Dianne Jacob's Blog, page 6

Cookbook Promotion In a Pandemic

A guest post by Mary Cressler and Sean Martin

Our first cookbook launched in April, right after the pandemic hit.

We had spent two years preparing for the launch of Fire + Wine: 75 Smoke-Infused Recipes from the Grill with Perfect Wine Pairings. That included another six months of planned book tour and events post launch.

And then the world shut down in March. But we still had to do cookbook promotion in a pandemic.

The two of us can chuckle now at the mention of “pivot,” but that’s exactly what had to happen. All of our planned in-person events that would have generated media and buzz were cancelled for the rest of the year. Immediately. They included:

a book tour
TV promotional segments
summer cooking events
speaking engagements at bookstores and other venues.

After strategizing with our publisher and agent, we decided we had worked too hard to panic and stop promotion of the book. There had to be other ways to get the cookbook in front of people. It would just require us to think digital.

And speaking of that, we are doing a giveaway of Fire & Wine: 75 Smoke-Infused Recipes from the Grill with Perfect Wine Pairings! If you would like to win a copy, leave a comment.

Here are some of the strategies we employed to a do cookbook promotion in a pandemic. If you have a book launch in the next year, they might be helpful:
1. Communicate with your publisher.

Together we had to create a new plan to get the book in front of media for reviews, focus on social media strategy for messaging, and avoid stepping on each other’s toes.

Our publisher released the book earlier than the original April 28th date because people were home and looking for things to cook. So as early as mid-March the book started shipping to existing pre-orders and we had to be ready to promote. As we did so, our publisher amplified the book events we did online.

Smoked Salmon Crostini with Capers, Dill, and Goat Cheese

Our promotion efforts didn’t end after the first 30 days. We continue to lean on our publisher for book giveaways and assistance in amplifying our messaging.

2. Plan out your live social media.

When the pandemic began, we went live on social media — like everyone else, it seemed. But we also needed a plan of how we wanted to engage with our current and potential readers. We didn’t just want to go live and then let that fade away after the launch. We had specific live events that worked for each platform and created a weekly schedule:

Facebook and YouTube: These platforms are great for longer demos, particularly cooking demonstrations. The streaming service Streamyard let us see and interact with comments, and users stayed engaged longer.
Instagram:  We used Instagram for interview style events, and also virtual wine tasting. Its interface is more casual and not so user friendly for a full cooking demo. 
Pinterest: We created various cookbook pins, including videos, that we published as a supplement to our current recipes and to drive traffic to our website to purchase books.

3. Partner for online cooking events.

We approached other creators in our niche of food and wine to ask if they would do a virtual cooking event with us. Once creators received our book, we asked if there was a recipe they liked and if they wanted to cook together using one of our virtual tools (like a live Facebook event for both of our pages). Our creator community rallied and continues to support us today.

Content was either a fully-produced cooking segment, a series of stories showing the book and ingredients, or even some photos in their carousel of content. We saved these promotions so we can re-publish on platforms like YouTube and IGTV. These creator relationships provided exposure to new audiences who might enjoy the book.

4. Double down on media.

Whether TV, radio, or print, we called and found every possible outlet willing to do cookbook promotion during a pandemic. Some of these are pretty standard when promoting a book, but we doubled down on them:

Virtual TV segments: Producers still needed content. We used our digital setup at home to do TV segments on our local ABC affiliate morning show, AM Northwest. Every few weeks we called into Skype or Zoom and to share a recipe from the cookbook and chat with the host.
Radio and Podcasts: We did both radio interviews and podcasts. This style of interview is fun because it allowed us to speak about the book and our story in a conversational and casual manner with the host(s), versus a more formal timed TV interview, for example.
Engage new readers: This is where both our own relationships and the publisher’s were so important. We found opportunities for recipe and book features in print publications with a reader base around the world, from regional publications like Sip Northwest to GQ UK.
Network online: Participating in Zoom conversations with media and professionals in our niche was a great way to build interest in the book and sell. We could host and invite them, or ask others who have these private discussions to join and talk about the book.

Merlot Spritzed Beef Brisket

5. Contact local businesses to help you promote.

Don’t underestimate all your pre-existing business relationships and partnerships . We made phone calls to find opportunities to sell books through outlets online or through curbside pickup. Here are a few examples:

Virtual cooking classes. These are for wine club events at local wineries. They can host anywhere from 20 – 80 people. At one winery, a host led the event. We had a camera for cooking a recipe, and another camera for interview questions and we were ready to go. Zoom’s webinar feature works best for this. The wineries got to offer a unique experience to their loyal customers and we got to feature the book. Some wineries will offer a discount bundle on the book and the wine.
Events with food businesses: We called every grill, knife, and meat company we have worked with and asked if they could do a feature. It was very helpful because we did some social media takeovers, email features and giveaways, and offered free recipe snippets for their own newsletter community. This amplified our reach by thousands by getting in front of new audiences.

We sold the idea of the book “experience.” Instead of just asking businesses to buy and sell the book, we imagined an experience where customers could buy uncooked meat and ingredients, a copy of the book, and some wine, all as a bundle with a discount. Then customers could cook the recipe themselves at home, creating their own unique experience.
A few in-person events: Once local wineries began to open, we could cook at live in-person events, selling both food from the cookbook along with autographed copies of the book while interacting with guests with proper social distancing.

We continue to learn new ways to do cookbook promotion in a pandemic, even though the in-person events and speaking engagements we planned so long ago are still not happening. Our book is here for the long term, though, so we’ll continue to get people to see the cookbook, and find complimentary ways to work with creators and other businesses that benefit both of our audiences.

So if you happen to have a book coming out within the year, don’t panic. Just pause, pivot, and plan. Remember all the great work you put into the book. It’s certainly not how we pictured this process, but we’re riding out this storm the best we can.

* * *

Now, for the giveaway of Fire & Wine:

If you’d like to win a copy of our new cookbook, leave a comment below by July 31, 2020. Dianne will pick a winner at random from Random.org. This offer is available to residents of the USA only.

Update: We have a winner! Thanks to everyone who entered.

* * *

Mary Cressler and Sean Martin blog about BBQ and wine on their website, Vindulge, which received an IACP nomination for Best Recipe-Based Blog in 2017 and also 2020. Mary is food writer with credits in Wine Enthusiast, Serious Eats, Weber Grills Online, and a frequent judge for wine competitions. Together they also run the catering company Ember and Vine, which serves Portland and Oregon wine country. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

(Disclaimers: I worked with Mary Cressler and Sean Martin by coaching them through a cookbook proposal. I introduced them to their literary agent. Learn more about how Mary and Sean’s journey and how their cookbook came about on this podcast by Food Blogger Pro. I am an affiliate. Also, this post contains an affiliate link. — Dianne)

For more about book promotion, see this collection of blog posts.

The post Cookbook Promotion In a Pandemic appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

Giveaway: Win a Copy of Fire & Wine and Get Tips on Cookbook Promotion In a Pandemic

A guest post by Mary Cressler and Sean Martin

Our first cookbook launched in April, right after the pandemic hit.

We had spent two years preparing for the launch of Fire + Wine: 75 Smoke-Infused Recipes from the Grill with Perfect Wine Pairings. That included another six months of planned book tour and events post launch.

And then the world shut down in March. But we still had to do cookbook promotion in a pandemic.

The two of us can chuckle now at the mention of “pivot,” but that’s exactly what had to happen. All of our planned in-person events that would have generated media and buzz were cancelled for the rest of the year. Immediately. They included:

a book tour
TV promotional segments
summer cooking events
speaking engagements at bookstores and other venues.

After strategizing with our publisher and agent, we decided we had worked too hard to panic and stop promotion of the book. There had to be other ways to get the cookbook in front of people. It would just require us to think digital.

And speaking of that, we are doing a giveaway of Fire & Wine: 75 Smoke-Infused Recipes from the Grill with Perfect Wine Pairings! If you would like to win a copy, leave a comment.

Here are some of the strategies we employed to a do cookbook promotion in a pandemic. If you have a book launch in the next year, they might be helpful:
1. Communicate with your publisher.

Together we had to create a new plan to get the book in front of media for reviews, focus on social media strategy for messaging, and avoid stepping on each other’s toes.

Our publisher released the book earlier than the original April 28th date because people were home and looking for things to cook. So as early as mid-March the book started shipping to existing pre-orders and we had to be ready to promote. As we did so, our publisher amplified the book events we did online.

Smoked Salmon Crostini with Capers, Dill, and Goat Cheese

Our promotion efforts didn’t end after the first 30 days. We continue to lean on our publisher for book giveaways and assistance in amplifying our messaging.

2. Plan out your live social media.

When the pandemic began, we went live on social media — like everyone else, it seemed. But we also needed a plan of how we wanted to engage with our current and potential readers. We didn’t just want to go live and then let that fade away after the launch. We had specific live events that worked for each platform and created a weekly schedule:

Facebook and YouTube: These platforms are great for longer demos, particularly cooking demonstrations. The streaming service Streamyard let us see and interact with comments, and users stayed engaged longer.
Instagram:  We used Instagram for interview style events, and also virtual wine tasting. Its interface is more casual and not so user friendly for a full cooking demo. 
Pinterest: We created various cookbook pins, including videos, that we published as a supplement to our current recipes and to drive traffic to our website to purchase books.

3. Partner for online cooking events.

We approached other creators in our niche of food and wine to ask if they would do a virtual cooking event with us. Once creators received our book, we asked if there was a recipe they liked and if they wanted to cook together using one of our virtual tools (like a live Facebook event for both of our pages). Our creator community rallied and continues to support us today.

Content was either a fully-produced cooking segment, a series of stories showing the book and ingredients, or even some photos in their carousel of content. We saved these promotions so we can re-publish on platforms like YouTube and IGTV. These creator relationships provided exposure to new audiences who might enjoy the book.

4. Double down on media.

Whether TV, radio, or print, we called and found every possible outlet willing to do cookbook promotion during a pandemic. Some of these are pretty standard when promoting a book, but we doubled down on them:

Virtual TV segments: Producers still needed content. We used our digital setup at home to do TV segments on our local ABC affiliate morning show, AM Northwest. Every few weeks we called into Skype or Zoom and to share a recipe from the cookbook and chat with the host.
Radio and Podcasts: We did both radio interviews and podcasts. This style of interview is fun because it allowed us to speak about the book and our story in a conversational and casual manner with the host(s), versus a more formal timed TV interview, for example.
Engage new readers: This is where both our own relationships and the publisher’s were so important. We found opportunities for recipe and book features in print publications with a reader base around the world, from regional publications like Sip Northwest to GQ UK.
Network online: Participating in Zoom conversations with media and professionals in our niche was a great way to build interest in the book and sell. We could host and invite them, or ask others who have these private discussions to join and talk about the book.

Merlot Spritzed Beef Brisket

5. Contact local businesses to help you promote.

Don’t underestimate all your pre-existing business relationships and partnerships . We made phone calls to find opportunities to sell books through outlets online or through curbside pickup. Here are a few examples:

Virtual cooking classes. These are for wine club events at local wineries. They can host anywhere from 20 – 80 people. At one winery, a host led the event. We had a camera for cooking a recipe, and another camera for interview questions and we were ready to go. Zoom’s webinar feature works best for this. The wineries got to offer a unique experience to their loyal customers and we got to feature the book. Some wineries will offer a discount bundle on the book and the wine.
Events with food businesses: We called every grill, knife, and meat company we have worked with and asked if they could do a feature. It was very helpful because we did some social media takeovers, email features and giveaways, and offered free recipe snippets for their own newsletter community. This amplified our reach by thousands by getting in front of new audiences.

We sold the idea of the book “experience.” Instead of just asking businesses to buy and sell the book, we imagined an experience where customers could buy uncooked meat and ingredients, a copy of the book, and some wine, all as a bundle with a discount. Then customers could cook the recipe themselves at home, creating their own unique experience.
A few in-person events: Once local wineries began to open, we could cook at live in-person events, selling both food from the cookbook along with autographed copies of the book while interacting with guests with proper social distancing.

We continue to learn new ways to do cookbook promotion in a pandemic, even though the in-person events and speaking engagements we planned so long ago are still not happening. Our book is here for the long term, though, so we’ll continue to get people to see the cookbook, and find complimentary ways to work with creators and other businesses that benefit both of our audiences.

So if you happen to have a book coming out within the year, don’t panic. Just pause, pivot, and plan. Remember all the great work you put into the book. It’s certainly not how we pictured this process, but we’re riding out this storm the best we can.

* * *

Now, for the giveaway of Fire & Wine:

If you’d like to win a copy of our new cookbook, leave a comment below by July 31, 2020. Dianne will pick a winner at random from Random.org. This offer is available to residents of the USA only.

* * *

Mary Cressler and Sean Martin blog about BBQ and wine on their website, Vindulge, which received an IACP nomination for Best Recipe-Based Blog in 2017 and also 2020. Mary is food writer with credits in Wine Enthusiast, Serious Eats, Weber Grills Online, and a frequent judge for wine competitions. Together they also run the catering company Ember and Vine, which serves Portland and Oregon wine country. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

(Disclaimers: I worked with Mary Cressler and Sean Martin by coaching them through a cookbook proposal. I introduced them to their literary agent. Learn more about how Mary and Sean’s journey and how their cookbook came about on this podcast by Food Blogger Pro. I am an affiliate. Also, this post contains an affiliate link. — Dianne)

For more about book promotion, see this collection of blog posts.

The post Giveaway: Win a Copy of Fire & Wine and Get Tips on Cookbook Promotion In a Pandemic appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

Why My Free E-Cookbook Turned Out Better Than I Ever Imagined

A guest post by Jamie Schler

We chose a photo of the Meringue-Topped Rice Pudding with Apples because it is visually striking and filled the cover space. I named the book Isolation Baking because that was the name of my Twitter project that led to the book, and it was familiar to people. The subtitle “Recipes from my (post) confinement kitchen” signaled that the cookbook wasn’t limited to the period of Covid confinement.

My first e-cookbook came about by accident. And so did giving it away for free. Nevertheless, my free e-cookbook has been a big success and led to some other positive events.

Here’s the backstory: As the world went into lockdown I began sharing recipes on Twitter under the hashtag #IsolationBaking. After panic-shopping, people found themselves with lots of ingredients they didn’t know what to do with, and lots of meals to cook.

They were also looking for a distraction. Social media had become a lifeline for human contact. I started thinking about what I had to offer this huge community now hanging out online.  

The answer was recipes. I wanted to reconnect with my food community and reassert myself as a food writer anyway. I had spent more and more time posting on Twitter about American politics.

After two solid weeks of posting close to 30 recipes on #IsolationBaking, people asked me to gather the recipes and post them on a platform that made them more accessible. It would also be less confusing than following a recipe broken up among a series of tweets.

My husband suggested I put them into an e-cookbook. This recipe-sharing project became

the best distraction for me during these uncertain times
an excellent promotional tool 
and a way to bring in money to help our business here in France, despite the fact that it was a free e-cookbook.

Here’s what I learned about creating a free e-cookbook:
1. An isolation cookbook has to come out fast,  before the end of confinement.

How do you do something fast when you’ve never done it before? Fortunately for me, my husband Jean-Pierre worked in publishing, both as an editor and a publisher, for 15 years. He loves projects like this. He’s been pushing me to create an e-cookbook for years.

So he did all the work of choosing a platform and helping me with glitches. His first choice was Lulu, and his second was Apple’s iBooks, which gives two options: ePub and iBooks. EPub allows distribution on a wide variety of platforms, like Lulu does, but both the layout and the interface were bad.

We went with iBooks. But not before we spent lots of time figuring it out. As Jean-Pierre said,  “Anyone can create, publish, and share a nice pdf, but once you want something more elaborate, there are not a lot of sites that do it. The problem with each platform is that you only discover the limits and features little by little, after you sign up and get further and further into the process.

“Our main problem was a tax problem (U.S. versus France). The second was that many platforms offer only an unattractive book layout with limited features. We ended up on iBooks because we could create a beautiful, high quality book. We also liked the ease of uploading photos and recipes and manipulating and adjusting the layout.”

Apple’s iBooks made it easy to publish quickly. Its stock cookbook format is beautiful, the finished product user-friendly and the design is striking. It was simple enough for a novice like me.

The other reason I could move quickly was because I already had the recipes. My blog, Life’s a Feast, began in 2008 and continued through January 2015, when I created a new version of my blog on an updated platform. Since then, seven years of recipes with photos have laid dormant, inaccessible to the public. Only a dozen or so made it to my new blog. I drew on this existing collection of recipes to post on Twitter and then put in the e-book. As a result, I had no recipe development to do.

Since only Mac, iPad, or iPhone users could download the e-book from Apple Books, we also shared the full Isolation Baking pdf on a Google doc that everyone could access and download.

2. Twitter helped me edit and choose my recipes.

For each recipe, I corrected typos and errors, ensured the language and layout was uniform, and verified my U.S. measures-to-metric conversions. I retested only a handful of recipes, primarily to take better photos. And as I shared recipes to Twitter, new eyes read through each recipe, calling out errors as well as testing each recipe!

Twitter was just what I needed: It was fast and interactive. Those who followed #IsolationBaking could ask questions and I could answer on the spot, and I could adapt my choice of recipes to the demand.

I worked on the cookbook mornings and afternoons for two to three weeks straight. The first week I spent wrangling platforms and layouts, and I uploaded about 90 recipes and photos in the next two weeks.

A sample chapter page. We fiddled with the code to have a different color for each chapter head page. We added an insert atop the photo with the list of recipes found within that chapter.

3. I didn’t expect to give away my book for free.

When filling out the iBooks registration forms, the question of whether to sell comes up automatically. At first we decided to sell it for €10, knowing that iBooks kept 30% for commission. Nevertheless, it was an innovative way to raise money for our business here in France. Our hotel had suffered financially during the period of confinement and lockdown.

But it was impossible to direct e-book sales into a French bank account. The American publisher demanded that the money go into my personal U.S. bank account. I didn’t want the transactions mixed up with my tax situation in the US. There was no way around it. We decided to give the book away.

We did create a PayPal account for those who wanted to donate to our hotel in exchange for the e-book. Many did, and we were delighted!

4.  It turned out better than I ever imagined.

Posting the recipes daily on Twitter created a buzz that drove enthusiasm and expectation. People shared my recipes, and new people followed me and shared the recipes as well. New followers got to know who I am, and the buzz boosted the sales of my traditionally-published cookbook Orange Appeal.

Here’s a sample recipe page. We were happy with the quality resolution of the photos.

Once I announced I would put the recipes into an e-cookbook, I had already created a fanbase by posting my recipes online. This large and growing group was happy to become part of the #IsolationBaking community. I continued to post recipes on Twitter as I put together the e-cookbook to keep interest high and growing.

A free e-cookbook guaranteed much wider readership, of course. More people downloaded and cooked from it than would have if I tried to sell it. To my surprise, though, the e-book became a fantastic promotional tool, especially as I’ve not published a book for a while. Everyone who downloaded and used this e-book became a potential purchaser of Orange Appeal and any future cookbook I might publish. To date, more than 3,000 people have downloaded Isolation Baking just from iBooks; I have no access to the number of downloads of the pdf from the Google doc, but many have downloaded it there as well.

To my surprise, my free e-cookbook helped me find and grow a new audience and following. I’ve already started working on ideas for my next two e-books.

* * *

Jamie Schler is a writer specializing in food and culture. She’s the author of Orange Appeal and the e-cookbook Isolation Baking. She lives in Chinon, France, where she and her husband own the Hôtel Diderot. You can follow her on Twitter @lifesafeast.

For more on self publishing, read these posts.

The post Why My Free E-Cookbook Turned Out Better Than I Ever Imagined appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

How to Support Black Lives in Food

A guest post by Adrian Miller

I’ve been trying to figure out my role in being someone who can create a shared future for black lives in food. It’s a future where we have racial justice and so many other forms of justice that are needed.

I’ve always maintained that if we’re ever going to get a breakthrough on race, white people need to work this out amongst themselves. Because no matter what I say or whatever other people of color or marginalized people say, it gets discounted at some level or outright dismissed by the white people who hear it.

Or I can’t really get to a point of engaging in real dialogue. The white people who don’t know me are really scared to say what’s in their heart. And even the ones who know me are pretty scared to say what they really feel.

As a start, here are three ideas for supporting Black lives in food:
1. Create Allyship and Safe Spaces for Conversation.

When people wonder what they can do to start being an ally, I tell them to “do what you can where you are.” I borrowed this phrase from my friend Toni Tipton Martin. You go through all the things you think you can do. Then when you exhaust those, it’s time to think, “Maybe I need someone else to show me what I can do.” Raise the question out loud. Because there’s stuff that you may not have even thought about.

Second, there has to be what I call Welcome Tables (referring to the gospel song). This is where we create spaces for people of different perspectives to come and discuss really tough things. Some may completely disagree, but people need to come together, and no one has the moral high ground.

People need to feel safe actually saying what’s really on their mind. And then listen, even if there’s whack stuff coming out of the other person’s mouth. Hear them and try to understand. Just try to recognize the humanity of that person on the other side of that dialogue. If the two of you can’t come to an agreement, you have to just hold the tension that you disagree.

2. Use Food to Reconcile and Disarm.

I talk in my forthcoming book, Black Smoke, about how certain foods have negative racial stereotypes, and food actually becomes weaponized. In the late 1800s, media leaders had to build a case to undermine black rights and eventually limit them. They used food to create the idea that Black people are inferior, childlike, beast-like ― basically that they weren’t really humans, so why are they getting these rights? Barbecue was used that way ― it wasn’t just fried chicken or watermelon, it was all the same food white people ate ― but it became weaponized. To this day, I have Black friends who won’t eat fried chicken if white people are around.

I have gravitated toward food because I think food is a powerful tool for reconciling issues. When you sit down at the table with someone, you recognize their humanity, looking at cooking food as an act of love because as the cook is saying at some level, “I care about your survival.”

Food disarms people. It makes them more comfortable and creates a space to build relationships and get to know each other so that you can then go on to talk about the really tough things. We can use food in myriad ways to bring people together so we can work some of the stuff out.

3. Support Black Food Businesses.

People can support Black lives in food with their dollars. It sounds trivial, but if there are people in the world that you think are doing good things, support them by following them on social media and encourage other people to follow them, too. Social media is the coin of the realm these days. Amplify their voices by sharing the good stuff they’re doing.

When someone is looking for influence-makers, they’re looking at the followers. Like those of Samin Nosrat from “Salt Fat Acid Heat.” She has around half a million Instagram followers. She posted a picture of me and said “Follow Adrian Miller.” She did this for several other Black people in the food space, and it doubled my Instagram followers in two days. That’s somebody who supports and amplifies Black voices.

To be even more specific:

Hire Black caterers and chefs for your events
Go to Black-owned restaurants as much as you can
If you don’t have much money, lend your talents to people in the food space or other Black entrepreneurs or causes. Maybe you can handle the social media for a Black restaurant, especially if you know they’re struggling.
If you’re good at business consulting, or you have specialized skills that a small business could benefit from, volunteer to offer them at a discount.

What I’ve found with a lot of Black food entrepreneurs is that they’re good at making food, but running a business presents challenges.

People can create opportunities for food writers by buying our products, or by inviting us for paid speaking opportunities. We need to cultivate what I call reconciliation entrepreneurs. These are creative and talented people who figure out innovative ways to bring people together.

4. Tell Stories that Build An Allied Future.

People need to be told a story or be convinced to do something to engage. For those of us who want to see a better future for black lives in food, we have to tell stories that motivate people to join us to build that future.

* * *

Adrian Miller , aka the Soul Food Scholar, is a food historian and the author of the James Beard Foundation Award-winning book Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time and The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, From the Washingtons to the Obamas. Follow him on Twitter at @soulfoodscholar.

(Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.)

The post How to Support Black Lives in Food appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

Developing Recipes in the Age of Coronavirus

A guest post by Faith Kramer 

Like many food writers ordered to shelter in place, I spend my days developing recipes. I’m doing so for my cooking column, which appears every other week in the j, Northern California’s Jewish Resource. 

Once the quarantine began, it was time to adapt. Overnight we became a nation, if not a world, that wanted comfort food. Taste was still paramount, but I needed recipes that were emotionally nourishing, easy to source, economical and convenient to make, and still connected to my target audience.

Here are my 5 tips for developing recipes in the age of COVID-19:
1. Watch social media to see what people cook and what resources they turn to for recipes and guidance.

Many Facebook groups, Instagram and Twitter hashtags, Pinterest boards, TikTok videos and YouTube channels have sprung up with a focus on quarantine cooking. Even the comments are helpful.

I try to follow what the home cooks make, rather than the food professionals, so I focus on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Just a few of the Facebook groups I’ve been following include KitchenQuarantine, Shelter in Place Cooking, and Cooking from Your Pantry. From Twitter and Instagram, I’ve checked the hashtag #quarantinecooking, among others.

I also check Amazon’s list of best-selling cookbooks to see what people want to cook. 

2. Embrace new ways to get your recipes to readers.

Google searches for recipes peaked in early April in the U.S. but are still trending high. Take advantage of this unprecedented interest. Many cooks are looking for guidance. If they find a resource they connect with and trust, they seem to become loyal fans almost overnight.

A Facebook group sprung up around The Modern Jewish Baker, by Shannon Sarna. Within weeks it had 1,000 members, many of whom are just buying her cookbook now. Jamie Schler, author of Orange Appeal, created a free ebook, Isolation Baking, which resulted in close to 3000 downloads from Apple Books, plus an unknown additional number of pdf downloads and shares from other sources. Schler says she has seen increased sales of Orange Appeal and support of the French hotel she owns with her husband.

3. Beware the fad recipe.

The author went down a rabbit hole while chasing a fad whipped coffee drink for a column. (Photo by Faith Kramer.)

Earlier during the pandemic, I spent too much time developing recipes for a column based on whipped coffee, a sensation on TikTok that rapidly spread to all forms of social media. By the time the column was in print, the recipes felt like old news. Now I try to spot coming trends rather than established ones, by not only checking social media and cookbook sales, but using tools like Google Trends to confirm hunches or spot new ones.

Both my current and future recipes take advantage of several trends. Inspired by cookbook sales, I’m using beans and other plant-based foods. I’m also working on recipes for for chicken kabobs, a rising trend according to Google. These all are also a good fit with my target audience.

4. Stop cooking with hard-to-get items.

Pay attention to what your target audience may experience in terms of shortages or issues in purchasing and storing fresh ingredients. Note the supply issues faced by cooking group members. Look online to see which virtual shelves are bare.

While grocery supply chains seem to have recovered somewhat, flour and yeast remain hard to find. Some Internet resources for spices and international ingredients have also had supply problems. Random issues also pop up. It took me three grocery deliveries over three weeks to assemble ingredients for a dessert. Stores were sold out of cream cheese.

Fresh produce is also challenging. Even when people can buy a full range of fruits and vegetables, perishability is an issue, since households may only shop once every week or two.

Shoppers who stocked up on bananas were almost immediately impacted, with in a bumper crop of banana bread recipe requests and photo shares. Google Trends shows banana bread peaking in late March, but it’s still a good 20 percent higher than searches before the quarantine.

Sometimes scarcity results in useful trends in recipe development, such as the yeast shortage giving rise to sourdough bread baking. Google Trends still shows a 200 percent increase in searches for sourdough recipes.

I’m reacting to these shortages by calling for cabbage when developing recipes. It stores well for weeks, instead of more perishable greens. I also offer alternatives such as canned items and multiple options for seasoning and spicing.

5. Step out of your comfort food zone.

I’ve seen growing desire from home cooks on social media to learn new cuisines or replicate favorite restaurant foods they miss. This is also shown in Google Trends, as searches have recovered from the deep dip in interest that many international cusines took earlier in the pandemic. 

Other cooks are trying out new equipment — airfryers dominate Google searches — or learning new skills beyond challah and sourdough bread making.

What does this all mean for food writers who develop recipes?

My column is based on develping recipes for what is fresh, seasonal, tastes good, and fits into my scope as a Jewish food writer. Now I look at how I can adapt to also give readers recipes that work right now. Looking at trends, social media and cookbook sales doesn’t replace my palate or knowledge. But it adds other considerations to the recipes I write, and I will continue to pursue them as we enter the next phase and beyond.

* * *

Faith Kramer is a freelance food writer, blogger, and recipe developer who writes a cooking column for the j., Northern California’s Jewish Resource. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Contact her at clickblogappetit AT gmail DOT com.

(Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Top photo courtesy of unsplash and Pablo Lancaster Jones.)

The post Developing Recipes in the Age of Coronavirus appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

What Makes an Award-Winning Cookbook?

A guest post by Sara Bir

I always tell people the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) awards are to the James Beard Awards what the Golden Globes are to the Oscars. They’re a big deal, a feather in the caps of publishers and authors who produce an award-winning cookbook.

I was a volunteer cookbook judge for the awards. The category I judged had nearly 30 entries. That’s 30 cookbooks to read cover to cover and scrutinize deeply.

Having written two cookbooks myself, I know how much effort goes into producing one. I took pains to consider each candidate for its functionality rather than whether I just “liked it.” After preliminary judging, the top three cookbooks moved on to the second tier, and judges made three recipes from each book.

It was a giant amount of work that included the grocery shopping for testing, the note-taking, and the dishwashing. But I came out of it invigorated about the enduring power of cookbooks. I spent hours considering what makes a compelling recipe stand out from a mediocre one. And more times than I’d like, I was reminded of what made one just plain bad.

I decided to look at cookbook judging as a bonus course in Advanced Recipe Writing, and I’ve put these takeaways into action in my own work as a recipe developer and cooking teacher.

What makes an award-winning cookbook? Here are 5 tips:

1. Decide whom your book is for and know why it needs to exist.

Readers come to recipes for all kinds of reasons. Still, a cookbook needs to be functional as both instruction and storytelling. Good recipe writers pull off both in a way that speaks to their audience.

Before you embark upon writing and developing recipes, ponder these questions:

What’s the skill level of my audience?
Is a dish they have to make different from what they love to make? Approach either with the same level of commitment.
What need does your recipe fill for readers? It is a fascinating story, or just a quick meal on the table?

I loved some of the cookbooks despite not being the target reader. The authors did a good job pulling me in. They invited me to be part of their audience. So your audience isn’t just who follows you now, but whom you could convert. The writers who converted me had something fascinating to say about nearly every recipe, even seemingly prosaic ones.

2. It’s not about you.

The age of influencers has changed the tone of many cookbooks. A friend of mine cannily summed up the current tone as “Wanna be great? Be like me!” I saw lots of this attitude, especially in headnotes. 

A truly welcoming, award-winning cookbook urges “To be great, be like you.” Its recipes come from a standpoint of hospitality. When you write a recipe, the reader is your guest. You are the guide for helping readers achieve confidence and developing their own kitchen persona.

It’s fine to be personal when it makes sense, and it’s important to come off as an authority so you can build trust. But in the end, you need to acknowledge your readers and what they need.

3. Voice matters more than anything.

 Luscious photos will draw readers in, but it’s your voice that keeps them coming back. Once a reader selects your cookbook, it’s your voice that makes the Tahini Swirl Brownies memorable, not the 1/2 teaspoon of Maldon sea salt scattered prettily over their crackly tops.

You want readers to feel you are there with them in the kitchen, a reassuring companion. This does not mean you need to be a brilliant writer. You simply need to be you.

And voice is not for headnotes alone. As you walk your reader through the procedure, use clear language, but sound like yourself. You can use functional language and still be sly or idiosyncratic. Have fun. A strong, appealing voice builds trust as much as excellent recipe performance. Be hang-worthy.

4. You can’t write great recipes alone.

Ideally, a vigilant editor and smart recipe testers are part of your team. Otherwise, it’s impossible to catch every flub on your own.

The advantage of cookbook recipes is the higher level of attention editors devote to the language and formatting. A good editor ropes you in when you are wordy, helps shape ideas, and nudges you to get your point across while keeping your voice.

Sadly, I gave some promising books lower marks because the editing just was not there. Signs of that were

wordy, unclear methods
ingredients listed in incorrect order
neglecting to direct readers when to season with salt
or stating what kind of salt, and how much (more on that one later!).

5. Tiny oversights make a big difference.

Surprisingly few recipes bothered to mention how to store a finished recipe. Refrigerate it? For how long? Can you freeze leftovers? Are the yields and servings realistic? Trust me, readers want and need to know this.

Make sure all the sub-recipes make sense collectively. Don’t write an Eggs Benedict recipe to serve two that has a pint yield for hollandaise, a sauce that doesn’t keep.

I also found garnishes in photos that were not mentioned in the ingredients listing. This could be the fault of the food stylist, but it drives me nuts. I promise it drives your readers nuts, too.

Oh, and salt! If you’re not calling for exact measurements of salt (and you should be), remind readers to season with salt at every appropriate step. And remind them to taste as they go. This is one thing many home cooks need reminding of, because it can make the difference between a slam-dunk and a disappointing, bland result.

Should you try cookbook judging?

When I turned in my final ballot, I felt both relieved and satisfied. I was finally free to cook and read whatever I wanted, but I also had come to appreciate the scrutinous mindset of that makes an award-winning cookbook and recipe tick.

I heartily recommend saying “yes” if you’re invited to judge scholarships or awards. Doing so supports your community as well as standout emerging writers, because it allows you to judge works based on merit, not the renown of the author. If you ever read lists of winners and wonder “What makes an award winning cookbook?,” seeing how the sausage is made is enlightening.

Yes, it’s a huge time commitment to determine what makes an award-winning cookbook, but it pays off in professional insights. I came away from this epic undertaking feeling closer to my culinary colleagues and having a better pulse on what speaks to people. It made me a better writer, teacher, chef, and reader. And I have a bunch of shiny new cookbooks!

* * *

Sara Bir is a chef and a writer. Her second cookbook, The Fruit Forager’s Companion, won a 2019 IACP award. She’s a regular contributor to Simply Recipes and writes for many websites and publications. Sara lives in southeast Ohio, where she goes plantspotting in the woods and skates with the Appalachian Hell Betties roller derby team.

(Photo by Ashton Mullins on Unsplash)

The post What Makes an Award-Winning Cookbook? appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

A New Model for a Mini Cookbook?

What if you want to get just one really great recipe out into the world? How do you get it published? Kevin Pang figured it out. He and the owners of Parachute restaurant in Chicago published one recipe as an illustrated mini cookbook. Called The Parachute Bing Bread Book, they created it through a successful Kickstarter campaign. And Pang has plans for more mini cookbooks, with chefs.

The 32-page cookbook covers a recipe for just one menu item that has a cult following. The recipe for bing bread is 5,000 words.

Now, obviously, this bing bread is no ordinary flatbread. (“Bing” is the generic name of Chinese crisp flatbreads.) It’s a round bread with a crispy outside and chewy inside that’s stuffed with bacon, cheddar cheese and green onions and served with sour cream butter. The cooks at Parachute train for several months before they can make it properly for customers. 

Co-author Pang works at the marketing firm M. Harris & Co., which birthed and produced this project. He is a James Beard award-winning writer who has written for The New York Times and Saveur. His co-writers are Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark, owners of Parachute. To buy the book, send an email to info AT parachuterestaurant DOT com. All proceeds now benefit the restaurant.

Here’s what co-author Pang says about publishing this unsual mini cookbook: 
Q. What is bing bread’s origin? Did it start out as a simple flatbread? 

A. When Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark opened Parachute six years ago, they decided to have a bread course. They considered a paratha or a roti. Somehow they landed on bing, the broad Chinese term for any sort of crisp flatbread. Beverly remembered tasting a baked potato soup from a restaurant in suburban Chicago, and she thought scallions, potatoes, cheese and bacon would work well in a bread. She made one for a dinner party, and of all the dishes she made, that bing bread elicited the biggest reactions.

The object of a 5,000-word recipe in The Parachute Bing Bread Book. It’s chewy inside, and stuffed with bacon, cheddar cheese and green onions. It’s served with a side of sour cream butter. (Photo by Kevin Pang.)

Q. Has this ever happened before, to your knowledge, where a restaurant publishes a 5000-word recipe as a mini cookbook?

A. Certainly I’ve never seen it. Maybe that’s why we decided to go with that format. I don’t think, however, that we settled on that length just to fill a word count quota. The truth is the recipe is very difficult to pull off. To properly teach the home cook the recipe, we had to include every detail. Literally every detail.

Q. Why does a recipe need to be 5,000 words? Bon Appetit got their version down to a normal size. 

A. Because sometimes dishes are hard to make. It would be like a Parisian boulangerie teaching its baguette recipe in 300 words. You might get 70% of the way there. With all due respect to the Bon Appetit recipe, the actual recipe — the method from the restaurant — has a lot more nuance. We go into granular details, like the hand motion when you’re shaping the dough balls, and the proper protein levels when choosing a flour. I promise you, we made the book as pithy as we could!

Q. Is this teeny book the first one in a series? Will they all be crowd-funded if so?

A. There will be more books in the series, yes. I’m collaborating with several chefs who have signature dishes they want to share with the world. I’m excited because I get to know their secrets.

Q. You wanted to raise $9500 to pay for the mini cookbook on Kickstarter. Instead you three raised over $30,000. That’s amazing! Why do you think it was so successful?

A. We began this project pre-pandemic, but the timing seemed to have resonated amidst this terrible situation. People are looking to stay at home and kill time. They’re looking for cooking projects. They have a deep desire to bake. And if you’ve been to Parachute, you certainly want to know how to make that dish. It’s all those reasons, I think.

Q. If you don’t mind, what happened to the extra $20,000+ that resulted because you exceeded your goal? 

A. Kickstarter takes 10%, first of all. Then there are the tax obligation. Then there is the copy editor, the designer, the illustrator, the printer — those expenses have to be accounted for.

A significant portion goes towards shipping and handling. That includes the postage, the cardboard envelopes, the stickers and postcard we include, the label maker, the labels, and the service fee to the shipping company.

So there’s not really a lot left. Long story short: Some of that money went into buying more copies for the restaurant to have on hand, and whatever is left, the restaurant keeps. Really, that’s the whole motivation with this project.

When it came to cookbooks created through the traditional publishing industry, authors and cooks were getting the short end of the stick. I wanted to make the pay structure more equitable for us, and that’s why we D.I.Y.’d it.

* * *
You might also like:

Six Homemade Cookbooks and Cooking Tutorials that Support Independent Cookbooks
Build a Platform with a Self-Published Cookbook
7 Tips to Successfully Crowdfund a Cookbook

The post A New Model for a Mini Cookbook? appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

Why I’m Not Concerned About SEO

A guest post by Jean of Delightful Repast

For 10 years I posted once a week like clockwork. For year 11, I decided to post just once every two weeks. Will that hurt my SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? I don’t care. I’m too busy writing quality content—in my own unique voice without any gimmicks—punctuated with pretty food pictures. I’m not concerned about SEO.

Would I love to be a “successful” food blogger with a huge audience? Of course! But I don’t usually think about that. If I did, I’d have to be concerned about SEO: Things like posting frequency and timing, stats, email lists, paid promotions on social media platforms, which recipes are trending, and oh so much more.

My blog is a platform for self-expression, where I share the recipes I’ve enjoyed developing, my love of tea (the beverage and the ritual) and wine. And I slip in the occasional travel or wellness post. The best part of blogging is engagement with my readers. I read and respond to every comment. If the commenter has a blog, I visit the blog and comment. 

Though Delightful Repast has attracted notice that has led to some lucrative gigs with magazines and food-related companies, I have never monetized my blog. So I am, by definition, a hobby blogger. As such, I answer only to myself and don’t need to write bloated posts, as Dianne calls them, for the sake of Google or SEO.

Here’s why I am not concerned with SEO:
1. I post when it suits me.

Before I published my first post, I knew that posting more than once a week was not going to happen. I work as a freelance writer, I have clients and I have a life. That makes the requisite three times a week too stressful.

Experts will tell you there are certain days of the week and times of day that are better than others for posting. I just can’t be bothered. I post on Thursday because it suits my schedule.

2. I rarely look at Google Analytics.

Oh my. Unique pageviews versus pageviews, traffic sources — I can’t even tell you all the stuff that can be tracked, should one be inclined to track them. I am not inclined.

3. I am only on two social media platforms.

Though social media does not at this time directly contribute to SEO, it is said to play an indirect role. But if you want the details, I’m not the person to ask.

Okay, I am on Twitter and Pinterest; but I’m not on Facebook, Instagram, Yummly, Google+ or any of the other such things that seem to just keep on coming (and going).

And paid promotions on any of them? Uh-uh. Not for me.

4. I post what I like.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t care what recipes or subjects are trending. I eat what I like and cook what I like, and that’s what I’m going to write about for my readers.

Call something “trendy” and I’ll go out of my way to avoid it. When I write a travel review or product review, it’s about a place or thing I like and feel good about recommending.

In conclusion, I try to write a blog post that will inform and, sometimes, entertain my readers. I try to write a recipe that is original, appealing and clearly written so cooks at any skill level can make a success of it.

So if you are a hobby blogger, don’t sweat the SEO stuff. Write blog posts that are only as long as they need to be. If your recipe has a story, tell it. If not, don’t force one. And like me, you won’t need to bloat your posts with gimmicks to help your SEO.

* * *

As a freelance writer, Jean has written for many magazines and newspapers as well as the web. She started DelightfulRepast.com in 2010 to share her favorite comfort foods along with a bit of tea, travel, wine and wellness. Find her on Pinterest and Twitter. 

The post Why I’m Not Concerned About SEO appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

10 Food Writing Prompts to Try

Now that you have more spare time, how about a fun writing exercise? Think of it as a break from making sourdough bread, or searching for toilet paper.

People love food writing prompts. Readers give me good feedback about my food writing exercises in each chapter of Will Write for Food. And when I give out a prompt during

a live class, students get going. They hunch over their paper and scribble away, absorbed in their task. Many want to keep writing when I say it’s time to stop. 

So now it’s your turn. I found these prompts below in a file drawer I cleaned out. I’d give credit if I knew who created them! These questions are interesting to me because they’re not the usual. They create emotion in the writer. Provoking emotion in readers is a sign of good writing — maybe that will be a natural consequence of your experience? 

Memories are some of the most rewarding subjects to write about, regardless of whether they’re good or bad. That’s because we love to write about ourselves. We are experts on our own behavior and back story. We have endless fascinating material. Now’s your chance to get some of it down.

So pick one or two of these. Allow yourself to write whatever comes up. Remember that food writing can be sensuous. Try to engage touch, taste, hear, see and smell. Set a timer if you like, for maybe 10 minutes. 

Need a reason to write? Try a few of these food writing prompts:

What do you eat to remember?
What do you eat to forget?
Which food is your enemy?
Which food is a symbol of your childhood? 
What must you consume in a ritualized manner?
Which food have you forbidden yourself from eating and why?
Which food defines you?
What do you eat to bring up bittersweet memories?
What do you eat too much of, every time?
Which food gives you the strength to go on?

If you tried this, did something unexpected come up? Let me know about your experience.

* * *

You might also like:

Q&A: How Pie guru Kate McDermott Found her Voice
Speaking Your Truth
Molly Wizenberg: “Let Your Writing Speak for Itself, and Be Proud of It”

(Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash.)

The post 10 Food Writing Prompts to Try appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

Work from Home Wisdom for Food Writers

A guest post by Joy Manning

If you work from home due to the coronavirus, would you like to be more productive?  Here’s help. I’ve been a work from home food writer, whether full or part-time, on staff or as a freelancer, for 10 years. If you are trying to get into the flow, here are my own best practices, routines, and mindsets that have served me well over the past decade. 

Before I get to my daily routine for the week, I set up on Sunday. I make a new list of goals and tasks for the week. Then I schedule my workouts for the week on my Google calendar. Moving my body energizes and refreshes it and my brain, so I schedule something every day. Since the gym is closed, I schedule a mix of walks, runs, and at-home online workouts like yoga and bodyweight strength training.

I also set aside an hour to create a meal plan for the week. This blurs the line between the personal and professional. I review my own kitchen notebook. There I jot down ideas for dishes as well as things I’ve cooked on the fly and whatever cookbooks most interest me (right now it’s Cool Beans). Then I plan out dinners based on my current food inventory, recipe development in the works, and my whims.

Want to be a productive work-at-home food writer? Here’s what works for me daily:
1. I make my bed.

There’s a fair amount of research around why you should do this, but to me, it all comes down to “messy bed, messy head.”

2. After breakfast and coffee, I do household chores.

I might load and run my dishwasher and throw some kind of laundry in. I also give the kitchen a quick clean up to make it more appealing to cook in later in the day. I’m always surprised by what I can get done in 20 minutes.

3. I get out of my pajamas.

A lot of work-from-home advice would have you change into business casual at home, including shoes, accessories, and makeup. That really works for some people. Not me.

I like to change into my workout clothes. It feels stupid to take them off later if I didn’t work out. Because, as I mentioned, moving my body is a key part of my productivity. I also feel stupid wearing an apron over my athletic outfit, but it happens. I’m not above cooking in Spandex.

4. At 9 a.m., I get to my desk.

I start with a review of email, and then I look at my list of tasks and goals for the week. I open a new page in my notebook and write the date and day at the top in pen. Then, using a pencil, I write timeslots in 30-minute intervals in a column on the leftmost edge of my page.

Most people can do about four hours of focused work each day. I break it down into two 120-minute blocks: one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Usually, I will be working around other stuff on my calendar–those aforementioned workouts, conference calls, or interviews for stories I’m working on.

Generally speaking, I work on a project for 1 or 2 hours at a stretch. These blocks are reserved for what author Cal Newport calls “Deep Work,” concentration heavy, focused effort. For me, that means writing, editing or recipe development.

Sometimes I’ll spend both 2-hour blocks on the same thing depending on what’s going on in my work world. Block A often runs from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm, followed by lunch. Block B might be 1:30 to 3:30 or 3 to 5 or whatever. It changes day by day. I fill this in on my daily plan–in pencil–during the interval between 9 and 9:30 am. I write “planning” in that timeslot.

With my work blocks in place, I schedule less focus-heavy work in the other time slots (things like admin/invoicing, organizing recipes, posting my podcast, emails), leaving room for a couple of breaks. The break spots are often when I waste time on social media.

Then I follow my plan to the best of my ability.

But I wrote it in pencil because I often erase stuff and move it around. I make a plan but remain flexible because things come up. My energy crumbles. Unexpected calls come in. I get super motivated to do something I didn’t plan to work on. I spend the whole day in the kitchen instead of two hours working out an unexpectedly troublesome recipe.

That’s OK. This is why I don’t write tasks in pen and constantly get angry at myself.

5. I allow myself to not be disturbed. 

During these work blocks my phone is on DND, I do not open my email inbox, and I only have a browser tab open if I need to look something up. Otherwise, it’s just me and a word doc or me in my kitchen testing recipes and making notes. And I disable push notifications.

6. When there’s a lull, I work on my own projects.

Many of us, myself included, have experienced a swift decline in paid work from clients and assignments from publications. This gives us the opportunity to dedicate more of these precious work blocks to our personal projects that may not pay off until much later such as:

Starting or finishing a book proposal
Working on growing our email lists and creating content for our newsletters
Creating digital pieces to serve as opt-ins or to sell on platforms such as Gumroad
Creating online cooking or writing courses
Sprucing up our blogs or website
Refreshing our LinkedIn profiles.

7. I eat a real lunch.

You likely already know not to turn on your TV and that it’s better if you eat lunch away from your computer screen. As food writers, I know many of us eat random food over the sink while we’re working, but it’s mentally, physically, and emotionally healthier to take a break and eat your lunch from a plate while sitting at a table.

8. At the end of the day, I prepare for tomorrow.

I list my three top priorities. Then I walk away. I am lucky in that I have an office at my house and I try to stay out of it when I’m not working, especially late at night.

9. Lastly, I’m human: this system doesn’t always work. 

There are days when my system completely falls apart. At this point, I turn to a new clean page in my notebook and write, in pen, the date and day and the words, “I Did It! List.” I write a new column of time slots. Instead of writing what I plan to do, I write what I did do. Any accomplishment large or small personal or professional goes on the I Did It! List. I have added items such as “brushed my teeth” and “ate a sandwich.” Sometimes the pleasure of adding things to the list gets me rolling and productive again. 

If working from home is new, give it some time to grow on you. One possible silver lining to life under the coronavirus is that workplaces will better understand the importance of giving employees the tools and flexibility to work from home more often. Once you’ve got a system in place, you’ll look forward to those days.

Overall, we’re all about to learn just how much can be done remotely. I know from experience that the answer, when it comes to food media at least, is “almost everything.”

* * *

In the time before coronavirus, Joy Manning was a writer, editor, and recipe developer focused on food and health. For updates, find her on Instagram @JoyManning, where she shares what she’s cooking while social distancing. Listen to her home cooking podcast, Local Mouthful.

(Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash)

The post Work from Home Wisdom for Food Writers appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.