{"id":1803,"date":"2013-06-10T17:26:57","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T21:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heather-maclean.com\/?page_id=1803"},"modified":"2016-03-21T16:05:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T16:05:10","slug":"how-to-stand-out-in-the-cookbook-crowd","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/how-to-stand-out-in-the-cookbook-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Stand Out in the Cookbook Crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Pick a Point of View<\/strong><br \/>\nYou don&#8217;t have to have gone to culinary school to get your own cookbook, but you do need a point of view. There are a million great bakers and creative cooks out there, and ten times that many successful blogs. What makes you stand out from the pack?<\/p>\n<p>If the answer doesn&#8217;t jump out at you instantly &#8212; &#8220;I sneak vegetables into regular food to trick kids into eating them&#8221; &#8212; get out a blank piece of paper and brainstorm. Ask yourself:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<strong>&#8211; What makes my style of cooking different from everyone else&#8217;s?<br \/>\n&#8211; How is my story unique?<br \/>\n&#8211; Why would someone want\/need my recipes?<\/strong><\/ul>\n<p>Hone in on what makes you special&#8211;whether it&#8217;s your favorite flavor profiles or your technical techniques. What do you have to offer that the world desperately needs? <\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re having trouble, try watching the any episode of any season of <strong>&#8220;The Next Food Network Star.&#8221;<\/strong> The contestants are asked by the judges to come up with their own pilot idea for a new TV show that reflects their own culinary point of view. Those who have no idea or can&#8217;t express it are gone, no matter good their cooking is. Those who have a fun spin on food go the farthest. Examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0307985148\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=0307985148&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=heathermaclea-20\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/foodnetworkbooks.jpg\" alt=\"foodnetworkbooks\" width=\"150\" height=\"377\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1685\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nIn Season 4, New Jersey dad <strong>Aaron McCargo, Jr.<\/strong> explained that his passion was simple soul food with &#8220;big, bold flavors.&#8221; He won, and now hosts &#8220;Big Daddy\u2019s House.&#8221; His cookbook? <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0470615338\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=0470615338&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=heathermaclea-20\" target=\"_blank\">Simply Done, Well Done<\/a><\/strong> shares his passion for big, bold flavors and fun family cooking.<\/p>\n<p>In Season 5, mom <strong>Melissa d&#8217;Arabian<\/strong> insisted amazing, gourmet meals could be made family-friendly and inexpensively. She won, and now hosts &#8220;Ten Dollar Dinners.&#8221; Her first cookbook by the same name <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0307985148\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=0307985148&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=heathermaclea-20\" target=\"_blank\">Ten Dollar Dinners<\/a><\/strong> debuted on the New York Times bestseller list.<\/p>\n<p>In Season 6, food blogger <strong>Aarti Sequeira<\/strong> pitched her desire to blend her knowledge of Indian flavors with traditional American cuisine. She won, and now hosts &#8220;Aarti Paarti.&#8221; Aarti is currently writing her first cookbook, due out in 2014.\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The Elevator Pitch<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter you&#8217;ve filled a page (or two) with what makes you great, summarize it in just a couple of striking sentences.<\/p>\n<p>In business, it&#8217;s called &#8220;the elevator pitch.&#8221; The idea is that if you were on an elevator with the executive who could green-light your project, you should be able to convince them of your brilliance in just the time it takes for them to reach their floor. As in: five minutes or less. Any longer or more complicated explanation and you&#8217;ve lost them. <\/p>\n<p>Your point of view should be clear, concise, and creative. You want your cookbook to catch a publisher&#8217;s and the public&#8217;s attention. While &#8220;My Blog: The Cookbook&#8221; does occasionally get published (ala <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/030759565X\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=030759565X&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=heathermaclea-20\" target=\"_blank\">The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook<\/a><\/strong>), you have a much greater chance of getting published if you have an out-of-the-ordinary, or even better, extraordinary idea.<\/p>\n<ul>\nMatt Armendariz of the blog <strong>Matt Bites<\/strong> got his first book by pitching how great food on a stick is: party food, street food, even junk food. His book <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1594744890\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=1594744890&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=heathermaclea-20\" target=\"_blank\">On a Stick! 80 Party-Perfect Recipes<\/a><\/strong> was published by Quirk Books in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Even though their blog <strong>Spoon Fork Bacon<\/strong> covers everything from pickled radishes to baked blueberry donuts, Teri Lyn Fisher and Jenny Park had a smaller notion for their first book. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1594745811\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=1594745811&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=heathermaclea-20\" target=\"_blank\">Tiny Food Party!: Bite-Size Recipes for Miniature Meals<\/a><\/strong> was published in 2013.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Piece of Cake<\/strong> blogger Shauna Sever&#8217;s first book wasn&#8217;t about cake at all. The self-described &#8220;baker next door&#8221; had a puffy epihany for a book that hadn&#8217;t been overdone. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1594745722\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=1594745722&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=heathermaclea-20\" target=\"_blank\">Marshmallow Madness!<\/a><\/strong> sold well enough that she got her second book deal for another niche idea: <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/159474596X\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=159474596X&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=heathermaclea-20\" target=\"_blank\">Pure Vanilla<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>And while Adrianna Adarme&#8217;s blog <strong>A Cozy Kitchen<\/strong> shares recipes for any meal and any occasion, she zoomed in on one specialty for her first book. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/125001249X\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=125001249X&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=heathermaclea-20\" target=\"_blank\">Pancakes: 72 Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Perfect Stack<\/a><\/strong> was released in 2013.<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/uniquebooks.jpg\" alt=\"uniquebooks\" width=\"680\" height=\"174\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1584\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Your First Front Cover<\/strong><br \/>\nOne way to get your sales summary down is to pretend you&#8217;re writing a blurb for the front cover of your book (you&#8217;ll write the back cover as part of your proposal)&#8211;the single sentence that convinces someone to bite and buy it. <\/p>\n<p>For <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0762445440\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=0762445440&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=heathermaclea-20\" target=\"_blank\">Fabulicious: Fast &#038; Fit<\/a><\/strong> the winning idea was: &#8220;healthy Italian recipes made with 10 ingredients or less that go from start-to-stove in under 15 minutes.&#8221; For Fabulicious: On the Grill it was bringing easy, no-fuss Italian cooking to the grill by learning how to operate your own &#8220;outdoor oven.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Now On to Step 2!<\/strong><br \/>\nOnce you have a clear vision of your value proposition, it&#8217;s time to sell it in your proposal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>>> Next: <a href=\"http:\/\/heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/step-2\/\" title=\"Guide to Getting Your Own Cookbook PublishedStep #2 \u2013 Write a Proposal\">Step #2 &#8211; Write a Proposal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pick a Point of View You don&#8217;t have to have gone to culinary school to get your own cookbook, but you do need a point of view. There are a million great bakers and creative cooks out there, and ten&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/how-to-stand-out-in-the-cookbook-crowd\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1803"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1803"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3268,"href":"http:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1803\/revisions\/3268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heather-maclean.com\/heathermacleancooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}