I wrote my first cookbook, Really Good Recipes, thirty years ago because I love to cook and I’m a writer, and because I thought it would be fun to write a cookbook to share my recipes. Another reason I wrote it was because my daughters had moved away from home and kept calling me for my recipes.
The cookbook was a self-published compilation of my best original recipes; it also contained recipes I’d collected from friends over the years, recipes my mom had made, and recipes I’d found in magazines and modified to suit my tastes. It was a nice, kitchen-style cookbook served with homey touches that sold fairly well. I also gave away lots of copies to my friends and family. I'm currently in the process of revising it.Then I thought it would be fun to learn how to cook professionally so I went back to school to study culinary arts. I didn’t change careers from being a writer to becoming a chef, but I did learn how to cook a lot better. I also discovered some professional secrets that only chefs know, along with hundreds of delicious restaurant-style recipes.
While in school, I wrote and self-published three more cookbooks and learned a lot, through experience, about writing, marketing, promoting, and selling cookbooks on my own. It was self-taught knowledge that resulted in very successful cookbooks.
I wrote Recipe for a Cookbook: How to Write, Publish, and Promote Your Cookbook to share that knowledge with you by sharing my recipe for all the ingredients that go into making and marketing a cookbook. It’s a guide that serves up plenty of know-how and generous portions of how-to for preparing, writing, and serving a cookbook with style and flair.
Buy at Amazon: $14.95
An ebook is also available on Apple iBooks, Kindle, Smashwords, Kobo, and Nook -- $7.99
