Food Blogger Camp- Food photography, Getting a cookbook deal & Zihua Market
Banana flowers & fruit
As David Lebovitz put it, ” Yesterday was the best day of my life. Okay, it was the best day of the year ” and we agree with him 100%. Here at the Club Med Food Blogger Camp in Ixtapa, Mexico it has been a tremendous 7 day experience of valuable blogging workshops and of course, not to mention all the sun, beach and cocktails. Not bad for a day of learning. If school was always this great, we’d be 2 Ph.D’s smarter and always donning a beautiful golden tan.
Jaden Hair & David Lebovitz
Jaden from Steamy Kitchen and David Lebovitz presented an engaging and fun 2 hours of discussion on “blog to book” and their journey from blogger to cookbook author. They both came from two different backgrounds and their approach to getting their cookbook deal were so vastly different.
Jaden and David have different opinions on how to approach the publication of your first cookbook. Regardlessof how these two hashed it out (all lovingly, of course), it was wonderful to be exposed to all the different routes one could approach in getting a cookbook deal and still be successful.
Regardless of their different approaches to cookbook publishing, both have an immense amount of respect for each other and their successful cookbooks proves that there are many options available out there to publishing a cookbook and to still be successful. You must be open minded!
- Both agree that there isn’t alot of money involved in selling cookbooks for the tremendous amount of work it takes to finish one.
- They both are committed to building their blog, content and their “brands” through using different forums of networking to share their content, like Twitter and Facebook. Jaden is especially brilliant at reaching out more and building Steamy Kitchen by accessing additional forms of media: television, radio and in print (her newspaper food column).
- Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen started from a grass-roots, home-cook situation, where she did all the food writing, food photography, styling her self. On top of that, she didn’t have a literary agent represent her, she did it all her self. Jaden also spent personal money in marketing her book by hiring a private PR agent to represent her. Because she had such a small publisher, a large amount of funds weren’t available to her for marketing. But her personal money and effort to her cookbook was a great investment because she’s been able to sell tens of thousands of cookbooks, which will set her in a great position to get a better and more profitable second cookbook deal.
- David, already being an established pastry chef from Chez Panisse, had years of restaurant experience heading into his cookbook projects. So he was able to have an agent represent him to get his cookbook deals. But even getting a decent cookbook deal doesn’t guarantee financial rewards. He still invests huge amounts of personal time marketing his cookbook and has spent personal funds to pay for recipe testers and food photography for specific books. Thus, David confides, there doesn’t leave much money left at the end of a cookbook project.
- Being a cookbook author is definitely a labor of love!
- Pro’s and con’s of self publishing cookbooks: David believes one can self publish a cookbook and still be successful because the world of cookbook writing is changing. He thinks resources to self publishing options out there allow everyone to get their voice heard and the exposure they want. Self publishing options can get anyone’s cookbook out there.
- Jaden is still cautious about self publishing your first cookbook because the success of your first cookbook determines the future (if any) of your second cookbook. She believes for all the hard work and personal money that you would to put into your self-published cookbook, you must sell alot of books and sell enough of them to create more opportunities for you. If your blog is relatively new, or no one really knows what your brand is, who will buy so your books? So she suggests that you work hard at building your brand, getting your brand noticed and then approaching a publisher to get a deal. Having a publisher will help provide the some funds and legal, marketing assistance.
- Both emphasize in getting your name and blog out there to be noticed and building your “brand” (David doesn’t like this word) is just one of the valuable points in starting your journey to becoming a cookbook author.
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Zihuatanejo Market Trip
Whew! So much information, now time to play! A group of bloggers went on a great market trip to Zihuatanejo market. We ate a ton of great local foods and just being a part of the local food scene added some special flair to this rewarding week. Here are a few images of the colorful local flair. More pictures to come on a later post.
Beautiful market ladies & fruit
Amazing carnitas street tacos
group shot!
Here are some previous posts from Food Blogger Camp:
- Day 1 – Hello & Goodbye
- Workshops #1 & #2 with Michael Ruhlman & Adam Pearson Food Styling
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Thanks for the report guys! I gotta say, though, that Jaden’s publishing company only seems small on a relative scale (vs. Wiley, Clarkson Potter), but Tuttle is no lame duck. I think it’s done a good job keeping its focus on Asian culture.
I’m glad you all had a great time!
Thanks for this great post. As a newbie food blogger I am trying to learn all I can. This post helps.
WOW!! Again, thanks for including your readers with such a detailed post, filled with info from Ixtapa. Matt’s photo seminar sounds like it was awesome. I like the small tips that can help heaps in our food photos. (Btw….your pics tell a great story and they are beautiful!)
To learn some of the cookbook tips from Jayden and David is inspirational and truthful. I am curious to go read David’s take on the E-Cookbook.
Looking forward to seeing and hearing more about your time away!
Hoping their will be another go at this next year…sure sounds like it was a success!
What a great post! Thanks to you both for sharing the highlights. I was so bummed that I wasn’t able to join you all this time. Personal family commitments made it out of the question. (Mini-SGCC had her Sweet 16 this weekend!) If there is a next time, I’ll be there with bells on! 🙂
Great write-up on what sounds like a fun and informative trip. Great photos, beautiful locale, and happy foodies! Very cool.
Another BIG thank you for all the valuable info here.
I hope I can go next year!!!
Best,
Carolg
Thanks for sharing the tips. Looks like a valuable and enjoyable time.
You all seem to have a lot of fun and lot fruitful week. I wish I was able to get to this event and be part of this. 🙁 Makes me feel very sad that I missed it. But thanks to you for posting this online.
Thanks,
Neel
Thank you so much for providing such helpful insight into photography and experiences of getting a book deal. It’s always exciting to learn how people get their start. I admire them and YOU for all of the hard work put into building and providing a great blog.
from the title, we thought you were going to announce your own cookbook deal and congratulate you on it… 🙂
Thanks for your terrific recaps – and great tips! As someone who’s very new to blogging, I really relish info like this.
Hey guys, fabulous post. My wife and I were hoping to make it down to meet all of you guys but it just didn’t work out this time. Obviously you all had a great time “working” and will hopefully get to meet sooner rather than later.
Thanks for the info.
I’m in the same boat as Divina – small, cluttered space means I’m zooming in on the food to eliminate background noise. Especially in winter, when I can’t bring it outside.
Thanks so much for these posts – I really wish I could have gone. Next year, fo sho! 😉
This is a great post – thanks for all the useful photog tips and the info about from blog to book.
Thanks for all the wonderful tips. My problem is that I always shoot photos up close because I’m afraid I might show the now so good stuff around it. I only have a small space to take photos but I will try my best to shoot farther. From blog to cookbook is an inspiring transformation. It is definitely a labor of love. 😀