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Publishing Master Course Outline

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Cookbook Writing Resources

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Getting Physically Set Up

Physical needs of the book writing process involve selecting the outlining and notetaking tools. You even have several word processor options for cookbook writing.

Writing the Book

There are lots of great books to read that will help you discover the ins and outs of food and recipe writing. Since writing is such a big part of developing a successful cookbook, you can strengthen your general writing style for producing a well written book in any genre. Not only will food and grammar references help with the writing portion of your project, but these can be invaluable with proof reading and editing tasks.

David Lebovitz posted a great overall article on his website entitled Writing Your Own Cookbook that addresses his 10 tips to help get you started. Lebovitz is a renowned American pastry chef, food book author and blogger who now lives in Paris. He has the credentials and it's a fun read.

Designing the Book

During the design phase many decisions need to be made. The important cookbook's back matter includes the Index. It may seem like a no-brainer, but its impact on sales is amazing. An excellent article entitled "A Piece of Cake? Cookbook Indexing - Basic Guidelines and Resources" was posted on The Culinary Indexing SIG (A Special Interest Group of the American Society for Indexing) website offering valuable information and options for making the most of your index.

The pictures you decide to use and the way you choose to use them is also planned out in detail in this phase. To help with this process we offer many different resource books that focus on food photography.

The Food Photography Blog by Christina Peters, a professional food photographer, teacher and blogger offers a tremendous wealth of first-hand insight and guidance. If you plan to take your own photographs, please check out her site and benefit from her tips, tricks and solid suggestions on lighting, arrangement and set design.

Printing the Book

We offer many resources on Print on Demand cookbook printers and eBook publishers and distributors to help smooth out the process.

If you decide to go through a traditional editor and publisher, I highly recommend Jane Friedman's book Publishing 101: A First-Time Author's Guide. In addition, her website is geared toward "helping authors and publishers flourish in the digital age". Friedman comes from the publishing arena, is a highly sought after international guest speaker and a professor at the University of Virginia.

Reviewing the Book

This list of the Amazon Top Cookbook Reviewers can help you locate established people who specialize in cooking and cookbook reviews.

If you are unsure how to start asking people to do a review of your book, the Modern Etiquette: Asking for a Favor by Grace Bonney is a practical source of guidance.

Marketing and Promoting the Book

Writing-World.com website offers general information on all aspects of writing, some of which are specifically aimed at self-publishing. However, a strength of this website is addressing the marketing & promoting aspects of a book. Some of the articles are written by well-known authors - it's definitely worth checking out!

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