I recently talked on the phone with an aspiring cookbook author who reserved one of the spots in my upcoming Cookbook Camp. And she had a great question for me- so I wanted to pass this along to you too. She asked, “So, what would you say are the top 5 things an aspiring cookbook author does wrong in writing a cookbook?”

 

Wow. This was a great question. But, since I knew the answer so I dove right in. Here’s what I said:

  1. They give all their great content away for free on their food blog.
  2. They assume they need an agent before they find a publisher.
  3. They submit a full cookbook manuscript to a publishers.
  4. They spend very little time building their platform.
  5. And the #1 mistake: they write their manuscript first.
  6. I know there are only supposed to be 5, but I thought of one more: they sit back and wait to be noticed or found by a publisher. They aren’t proactive.

Anyway, I hope this helps you too. It’s important and your dream of writing a cookbook is important. So, you should be starting on the work of writing your cookbook, right? Right! And then you need to use 2012 as the year to take action on getting your cookbook published.

Like I said above, the spots in my upcoming Cookbook Camp are filling up. If you are interested in getting your cookbook on the road to publication, learn more at www.cookbookcamp.com. I am still accepting applications. Don’t keep doing the same things wrong. In Cookbook Camp I’ll give you all of my essential ingredients to writing a cookbook that I’ve learned from being a cookbook editor and cookbook author.