Six Things I Learned From Writing a Published Cookbook

Food entices us with wonderful aromas, comforts us in warmth, and seduces us with tantalising tastes and unctuous textures. But how could I transform my passion for cooking into a cookbook and take my readers to that wonderful place with mere words? Here’s the six big lessons I learned when I set out to write my first published cookbook.

You could say that I fell into writing a cookbook. I’ve always been passionate about food—from caramelizing onions to pickling lemons, from whipping up soufflés to mixing  cocktails, my favourite spot has always been in the kitchen. My husband and I run a small publishing company and in the spring of 2014, one of our clients approached us to help  add cookbooks to the company’s catalogue. At first, our client thought that writing one himself would be a fun project. In the end, like many busy professionals, it wasn’t going to fit into his schedule and I found myself with the project of my dreams. Here’s what I learned along the way.Cookbooks are timeless

Actually, the fact that cookbooks never go out of date was the reason this computer book publisher decided to add them to their catalogue. The timeless value of cookbooks appealed to our computer book publishing client. But, just because something is timeless doesn’t mean it is guaranteed to sell. Thousands of cookbooks come out every year, so what would make ours sell out rather than languish on the shelf? Our client’s did their research and found that superfoods were trending in Europe. By tapping into this popular health and wellness food movement they were confident they had a ready made audience for their new venture into cookbooks. So, my journey began with A for Avocado.

There are no new recipes

People have been making and remaking the same recipes for centuries with each cook putting his or her own spin on it. Still, I wanted to offer my readers fresh recipes that featured avocado in ways they might not have considered trying before. I was confident they would learn that avocado can be a delicious addition to their everyday healthy diet, not just a trendy superfood .

I was told by my publisher that a recipe is considered “new” if I changed three things. Since the main ingredient in my book was avocado I found it was important to tell readers why and how I made changes to the original recipe. For example, when I refreshed a butter-based recipe by swapping in avocado, I wrote: “Avocado makes a great substitute for butter. Because of the amazing number of vitamins and minerals in avocado you are adding real food value instead of simply empty calories.” 

Guide your readers

My personal recipe writing style looks more like chicken scratch than a recipe anyone else could possibly follow or even want to attempt. How could I transform that into something anyone else could understand let alone be motivated to make? I started by looking at the many cookbooks in my library and took inspiration from them. I analyzed what made me pick their book and try that particular recipe. As much as pictures of food inspire me, I realised the recipes I made again and again had fewer ingredients and clear instructions.

Taking note how each step of the recipe looks, feels, smells and even sounds made all the difference when it came to actually writing it out.  For example, the humble onion is one of the most versatile ingredients used in cooking. They can be eaten raw, pickled, fried, stewed or caramelized. I had to put myself in the reader’s shoes by asking myself some questions. Which onion best suits this recipe and why? Should they be sliced, diced or minced? What is the difference between these methods and why does it matter in this recipe? Do I want to add them raw for their bright acidity or slow cook them for a buttery sweetness? Including these details would help the reader understand why that ingredient has been chosen and how the cooking method made a difference. 

Accuracy is key

Knowing my ingredients and using proper scales, measuring spoons and an oven thermometer made it much easier to be precise when it came to writing the ingredients list and instructions. I found it key to become “bilingual” when it came to measurements. After all, today’s international audience expects to see metric not just imperial measurements. As a Canadian living as an expat in Ireland, I’m used to switching back and forth between cups and ounces to milliliters and grams, and Farenheight to Celcius. I didn’t want my readers to be put off from trying a recipe because they had to do those conversions themselves. 

While cooking is an art, baking is science and there is little room for experimentation. Knowing how ingredients will react with each other was vital. For example, cacao or natural cocoa powder is minimally processed, full of antioxidants and vegan, a natural ingredient for a superfoods cookbook. But it is also more bitter and acidic than Dutch-processed cocoa therefore so it reacts differently when used in baking. An experienced baker might expect to see baking powder in a cake recipe but explaining that baking soda would work with cacao’s natural acidity builds confidence in the accuracy of a recipe and it’s potential for success. 

Ask for help

It’s time consuming to test recipes and the costs add up, but if your recipe doesn’t work or just doesn’t taste great you’ll want to know now rather than later. Asking friends or followers on social media for help testing recipes was one way to get many recipes tested in a short amount of time. I’ve often been asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement before testing a recipe, so don’t feel it’s a step too far for you to do it too. Tasting the finished product on the other hand is the one part of the project that friends and neighbours happily volunteer. In fact, they’ll be hounding you to start your next project just so they can “help”. 

When I finally got it all down on paper, I had multiple people check my written work. Was it interesting and informative or dull and confusing? Perhaps even more importantly, was it free of mistakes and typos? Having errors in the ingredients or measurements is more common in cookbooks than I realised. I’ve read many horror stories of epic recipe failures making it into print. In my opinion, there is nothing that will ruin your reputation as quickly as a recipe that just doesn’t work. 

Find your audience

Not everyone can have their dream project fall into their lap, so what can you do to get your own cookbook published? Publishers are much more willing to invest in you if you can prove you have people out there willing to buy your book. Get people cooking and eating your food by starting a blog, post a pic on Instagram and do a cooking demo on TikTok. Publishers these days love numbers, so if you can show that you have a social media following as well as blog traffic, that all adds to you being a writer they can take seriously. 

Self-publishing, on the other hand, is available to everyone, everywhere. You can have your book online and ready to be read in just minutes. But, there’s a steep learning curve to get your book looking as great as your recipes and then there’s all that marketing. The self-publishing industry continues to grow year on year. You can sign up for a professional course or watch one of the million YouTube videos out there to guide you. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but as Thomas Edison said “Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.” 

Conclusion

All in all, writing a cookbook was not my gateway to fame and fortune but I was able to fulfill a dream and create something I’m proud of. While I loved the process of creating recipes, selling a cookbook was way more challenging than writing one. I quickly learned I’d much rather be behind the scenes than have to sell anything, let alone myself. Will I write another cookbook? Definitely! Will it be my own? Maybe.

“Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures.”

I’m a Canadian expat living with my tall husband and ginger cat in Ireland. My love of food stretches back to childhood where cooking was a family affair. If I’m not in the kitchen it’s because we’re off on our motorcycle exploring this beautiful world. I’m available for freelance food and science writing.