No One Buys the Cow if the Milk's for Free!

An online friend of mine is excited about the prospects of publishing her cookbook. She's worked hard at it and is now in the process of finding a publisher.

As a published author, let me offer my perspective! Especially about cookbook publishing. Since establishing The New Deli (in 1985), we had hundreds of customers ask us about recipes. Back then, all my recipes were for very large quantities. But I set about reducing those recipes for the home cook... By 1998, I took what I had to Staples and got a hundred copies, spiral-bound. Those sold pretty quick, so we did another printing in 1999.

I started getting a vision of including photographs, and making a cookbook that included scripture and personal commentary. How fun that would be!

Five years later, I discovered that, despite the endless hard work, my vision could not simply be printed up at Staples. Photographs require that a more expensive machine be used to produce copy. (And a dollar a page was just cost prohibitive...) So I started thinking about finding a publisher.

So there's the first tip, potential cookbook authors: Do not try to include photographs unless you have a real cushy deal, signed up already with a good publisher. Because, upon going to a publisher, I discovered that they too had their limitations. Books with photography couldn't be POD (print-on-demand), although the publisher I was using (Winepress) did have a special branch, a step up from POD, that could accommodate my needs. It would just cost more, that's all. And it would be a larger commitment. 3,500 cookbooks later, I still have plenty reserved!

Which brings me to where I am today. I got that cookbook published in late 2006, as the number of online recipe websites was beginning to soar. Little did I realize, as I compiled the manuscript and took pictures, that upon the cookbook's release, the internet would be saturated with endless free recipes.

It amazes me that recipe websites can be so popular. The recipes aren't necessarily tested, tried and true, but they are free! I'm overwhelmed at times with information overload; I don't have time to try all those recipes!

But hey, if you have your heart set on publishing your cookbook, I wish you the best. Every now and then, an author pops up with the ambition to continue on, after publishing, with the daunting task of promotion. Maybe I'll even do that some day. But for now, I'm too busy running that New Deli and keeping up with the family and the garden. Celebrity Authorship will just have to wait!