Publishing our first cookbook: Tips and insights for food bloggers and recipe developers
Hi friends and fam. I’ve always wanted to be a full-time writer and author, but I never thought I’d write a cookbook, and you can preorder it today! Here is my cookbook publishing journey, and it all started with one email that looked like spam (LOL).
Modern Asian Baking at Home Cookbook (Pre-order on Amazon)
The book will be shipped on release date*: June 21, 2022 *subject to change
PURCHASE NOW:
US:
UK:
Amazon UK | Waterstones | Book Depository | Books etc. | Bookshop
AUS: Booktopia
In May 2020, when I launched Subtle Asian Baking (SAB), I did not expect my private Facebook group to take off and become an immensely popular global community. After Eater featured SAB in December 2020, an editor emailed me and asked if I were working on a book. Usually, I’d ignore the email (it appeared spammy), but I did a little research and realized the editor and his publisher, Quarry Books, were legit!
Book Proposal
After a few back-and-forth emails with the editor, I went to work and fleshed out a comprehensive and killer book proposal for the publisher. Note: Just because an editor reaches out to you, it doesn’t mean you’ll automatically have a book deal. You still need a good book proposal. I spent quite a bit of time on mine and made it using Google Slides. Many years ago, I learned that people get promoted and deals when they present amazing proposals, so I did not skimp on mine.
The editor presented my proposal to his team. Shortly afterward, he came back to me with great news. His team loved the proposal and I had a book contract and deal!
The Advance
If you think you can quit your day job with a first cookbook advance, think again. Unless you’re a celebrity, you had an agent who negotiated a great deal for you, or you have a mega social media presence, don’t expect a huge advance. Plus, you’ll be spending a lot of your advance money on ingredients, tools, swag, marketing, and on your own cost of living.
Modern Asian Baking at Home photographer and food stylist, Nicole Soper
Photography
With cookbook deals, you usually land the contract first and then write the book and shoot the pictures. Now about the pictures. At first, I had wanted to shoot the pictures myself. (There's a separate contract and payment for pictures.) My husband is a photographer and I figured he could work with me on the cookbook’s photos. We didn’t have a studio set up at home, and frankly, I have little food styling and food photography background. Just thinking about baking everything, styling every recipe, and shooting all the photos myself stressed me out! In the end, I didn’t land the photography contract and that was OK. I did some research and discovered there was a food stylist and photographer, Nicole Soper, who had studio a short drive away from my home. The book’s art director liked Nicole’s portfolio and style. Nicole landed Modern Asian Baking at Home’s photography contract. It was Nicole who baked, cooked, and styled the recipes and shot all the lush photos for my cookbook.
Nicole invited me to her studio during multiple photo shoot days. It was so much fun watching her work and collaborating with her! My hands got in on the action. I got to shape bread dough, make some of the recipes, and advise on the styling and direction of some photos, especially for the more culturally-significant shots.
Writing the manuscript
From April to August 2021, I wrote and edited the Modern Asian Baking at Home’s manuscript. I wrote the entire manuscript in Google Docs. Each recipe was a separate document and every recipe was stored in a folder on Google Drive. I found this to be very easy and efficient, versus writing one long draft in Microsoft Word. I worried about my computer crashing, losing files, and so forth, and never had to worry about the Google cloud. (I swear this is not an ad for Google!) Toward the end, when I was done editing the recipes, I put full manuscript drafts together. Each heavily edited draft became a new version of the manuscript, until I delivered the final manuscript sometime in September 2021.
While I was writing the book, I was working remotely and part-time as a school physical therapist. At times, I felt like giving up. I had so little time to write, edit, and test 68 recipes! Most people take at least two years to write their first cookbook. I wrote nonstop in less than six month’s time. Whenever I had any free time, I would write. I found myself writing, often from 12 to 2AM, or from 6 to 8AM (right before work). All my weekends were dedicated to writing! I guess in the end it worked out during COVID-times. It wasn’t as if my social life was popping, lol.
Choosing which recipes to include
Before fleshing out the cookbook, I polled SAB members and asked them what are some of their favorite Asian baked goodies. I also looked at what people loved to bake, share, and make over and over again on SAB. Of course, I’ve included all of my favorite baked goodies to eat and bake. Note that I had a super strict word count and page limit, so there are some recipes I couldn’t include if the ingredients list and instructions are too wordy, like Vietnamese Banh Mi. I learned to write very concise recipes and cut out superfluous information. I wanted to write very detailed introductions and headnotes and fill them with witty puns and jokes, but had to limit myself and adhere strictly to my word count limit!
Testing recipes
After all the recipes and book sections were written, it was recipe testing time! I tested every recipe myself and asked members of Subtle Asian Baking to test and re-test recipes. In the end, I enlisted the help of 23 volunteer recipe testers, chosen from 740+ applicants! I have to say, recipe testing may be the most stressful part of writing a cookbook because there’s a lot of clean up, there’s subjectivity since all our taste buds and palettes are different, and there were a lot of unknowns and panic especially when recipes fail over and over again! While recipes worked perfectly for me, they didn’t work for some of my testers! So I had to re-write those recipes and had them re-tested. I read through hundreds of pages of feedback and incorporated what I felt was helpful, and had to weed out what I felt was not. I do recommend being very particular and detailed when creating your recipe tester application. (I used Google forms, LOL! Here is my recipe tester application, in case it’s helpful for you as an example.) You really want to enlist the help of recipe testers who will give you the very best feedback and are willing to test and re-test your recipes. In the end, I chose the recipe testers I felt were the best fit and on first come first serve basis.
Appreciation
Since all the recipe testers volunteered their time, I sent every little gifts (aprons or tote bags) and if someone needed to buy a lot of extra ingredients or equipment, I sent them Amazon gift cards. I am also going to gift every recipe tester a copy of Modern Asian Baking at Home!
Note: Recipe testing is so necessary and helpful, and I may question the legitimacy of any cookbook that doesn’t acknowledge or thank recipe testers!
#SABCookBook promo art by Suet Au https://www.instagram.com/auxueyi/
Marketing the book
Many authors may think that after they’ve finished writing the manuscript, their job is over. Oh no, la. The author’s work has just begun! Once the manuscript is submitted, the publishing team works on the backend to choose the cover, proofread and copy edit, build the book layout, print, work with sellers like Amazon, and publicize the book. You as the author need to do a lot of marketing and publicizing as well. You may have to work on pre-order incentives like drafting another set of recipes to gift to people who pre-order the book. (I wrote an extra five recipes and shot tutorial videos to gift to people who pre-ordered Modern Asian Baking at Home. I also shot some videos to give out as bonus incentives.)
Final thoughts
Overall, writing a cookbook from start to finish, has been an eyeopening and fun adventure. I’ll admit, there has been some sleepless nights, lots of sweat, lots of tears, and some blood (well burns really from testing recipes). Still I would do it all over again! (I’m already working on my next cookbook proposal!) It is very hard work, it will demand so much time from you, and don’t expect a large paycheck from your first cookbook deal, unless you’re as big as someone like The Korean Vegan!
Happy writing and please feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email if you have any questions!
Xoxoxo,
Kat, founder of Subtle Asian Baking and author of Modern Asian Baking at Home
Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Quarry Books, for publishing my very first cookbook, Modern Asian Baking at Home. From the very beginning, I had a team to work with. First starting with Modern Asian Baking at Home’s editor Jonathan Simcosky, then the book’s editorial project manager Liz Weeks, the manuscript’s copy editor and proof reader Marilyn Kecyk, the art director Anne Re, and the book’s marketing manager Todd Conly!
Thank you to my amazing group of volunteer recipe testers, and a huge thank you to the SAB Community and Family! You inspired this book!
Note: If you don’t have a killer book proposal, even if you’re the best food blogger, recipe developer, or writer, you may not be able to land a book deal. Social media presence is also quite important these days!
Note: When working with a publisher, you probably will have little say or input when it comes to choosing the cover for the book. In my case, I gave input and feedback when I got back different cover samples/directions. In the end, it was the Quarry Books team that had the final say re: choosing the final book cover. What do you think of Modern Asian Baking at Home’s cover?
Tip: Before signing a contract, read through it over and over again. Perhaps hire a lawyer, and be wary of non-compete clauses. Read more about this here. If you can, find a literary agent to represent you.
#SABCookBook promo art by Suet Au https://www.instagram.com/auxueyi/
