Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Publishing a cookbook


Recommended Posts

I have an idea for a cookbook, probably like many others but would like any information on how people have had theirs published. I am based in Ontario canada and would like any info from people who have dealt with publishers, what they require, who is the best etc.. Thank-you for your help

benimac

Link to comment
Share on other sites

not knowing your idea, you might want to look into print on demand self publishing too, you can get an isbn number at some of these services, then you can even list it on amazon I believe.

To get into the door at a publisher with a cookbook is said to be close to impossible, unless you know somebody, are somebody, or have a complete novel idea to pitch.

Doesn't mean I don't wish you luck, I'll be first in line if it's a topic that interests me and all the best of luck to you! It's just a very competitive market with lots of people shopping ideas and even finished books around.

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When was the last time you ever heard of someone on eGullet self-publishing a book let alone a cookbook??

"A cloud o' dust! Could be most anything. Even a whirling dervish.

That, gentlemen, is the whirlingest dervish of them all." - The Professionals by Richard Brooks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Uhm, Modernist Cuisine comes to mind there :laugh:

Of course, not everybody has Nathan's financial resources to go about it :blink:

ETA: the self publishing via print on demand is actually quite easy, there are several online companies that do offer this service. You upload your book and if somebody wants it they can order it and it gets printed and bound on demand. Same goes for photo books, lots of services that offer that.

Edited by OliverB (log)

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've published an on demand book before and we used blurb. We like the choice of layouts you get to choose from and it was pretty easy to work with. Had some issues with the printing, probably because we used a black background. The first book we order was fine so we ordered 10 more (you get volume discount). We inspected the books (I really suggest you do that) and found smudges on the background on some of the pages. We contacted the company and they replaced them. In that replacing batch, a few had the same problem. So they replaced those and actually did give us some money back for the hassle.

Prices weren't bad and you have have the books there for other people to buy on demand. If we do another book, we may use them again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When was the last time you ever heard of someone on eGullet self-publishing a book let alone a cookbook??

Erm, i have. I warn you though, print on demand makes the end product expensive. Also, make sure you are prepared to spend a lot of time and money on promoting your book, because it's all up to you when you self-publish. It's very easy to think, "Great, I'll just publish my book and then people will buy it." But there are a LOT of books out there, and if nobody knows about your book, nobody will buy it. That's probably really obvious, but I just thought I'd point it out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When was the last time you ever heard of someone on eGullet self-publishing a book let alone a cookbook??

Erm, i have. I warn you though, print on demand makes the end product expensive.

This is true. The unit price tends to be pretty high with services like Blurb. But with traditional offset, you'd need to print at least 500-1000 copies to get a reasonable unit cost, more if there's color. And then you have to manage inventory, fulfillment, distribution, and all of that. Now, there are services available that will do that for you, too, but they also cost money. And, yeah, in either case, you still have to do promotion and sales. But Blurb does charge a substantial premium for its convenience. I'd say, if you think more than, say, a couple of hundred people will want your book, there may be better options. If not, POD may make sense.

"I think it's a matter of principle that one should always try to avoid eating one's friends."--Doctor Dolittle

blog: The Institute for Impure Science

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For what it's worth, I used authorhouse (www.authorhouse.com or www.authorhouse.co.uk). I don't regret doing it (I love having had a book published before age 20!) and I have sold quite a few, but basically my book is very large and has colour photographs and what with it also being print on demand, the RRP is high , and thus my sales limited. If it was half the price, I would sell tonnes (I reckon :P)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done it both ways - my first book was done by a great Canadian publisher (and US rights were purchased by an American company) and my second book was self-published. Not POD. I had 6000+ copies printed, and have been distributing it myself (not easy, even with help from my sister).

There are pros and cons doing it each way -- though I think it helps that the first book was done through a publisher. If you have a concept and can put together a good concept, it doesn't hurt to try to find a publisher. A small investment in something like the Writer's Market is a good idea. It has a section on publishers that tells you what subjects they publish (so you don't send your cookbook submission to a company that only publishes science fiction novels), whether or not they accept unsolicited manuscripts and what they like to see in the submission. I sent in dozens of submissions and ended up with 3 offers to publish. I had no idea what I was doing when I started and I found the book really helped.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...