Things are rolling along with my cookbook. As you may or may not remember I submitted my manuscript in May. During the course of the past few months my manuscript has been read by two outstanding readers and my editor. I have received their comments and after spending more time with the manuscript than I did with the best male cook I know I submitted my corrected manuscript on Saturday.

The next phase is a thorough copy edit of the manuscript. The copyeditor will  run through the manuscript with a fine tooth comb correcting all my bad grammar, spelling,  punctuation, consistency, and anything else that needs to be fixed before the next stage. BAD grammar. Go sit in the corner. In reality I can’t wait to receive his/her comments back. This is such an important stage and I’m always amazed how much stuff we can fix, cut, shape-up before the book is laid out in designed pages.

The title has been chosen:

My Kentucky Kitchen: 12 Months of Recipes for Fresh Homemade Food

The illustrations are in progress and most of the work at this stage is happening on the dust jacket. This is in preparation for the Fall Catalog that the press publishes every year.

The marketing plan is in the works and I am completing a marketing questionnaire that will guide the marketing department in the best ways to promote and sell my cookbook. This is the part of the book that I am so happy to have a publisher to help me with. I realize I have to do some promotion of my own, but to have a team of people behind this book who want to see it sell and succeed is very exciting.

The final design and layout of the book will happen after copy editing. I’m pretty sure the production schedule will be tight if this goes anything like other cookbooks I’ve worked on. With an open mind and a commitment to the schedule I hope to do everything I can to keep the manuscript and book rolling along so we can meet the May 2011 pub date.