How to Get a Cookbook Published–My Story
Comments (3) People often ask me what it has taken to get The Dog Who Ate the Truffle published. Before I got involved, I knew it would take a lot of hard work and discipline. What I didn’t know was that the process would take years and that working on the book would be at times all consuming.
Book cover
The project began in 2002, when I came up with the idea for a regional Umbrian cookbook. After doing preliminary research, I spent months creating a detailed chapter-by-chapter summary and recipe list, but one morning I woke up with an idea that I liked even better—which is the book you will see in July. From there, I spent the next eight months writing the book proposal that I would use to get an agent. I sent the proposal to a few agents, and two of them offered to represent my book. Together, my agent and I rewrote the proposal two times. By the time I signed on with an agent and was offered a contract by a publisher, more than a year had passed. And from all the publishing stories I have heard, I consider myself very lucky.
The proposal sold the unwritten book, so when I got a contract, I had to hustle to write the stories and finish testing the recipes. I worked with just a few days off for the next ten months. The month my manuscript was due, I worked from the time I got up until I went to bed. I submitted the manuscript ON TIME—but I found out that my editor hadn’t paid much attention to the deadline so its arrival surprised her. Then I heard nothing from my editor for months. So in the meantime, I spent weeks selecting and editing the hundreds of photos I had taken for the book while living in Umbria. Wow, was that a lot of work!
Then about two weeks ago, I received the copy-edited manuscript of my Umbrian memoir/cookbook from my publisher to proofread and look over. I spent seven days reading it, without a break. Then at the week’s end, I sent it back with my approvals and corrections. The book is finally in production—in a month I should see it again when it is almost ready to go to press.
Finally, after months of waiting, my editor, the sales team, and my publicist are in gear. I already have four book signings on my summer calendar, so I am getting excited about the book coming out.
This week I am putting together my own PR plan for The Dog Who Ate the Truffle. And next, I’ll start posting Umbrian recipes here. I had so many extras that I could have written another book.
If you have any good ideas for spreading the word about my book, please let me know! I would also enjoy hearing about your travels in Umbria.
A presto, Suzanne
