Month: January 2022

Do you have a lot of recipes of a specific type? Maybe you love to make cookies or pies or cakes. You can create a “mini cookbook” to organize your recipes and even share with family and friends using FamilyCookbookProject.com.

With a few as 10 recipes, you can create a single category cookbook or multiple categories within a theme.

For example, were I live, oysters plentiful and are some of the best in the world. My family eats a lot of oysters each summer and I thought it would be great to create a cookbook with just oyster recipes. It was so well received, it is now available on Amazon!

You can buy a copy of The Wellfleet Oyster Cookbook by clicking on this link.

Next, I plan on creating a BBQ mini cookbook and giving it out as gifts for Christmas to my friends and family.

To create you own mini cookbook, go to the Production Center on your editor page and select “more cookbooks”. Here you can create your own mini cookbook and even import your recipes from your main cookbook using our recipe transfer tool.

Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect, preserve and share food memories by creating their own printed personal cookbooks. He is the author of The Wellfleet Oyster Cookbook (Available on Amazon) and the Cape Cod Cocktail Cookbook, both created using FamilyCookbookProject.com. He is also editor of the Donovan Family Cookbook, now it’s third printing.

Follow Family Cookbook Project on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest!

You can allow your contributors to order printed cookbooks on their own instead of having you as editor order bulk and distribute to others.  One note:  as with all printing, the more copies ordered at one time, the better price per book.  If your contributors order 1 or 2, the per book price could be much higher than if you order 10 or 20.

To enable contributor cookbook ordering, go to Editor Activities>Printing & Publishing.  Click the “Contributor Ordering Settings” shortcut.  Then select the options you want available to your contributors:

• 1. None – cannot order. Select this if you do not wish anyone other than you as editor to order printed cookbooks
• 2. Selected versions below only. Select this to allow contributors to print any prior version of your cookbook that has been printed. They cannot order a “current version” of the cookbook.
• 3. Current cookbook only. Select this to allow contributors to print out the current cookbooks “as is” in its current state and settings any time. They will be required to run a cookbook preview first to update the system.
• 4. Current cookbook or selected versions below. Select this to allow contributors to print the current book “as is” as well as any of the selected versions below

Update Settings to save.

A common question we get us “How long should it take to complete my family cookbook? It is different for everyone. It depends on the size of cookbook you want, how many contributors you have and how much time you have to devote to the project in a given week. It can be done in as little as a week and as long as several years. Most people generally take 2-3 months on average to go from start to completed finished cookbook.

Here are some simple ideas for finishing your cookbook faster from Family Cookbook Project:

1. Invite Friends and Family to Help
Gathering recipes is more fun when everyone gets involved. Adding a contributor is very easy. Simply go to Editor Activities>Communication Center or find the “Invitation Tool” shortcut on your Quick Start. On this page you can enter a person’s name and email and even personalize the email they will receive. That email will automatically create a user account for them and include their login information in the email they receive.

2. Set A Deadline and Schedule

Family Cookbook Project has the ability to set a deadline for contributors to submit recipes. As editor, you have complete control over the deadline to contribute recipes to your cookbook. This helps keep your contributors motivated. Go to the Cookbook Info Center in your editors account and in the center box you will see a link to change it to any date that suits you.

Also personally schedule a few hours a week to add your own recipes and work on the design of the cookbook. You don’t want to wait until the end to accomplish this.

3. Add a Co-Editor
Sometimes a fresh set of eyes can find typos that you can miss. To make someone a “Co-Editor”, go to Communication Center and click on their name in the list.  Check the box next to their user name and update.  The next time they login they will have access to: Editor Activities Menu with all tools, Add/Edit any recipe to help with cookbook editing and sending messages through the Communication Center.

4. Send Reminders to Contributors
Did you know you can send an email reminders to some or all of your contributors at the same time. Use the remainder tool to every few weeks to keep the cookbook on everyone’s mind until it is finished.

5. Style Made Simple
Family Cookbook Project is a dynamic online publishing tool that have been developed over more than a decade and a half based on the needs of our editors. The options can sometimes feel overwhelming. However the default options are the most used settings in a significant number of cookbooks we publish. Don’t get bogged down trying to use all of the features the software offers. Just pick the ones that makes your cookbook perfect!

Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect, preserve and share food memories by creating their own printed personal cookbooks. He is the author of The Wellfleet Oyster Cookbook (Available on Amazon) and the Cape Cod Cocktail Cookbook, both created using FamilyCookbookProject.com. He is also editor of the Donovan Family Cookbook, now it’s third printing.

Follow Family Cookbook Project on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest!