Dianne Jacob's Blog

Some News About My Blog

Dear Reader,

First, thank you for being a reader of my twice-monthly blog. I appreciate you being part of my ongoing conversation about food writing and blogging.

For the past few years, I have featured guest bloggers on the blog, rather than my own essays. You heard from dozens of experts on topics ranging from cookbook promotion to keyword writing for blog posts to increasing your productivity as a writer.

Over on Substack, I write a free monthly newsletter, which I originally launched in 2005 as a way to keep in touch with students and clients. It’s grown quite a bit since then, and writing it has been fun and rewarding. I want to dedicate myself to it now, to create the best possible content. As a result, I’ve decided to pause the blog to focus on the newsletter.

But I want to keep up the conversation with you! If you are not already a subscriber of the newsletter, soon you will receive it. I figure that, since you originally signed up for this blog to hear from me, you will enjoy hearing from me again.

If you already receive my newsletter, thank you. In that case there will be two fewer emails from me in your inbox.

I also have a paid version of the newsletter that comes out mkidway through the month, with different additional content. So far I’ve included interviews with the superstars in our industry about how to write for them or what they’ve learned as high achievers. I have plans for more and lots of other content that will be useful to you as a food writer. Please consider signining up. It’s only $2.50 per month, about the cost of a cup of coffee. To do so, click on the Subscribe button in the free newsletter you will receive soon.

Again, thank you for being a blog reader. Maybe there are a few of you from 2009, when I started my blog. (Now I’m feeling nostalgic!) I hope you enjoy my newsletter and I look forward to hearing from you on Substack!

— Dianne

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The Subtle Burn of Restaurant Recipes

A guest rant by Bonnie S. Benwick

Cookbook recipes are undergoing yet another a rethink of sorts. I’m fine with some innovations, like Ali Slagle’s cookbook, I Dream of Dinner. Her recipes feature specific amounts in the method, rather than in the ingredients list.

But a development that really burns my toast has surged in restaurant cookbooks of late. Anyone who has tried to edit restaurant recipes understands the hitch: How to capture the essence of a chef’s dish that had the benefit of many hands, processes, and without presenting its creation as a treatise?

The answer can involve oversimplifying to the point of deception. Editors and collaborators feel pressure to simplify restaurant recipes because otherwise they look too long and involved. When sub-recipe after sub-recipe stacks up on the page, the pages will keep getting turned.

I recently tested restaurant recipes from a few chef cookbooks.  A croquette recipe had 14 ingredients. (That’s only one more than the max total of a Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That? carrot cake.) The steps to make the croquettes looked like a couple hours of work.

But two of the 14 ingredients took more than six hours to complete, and that’s if they were cooked simultaneously. Here’s how the author stated them: 

6 bottles dark beer, reduced to a syrup consistency (about 2.5 ounces)3 ounces caramelized onions, deglazed with beer

That’s a lot of prep, a lot of time without so much as a heads up in the headnote.

Another recipe required only a few tablespoons of a separate sauce recipe that made a bucket’s worth. A pasta recipe left me with 26 egg whites—but no suggestions for using them—after harvesting the necessary 24 egg yolks.

By making these complex recipes appear to be accessible, this kind of writing does a disservice. Such culinary land mines could kill the good works of cookbooks that are transparent about the work. Editors and recipe collaborators ought to flag non-accessible recipes upfront, in a headnote or tip.

Another way to defuse the land mines would take some rethinking. How about presenting cookbook recipes in order of the expertise or the time it takes to prepare them? It could be a game-changer for home cooks. This could be at the expense of organizing by season or meal course. Using this method would mean readers could know when they are approaching a challenge, or making an aspirational treat.

I’ve seen it work, most notably in Greg Wade’s upcoming cookbook Bread Head. Building-block recipes of buckwheat brownies and dinner rolls come way before his laminated maple rye kouign amann and multigrain sourdough loaves.

So, for the moment, watch out for the mines, dear readers. And think before you plant them, cookbook creators.

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Bonnie S. Benwick is a cookbook editor, reviewer, and recipe tester. She retired as deputy editor/recipes editor of The Washington Post Food section in 2019. Find her on Instagram @bbenwick, and mostly lurking on Twitter @BSBenwick.

You might also like these posts that include Bonnie:

Are You Guilty of Recipespeak? Why the Washington Post’s Recipe Editor Hates ItA Revolutionary Way to Handle Subrecipes

(Photo by Lasse Bergqvist on Unsplash.)

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5 Tips for Keyword Research for Food Bloggers

By Sarah of Wandercooks

In Feb 2020, our food blog Wandercooks was at 75,000 monthly views. We spent six months updating all of our content through deep keyword search analysis. As a result, our organic traffic has now grown to over 600,000 monthly views in just two years. Our keyword research paid off.  

Keyword research is an essential part of getting traffic to a food blog. Yet it’s often overlooked in the development and research stage of a recipe. If done correctly, however, keyword research can save you  hours on a post that will never rank, and help you build organic traffic with the content already on your site.

Here are my tips for keyword research:

1. Writing for humans is still number 1.

Do keyword research alongside your writing. It’s not the only thing driving your content creation.

Use keywords to find recipe ideas you can actually rank for, and help build out your topic with useful information for the average home cook.

By talking about the topic as a whole and providing things like tips, substitutions and variations in a recipe, you’ll be able to help your readers and naturally build in your keywords as you go.

For example, our recent recipe for Worcestershire sauce is a more Australian style recipe base that doesn’t use anchovies. By talking about making it without them, we might pick up new keywords for people looking for vegan Worcestershire sauce or Worcestershire without anchovies. We also discussed the types of spices we used, so our recipe might pop up if someone was looking for Worcestershire sauce made using cardamom or cloves specifically.

Never keyword stuff. Always write as if you’re talking with a friend (an actual human) and not Google. A good way around this is to read your post out loud. You’ll find the sentences that don’t work, get you tongue tied or just don’t make sense.

2. Update posts versus post new content.

Many food bloggers drive themselves to burnout,  posting new recipes constantly to build their traffic. The truth is, they’re probably sitting on hundreds of recipes that can be updated to receive double, triple or more traffic in some cases.

Why is this? A recipe that’s five years old has five years worth of “Google juice” behind it. It’s probably getting impressions and ranking for great keywords, but just isn’t on the first page of results. This is probably due to a combination of bad photography, your life story and a badly written recipe. We all know how bad our posts were when we first started, and how much we’ve improved since then.

By implementing keyword research (and your current food blogging knowledge), you’re much better equipped to update the recipe with the content it needs to really make it shine.

So don’t start from scratch. Use what you’ve got and put your magic touch on it. You’ll be surprised! Find a balance that works for you with updating posts versus creating new posts, and you’ll also be able to  compare the growth you get from both types.

After we updated a recipe, it received 2.5x more traffic in the last 12 months than it had in the last 5 years combined.

3. Restrain your new ideas.

It can feel addictive to look for new keywords that will help your ranking. You can easily fall down the rabbit hole, filling your content plan with hundreds of ideas. This is where you need to reign yourself in.

When planning content and keyword ideas, only plan as far out as 90 days. Keyword rankings  continuously change, from the search volume, difficulty and even trending topics.

You want the best ideas, and the right information to succeed. There’s nothing worse than an idea with a keyword that’s really easy. Then a year later you post it, only to find it’s no longer trending, or it’s now too difficult to rank.

Work smarter, not harder!

4. Track your keywords.

If you’ve just published a new post or updated a recipe, make sure you’re tracking the keyword for them. This is an essential and easily forgotten step.

To track keywords you keep a record of your main keyword positions on Google for a particular recipe. Tracking keywords through tools like Google Search Console or KeySearch allows you to collect data on the post over time, which can be invaluable in many ways:

It allows you to compare the post’s performance. Three months down the road, is it now ranking for the keywords you selected? Are they in top positions? Is there still room for improvement? There are many questions you can ask yourself to gauge the post’s current performance and see if you need to touch it up or leave it be. It can help you find drops in traffic. Look at your top posts. Have any of their keywords dropped in position? Look at the keyword trend. Is it no longer strawberry season, for example? You can start to pinpoint changes so you’re not stressing about what’s going on with your traffic. You’ll be informed with the right information.For new posts, tracking keywords shows you how quickly posts climb up the ranks. Or in some cases, if the post drops off Google entirely, you can quickly reindex the post so you don’t lose valuable time in the search results.

5. Set yourself up with the right knowledge and tools.

Keyword knowledge is power! Organic traffic power that is. We seriously can’t emphasise this enough: Teach yourself and learn everything you can about SEO and keyword research.

Doing so will help you

Build better, more informed content around a topicReduce your reliance on social media and other third party traffic sourcesAnd help you stress less when you know and understand what’s going on with the traffic and analytics side of your blog.

Many free and paid resources exist online to learn about keyword research. Just make sure the information is specifically for food blogging, so you can cut out a lot of the information you don’t need. Eat Your Words is our own ebook course for  food bloggers who want keyword research to come to them as easily as writing a recipe.

For specific tools, we recommend KeySearch, which is a lot more affordable and easy to use than some of the other tools like Ahrefs and SemRush. Keywords Everywhere is another inexpensive tool with some free inclusions if you’re just starting out. For analysing your own data, make sure you know your way around both Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

No matter where you are in your keyword journey, remember that food blogging is a long game. Persistence is key. Write for the reader, always. Don’t overplan your content. Update your existing knowledge. Track your progress. And finally, arm yourself with the right knowledge to truly harness the power of keyword research.

Got a question about keyword research? Drop it in the comments below and let’s chat!

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Sarah Lawrie is a recipe developer, writer and designer. She runs Wandercooks alongside her wife, Laura, and is the author of Eat Your Words, a book teaching food bloggers keyword research. Find out more at Wandercooks.com.

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How to Become a More Productive Book Author

By André Darlington

If you think landing a book deal is difficult, try writing a manuscript within today’s tight timelines. Some multi-year projects still exist, but many authors count book schedules in months, not years. How does a writer navigate all the tasks that must be completed to become a productive book author, while juggling life, a partner, children, work, exercise and more?

A few strategies I used turned out to be useful. When employed diligently, they unlock abilities you may not believe you have. I found this when I wrote two books during the pandemic in 2021. Three of my books will launch this year, and I am on track to publish two more in 2023. How? I  credit these five productivity tips. 

Here’s what to do to become a productive book author:1. Build up your confidence. 

Take long, reflective power-walks. Remind yourself how far you’ve come in life by visiting a childhood neighborhood or friend.Talk to mood-and-ego-boosting friends. Run while listening to aggressive metal music. Do whatever it takes, but get yourself in a confident headspace.

Why? Confidence leads to a strong inner voice. And that voice is going to guide you in writing. It makes the entire book process go faster and with fewer mistakes.

Without the right mindset, projects wander and lose momentum. Your inner voice gives your project a way to move ahead. 

2. Find and develop a structure. 

Do not rush headlong into a writing project. My rule is not aim at the birth of the book. Instead, work to gestate. Build an outline and work organically. Know what you’re going to say and start saying it in a methodical way using your well-developed outline. Otherwise, you run the risk of your book heading to the rewrites ICU down the road.

Think about this outline becoming your book — as being your book — not as part of preparation. The task is to fill it in, word by word, or, as author Anne Lamott says, “Bird by bird.” A successful and robust gestation means you will have a solid structure and central concepts on which to continuously build. This completed and detailed structure allows you to effectively calendar your deadlines.

3. Calendar backwards.

Let’s say you have a detailed structure you feel confident about. You know how long the project will be and where all the sidebars and extra material go. You even know whom you want to name in the acknowledgements.

It is time to calendar. Get a sense of how much you need to write each day to complete the job. Because you are reasonable about life’s distractions, calendar backwards from a month before the project’s actual due date. You’ll need this time at the end. Now calendar the halfway point, the quarter points, and what’s due on days, mornings and evenings. Read more about this type of small goal setting below.

Spread the project across those calendar days. Acknowledge that this calendar now runs your life for the next few months.

4. Establish micro goals.

Whether you need to finish 60 pages, six pages or six sentences by next week, establish tiny goals to motivate yourself. A lot of little due dates means you cannot fall behind. Or, if you do fall behind, you can catch up before it becomes a crisis.

With the project broken into manageable daily pieces, you will always know where you are time-wise. You can turn on the gas over a weekend or even finish early as your book gains momentum. Finishing early means a better book because there is more time to plump the manuscript and fix awkward spots. 

5. Shake up your location.

Yes, putting your butt in a chair regularly is the only way to be a productive writer. However, becoming a productive book author allows you to use little psychological tricks. The trick I have found most successful is to divide my days into two: I write in the morning in one space, and then start a second writing session later, fresh in another location, such as a coffee shop.

For me, no good comes from reading and re-reading the same lines in the same environment. I find myself slowly grinding to a stop. If I’m really busy, I’ll even edit on an exercise bike for a third round later. Whatever it takes to get energy and concentration up!

Finishing a giant undertaking like a book is daunting, even for veteran writers. But by confidently building your book from the ground up, and executing it with a disciplined timeline, you can avoid the pitfalls that put many projects on the wrong track. Over the years, I’ve found that these five steps allow me the freedom to write even more than I ever dreamed possible.

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André Darlington is a former restaurant critic and restaurateur turned award-winning beverage writer. He is the author or co-author of eight published and forthcoming books, including Booze & Vinyl, Booze Cruise, and Gotham City Cocktails and Bar Menu, which comes out in October. Currently, he is writing his seventh book for Running Press. Find him on Instagram, or sign up for his newsletter on Substack. 

(Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash.)

 

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Get More Assignments from Editors

A guest post by Anna Mindess

Over the last dozen years, I have received scores of assignments from editors of print magazines and online websites. I especially cherish those relationships that have spanned years and feel like collaborations.

When editors appreciate my work and trust me, my job gets easier. Instead of a formal pitch, editors will accept just a few lines for a story idea. Even nicer is when they come up with story ideas specifically for me.

It’s not difficult to build this kind of mutually respectful relationship. You will get more assignments. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Timeliness is next to godliness.

Turn in your stories on time or early. It seems obvious, but this is the number one thing that pleases or puts off an editor. One magazine I write for has deadlines etched in stone. The editor coordinates so much atthe last minute: dealing with photos, recipes, pull quotes and ads. I find that the earlier I turn in my story the more room she gives it. That’s a win-win.

2. Hit the word count exactly and deliver the article you agreed on.

While I’ve had editors say, “The article should be long enough to tell the story,” I prefer a concrete word count. I usually write a draft that’s 100 to 200 words over, then prune judiciously.

Turn in the piece your editor asked for or the one you promised. If the story took a surprising turn, inform the editor right away and figure out together what you need to finish it. It could be an additional source or a change in focus.

3. Pick your battles.

Editors will edit your writing. That’s their job. Try to be gracious. I sometimes compliment an editor who created an improved title, a tightened-up graph or an alternate structure.

To me, accepting edits graciously is like putting money in the bank. Someday, when a word or edit really matters, you will want to withdraw some of that good karma you have built up. You may be able to leverage it to make your point.

4. Anticipate the editor’s needs. Offer story ideas to fill them, early.

Almost every editor must find new twists for holiday stories every year. If you come up with a few novel ideas ahead of time, you will make your editor’s life much easier. For a local food-oriented website that posted stories daily, I did spins on Healthy Halloween Bento Boxes; Korean, Swedish and Persian Dishes that celebrate Winter Solstice; Honey Cakes and Challahs for Rosh Hashanah; How to Buy a Live Fish for Chinese New Year; Sugar Skulls for Day of the Dead; Symbolic Foods for Persian New Year and Is Celebrating Thanksgiving Disrespectful to Native People?

5. Provide more than what editors asked for.

Along with your story, supply suggestions for recipes, photos, pull quotes, sidebars, subheads, and photo captions. In my pitch, I might include a striking photo to grab the editor’s eye, or a recipe idea if I know that an editor always wants one or more to accompany an article.  The photo captions, pull quotes, and subheads will probably have to wait until you see the first edited version. 

Not only are you saving your editor extra work by providing these other parts of the story, but the finished article may be more to your liking. While some editors ask me to take photos, more often I work for publications that hire professional photographers. I do my best to coordinate with them so I can attend the photo shoot. By subtly pointing out the elements of the story I think are worth highlighting, the finished product is more unified, and I can easily write accurate photo captions.

As a freelance writer, it’s easy just to focus on pitching and writing stories. Besides turning in the best story I can, I try to put myself in my editors’ shoes and imagine how I can make their life easier. In the long run it will come back to make my life easier and happier, with satisfied editors. And, you will get more assignments in the long term.

I would love to hear your experiences and tips too.

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Anna Mindess is an award-winning writer focusing on food, culture, travel and immigrants’ stories. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, AFAR, Fodor’s, Lonely Planet and other publications.  She is also an American Sign Language interpreter. Follow her visual take on the world on Instagram @annamindess.

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You might also like:How to be the Writer Magazine Editors Want10 Mistakes Not to Make When Working with an EditorHow to Find and Atract Editors for Pitching Articles

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Create An Instagram-Worthy Bio

By Carla Contreras

You have 150 characters to tell people why they should follow you on Instagram. Or as I like to say, join your community. The formula I use to create an Instagram-worthy bio doesn’t just apply to Instagram. You can insert these concepts wherever you like, including on your website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest or TikTok. 

For 12 years, I have built my business as a food stylist, online course creator and podcaster on Instagram. It’s a place that can require a lot of care and attention, but it pays off because it can build real life connections with your community. A good Instagram bio can also lead to friendships, collaborations and paid partnerships.

Make the most of your space by using these 5 tips for an Instagram-worthy bio:  1. Include your name.

It seems obvious, but if your IG handle is not your name, tell people your name somewhere in the bio. Remember that your handle is searchable. This can be absolute gold! If you don’t use your name, having a handle that stands out makes a huge difference. I was @chefcarla_c for over 10 years. I recently shifted to @itscarlacontreras to include more content such as my podcast, online courses and an upcoming book.

2. Know how your ideal community finds you.

Treat the bio like a website. That space is searchable. So think about what your ideal clients and community look for. For me, the terms they search for are: Chef. Food Stylist. IIN (Institute for Integrative Nutrition) Coach. Many of the people who search for any of those words become clients.

3. Tell me why I should follow you. 

What do you offer? If you’re in business, how can I work with you? Examples are: Sharing recipes from… Writing about… I teach… I work with clients to …. This tells me what kind of content I can expect, why I should connect and helps readers get to know you and your work.

4. Include a call to action.

At the end of your bio, include a call to action. Examples are: Listen to my podcast, read my blog or work with me. This is a clear call for people to do something that goes beyond just interacting with your profile.

5. Link to your website.

Add a direct link to your website as opposed to adding a page with links, such as Linktree. Doing so assures that everyone lands on your website. Since I added the direct link, my email subscribers are up 300%. Create a freebie that people get in exchange for sharing their email address. You want to create a relationship that goes beyond Instagram. 

An Instagram-worthy bio is just the starting point to creating a relationship with your Instagram community. A strong bio guides the content on your feed and also your stories. It also provides a connection point to your website and work beyond Instagram. Remember that you don’t own your Instagram followers, but you do own your email list.

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Carla Contreras is a trained chef and content creator. She teaches food and wellness entrepreneurs about content creation and how to build their audience online. She is also the host of the podcast Show Up Fully. Find Carla, her online courses and all social links at carlacontreras.com. 

(Photo courtesy of Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash. )

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5 Ways to Promote with Live Video

By Kathy Hester

There is no better way to get the word out about your latest product than to promote with live video. 

Why? Imagine how easy it would be to make a sale if you were able to meet face-to-face and talk with all your fans. Live video allows you to make eye contact with your viewers and even answer questions that they type into a chat. You are talking, asking questions, teaching and reeling in your audience. They feel like they are hanging out with you and are in your inner circle.

You can go live on any of the platforms from your phone. You can go live on your computer for Facebook, YouTube or Tiktok, but you cannot go live on your computer to Instagram. (To stream live on Tiktok and mobile YouTube you need 1,000 followers.) 

A product could be a new cookbook, class, course, retreat, conference or a recipe or blog post.

Here are my five tips for how to promote with live video: 1. Involve your audience in the creation process.

Use live video to invite your audience to look behind the scenes as you develop your product. They want to support you as you create your book, class or other product.

You probably already do this in static posts on your social media. Live video just makes it more personal. Invite them into your < !–more–>kitchen for a coffee chat, and entice them to be invested in your project:

Show cookbook cover options and let them vote, or just share the final cover.Ask for recipe requests for a book, class or even for your blog.Let them help you decide between recipes.Tell them when your book is listed for presale–even if there’s no cover yet!2. Give them a little taste so they will crave more.

One question I get asked often is whether to demo a recipe that’s in a class or book. Many authors and teachers think that giving anything away will keep people from purchasing.

While I’ve heard that from publishers in the past, even they allow a small percentage of the recipes to be reprinted in blogs and in the press.

The way I look at this is that every product is not for every person. Demoing a recipe gives your audience an idea of your teaching style and an opportunity to see if it’s a fit for the way they learn. By giving a taste away, you reel in the right people for your book.

Don’t give the whole course or book away, but here are a few ideas:

Demo a recipe to drum up interest for a cooking class or book launch.If you have a small 10-recipe ecookbook, demo a similar recipe instead of one of the 10,Show how you prep to get them interested in buying your cooking class. I did live cooking video while I talked about my upcoming class. My audience got to see some of the process, but I did not give the recipe away.Offer a PDF of a recipe or two that you will demo (ask your publisher first if you have a traditionally published cookbook). Set this up as a lead magnet in your email software and drop the link in the live video. Viewers will be funneled into your email list.3. Borrow other people’s audiences.

Partner with colleagues or brands to do a talk, interview or recipe demo on their social channels. This is especially effective on Instagram or Facebook. Choose a partner with a larger audience than yours.

Weave your product into the talk, showcase your expertise and give lots of value. You will gain new followers, as well as potential sales. Here are some ideas:

Offer to do a demo from your product.Offer to troubleshoot or give advice about the subject of your book.Do a show and tell. Pick a question that lots of people have: What flour should I use in biscuits? What size Instant Pot should I buy? What’s the difference between polenta and grits?

Provide a list of questions for an interview if they ask for it, but my personal preference is off the cuff.

4. Add even more value and authority with guests.

Use other people’s expertise to make your live video more valuable to your audience. Watch the full video here. 

Start a regular, weekly, live show where you bring on guests to interview, do demos or cook with you. It’s another way to widen your audience and increase awareness of your expertise. I just started doing this myself, and it’s also a nice way to network with your peers.

It’s almost the opposite idea of number three. You are using other people’s expertise to make your live video more valuable to your audience. These collaborations will grow both your audiences.The guest will share about their appearance through their social channels, and the more regular your show, the more viewers you will get.

I recommend a weekly show. If that doesn’t work for you, try once a month. Make sure your show is at the same date and time to make it easier for people to show up. Here are some ideas:

Do an interview with a brand that supports your product. For example, if you did a pizza cookbook, reach out to a pizza oven manufacturer or a canned tomato maker.Have your guest cook one of their recipes.Do a cook-a-long. Decide on a recipe, and give it to your guest and both of your audiences.If you run out of ideas, do something related to a holiday or ask on your social platforms about what people want to see.

5. Include perks and bonuses no one can resist.

People love to get a little something extra. This point does not only apply to how to promote on live video. It works for any product no matter how you promote it. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve bought because of pre-order perks. I have used perks to boost book sales in my own marketing too.

If you go this route, ask people to email you the receipt of purchase if you do not see the email address of your sales. For example, in Podia software, I can see a class sale. But, if it’s a traditional book sale, I wouldn’t know unless they email me. Here are a few ideas to offer customers:

Attend a live cook-a-long if they buy by a certain date.Attend a live mini-class months before they get the actual book.If you sell pre-recorded classes, use them as a perk. I have 50 or 60 now, so it’s easy to give them away. It takes very little time, and buyers get a $35 class for free.Hold a Q & A for buyers the day the product arrives or launches. Maybe unbox it with them and do a quick demo.Partner with a gadget or food brand, so they mail out a coupon or item directly to the person who ordered. You have to collect mailing addresses. I did this with OATrageous Oatmeals. The publisher sent out a pre-order package that was worth as much as the book. It had samples, brand coupons and more.

I know this is a lot to take in. If you are new to promoting on live video, the first thing is to practice going live. Make a private Facebook. The most important thing is to learn to look directly at viewers and that takes more than one or two tries. Remember that you don’t need to, or even want to, be perfect. These are the people who already follow you and like you. They are an easy audience, and they want to get to know the real you.

Finally, I know you might think that you don’t have time for one more thing. I get that. Being a blogger, instructor, author, YouTuber and live streamer is a lot. The most important step is the first one you take. Go live to test it out. Make the easiest recipe you know or talk as you unbox your groceries. My audience loves it and yours will too.

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Kathy Hester is a published cookbook author, food blogger and recipe developer at HealthySlowCooking.com and PlantBasedInstantPot.com. She is also an online cooking class instructor. She helps people learn to be comfortable on live video and use it to increase their income. You can book a 30-minute one-on-one session if you’re interested. Or take Kathy’s self-paced Jump Into Live Video course to learn the basics and start growing your audience.

(Photo by Sam McGhee on Unsplash.)

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How to Write Award-Winning Cookbooks

A guest post by Barbara Abdeni Massaad

When I decided to write and photograph my first book, Man’oushé: Inside the Street Corner Lebanese Bakery, I had no experience in writing books or taking professional food and location photos to document my journey. I come from a kitchen background. My cooking career started in the 1980s in a family-owned restaurant in Fort, Lauderdale, Florida, called Kebabs & Things.

Serving and cooking for customers was an important experience in my life. Years later, I would go on to train in restaurants in Beirut, Lebanon, where I moved a few years later. Now, I am the author of five cookbooks, many of which have won awards.

Accepting my award for Man’oushé, my first cookbook, from the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 2015. I did both the writing and the photography.

Here are my insights on how to write award-winning cookbooks:1. Don’t ever let anyone undermine your dreams.

The idea to write about food started with an obsession: living through a journey in Italy and learning about pizza-making. Upon deep reflection, I took a

similar journey in Lebanon and delve into the subject of flatbreads made daily in street corner Lebanese bakeries.

When I announced to my friends that I would undertake this important mission, they all laughed at me. Two years later, these same friends were standing in line at the book signing congratulating me on my first book.

2. The journey matters more than the destination.

From the moment the idea is born until the book is published, a writer will go through so many experiences to accomplish a successful output. If you focus on winning awards, it will deter you from the principal goal of writing a cookbook. Many authors live the experience of writing a book—just as an expectant-mother does when giving birth to a child (baby blues and all).

3. The subject of the book has to become one of the main focuses of your life, 24/7.

You have to be passionate about your subject, looking at every angle, as you would if you were photographing an object. You have to learn to cut out the “noise” of everyday life and pay close attention to the work at hand. You will often doubt your work, and, at times, you’ll feel incompetent. You will get tired of reading the text over and over again to look for errors. 

Thankfully, the Man’oushé book did very well. It won several awards, including the Gourmand World Cookbook Award, the Lebanese Academy of Gastronomy Award and a Certificate of Merit in the Premiere Print Awards.

4. You must have luck on your side. 

This has a huge effect on the fate of your book. Some will call it fate; others can call it divine intervention, serendipity, chance, providence, destiny. We have a local saying in Lebanon, “maktoob,” which means it is written (in the stars). 

5. Get support and don’t give up. Your work will pay off.

I started working on building the skeleton  for my second book, Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry.  a few days after Man’oushé went to print. I had done the work; I was alone. I needed to overcome the deep sense of loss I was feeling. 

I needed a new obsession. The subject of preserving the bounty of each season made sense to me to pursue this research. It also gave me a purpose to continue to delve into our local culinary traditions and to meet all those who worked in that field, including small-scale food producers, farmers, chefs and locals who had inherited the know-how of their ancestors. I spent five long years working on the cookbook. I was married and raising three children while living through a painful war in Lebanon. 

My family was my greatest support. They accompanied me on many food adventures. They also had to deal with the highs and lows of writing a book. My husband always believed in my work and has supported my crazy ideas throughout the years. Oftentimes, I wanted to quit; it was simply too hard. The next day, I would start over. I wasn’t going to give up.

The Mouneh book won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2010 and the Prix de la Littérature Gastronomique 2010.

 People started paying attention to my work. I was offered a food consultancy job in Seattle, WA to train the head chef of a resstaurant. I proposed to my client to hire a local chef to do this task, but they insisted on working with me. So I packed my bags and registered my children at camp in Seattle for a month.

6. Each book should have its own traits and characteristics.

My cookbook Mezze: A Labor of Love was published to document the experiences I have had with Middle Eastern appetizers throughout the years. I wanted this book to have a very different personality. I chose illustrations over food photography, partnering with a local artist to draw pictures based on my writing. The book won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2014.

I took my own food photography for each book, except for Mezze, where I partnered with a local artist. The Mezze book won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards in 2014.

When war broke out in Syria, Lebanon witnessed a huge influx of refugees. Tents were set up in different remote areas in the country. I set out to go to the refugee camps, not knowing exactly my purpose. But I took my camera and shot portraits of the refugees, while reminiscing about the good old times and talking about food. Food stories are always a great ice breaker. I made friends along the way.

7. Leave room for serendipity. 

My next book, Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate Our Shared Humanity, was an attempt to help these families. It started as a small project, collecting soup recipes to do a cookbook on the subject with artistic portraits of refugees.

While working on a project in London, I had a meeting with Michel Moushabeck, founder and publisher of Interlink Publishing, who had published Man’oushé in the United States. We had never met before, only through long emails. We sat over dinner talking about our lives and our work. Just before we parted, I mentioned to him that I was undertaking a “small book project” to help the Syrian refugees in Lebanon. I had a dummy in my bag, printed generously by my printer to encourage me. Michel took one look at the dummy and blurted, “Interlink will publish it.” That was really unexpected. 

Signing Soup for Syria when it came out in 2016. It won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards for that year.

After including contributions from celebrity chefs such as Anthony Bourdain, Mark Bittman, Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, Claudia Roden, Alice Waters, Greg Malouf and many others, the book went on to be published in seven countries and raised funds for food and medical relief for Syrian refugees around the world.

Soup for Syria won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2016 and was selected Best Cookbook of the Year by numerous magazines and newspapers. 

8. Find the right partners.

Writing cookbooks is teamwork with lots of dedicated people who work hard to make the book a success: editor, designer, proofreader, photographer, publisher, publicity and marketing staff and so many more.

9. Find your muse.

It is essential to feed your creativity (your soul). Doing so gives you the needed motivation to continue, since the road can be rocky when you are writing a cookbook. My muse remains to be the people involved in food making that I meet throughout this journey. Slow Food and the international network of Terra Madre continue to be strong pillars in my work as a cookbook writer.

My next cookbook, Forever Beirut: Recipes and Stories from the Heart of Lebanon, with a foreword by Chef José Andrés, will be published by Interlink Books in summer 2022. Here is a summary:

“I decided to work on a book highlighting 100 recipes of our culinary heritage, to conserve and safeguard this treasure. I wanted the book to help share our culture and to raise funds to support the work of the Lebanese Food Bank, which is doing such great work feeding families in need during these dire times.

“I have also written text—personal stories—and taken photos for each recipe. I portray our culture with my affection and nostalgia for the old Beirut, mixed with our present fate, through words and images that are raw, fragile, sensitive, shocking, emotional and true. The streets of Beirut never cease to inspire me, offering glimpses of faces of the many different communities of this country and reflecting the emotional roller-coaster ride we are living on a daily basis.”

10. Think big.

Don’t be afraid to aim high. If you have put your heart and soul into writing a cookbook, you have every right to position your work accordingly. Your message may have a ripple effect on your society or the whole world. Nothing is impossible.

11. Stay humble.

When you achieve success, it’s time to give back. I have had many mentors throughout the years who have guided me and taught me to use my skills to create award-winning cookbooks. They have taught me so many life lessons along the way.

Help those who have a dream to write a cookbook; it’s your duty. Show them the ropes that took you years to figure out because it’s only by doing good that good comes back (a law of karma). And that’s how you become the writer of award-winning cookbooks, and the person you always wanted to be.

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Barbara Abdeni Massaad is a food writer, TV host and cookbook author. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, she moved to Florida at a young age and later helped her father in their family-owned Lebanese restaurant, Kebabs & Things. Upon her return to Lebanon, she trained with several renowned chefs at Lebanese, Italian and French restaurants. She is also a founding member of Slow Food Beirut and an active participant in the International Slow Food movement. She lives in Beirut with her husband and three children. Find her on Instagram @ barbaramassaad.

The post How to Write Award-Winning Cookbooks appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

Classes and Workshops Coming Up

I’ve sent this special blog post today to let you know about some classes coming up in March and April. I’m excited to teach for the prestigous 92nd St. Y in New York, to continue my proposal writing class, and to teach at IACP. 

These days guest bloggers write most of the posts on this blog. If you want to hear from me, I’m over on  Substack. I encourage you to sign up. My free newsletter comes out once a month, and it’s packed with great links about trends in our industry and best practices for food writers and bloggers. I also have a paid version that features interviews, deep thoughts and interactive posts.

Now, on to my upcoming classes:1. Introduction to Food Writing
March 23, 2022, 4-5:30 p.m. PST
Online Class
92nd St. Y
From $55

Wondering about all the ways to work as a food writer? Want to branch out? There’s recipe writing, food memoir, cookbooks, food blogs, articles for magazines and websites, content writing, and influencing, at a minimum. Evaluate your skills and learn what’s required. There’s even time to write a short piece. 

Special offer: Take this class and the class below and save $10. 

 

2. How to Write for Food Publications and Websites
March 30, 2022, 4-5:30 p.m. PST
Online Class
92nd St. Y
From $65

Learn how to write food focused articles and get them published. Whether you choose personal essays, listsicles, recipes, or chef profiles, there’s a strategy to get an editor interested in the story you’d like to see published.

Special offer: Take this class and the class above and save $10. 

3. Jumpstart Your Cookbook Proposal
April 12, 19 and 26, 2022
Civic Kitchen Zoom: Three 3-hour classes
13 students maximum
$399 online

If you’re procrastinating about writing your cookbook proposal, you’re not sure what to write, or you need accountability and support, take this class.

I’ll provide practical, strategic advice and moral support. I’ll cover how the publishing industry works and what editors and agents look for in a proposal. You will write first drafts of several sections in class. At the end of three weeks, you’ll have the start of a proposal, with the knowledge of how to make it irresistible to an agent or editor.

Bonus: It’s difficult to see someone’s successful cookbook proposal, but I’ll share one of mine, which led to a beautiful cookbook by Rizzoli.

4. So You Want to Write a Cookbook (scroll down to optional workshops)
Friday April 22, 2022, 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.
International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Annual Conference
Pittsburgh, PA
$100

Yes it’s a live conference and a live workshop! Come join me in Pittsburgh as we explore all the issues of getting a cookbook published: how to get a deal, whether you need an agent, and the pros and cons of self publishing. 

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(Image courtesy of May Gautier on Unsplash.)

The post Classes and Workshops Coming Up appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

Create More Content for Your Food Blog in 2022

 

A guest post by Alexa Peduzzi of Food Blogger Pro

If you’ve been in the blogging industry for more than a few minutes, you’ve probably heard a very common catchphrase –– “Content is king.” At the new year, you may have set some goals for your blog. If they’re anything like mine, they revolve around creating more content.

And, of course, that’s easier said than done. I’m coming off a year where I took eight months off from posting on my blog (more on that here). Now I’m excited to head into this year with a plan to help me actually achieve my goals.

Here are the five strategies to create more (and better) content this year:1. Batch your blog posts.

Content batching allows you to make a bunch of content all at the same time. It is all about planning, working ahead and making the most of your limited time. For example, you may decide to content batch a month’s worth of recipe development on a Saturday afternoon. During that time, creating content should be your only focus. Your goal should be to complete all of the month’s recipe development that day.

Since I work full-time, I need Saturdays to work on my personal blog. If I focus and set a timer, I can batch my writing and photos. Doing so makes me feel super productive. 

What I really love about this strategy is that it keeps you in a focused mindset. As I’m sure you know, food bloggers wear a lot of hats: we develop recipes, photograph the recipes, write about the recipes and promote the recipes (among so many other things!). I sometimes find it difficult to turn off my “recipe development brain”  and switch on my “writing brain” or my “photography brain.” There’s resistance when going from one task to another each time I need to produce content.

It seems that each element of putting together a solid blog post requires different parts of our brains. By batching content, we can stay in a “recipe development zone,” and build up momentum for longer periods.

We recently had Karli Bitner on The Food Blogger Pro Podcast talking about this very topic. So if you want to learn more about how content batching could work for you (or how Karli batched an entire year’s worth of content!), check out that episode here.

How to successfully batch your content:

Have a plan. How many recipes are you trying to develop during this batch? Do you have all of the ingredients? Do you have styling ideas for your photos for each recipe? If you’re editing photos during this batch session, are they all uploaded into your editor of choice? Remove any obstacles that can slow you down so that you can focus on creating that content during your batching session.Set a timer and make a schedule. If you don’t give yourself a time limit, it’s easy to lose focus and energy. Lock in your time so that you know that, at the end of X hours, you should have Y done. It’s a great way to remind yourself that there’s an end in sight, too. It’s no small feat working on multiple recipes or photo shoots at a time.2. Repurpose to create more content for your blog content.

This strategy is all about working smarter, not harder. As we’ve already established (see #1), creating great content from scratch takes lots of time and effort. So once you’ve created and published that content, what then?

Have you thought about using old content to create new content? There are countless ways that you can repurpose your existing content to make your message go further, without the extra work of creating something brand new.

For example, if you have a great salad recipe on your blog that your readers love, have you ever shared a cooking demo for that recipe on Instagram Stories or Reels? What about a video that’s performing really well on YouTube? Can you edit that same video to create something new for TikTok? Can you republish an old post with new information, tips and photos?

By using the content you already have, you’re eliminating one (or a few) of the time-consuming activities that go into producing a quality piece of work. And you generate something new for your audience. For additional information about this topic, check out:

This episode of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast with Brita Britnell about repurposing videoThe Republishing Content series on the Food Blogger Pro blog

How to successfully repurpose content:

Take inventory of what’s performing well. What are your top pieces of content? Use Google Analytics or Google Search Console to figure that out. Chances are,  just a handful of posts drive the majority of your blog traffic. How can you take that top performing content and breathe new life into it?Make the process repeatable. You repurposed a piece of your content. Do it with another piece of content. And another. Work your repurposing strategy into your creation process to streamline work in the future. Essentially, you want content that is easy to repurpose when you need it.3. Use (and stick to) an editorial calendar.

Tons of content calendar solutions exist. Some integrate flawlessly with WordPress (like CoSchedule). Others allow subtasks and due dates (like Asana) or produce reports on content performance (like InfluenceKit).

What’s working for me is good old Google Calendar. I keep the rest of my scheduled life –– full-time job and personal responsibilities –– in Google Calendar, so it’s helpful to include blog tasks in the same place. That way, I can see when I’m being a little too ambitious or when I may need to move some scheduled tasks around. I also created a new calendar within my Google account for all of my Fooduzzi content so I can easily see it among my other tasks.

 

Here’s all the content for Fooduzzi, my food blog, tracked in Google calendar along with my other regular calendar events.

I don’t need a lot of bells and whistles when it comes to my content calendar. All I need is a way to:

Schedule my blog work, andSee how my blog work fits into the rest of my schedule.

You may need other functionalities (such as tasks, team integrations or more robust labeling capabilities), and that’s great! It’s just a matter of figuring out what works for you.

How to successfully build a content calendar:

Pick the right tool for you. There are dozens of tools to keep track of your content calendars. For some bloggers, a paper calendar and pencil work best. Others may need more customization, integrations, and digitized due dates. Give yourself permission to play with some of the products to find one that works for you. If you need some more ideas, there are other recommendations in our How to Create a Content Calendar course on Food Blogger Pro.Actually use the calendar. It’s one thing to set up a calendar with all of the pretty color-coordination, labels and due dates, and another to actually use (and stick to) the calendar. If you’re just setting up a content calendar for the first time, set a goal to use it for a month and then evaluate how it worked. Did it give you everything you need? Have you produced more, better content? Did it help you stay organized? If so, it’s probably worth using it moving forward!4. Delegate!

Find more time in your schedule by unloading some of your responsibilities to others. That could mean hiring for your business or using a grocery delivery service to save an hour each week.

I just did this. I need to shoot a few recipes this weekend (thanks to my content calendar ), but I have a busy day at work today (working on this article). So I ordered a grocery pickup. By not having to go into the grocery store myself, I saved time and freed up  time to do other things.

A few years ago, I hired my mom to schedule my pins on Pinterest. That gave me a few extra few hours each month to plan content, develop recipes, write, or photograph my recipes. She’s worth every penny. It’s a recurring task each month that needs to get done, but it doesn’t need to be done by me.

But I do need to develop recipes, because I want all of the recipes on my blog to come from me. I need to write blog posts because I want my voice to be the only voice on my blog. I don’t need to spend time on my Pinterest strategy. I don’t need to be personally responsible for it to get done.

Maybe that’s different for you. Maybe you enjoy working on your Pinterest strategy and you know how to effectively promote content on Pinterest. If that’s the case, then identify another task to pass off to a person or service.

How to successfully delegate:

Make a “What I do/What I don’t do” list. Decide what you absolutely, 100% have to do to get recipes published on your site. What are some things that you’re currently doing but don’t have to be doing? The things that fall into the second bucket are the tasks that you could potentially offload to someone else (through hiring or through a service). You can also make the same lists for your personal life. Maybe you hire a babysitter for your kiddos every Wednesday so you have planned time each week to develop and shoot recipes.Have a replacement in mind. Let’s say you’ve identified a task that you’d like to pass to someone else. What blog task are you going to put in its place? Can you produce another entire blog post? Could you learn how to shoot and edit videos? Could you use that time to reach out to a new potential sponsor each week? Remember the goal we’re trying to accomplish here: creating more content. What content-creation task do you now have more time for?5. Work on what excites you.

It’s much easier to stick to it and get it done if you actually enjoy the work you’re doing! If there’s a part of the content creation process you resist, maybe that means you need to hire someone or to stop doing that part all together. This is the strategy I’m relying on most for 2022.

Remember the “What I Do/What I Don’t Do” list from #4? Is there anything on the “What I Don’t Do” side that you could remove from your responsibilities altogether?

Maybe you don’t actually enjoy creating TikTok videos. If that’s the case, ask yourself:

Are you receiving a lot of engagement on TikTok?Do you have brand contract responsibilities that require you to continue posting them?Is growing your TikTok following a big part of your growth strategy for this year?

From there, you have three options:

Yes, it’s worth it, and I need to keep doing it because of a strategic decision for my business.Yes, it’s worth it, but I’m going to find someone (or something) else who can do it for me.No, it’s not worth it, and I’m going to quit doing it (at least for right now).

This is the strategy that I’m relying on most for 2022. If I don’t enjoy doing a particular task, then it will be difficult to keep up momentum and keep creating content.

How to successfully focus on what you like to do:

Identify the tasks you don’t like doing. Video was one of those things for me. I didn’t enjoy shooting them myself, so I asked my brother to help me out. I get to hang out with my brother while making content that’s important for my site’s growth, and I don’t have to do it all on my own. That’s a win-win.Remember why. Ask yourself why you’re doing the tasks that you’re doing. Is it because of a strategic decision in your business? Is it because you love to do it? Or is it because you feel like you have to? If the answer falls into that third bucket, it’s probably worth digging deeper and asking yourself if you really need to be doing it.Now let’s chat in the comments: What strategies have helped you create more content for your food blog? Why was that strategy so successful for you?

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Alexa Peduzzi is a 20-something lover of animals and books, and the doer of all things at Fooduzzi, the plant-based food blog. As a blogger, Alexa has been featured in publications like Buzzfeed, Country Living, Brit + Co., Greatist, MSN, VeryLocal, and MindBodyGreen, and she works with sponsors like Bob’s Red Mill. She also works full-time managing a food blogging membership site called Food Blogger Pro. By day, Alexa loves to cook, photograph, and write to all of her invisible Internet friends on her blog. By night she’s typically in bed by 10, preferably snuggling with her calico, Maya (but we all know how cats are).

Disclosure: This post uses affiliate links for Food Blogger Pro. 

 

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