You enjoy cooking and you are pretty creative in the kitchen, so you decide that you should write a cookbook. Then you look at the market, there are so many cookbooks. What do you have to offer that isn’t already out there. How is your cookbook going to make the market? This is going to be a test of how creative you really are. You are absolutely right in thinking that there is already a cookbook for everything. Have you noticed though that new cookbooks keep coming out?
The new cookbooks all offer something that its predecessors did not offer. Whether it is the 30 minute meal, the cookbook for moms on the go, a cookbook for two or a cookbook linked to a new way of eating that is going to make you fell better and be healthier. See, they all have a pull. What is your pull? You are making your cookbook a reflection of you. What you have learned about the art of cooking and the recipes that you enjoy making.
The first thing that you need to do is look at your recipes. If you have created your own, chances are that you have them written down. If not, spend sometime writing them down and give each recipe a unique name. The idea is to make sure that the person using your cookbook knows what you are all about and why that recipe is so special. An example I have to share, we have a family cookbook, and our children are allowed to add their own recipes. The names alone reflect that different personalities of each family member. Our son, created a wonderful little dish, he is nine, and it is basically linguine noodles, Alfredo sauce, ground turkey, chopped carrots, some onion and different spices and the name is “Turds on Toilet Paper.” The noodles with the sauce are placed in a serving dish, with the ground meat and veggies placed on top; I think you get the idea here.
So you are making a pot roast, most cookbooks have a recipe on making a pot roast. But what makes yours special? There is something that you do that makes it taste better, gets you rave reviews, whatever it is it makes it yours. You are now putting together a cookbook; give it a special name and share those special little secrets.
There is another option; you can have a themed cookbook. If baking is your favorite thing to do, which is different then cooking and there are some people that don’t understand that. Not everyone that can cook can bake, and the reverse is true as well. If baking is your specialty then create a theme such as baking for the holidays, baking for fundraisers, baking with children the options are only as limited as your creativity.
One thing that you can not forget to include in your cookbook is pictures! People love to see pictures in a cookbook. They like to know what the dish is supposed to look like when they are done. Second most important, make sure that your directions are easy to follow. Don’t think like you cook, write like you have never made the dish before and are just learning. That is what your reader is doing.
Finally, make your ingredient list affordable. There are some recipes that I would love to try, but the ingredients are too expensive or to difficult to find in my local supermarket. I am not telling you that if you have a recipe that calls for the more exotic to not include, I am telling you to make sure that not every recipe in the book needs to be that way. Think about, you get a cookbook so that you have new ideas about meals for your family and you are trying to save money or be more health conscious. That is what your reader is looking for, ease of use.
There you go, sit down, go through your recipes, decide on a theme, give cute names and create your cookbook. I will be looking for it the next time I am out shopping.
Barry Sheppard is the author of 15 books, featured on Amazon & Google. He is now concentrating on writing various Ebooks and articles for his members. Subjects are diverse such as Making Your Video, W