So, you’ve decided you want to publish a cookbook. Now what do you do? The idea of having to write and produce an entire cookbook can be overwhelming, especially when you look at the project as a whole, especially if you’re also running a food blog. But, when you break things down and just focus on the next step in front of you, it’s much more manageable. That’s why I’m going to tell you how to self-publish a cookbook, step by step.

If you’re still trying to decide whether you want to create a cookbook, I encourage you to go consider whether you should publish a cookbook and if it’s actually worth the effort. But, if you’re ready to go, this episode will serve as a checklist with the steps to go through when you’re ready to make your cookbook a reality.

AUDIO: LEARN HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH A COOKBOOK

Learn on the go! How to self-publish a cookbook — audio:

HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH A COOKBOOK: THE BASICS

STEP 1: CHOOSE A TOPIC FOR YOUR COOKBOOK

What’s your cookbook about? What niche will your cookbook fit into? Your book will be much more successful if it can fit into a specific niche. For example, your book on “how to cook everything” isn’t going to do as well as your book on paleo recipes made with vegetables from your garden. Chances are you’ve already been niching down with your blog, but if you haven’t, give this some thought.

Ask Your Audience What They Want

If you’re really stumped, look at what your people want and need! Ask them on social media. Look at your Google Analytics and see which kinds of recipes are getting the most traffic. What recipes do your fans rave about? Which recipes have the best reviews? If you haven’t already, take some time to figure out what your audience is looking for. When your cookbook fulfills a desire or need that your audience has, you’re much more likely to sell more copies.

STEP 2: WRITE AN OUTLINE FOR YOUR COOKBOOK

Once you’ve chosen a topic, start to plan out the content for your cookbook. If you need extra help planning, or if you just like to have worksheets that guide you through the process, definitely grab a copy of my free Cookbook Planning Guide.

Choose Your Recipes

Make a list of all of the recipes you want to include. Look through your blog to see if you can repurpose any recipes, and start to create a list of recipes you’ll still need to develop. With the recipes you’ve already written, make a note of whether you’ll need to take new photographs. (Make sure you have large, high-resolution photos saved somewhere. If you don’t, you’ll need to retake the photos.)

Plan Your Cookbook’s Other Content

Look through your favorite cookbooks and you’ll see that they include at least an introductory chapter. Many cookbooks have other text-based sections throughout the book that tell stories of their cooking journey, provide information about cooking methods or the histories of ethnic recipes, or expand on their recipes in other ways.

Think through any background information you might want to include in your cookbook. Your background stories or information could include:

How and why you started cooking
Why you’re drawn to your particular niche of cooking
Stories behind how you came up with your recipes
Tips for a particular style of cooking
Background information on particular ingredients or tools used to cook your recipes
Lists of ingredients to have on hand to make your recipes
Anything else you might want to put in your cookbook!

Whatever you choose to put in your cookbook, make sure it’s relevant! Any stories, examples, or other tidbits should enhance your reader’s experience with your recipes. If it’s off-topic, save it for your next book or put it in your food blog.

STEP 3: SEE WHAT ELSE IS OUT THERE IN YOUR NICHE

If you’ve decided to traditionally publish your cookbook, research will help you write your book proposal. Almost all book proposals will include a section that compares your proposed book to the other books that are out there in the market (your book’s “comps” or comparable books). It helps you argue that your book should be published and that your book will make money for your publisher.

If you’re self-publishing, this will give you some ideas about what you might want to include in your book. Don’t get stuck in comparison, though! Often we see what other people are doing and we get sucked into a spiral of “my book will never be good enough.” Don’t let yourself fall into that trap! Your book will be unique in many ways! If you feel yourself getting sucked into comparison-itis, go listen to Episode 94 of the Blogger to Author Podcast, “Mindset Shifts Authors Need to Make.”

What You Should Get Out of Market Research

Your goal with this research should be to figure out how your book is going to be different from the other books out there. What will make it stand out? This research will also help you figure out a good price for your book (be sure to write down the price other books are going for, and whether those prices are for eBooks, paperbacks, or hardcover). And, you can see the trim sizes (dimensions) that are common for books in your niche, which can help you choose the right size for your book.

A simple way to do this research is by hopping on Amazon, but it can be more effective to go to your local bookstore and see the books in person. Be sure to record:

Title
Page length
Topic
Trim size
List price
Other notes about the book. This could include how your book will be different from that book. You could also note things you like about that book, if what you see inspires something for your own book. (Important: don’t directly copy anything — that’s a big copyright no-no!!)

STEP 4: DECIDE WHETHER YOU WANT TO TRADITIONALLY PUBLISH OR SELF-PUBLISH

The next steps you should take will be different based on whether you want to work with a traditional publisher or if you choose to self-publish. For example, if you want to publish your book traditionally, you’ll actually want to start writing a proposal, not the content of your book. Based on what your publisher and editor want, the content of your book may change, which could mean that some or all of your writing could go to waste.

Should You Self-Publish Your Cookbook?

If you need help making this decision, check out “Should You Self-Publish Your Cookbook?” for an in-depth discussion about the pros and cons of self-publishing cookbooks. You can also read through my blog post on the pros and cons of self-publishing.

Most people I’ve talked to want to traditionally publish because they feel like it makes them more legitimate or it will give their book extra clout, but that’s not necessarily so these days (especially if you don’t get in with a top-five publisher). And, often the pros of self-publishing can outweigh the cons.

Next Steps to Traditionally Publish Your Cookbook

If you’re going to traditionally publish, your next step will be to find an agent. There are a few small publishers out there who will accept unsolicited proposals, but in general, it’s most effective to work with an agent…and you’ll almost always get a better deal. At the same time, you can start to work on your book proposal if you’d like, but your agent may also have some ideas about what you will want to include in the proposal.

You don’t need an agent if you’re self-publishing. Instead, your next step will be to get to work on the content you’re putting in your book.

STEP 5: COLLECT THE CONTENT FOR YOUR BOOK

The next step to publish your cookbook is collecting all of the stuff that will go in your cookbook. This includes any front matter, introductory material, recipes, and photos. Look back at your cookbook plan and fill in any content you haven’t written already for your blog (or social media, or your mailing list).

I recommend putting together a list of everything you still need to write and create so you can keep track of what needs to be done. And, you can apply deadlines to that list to help you finish your book in a timely manner.

When you’re planning your cookbook, also take time to think through how your cookbook is going to transform your reader’s life. It doesn’t have to be anything big—the transformation could be something as simple as your reader knowing they’ve got some fast, healthy meal recipes for busy weeknights. If you need more help thinking about your book’s transformation, check out my Fast Author Framework.

IMPORTANT! Make Sure You Have the Right Food Photos!

I know I mentioned this earlier, but I can’t emphasize this fact enough when it comes to cookbooks. Make sure you keep your photos full-resolution! Don’t save them at a smaller size—you’ll need the big photos for your book. This is true no matter how you’re publishing your book, eBook or print. You can always save a copy of the photos at a lower resolution and size for your blog. But, you’ll want the largest photos available for your book.

STEP 7: EDIT AND FINALIZE THE CONTENT OF YOUR COOKBOOK

You should never publish your first draft. None of us is perfect and there are bound to be mistakes in what you’ve written. (It happens to everyone!) That’s why editing is so important. You can go back and look through what you’ve written to make sure that it’s clear and that you’ve done a good job communicating with your reader.

If you haven’t already, I strongly suggest you create a style guide for your book. You could follow an existing style guide, or you can create your own. Basically, this will be a set of rules that you’ll follow as you write and format your book. For example, will you use the Oxford Comma? Will you spell out numbers under 10, or leave them as Arabic numerals? How will you format fractions in your recipes? In what order should ingredients appear? How will you format units of measure in the ingredients list, and will the formatting be different in the directions?

You can always hire an editor to help you with this part of the process. An editor can help you figure out what to put in your book and how to best present the information (a developmental editor). They could also help you make sure your sentences are clear, that you haven’t made any grammar or punctuation mistakes, and that you’ve followed your style guide (a copy editor). Or, you could hire a proofreader for your final draft, who makes sure there aren’t any typos.

If you don’t have the budget for an editor, try to have a friend or colleague read through your work. I strongly recommend that you have another set of eyes look over your work, at minimum. We’re all human and we all miss things. (In fact, I’m sure you’ve found typos in published books that have been looked over by many editors and proofreaders. They happen.) It’s also a good idea to look over your work on your own, but after you’ve walked away from it for a few days or weeks. Looking at your work with fresh eyes can help you get the perspective you need for good self-editing.

STEP 6: CREATE A DESIGN INSPIRATION BOARD

Before you start to design your cookbook, I recommend starting out by creating an inspiration board. (You can do this at any point in the process.) Your inspiration board can help you decide on the mood and aesthetic of your cookbook, which will help you immensely during the design process.

Start to collect designs or inspirational photographs that convey the look and mood of what you’re going for. A secret Pinterest board is a great place to do this, but any document or folder will work where you can collect images along with a few notes about that image.

Make sure to write down what you like (or don’t like) about each image so you remember what you were thinking, or so that your graphic designer knows what you were seeing in each image. If you don’t, it can be hard to remember why you saved a particular image after the fact.

STEP 7: DESIGN YOUR COOKBOOK

Once you have all of the recipes, photos, and other content for your cookbook, you can start to design it and lay it out on the page. One of the most important steps to learn how to self-publish a cookbook is figuring out how you’re going to make the file you’ll send to the printer.

Because cookbooks are so visual and readers expect cookbooks to be beautiful, consider hiring a graphic designer if it’s within your budget. At a minimum, try to hire a designer to make your cover if you can.

If you can’t hire a designer, it is possible to design your cookbook by yourself. The easiest way to design your own cookbook is to create templates for all of the major page types (recipes, text-based, meal plans, ingredient lists, etc.), then put your content into those templates. You can also buy cookbook templates that are already designed and simply paste your content into the template.

Choosing Your Graphic Design Software

If you’re relatively tech-savvy, I strongly recommend using Adobe InDesign to design your cookbook. It’s what professionals use to lay out print projects like books, and it’s much more powerful than web-based software. The downside is that it can take some time to learn if you’ve never used it before.

If you can’t make InDesign work, you can use a program like Canva or even Microsoft Word. Just be aware that Canva isn’t as advanced as InDesign. Wrapping text from one column or page to the next can be a big pain in Canva. But, if you’re used to Canva, you can definitely use it to design a cookbook.

Whatever program you’re using, be sure that the document layout is set up properly, with the right margin and bleed settings for your printing service. Not sure what those settings should be? Google should be able to help. For example, searching “KDP bleed settings” pulls up the page with bleed information if you’re going to print with KDP.

Working with a Graphic Designer

If you’re working with a designer, you can start the design process a little earlier. Most designers will begin by coming up with a general design for your book and fill it with dummy text before it’s ready for your content. So, you can keep finalizing your book’s content while the first steps of the design process are taking place.

STEP 8: PUBLISH!

Now comes the exciting part: making your book dream a reality! You’re here to learn how to self-publish a cookbook, and we’re finally at the most critical step: actually publishing it.

Publishing eCookbooks

If you’re publishing an eBook, you can just save the book as a PDF and send it out. But, you might also consider getting in into .epub and .mobi formats to make it friendlier for people who are looking at your book on an eReader.

There are many distribution methods for eBooks out there—you could individually email people with the PDF once they pay, or you could use a checkout system that automatically distributes the PDF for you. I personally use SendOwl for this, but there are other similar services that work well, too.

Publishing Cookbooks in Print

If you’re getting your book into print, you’ll send your finalized files to your printer. Print-on-demand services are very popular with smaller self-publishers because the author doesn’t have to keep a large number of copies on hand, and you only pay for the number of copies you need. But, working directly with large offset printers (which print hundreds or thousands of copies at a time) can give you more printing options.

There are a lot of choices for printers out there, and it’s beyond what I really want to get into in this episode. I will say that for most of you, either Amazon’s KDP Print or IngramSpark are going to be the best choice. They’re print-on-demand options, and they’re the most popular with self-publishers right now. For a full rundown on different printing options for your book, go listen to Episode 92 of the podcast, “Printing Options for Self-Publishers with LeAnna Weller Smith.”

One thing you should do before you choose a printing option: check prices! Depending on the length of your cookbook and whether you’re printing in black and white or color, different print-on-demand services will charge different amounts.

Here’s an example from some of my client work:

Client 1 published an 8″ x 8″ color cookbook that was about 150 pages long. It was much cheaper to print the book through KDP than IngramSpark, about $10 per book vs. $15-20 per book.
Client 2 published an 8.5″ x 12″ color cookbook that was around 300 pages long. KDP was charging about $27 (yes, $27) to print a book, so it needed to be listed at $39 to make any sort of a profit. I checked IngramSpark, and they could print it for around $14 per book.

Bottom line: always check multiple printing options for cookbooks. It’s not as big of a deal for black-and-white books, but for full-color cookbooks, it can pay to shop around.

STEP 9: PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE!!

You’ve published your book! …Now what?

So many authors launch their books and let them languish. But, if you want your book to keep making money for you, you need to keep promoting it, month after month. There’s more to book promotion than just the launch.

Launch strategy and book promotion strategy are beyond the scope of what I want to get into here today. My main goal for this episode is just to walk you through the steps you should take. But, if you want more details about book promotion, there are several other Blogger to Author Podcast episodes you can check out for more information. They are:

So, there you have it! Those are the basic steps that you’ll need to take to create your own cookbook. As a reminder, if you need help getting started on your cookbook and getting organized, grab a copy of my free Cookbook Planning Guide. It will help you jump-start your path to becoming a cookbook author!

And, if you need extra help walking through each of the steps I’ve listed out in this episode, look into my course, “Create Your Own Cookbook.” It includes the details you’ll need to DIY your own cookbook, including tips for designing your cookbook yourself in Canva and getting your files uploaded to Amazon’s KDP Print. It will save you a lot of time and research, with everything you need right at your fingertips.

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How to Self-Publish a Cookbook in 9 Steps