Category: Fundraising Cookbooks

  • Why your recipe title is the most important part of your recipe


    Grandma’s Amazing Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

    Your recipe title is the single most important element of your recipe. This is because your title is a headline, and the headline in any type of content has one special and powerful property.

    Think about how you read a cookbook looking for a recipe to try.  You don’t start in the front and read every page like a novel then pick the one you want. No, you scan the pages looking for a photo or recipe title that catches your eye and looks interesting!

    Of all the elements in your recipe, the title has the greatest power for grabbing your readers’ attention and the greatest responsibility for enticing them to continue and read your recipe It follows that the better your title, the higher the chance of turning a recipe scanner into a recipe reader (and ultimately a recipe user).

    For a recipe title to be effective it needs to consider several things:

    Grab Attention – Like any headline you need to grab the readers attention.

    Describe the food being prepared – “Gruel” is one of my son’s favorite dishes, however it no one outside the family knows what it is. Including the main ingredient of the dish and even how it us prepared make the title more useful. “Baked Hamburger Gravy” would be a more descriptive title for our gruel.

    Be different and unique – If you have seen the recipe title before, it does not belong on your recipe!

    Include the source – In family cookbooks, certain people are associated with certain recipes. Grandma’s Apple Pie or Lou’s Lemon Bars help the reader image exactly what dish you are referring to. It just does not help anyone who is not at family gatherings!

    Sell the sizzle as well as the steak – This means to highlight the benefit, the reason why this recipe is worth making.

    Recipe titles that address cooking and eating needs are more likely to seduce the reader into the recipe itself. A good title clearly shows the reader which of their cooking and eating needs the recipe addresses. Every readers’ need is different. For example, it could be for something indulgent or something low fat, or something quick and easy or something sophisticated and thus involved, or something refined or something rustic.

    Consider the following recipe titles: ‘Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies’, ‘Quick ‘n’ Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies’, ‘Grandma’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies’, ‘Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies’. Notice how each title addresses a different need and even appeals to different audiences. Quite simply, as the chocolate chip cookie examples show, it’s all down to the words you choose for your title.

    With a little thought and imagination, your recipe titles can stand out and make your readers give your recipes the attention they deserve.

    Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • Who Buys Cookbooks?

    Who Buys Cookbooks?

    According to Publisher’s Weekly, a publishing trade publication, Cookbooks are selling like hotcacks!

    Here are some statistics from 2012 cookbook sales.

    Perhaps not surprisingly, more women buy cookbooks than men; around 69% of cookbook buyers are women, whereas 31% are men.

    And according to Bowker Market Research, 27% of cookbook buyers are in the 30–44 age range. The two next-older groups (45–54 and 55–64) account for 36% of cookbook customers (with 18% each). Those over 65 make up 15%. 
    Breaking down cookbook buyers by household income, 31% come from households earning $25,000–$49,000 a year.
    Hardcover cookbooks still outsell all others, but as a portion of total unit sales, hardcovers dropped from 49% in 2011 to 42% in 2012. And e-book sales more than doubled, up from 9% to 22%.
    And where are those cookbooks sold? Amazon, by a wide margin—its percentage of all cookbook sales nearly doubled, from 18% to 36%.
  • Make your own eCookbooks

    Make your own eCookbooks


    iPad Cookbooks

    Family Cookbook Project makes it easy for you to access your personalized cookbook or custom family cookbook on an iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Nook or any other eReader. You can have a digital recipe book for your very own.
    This is available to everyone who wants to create a family cookbook and opens an account on www.FamilyCookbookProject.com. Creating cookbooks has never been easier using our online cookbook software.
    Once you have entered your recipes, selected a cookbook cover (or created your own using a cookbook cover template), added photos of the food or family members you will be ready to publish your cookbook.
    Kindle Cookbook
    To create an eCookbook, simply create a high Resolution PDF of your cookbook and save the file to your computer. This file is designed to adapt to the screen size of any eReader you may use. Many people use PDFs on their Kindle or Nook eReaders.
    If you want to convert your PDF to the widely accepted ePub format used by most readers, you can simply go to a website like Online-Convert.comand upload your cookbook PDF. In seconds, they will convert the cookbook to ePub format at no additional cost.
    Family Cookbook Mobile App
    Family Cookbook App
    Another way to access your family recipes on your mobile device is with the Family Cookbook Recipe App.
    The Family Cookbook Project online recipe box makes it easy for Family Cookbook Project users to browse and use their recipes in their mobile device. Tools include our blog at your fingertips, latest recipes from our recipe database, notes for in the kitchen, articles on how to create a recipe,  and cookbook making, a tip calculator and more! Users can enter their recipes at www.familycookbookproject.comand have access anywhere!
    The Family Cookbook Recipes was named the Best Publishing Mobile App in the Web Marketing Association’s 2013 MobileWebAward Competition.  
    Designed for use on the Apple iPhone or iPad, the free app can be downloaded at the iTunes App Store. 
    Designed for use on the Android mobile devices, the free app can be downloaded at the Google Play Store.

    Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • List your Cookbook for Sale on OurCookbooks.com


    Want an easy way to make your cookbook available to friends, family and others without having to give them all away for free? Family Cookbook Project can help you do just that.
     OurCookbooks.com is a showcase for family cookbooks that are available for sale. The site lists your cookbook title, your name and a brief overview of what they can expect from your cookbook. You can even upload a photo of the cover and include a featured recipe.
    How to get your free listing
    Once your cookbook is printed, you can create a page in our Cookbook Showcase that will allow people to order the cookbook from you without any commission fees. This is a free service from Family Cookbook Project and you will find complete information in the “Sell your Cookbook” section of the Editors Tools.
    Sellers Kit
    If you are really interested in selling your cookbook online for profit or as a fundraiser, you should consider purchasing our Sellers Kit. This provides you with a ISBN number and bar code, listing Books on Sale and on Amazon.com
    Complete information can be found in the publishing tool when you are ready to print.
  • Lowering the cost of printing your cookbook

    When it comes to printing your family cookbook, page count is the largest determining factor on what the cost per book will be.

    To lower the number of pages that need to be printed, you don’t always have to just delete recipes. Here are some simple formatting charges you can make to affect your page count.

    Go to Editor Tools>Publishing Tool>Cookbook Options and Design.  Under Recipe Layout, choose any or all of these options to save space:

    • Choose Arial or Times Roman, Two Column Small for the smallest type faces
    • UNcheck Print my recipes in non-continued format
    • UNcheck Force recipe photos to be on same page as recipe
    • CHECK Print Directions and Comments as single paragraphs
    • Under Recipe Sorting, choose Print my recipes in book order – shortest to longest

    Another thing to do is look at your recipes that are more than one page long. We show you multi page recipes in the “recipes by category” index. There is a “*” next to the edit button of long recipes. Consider removing some of these recipes by unchecking the box by the recipe title and see the impact on page count.







    Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • Copy-writing and proper usage of recipes

    Copy-writing and proper usage of recipes

    One issue that comes up regularly for family cookbook project editors is the topic of copy-writing recipes and proper usage. While we at the FamilyCookbookProject.com are not lawyers and do not give legal advice, our research shows that recipes cannot generally be copyrighted. 

    At the same time, it does not make it right to simply take credit for other people’s work. One way to avoid this is to give credit where credit is due. If your contributor submits a recipe that they originally found in a magazine or cookbook, it is appropriate to list the source in the notes section of the recipe.

    A few articles of interest in this topic

    Copyright Office flyer on recipes
    http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.pdf

    Copyrighting Recipes
    http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/copyright/copyright-realworld/recipe-copyrighting.html

    Questions & Answers – Copyrighting Recipes
    http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/CookbookAdvice.htm

    Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • It’s Halloween time! Remember to add fun tricks and treats to your family cookbook.

    It’s Halloween time! Remember to add fun tricks and treats to your family cookbook.

    As we prepare for the holiday season, many family cookbook editors are working to finalize their projects in order to give as gifts this year. Cookbooks must be submitted for printing before the deadline of Thursday, November 4th to receive your cookbooks by Thanksgiving. Tuesday, November 30th is the deadline to guarantee delivery without expedited shipping before the Christmas holiday.

    So now is the time to contact all of your contributors with your reminder tool and tell them to enter their recipes now before it is too late. We recommend using a recipe submission deadline of November 15th in order to give you time to review the recipes, make sure all of the extra spaces are removed and words are spelled correctly, and still have time to place your order before the printing deadline.

    Family cookbooks make wonderful gifts for family and friends alike. The effort you put into your cookbook now will pay off for your entire family for years to come.


    Family Cookbook Showcase: OurCookbooks.com
    Our new website to help our editors sell their cookbooks online, Family Cookbook Showcase at OurCookbooks.com, is ready to go. Whether you are using your cookbook as a fundraiser or just have a few extra copies that are taking up space, we will make it easy for you to make them available.

    If you already have had you cookbook printed, please go to your editor account and click on the “Publishing Tools>Sell Your Cookbook Settings” link. Here you can enter some basic information and have visitors order cookbooks directly from you. When all of your cookbooks are sold, simply come back and turn off the free listing. It’s our way of helping you to get the most for your cookbook dollar.

    If you have not yet printed your cookbook, it will be made available to you after your order has been sent to print.

    The Family Cookbook Showcase is part of a more comprehensive cookbook marketing package that is being put together to help editors sell their cookbooks.

    Featured recipe from the database

    The Great Family Cookbook Project has a huge amount of public recipes in the system thanks to you! If you need a fun recipe idea that’s not in your own cookbook, go to our home page and use the search function to see what’s available – lots of good eats!

    Here is a recipe we tried recently for a fun party:

    This recipe for Halloween Party Punch, by Micki Clark, is from The Clark Family Cookbook. Search for more great recipes here from over 250,000 in our family cookbooks!

    Halloween Party Punch Recipe

    Contributor:

    Micki Clark

    Category:

    Appetizers & Beverages

    Ingredients:

    1 3oz. pkg orange gelatin
    2 c. boiling water
    1 6oz can orange juice concentrate
    1 46 oz. can unsweetened pineapple juice
    1 qrt. ginger ale

    Directions:

    Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.

    Mix orange juice with three cans of water and add to gelatin mixture.

    Add pineapple juice and chill.

    Add ginger ale just before serving. Makes 30 1/2 cup servings


    Tips to Ease the Holiday Hustle

    (NewsUSA) – The holidays are supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, but they may also be the busiest. As the guest list grows, so does the grocery list, not to mention the piles of laundry and dirty dishes.

    But there’s no need to be a Grinch. Turn on the holiday cheer by taking advantage of some simple tips from the experts in Whirlpool brand’s test kitchens:
    ·         Prepare ahead. Over-estimate the number of guests expected to attend, and bring full recipes to the grocery store to make sure every ingredient makes it home. This can help you avoid being a plate short or having to dig out old frosting for the last batch of cookies.
    ·         Make sure the refrigerator can handle the shopping list. French-door refrigerators offer wide shelf space to keep large cakes and deli trays fresh leading up to the big holiday meal. A side-by-side refrigerator may fit the bill if fresh ingredients typically fill the shopping cart.
    ·         Make it a team effort. Kids can help wash potatoes or arrange platters, and everyone can help clean up. Also, keeping recipes handy in plastic sleeves ensures everyone is on the same page.
    ·         Put appliances to work for you. Convection cooking allows you to bake potatoes and roast turkeys much faster than a traditional oven, while a double oven range can cook two different meals at once, toast crusty breads or keep one dish warm.
    “Holiday cooks no longer have to play musical pans when trying to broil steaks and warm rolls at the same time, thanks to new double-oven ranges,” said Monica Teague, senior manager, brand experience, Whirlpool. “In addition, knowing how to properly load the dishwasher can ease clean-up once everyone is stuffed. Greasy pots and pans go on the bottom rack face-down or at a slight angle for optimal cleaning, and delicate stemware stay up top, where water pressure is not as strong.” 
    ·         Don’t overlook laundry as guests shuffle in and out. Pre-sorting clothes into designated baskets for lights, darks and whites can streamline the process, while some of latest features enable consumers to do laundry at times that fit their hectic holiday schedule.
    Fit in a quick nap — and a load of laundry — before the guests arrive. The holiday season will feel more “Hava Nagila” than “Bah, Humbug.”
    For more information, visit www.whirlpool.com. 
    Editors Ideas – how to keep your contributors motivated

    The holidays are here. Remember, it may take a full 3 weeks to get your cookbooks at this time of year – so start today! When you do get together in the coming weeks, bring a printed recipe or two from your cookbook and hand them out. Let folks know that you plan to print the book in November or December – and get all their email addresses so you can add them to your book. Have fun!

    What they are saying

    “I LOVE the website…it is so easy to use and the e-blast feature has made managing this project a breeze!”
    –Susie Dvorak, The Kadavy Family Cookbook

    Famous Quotation

    “Non-cooks think it’s silly to invest two hours’ work in two minutes’ enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.”
    Julia Child (1912 – 2004)

  • A New Look for Cookbook Fundraiser!

    Our fund raising customers have requested a fresher, easier look to our fund raising site, CookbookFundraiser.com – and now it’s officially ready! A much cleaner design allows for easier adding of recipes, editing your cookbook and getting through the editorial process. Enjoy!

    CookbookFundraiser.com

  • Fundraiser for McKee Elementary School Hits the Press!

    One of our fundraiser cookbooks from CookbookFundraiser.com has hit the news with their success!

    “We are so thrilled with the outcome of our cookbook project. Originally I had thought that we would do the printing of our school cookbook in a traditional way, as I have more than two dozen years in publication production. Another PTA mom suggested finding an online vendor, and after searching the possibilities, I found your site to be the most user friendly and cost-effective solution.

    “What we liked most was the ease in allowing folks to enter their recipes directly online. From there, we could go in and edit the entered data to be consistent. And at the time of completion, I could go in and manipulate the recipes to fit the pages, making the most of space and economics! You give so many options.

    “The printed project turned out beautifully! Our custom photographs, including the cover, turned out awesome – a real selling point. We got unexpected benefits from extensive media coverage, boosting sales and necessitating a reprint within only a couple of months of our original printing – be sure to order enough up front – the final product has been in serious demand. We made more than $1,500 from our first printing, and expect even more from the 2nd printing. Thank you, CookbookFundraiser!”
    – Cheryl Madden Brown, McKee Elementary School PTA, Oakdale, PA

    Here is the link to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article Fresh Find: McKee Elementary School Recipe Collection

    Way to go McKee!

  • Fundraising for Small Groups Newsletter Recommends Cookbookfundraiser.com

    Deane Brengle writes in Fundraising for Small Groups Newsletter the benefits of creating a cookbook as a fundraiser.

    He says: Cookbooks have been popular fundraisers for years. They started out with church and women’s groups and have now spread like wildfire. It’s because they can be produced by almost any size group, club, team, or nonprofit organization. Much of the increased popularity can be attributed to the use of the internet by cookbook publishing companies and the ease of producing a cookbook online.

    Despite the spread of cookbook fundraisers, they remain a good source of fundraising income.

    * A custom cookbook is unique to your group.
    * They aren’t overly difficult to produce.
    * With the right marketing they sell well.
    * They have a long shelf life and can be sold year round.
    * They are a popular gift item around the holidays.

    He also writes: I’ve spent some time and researched all the publishers offering cookbook fundraising programs and I’m recommending Cookbookfundraiser.com for all your group’s cookbook fundraising needs.

    They offer an easy to use online format for entering all your recipes and step by step instructions for creating your cookbook. They even offer a free sample cookbook so you can see what a finish product will look like and an online calculator to help you figure your cookbooks cost.