Episode 261: Being a Cookbook Writer: Self-publishing a Single Subject Cookbook with Mimi Smith Dvorak

Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast. Today on the podcast, I have an interview with Mimi Dvorak Smith. Mimi is the author of Too Many Eggs: A Collection of over 800 Egg Recipes and Their Fascinating History. What started as a journey ordering 25 chickens by mail ended up being a life with young chickens laying 2 dozen eggs each day. So Mimi did what cooks do: she started a notebook that contained recipes she could make with her abundance of eggs. When her brother died, her project moved front and center as she hired an editor, received some feedback, and worked through the material, which would ultimately become this old-style recipe book for eggs, complete with recipes, footnotes, side stories, and illustrations (no photos). Mimi now markets her books using postcards and personalized notes to reach independent bookstores, cookbook reviewers, podcasters, and any store that sells chickens or chicken paraphernalia. 

if you're a food or nutrition expert looking to write a cookbook and get paid for it but you're unsure where to start, how to spend your time, or what publishers are looking for, we have a free training session that you'll love. This training covers the three common mistakes cookbook writers make, the four steps to make your work appealing to publishers, and the best publishing path to choose if you don't want to spend your time or money on editing, design, and printing. You can access the on-demand training by registering here and within just 45 minutes, you'll learn how to use your time to create a cookbook platform, concept, and proposal that publishers will love.

Things We Mention In This Episode:

How to Get Paid to Write a Cookbook free mini class

Too Many Eggs website