Archive for May, 2009

How to Write a Cookbook

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Cook Yourself Thin Book

 

If you’re like a lot of homemakers, you probably have a file or drawer full of cookbook recipes collected from family members and friends over the years. You’ve likely tried most of them and know which ones you like best. They’re probably the ones you find at the front of the file or top of the pile in your drawer.

Have you ever considered taking all of those great recipes and putting them into a book? If not, maybe you should. You just might have a goldmine sitting right there and don’t even realize it. Maybe Aunt Millie gave you an unusual but sensational recipe for strudel or your mother parted with her secret recipe for spicy homemade chili. Maybe you’ve also done a little experimenting in the kitchen yourself and cooked up some tasty meals.

The wonderful thing about recipes is that there is no copyright, so you won’t have to worry about whether someone else discovered the same secrets. What you will have to do, however, is decide on an overall theme for your cookbook. Would it be geared toward big families, singles, diabetics, organic eaters, etc.? Once you determine your theme, it will be easier to realize your target market. Although this may not seem important in the beginning, it becomes vital later on when you need to market the cookbook to a particular niche audience.

Once you’ve decided which recipes you plan to include (there should be 250-500) in your cookbook, think about how your cookbook will look inside. How many chapters will it have and which recipes will go into each chapter? The best cookbooks on the market are the ones that offer well laid out recipes that are easy to follow. Make sure your instructions (like chop, dice or mince) are easily understandable, and all measurements and baking times are accurate. A trick to making a cookbook more interesting is to include some snappy quotes or jokes, or even better – a few of your own comical experiences in the kitchen. You might also want to include such nutritional information as how many calories are in a typical serving.

Next, you need to consider pictures. Most people are very visual and just looking at certain foods make them want to eat it. With the advent of digital cameras, this should be pretty easy. Make the dishes you want to feature, prepare them artfully on a plate and take some pictures. If you’re not sure how to do this successfully do some research by looking at recipe books at the library or bookstore. Bear in mind that you will also need either a photo or graphic for the cover. You might want to consider having a professional photographer do this for you.

Once you have your cookbook ready for printing, you should have a professional editor review it to ensure there are no errors. You will then need to find a suitable publisher or have it done by a printer in your area. If you choose the latter, you might be able to find a local community group that might be willing to help you pay the printing costs in exchange for some copies they could sell for profit.

Once arrangements are made don’t think your work is done. You will still have to come up with a suitable price, and a solid marketing and advertising plan. This part of the process is vital to the success of your cookbook.

Martha Jette is a former newspaper and magazine editor, now author of five published books. For a ton of information about this, you can learn from a pro – Ron Douglas is a best selling cookbook author who will take you by the hand to help you not only create the best cookbook possible, but also earn significant profits in 60 days of less. Just go http://teeka12345.writecook.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=M12345″ />HERE!

Also if you need a professional editor, you can contact me at marthajette@gmail.com.

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Sell Cookbooks – Get Cash Fast – Sell Your Old Cookbooks!

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Cook Yourself Thin Book

It’s a well-kept secret but many people are selling their old cookbooks to raise some cash in these harder economic times. They want to keep it a secret so they don’t have as much competition. Because they’ve found that after selling their own old cookbooks that they can easily pick up the best used, old, rare, vintage and antique cookbooks at garage sales, yard sales, estate sales, etc.
The average person will have no idea that their cook books are valuable and could bring them a lot of money. They just consider them to be old cookbooks with no real value. If they do wonder, they don’t know how to go about finding out what they’re worth. The average antique appraiser is not going to know without a lot of research either.
Vendors, who are in business to put on garage sales, are completely unaware of the value of any of these cook books. These old, collectible cookbooks go for unbelievable prices of fifty cents to a dollar easily.
You can take advantage of this and earn yourself some nice cash. You can sell cook books for much more than you bought them for.
Go through your own old cookbooks first, if you have any, or through you mother’s grandmother’s or relative’s books to start with so you can build up a little knowledge.
What to look for. Although there are hundreds of cook books you can make a lot of money with you want to at first concentrate on the Better Homes and Garden Cookbooks and Betty Crocker Cookbooks. Look for those books that are from the 1950s and 1960s and older. Also look for the plaid covers or pie covers. You can also look for the Betty Crocker Boys and Girl Cookbooks. This is a good place to start because they’re plentiful and still bring in a lot of money.
What you should forget about – newer cook books are generally not going to be sought after by collectors. They can easily get these. The only time you can make any money with these is if the publisher did a short print run and it’s a small publishing company but this is usually not the case. Even then you may not get much for it.
You can sell cookbooks to collectors – old, rare, antique or vintage cookbooks – because they buy year ’round and the state of the economy doesn’t make a bit of difference to them. In fact they know they can find even more as people are finding out that old cookbooks have value and selling them. Of course there’s a lot more to learn and a lot of secrets in the cook book market but too much to go into in a short article. You can quickly learn how to sell old cookbooks.

For more tips on selling cookbooks go to http://www.SellCookbooks.com a website specializing in selling old, used, rare, vintage, antique and collectible cookbooks with lots of advice and resources

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Ethnic Cookbooks: The Best Means For Native Cooking

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Cook Yourself Thin Recipes

Cook Yourself Thin Recipes

Cook Yourself Thin Book

Ethnic cookbooks help in familiarizing people with the various delicacies and native meals of certain countries and cities. This can help you a great deal in relating with locals, especially if you have relocated or if you are visiting in laws or friends from other cultural backgrounds.

Cooking is the best way in order to get the right amount of nutrients in the body as well as the preferred taste. Trying a new cuisine is both fun and exciting. Ethnic cookbooks help in familiarizing people with the various delicacies and native meals of certain countries and cities.

This can help you a great deal in relating with locals, especially if you have relocated or if you are visiting in laws or friends from other cultural backgrounds.
Listed below are some of the famous ethnic cookbooks in different countries.

Afghanistan:

The newest edition of the cookbook entitled “Afghan Food and Cookery” is written by Helen Saberi with the aid of Shaima Breshna and Najiba Zaka. The author Helen Seberi has lived for ten years in Afghanistan and married an Afghan. She made a compilation of native authentic Afghan dishes.

Afghanistan cuisine was never actually documented, only until Helen Saberi wrote this interesting cookbook. She has been accustomed to cooking the cuisines in England. This is one reason why she thought of adding a “practical advice” section, intended for Western Cooks.

Much of the book’s content is on traditions, food stuffs and the eating habits in Afghanistan. This book was published by the Hippocrene Books, Inc. in New York and contains approximately 291 pages and costs only $12.95 US.

Africa:

• Best of the Regional African Cooking: This cookbook is written by Harya Hatchen. It has 240 unique dramatic recipes that were taken from every region in Africa. The book has about 274 pages. The cookbook’s paperback print costs $11.95 US dollars.

• Taste of Eritrea: Recipes from one of Africa’s Most Interesting Little Countries: There are more than 100 recipes written in this book that will allow mothers to bring home the taste of “Eritrea”. This cookbook was published by Hippocrene Books, Inc. during the year 2000. The paperback version has about 139 pages and costs $22.50 US. This cookbook was written by Olivia Warren.

• Tastes of North America: Recipes from Morocco to the Mediterranean: The author of this cookbook is Sarah Woodward. This book presents an exquisite compilation of the history, culture and dishes of some areas in North America. It was published by Hippocrene Books, Inc. in New York during the year 1999. The hardcover has about 160 pages that come with colored photos. The book costs only $27.50 US.

South Africa:

Traditional South African Cookery: The author of this cookbook is Hildegonda Duckitt. It is a collection of two worthwhile books of authentic recipes that were duly compiled by the author. It provides tasty Dutch and British-inspired meals as well as an insight in colonial Africa’s daily lifestyle. The cookbook has about 184 pages and the paperback costs around $10.95 US.

Cook Yourself Thin Recipes In All These Great Cookbooks

Albania:

The Best of Albanian Cooking: favorite Family Recipes: This book was written by R. John Hysa and Klementina. Albania. It has culinary influences from different countries such as Greece, Turkey and Italy. This is due to the fat that the country is located at the West and East crossroads.
The cookbook consists of more than a hundred recipes where in most of which are favorite Albanian cuisines. The hardcover was released in 1998 and has about 168 pages and costs around $22.50 US.
Argentina:
Argentina Cooks! Treasured Recipes from the Nine Regions of Argentina: This cookbook is written by Shirley Lomax Brooks. The book was written in order to give justice to the extraordinary cuisines of Argentina. The cookbook focuses on the specialty of each region. Thus, this cookbook is published by Hippocrene Books, Inc. New York. The paperback has 298 black and white photos and costs only $24.95 US.
Australia:
Good Food from Australia: This book was written by Graeme Newman and Betsy Newman. It has more than 150 recipes that were written in Australia and were all amazingly adopted in the American kitchen. It was published by Hippocrene Books, Inc during the year 1997. The hardcover has 284 pages and costs only $24.95 US.
Balkan Countries:
• The Melting Pot: Balkan Food and Cookery: This book was written by Maia Kaneva-Johnson. The most exhaustive thing would be to study the language and cuisines of the South-Easter portion of Hungary such as Romania, former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania, Northern Greece, Macedonia and Turkey. This cookbook actually tells it all. The paperback has 384 pages and costs only $27.50 US. Thus, it was published by Prospect Books in 1995.
• The Balkan Cookbook: The author of this book is Vladimir Mirodan. This cookbook focuses on the traditional recipes of countries such as Romania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. The said countries appear to be unknown to the Western people but they were influenced by the “Balkan’s unique setting” in Europe’s history. Learn to cook and prepare Balkan delights like chorcaval, borsh, papanashi, chorba and ghiveci using this cookbook.
Moreover, the book was published by Pelican Publishing Co. in 1989. The hardcover has about 207 pages with black and white illustrations and costs only $18.95 US.
• The Best of Croatian Cooking: This book was written by two persons namely Gordana Pirker-Mosher and Liliana Pavicic. Hence, Croatia is a beautiful country that is located along the Balkan peninsula of Europe. Croatia offers a sunny coastline and breathtaking panorama, along with a culinary tradition that blends a combination of Mediterranean, near-Eastern and European influences. More than 200 recipes are written in this book. The hardcover has 298 pages with black and white photos. It was published by Hippocrene Books, Inc. during the year 2000.

For more information on The Best Means for Native Cooking please visit our website.
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Books: NYT Best-sellers (Worcester Telegram & Gazette)

Sunday, May 31st, 2009
1. "Wicked Prey," by John Sandford. (Putnam, $27.95.)

Publisher’s Weekly Best Sellers (Belleville News-Democrat)

Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Hardcover fiction 1. "Gone Tomorrow" by Lee Child (Delacorte Press)

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