Would you purchase individual recipes or sections from a cookbook?

[webmons]

I hope this is a good place to post a question. Please feel free to move it to more appropriate room if necessary?

 

I purchase 10-15 cookbooks a year and do cook from most of them. But on average, I only cook about handful of recipes from each cookbook and that makes me wonder if you will purchase a single digial recipe or section / chapter from a cookbook and and if so for how much? 

 

I'm a big fan of chefs like Heston Blumenthal, Grant Archatz or Thomas Keller and I would see myself spending $2-3 for their recipe, especially if it includes many pictures (which is expensive to put on books) or video (impossible in hard format). Am I the only one to think that way?

[Shel_B]

Interesting idea.  I might, depending on circumstance and how the recipes were delivered.

[Smithy]

I probably wouldn't, except in the sense that I sometimes buy a magazine or book knowing that I'm buying for a specific recipe. The same would go for a DVD.

You need to think carefully about who would be doing the offering, also. Are you asking about a target market from a publisher's standpoint? Publishers or writers might consider selling excerpts of their copyrighted material, and that would be legal. Two or three people could agree to purchase a copyrighted cookbook and split it into parts of their own, and that would be legal, although a travesty to a beautiful book. A buyer who does not hold the copyright could not legally (or ethically) sell copies or excerpts to recoup his or her cost.

[rotuts]

an iRx if you will.

 

why didnt Apple already think of this ?

 

there is one problem :  The Xerox machine, and the scanner for your computer and the public library.

 

" Fair Use " is a complicated concept and publishers interpret it a certain way, others other ways.

Edited March 4, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My copy of Fat Duck recently fell apart.  If the library makes me pay to replace it ($50) as I expect, I'll have plenty of pages.

[Lindacakes]

I work in publishing and am on the front lines of this issue, although not in cookbooks.

 

This will likely eventually happen.

 

Although it will make me sad, because I love books and I especially love cookbooks.  I go through my cookbooks carefully when I buy them and make lists of recipes I want to try and make notes about the book's strength.  There are certain books I know have certain strengths and I call those sections out.  Like a strong fruitcake section in a baking or cake book.  

 

It is a problem of many books, not just cookbooks, that they have extra not-so-good material in them to fill them out to be standard length.  I would be really happy to see standard length and standard price go out the window.  This is already starting to happen with cable programming.

 

SICK TO DEATH of books that are really very good long magazine articles puffed out into horrid books you are angry you wasted your time reading.

[bethesdabakers]

This isn't exactly what you are talking about but here is an article in last weekend's UK Guardian about cooked.com which for a subscription gives you access to 22,000 recipes by noted food writers.

 

Haven't used it myself.

 

Mick

[Dave W]

The chefsteps business model charges for content. Check it out.

[webmons]

Thank you all for the response.

 

You need to think carefully about who would be doing the offering, also. Are you asking about a target market from a publisher's standpoint? Publishers or writers might consider selling excerpts of their copyrighted material, and that would be legal. Two or three people could agree to purchase a copyrighted cookbook and split it into parts of their own, and that would be legal, although a travesty to a beautiful book. A buyer who does not hold the copyright could not legally (or ethically) sell copies or excerpts to recoup his or her cost.

 

I totally agree that ripping a beautiful cookbook apart to scan its recipes and sell it online is probably illegal and definitely unethical. What I had in mind is a platform where chefs can publish his recipes and techniques some of which are for sell. Think of chefstep but the creators are not only chefstep but any chefs. The convenient place to start is their existing cookbooks since they already have the material ready and publishing in digital format will allow them to make it pretty with more photos & videos. And of course chefs will get a majority of the sale, just like in Apple Appstore modal

 

I haven't talked to any chefs to verify that i'm not crazy thinking they'd do this. Just think that I need to check with the real consumers first and Egullet makes it very easy to have such discussion

 

an iRx if you will.

 

why didnt Apple already think of this ?

 

there is one problem :  The Xerox machine, and the scanner for your computer and the public library.

 

" Fair Use " is a complicated concept and publishers interpret it a certain way, others other ways.

 

 

keeprecipes.com is another "itunes for recipes" (and that is exactly their slogan). I think most people will not pay for recipes because in their mind, recipes can be googled and found for free. But as anyone in this forum will know, there is a HUGE difference between recipes you can find for free and recipes for the same dish from chefs like Thomas Keller. The latter will go to extreme depth covering not only the steps but the whys and accompanied with professionally photographed pictures

 

 

I work in publishing and am on the front lines of this issue, although not in cookbooks.

 

This will likely eventually happen.

 

Although it will make me sad, because I love books and I especially love cookbooks.  I go through my cookbooks carefully when I buy them and make lists of recipes I want to try and make notes about the book's strength.  There are certain books I know have certain strengths and I call those sections out.  Like a strong fruitcake section in a baking or cake book.  

 

It is a problem of many books, not just cookbooks, that they have extra not-so-good material in them to fill them out to be standard length.  I would be really happy to see standard length and standard price go out the window.  This is already starting to happen with cable programming.

 

SICK TO DEATH of books that are really very good long magazine articles puffed out into horrid books you are angry you wasted your time reading.

 

Thank, Lindacakes for the insight. Do you know what type of contract do chefs typically have with cookbook publishers regarding publishing the recipes in their book to a different place? As in, can Thomas Keller take his recipes from The French Laundry cookbook and  post on his website?

 

 

The chefsteps business model charges for content. Check it out.

 

Thanks, Dave. I've bought a few classes from Chefsteps myself. It makes me wonder if chefs like Heston or Thomas keller came out with resources that as in-depth & pretty as chefsteps, will serious home cooks be willing to pay for it.