 |
| ISSUE NO. 682 |
| This week's newsletter is a continuation of the cookbook conversation, with a new voice dropping in to answer questions about the making of cookbooks. Sally Ekus is the senior literary agent of the Ekus Group, a boutique culinary division of the JVNLA agency. She specializes in cookbook representation and working with first time authors. DEAR GOOD FOOD JOBS COMMUNITY . . . Wow. I thought I was going to get a few general, “where do I begin if I want to write a cookbook?” questions. But no...I am reading each one of your thoughtful musings on what cookbooks mean to you and the various ways recipes and writing impacts our lives. I was naive to think that an engaged and deeply introspective community such as this would just pepper me (pun intended) with the usual suspect questions. I have LOVED reading what you each wrote - thank you! What I didn’t anticipate was how deeply each of your responses would impact me. How it would make me wonder what my responsibility is as a literary agent, contributing to the process of selling (aka pitching and placing) cookbook proposals to publishers. I mean sure, I already reflect on my role as gatekeeper and take this responsibility seriously - this is work I do every day as I consider people’s book proposals for literary representation. The sheer time and labor it takes to create that document is vast. But there is work for me to do in this role beyond that of an agent. I am an advocate and change maker in that I get the great honor of helping passionate experts bring their content to a wider audience (in printed book form). You all sure have me thinking about a lot of themes, some of which I have considered for the 15 + years I have worked in the industry, and some I am enjoying celebrating about this special space between food, writing, and connection, such as: / the deep comfort in getting lost in someone’s writing and retelling of their kitchen adventures / are there too many cookbooks? / what is the role of a cookbook? To an individual, to a culture, to one another. To community. / if, on average people only cook 3 recipes from a book, is that cookbook achieving it’s mission? / can a cookbook with “no recipes” or “un recipes” be considered a cookbook? / who OWNS a recipe and its origin? (this is a longer and completely separate newsletter topic btw) / how the publishing model puts an unfair financial pressure on the author/creator. / how the industry favors those who are in a position of privilege and can afford to take the time to build a platform (don’t even get me started on this…) and write a proposal / do cookbooks contribute to information overload, intimidating readers before they even step into the kitchen? / how can we continue to improve BIPOC representation in authorship? / recipes as art and the pros and cons of containing them between two covers / what does it mean to TEST a recipe / there are so many joys in thinking back to the first recipes we learn to cook and the books that are honored with our sacred shelf space These are just a few of the many incredible themes that rose to the surface as you each took the time to reflect and reply. Deciding to write a cookbook is a big JOB. It can also be a passion, mission, and vehicle to leverage other parts of the culinary world. Cookbooks are like big, beautiful business cards. They are an extension of who someone is and can bring new people into an author’s kitchen and life. While there are seemingly endless cookbooks published every year, less than 3% of most proposals make it through to agent representation and an eventual sale to a traditional publisher. So, how exactly does this happen? Below are a few general tips and resources for sifting (pun intended) your way through the information out there. I welcome you all to join the conversation over on Facebook, if you are on that platform, in a community I host called How to be a Cookbook Author. This is a place I share publishing news, agency updates/offerings, and also - most importantly - for seasoned authors and novices to connect and share with one another. You can also join a mailing list for more cookbook publishing info by providing your email here. Thank you for spending some time diving into this corner of the bookshelf. What is the first step in starting to write a cookbook? Start with a book proposal. It is the “business plan” for your book. It covers the Who, What, Where, When, Why of your idea. Proposal guidelines can be found here and are applicable to almost any cookbook agent you would want to pitch, though some agents may have specific guidelines on their site (so check/do your research on each agent). Also, I suggest not working through the document in a linear fashion as that can get really overwhelming. Start with the Competition section so you can get a sense of the landscape as to how the topic has been covered in the past. You want to look for comparisons that show there is a market for your book, which in and of itself can be a flawed/biased system. Use comparisons to your advantage, but don’t get too caught up in them. You do you! How do you structure a book? It depends. Take a look at some of the books that leave the reader with a similar experience that you would like to achieve. Are they organized by Apps, Mains, Sides, Salads, Desserts, Drinks? Seasonal? Other? I once had an editor tell an author that they should organize their book “traditionally” to help bring the reader in to a familiar system since the material was “less traditional”… Again, you do YOU in terms of what is right for the book. Look at all your recipes to see how they fit together and think about the reader’s experience in how they might look for/through your material. My suggestion is to play around with various ways to organize your book. The goal in the organization is to take your reader on a journey while balancing the reality that many people do not read cookbooks front to back (present company excluded!). What an agent and editors will look for is a balance of various types of recipes. For example, if you have 1-3 desserts, you may not need a whole chapter and they could be incorporated throughout the rest of the book. I have to say, I am excited by the various ways cookbooks have been expanding the definition of “organization.” How do you pitch a cookbook? Most cookbooks are pitched with a full proposal. Unlike fiction where you write the full manuscript, in non-fiction, you are working on the book you WANT to write. You are proposing it. Hence why it is called a book proposal. How long does it take to publish a cookbook? Traditional publishing takes about two years from the time your proposal is sold to the time it lands on the shelf. Authors have about 9-12 months to deliver their manuscript (this includes all photos, illustrations, and tested recipes), and then another 9-12 months of production (editing, copyediting, layout, design, printing, shipping, distribution). This timeline can be condensed for a book that is trend based or under other unique scenarios. IMO, it rarely benefits a book to rush a schedule since there are many mechanisms of publishing production that benefit from the 2 year time line. Do all cookbooks have tested recipes? The short answer is yes. Testing to some degree is an expectation of your contract. Certain publishing contracts actually stipulate that outside testing has to happen (at the expense of the author). Many authors choose to hire professional testers, if they can afford it, or engage a group of friends/family for formal testing. (Our agency has recipe testing forms that are generic documents that can be personalized if anyone reading this newsletter is interested.) Formal testers charge anywhere between $100-$300+ per recipe, not including ingredients. Yup…that is a LOT of money and in some (many) cases, an author’s advance may not even cover that cost. Hence engaging people in exchange for credit and a free copy of your book. How do I find testers or become one? Ask your friends, colleagues, or network in groups online and put a call out for testers. You can also email cookbook agents letting them know your experience with testing and offering your services. One tip to track new book deals is to stay updated on deal announcements on places like Publishers Marketplace (where you can buy a one day subscription) and reach out to authors who have just signed deals offering your services. My FB group is also another place testers meet and find authors. What does an agent do and how do I find one? A literary agent is an advocate for an author. Their job is to know the industry and marketplace. Agents work on a 15% commission off the advance and any royalties earned for the life of a project. Agents make money when their authors make money, aka, they get paid when you get paid. Do I need an agent? Not necessarily. It depends on your goal and your style of work though many publishers do not accept unsolicited pitches. All agents are different in their working style and process. While it is highly competitive to land an agent, you still should seek the RIGHT one, not ANY one. Some important considerations are: communication, client success, pitch process, and how much they work/don’t work with authors on their concept and proposal development. How important is platform? Very. But platform is more than social media following. I would love to say more on this but the topic of “platform” and the many inequities surrounding this but it truly is a longer newsletter. The short answer is that yes, social media numbers are important. Mainly because we know that about 1-3% of someone’s following actually converts to book sales. So it is a numbers game, the more people who follow a person, the higher that quantity of the 1-3% of people who will buy the book is. That said, platform is also so much more: speaking engagements, colleagues, newsletter readers (and open rates!), cookbook classes, podcast listeners, brand partnerships, art installations, farmer’s market pop ups, collabs with friends, and and and. What you really want to explain in your proposal, as it pertains to your platform, is proof that you can reach your intended audience and convert them into action. What are some go to resources for more information and how can we stay in touch? I hope spending a bit of time diving into how to get started on writing that cookbook has been helpful. My go-to resources are listed on our agency website here. In dedication to offering transparency in an often misunderstood part of the industry, please note that anyone interested in enrolling in the How to Write a Cookbook online course, can enter SALLYSENTME at checkout to receive $399 off. This course is designed to be a tool to offer as much of my expertise that a person can sit through in 2.5 hours. If cost is still a barrier to entry, just drop me an email and I will send you one of our equity pricing codes for 100% off. Thank you for reading to the bottom of this long newsletter! And huge thank you to Dorothy and Taylor for opening your incredible readership to me. Please stay in touch via email at Sally@EkusGroup.com and over on IG and in the Facebook group here. Sally ... We are thrilled and grateful to have partnered with Sally on these questions, and hope they continue the conversation. We'll be picking back up on this multi-layered topic next week with some additional shares of reader letters, and thoughts, and where we are going from here (together). Yours in food justice, Tay + Dor |
tidbits...resources on anti-racism, environmentalism and food culture AKA stuff we're reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday . . . |
 |