The publishing world has experienced change over the past several decades as all industries have, but the next 10 years will be a cocoon altering it into a different species altogether. Many major print publishing houses have either merged, or acquired smaller houses, and the net result is that there are fewer traditional channels for getting your book published. However, this only means that the nature of the challenge of getting a book published has changed. It does not mean that the challenge has become insurmountable.


The traditional publishing path of the past has been described similarly by many sources. Write a book, send query letter and/or book proposal to agents, get picked up by an agent, get sold by agent to a small-to-medium-size publisher, pray that your book takes off and garners attention from a big publisher who pays you a six-figure advance in return for the rights to your book.

Clarity in communication is important in a cookbook. For those with a lot of experience in the kitchen, the hard part of writing a book can be in determining the difference between what they know and what is known by the typical reader of their book. You want to ensure that cooking instructions are clear, concise, and can be easily followed. Of course, different books are written for those with differing levels of kitchen expertise, so the key is to make sure you understand what your audience does and does not know.

One method used by cookbook writers is to have the recipes tested by people with the level of expertise to which they are writing. This helps them to identify where changes need to be made for clarity or conciseness.


The new traditional publishing path is emerging as more of a partnership between author and publisher with the responsibility for marketing and publicity resting on the shoulders of authors. If you bring a viable manuscript to the table with a sound marketing plan and/or platform, the publisher will invest in editing, design, printing, and distribution, the rest is up to you.

Cookbooks make great fundraisers for small groups or organizations. Having all the parents of a sports team submit recipes and creating a cook book from them isn't difficult to do.