing cookbooks,
• 34:51
  helping people write cookbooks, talking about cookbooks, because I believe it's
• 34:54
  a beautiful way to help people heal, learn, and have fun in the kitchen.
• 34:58
  So once we become a cookbook author, I. Doors open in a lot of ways
• 35:04
  that never would have even opened when we're just sitting there
• 35:08
  with this unpublished knowledge.
• 35:11
  Opportunities to participate in media, print media, digital media.
• 35:17
  This happened to one of my students recently.
• 35:19
  She got asked to host this show for a whole week because
• 35:22
  of a cookbook that she wrote.
• 35:24
  You get invited to events.
• 35:26
  You get asked to be on panels.
• 35:28
  You get to be invited to summits.
• 35:30
  You get to do collaborations.
• 35:32
  You'll have credibility in your field.
• 35:35
  It is almost like a passport into a whole new world just because of this cookbook.
• 35:44
  And I think that actually the emotional weight of the knowledge is lifted when
• 35:51
  we finally have a shareable way to preserve and, uh, give and share the
• 35:58
  recipes and the stories that we have.
• 36:01
  Plus the impact it has on people.
• 36:02
  People we've never even met.
• 36:04
  My cookbooks have sold all over the world.
• 36:07
  I have no idea who a lot of the people are who bought them.
• 36:11
  I met many people if I would go out to events, but that's the neat thing about
• 36:15
  a cookbook is, um, where they can reach, who they can reach, the kitchens they go
• 36:20
  into, and then, uh, sometimes hearing back from these people and the impact of joy.
• 36:26
  Connection, confidence, tradition that we're sparked by
• 36:29
  what you put into a cookbook.
• 36:31
  I have a woman that every Thanksgiving I probably can expect to get an
• 36:35
  email from her where her family cooks out of Kentucky Fresh.
• 36:40
  The menu that I put in there for Thanksgiving and the recipes that go along
• 36:44
  with it because they work and they made her Thanksgiving life so much easier.
• 36:50
  They have become part of her family tradition.
• 36:54
  That is amazing and uh, that's a result that I think is just terrific.
• 37:01
  Then the third thing that happens is opportunity, and then what
• 37:05
  changes is that we really have to own our decision to publish.
• 37:12
  Unfortunately, even if you hire a ghost writer, you have to
• 37:18
  make the decision to publish.
• 37:20
  Nobody else can make that decision for you.
• 37:23
  It's our responsibility, first of all, to own the knowledge that we have, or
• 37:30
  own the recipes that we've collected or own the recipes that we've written, and
• 37:34
  to decide that we are going to invest our time to turn them into a book.
• 37:39
  We also have to be committed to it once we decide.
• 37:43
  We say, okay, I'm in it to win.
• 37:46
  I'm in it to get this published.
• 37:48
  I'm in it to get to the finish line.
• 37:51
  My vision is to finish this book.
• 37:55
  And then the third thing is, um, f. Showing up to the work, choosing a
• 38:01
  concept, setting deadlines, making decisions, doing what you need to
• 38:04
  do, asking for help, building a team, uh, becoming part of a coaching
• 38:09
  program, whatever it is, so that you can actually reach the finish line.
• 38:15
  I have had students do this in 12 weeks.
• 38:18
  I've had students do this in six months.
• 38:21
  I've had students do this in five years.
• 38:25
  And the time doesn't really matter because everybody moves at a different pace.
• 38:31
  But it's just important to know that if you start and if you're
• 38:36
  committed to it, you can get results.
• 38:38
  If you, the only way you won't get the result you want is if you quit.
• 38:43
  That's it.
• 38:45
  It may not be as fast as you thought.
• 38:47
  It may not be as easy as you thought, but the only way that you.
• 38:53
  Will not get the result of a finished book is if you quit the process.
• 38:58
  This kind of makes me reflect tomorrow is, uh, my wedding anniversary.
• 39:01
  Been married to Warren for 38 years and the only way that I will ever not get
• 39:07
  the result of being married, uh, for life for to one person is if I, if I
• 39:12
  stop and, uh, there's no reason to stop.
• 39:15
  It's kind of the way I feel about this podcast.
• 39:18
  I don't really have any reason to stop.
• 39:20
  I'm committed to it.
• 39:21
  I'll keep going.
• 39:22
  I've owned the Green Apron Company, which is the overarching S corp
• 39:26
  for my business for 31 years.
• 39:29
  I've done a variety of things with under, under this umbrella, and if I
• 39:35
  wanna continue to get the results I'm having, I just keep on going every
• 39:39
  day, showing up, except on the weekend, I'm pretty protective of my weekends.
• 39:45
  Um, especially, uh, well, yeah, protective of my weekends.
• 39:49
  I've always kind of been that way.
• 39:51
  I structure my life so that I can really enjoy, uh, working during the
• 39:55
  week and then having the weekends off.
• 39:57
  Um, I'm even to a point where I'm really good at boiling it down a lot of what I do
• 40:03
  into Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
• 40:05
  Giving me some flexibility on Monday and Friday for, um, having long weekends.
• 40:12
  For example, tomorrow we're taking the day off to celebrate our anniversary, and
• 40:15
  then Saturday going to watch University of Kentucky play Ole Miss in a football game.
• 40:21
  So, uh, love being able to have this flexibility and this time freedom
• 40:25
  that I've created in my business.
• 40:27
  But that's what ownership looks like, is, um, investing in it and knowing that.
• 40:33
  You can own the responsibility, the commitment, and that, uh, once
• 40:39
  you publish the book, um, this will carry you over into the marketing and
• 40:44
  promotion of your book, which really at the highest level is just talking
• 40:49
  to your people about the results that you help people get in their kitchen.
• 40:55
  That's how you make your marketing and promotion feel less salesy, less like
• 41:00
  you're just tooting your own horn.
• 41:01
  You're not doing that.
• 41:03
  You're talking about how you're helping people in their kitchen and getting
• 41:07
  in touch with your readers and your community and showing them how they can
• 41:12
  get better results in their kitchen, how your book can help them, and
• 41:15
  then reporting back on those results.
• 41:18
  So in closing, the secret ingredient.
• 41:21
  Is love.
• 41:24
  Love of the life you have made in your kitchen.
• 41:28
  Love of the life that you have created, collecting and amassing this knowledge
• 41:33
  and the opportunity that you have there.
• 41:36
  And then love for the people.
• 41:39
  That you are the person you are and the people that you can help.
• 41:44
  Uh, is the, is the middle part the change that could take place.
• 41:48
  And then the last part, owning this decision to publish and love for the
• 41:52
  process of publishing, love, for creating the book and the results that come from
• 41:58
  committing to finishing it and the love.
• 42:02
  For sharing your book with other people and the results that they
• 42:05
  are going to get in their kitchen.
• 42:07
  So to me, that's what the secret ingredient is before we ever start our
• 42:12
  cookbooks or before we ever publish, it's a hidden ingredient, but it's love.
• 42:18
  And to me that's what cookbook love really means.
• 42:21
  It's not necessarily love of this book.
• 42:26
  Which is an object, but the love that spills over into my life and into your
• 42:32
  life because of this book and because of the way these books bring us all together.
• 42:39
  Help us be the people we want to be.
• 42:42
  Help us share more joy with the world and help us to help other people
• 42:49
  have the same results in their life.
• 42:52
  So if you see the opportunity for you to package your information, your
• 42:57
  recipes, whatever you have that you want to package, and you understand
• 43:02
  that this is going to change who you are and you're ready to decide to publish.
• 43:08
  I do want to let you know that cookbooks on KDP for the fall
• 43:12
  session of 2025 is currently open.
• 43:16
  This is a group coaching program where I help cooks bakers
• 43:21
  culinary pros, dieticians.
• 43:24
  Package and publish their recipes in a book on Amazon.
• 43:29
  I'll also teach you about Ingram Spark if you want to have a place
• 43:33
  for your books to be ordered by bookstores, et cetera, and you're
• 43:38
  gonna be able to learn all about that.
• 43:40
  So head on over to www cookbook writers academy.com/kdp.
• 43:46
  You can read about the program.
• 43:48
  The doors close this Saturday, September the 13th.
• 43:53
  So if you are interested and you're hearing this message, you have about
• 43:57
  48 more hours to decide to enroll.
• 44:01
  I will not offer this program again until 2026.
• 44:05
  So this is your time to join if you want to learn all about the path to publishing
• 44:13
  through the self-publishing model.
• 44:17
  So that is it for this episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast.
• 44:22
  This is your host, Maggie Green, and until next time, have a great
• 44:26
  day and keep loving your cookbooks.
• 44:32
  Thanks for listening to the Cookbook Love podcast.
• 44:35
  You can find out more information@www.cookbooklove.co.