A family cookbook marketing kit helps editors promote and sell their printed cookbook with an ISBN number, a bar code printed on the back cover and even a listing on Amazon.com.<\/p>\n
Maybe your cookbook celebrates a large extended family and relatives who did not participate in the project would like copies. Perhaps you created a community cookbook, church cookbook, club cookbook, reunion cookbook, or regional recipe collection with an audience beyond your immediate contributors. Or maybe you simply think, “People outside our family might actually enjoy this.”<\/p>\n
That is where the Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit<\/strong> can help.<\/p>\n Available as an option when your cookbook is being printed, the Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit gives cookbook editors several important publishing and marketing tools that can make a personal cookbook easier to identify, discover, promote, and sell.<\/p>\n It does not turn you into a publishing company overnight\u2014and thankfully, you don’t need to become one. Instead, it provides some of the same basic tools traditionally used by published books and gives you more ways to put your cookbook in front of potential buyers.<\/p>\n Here is why that can make a big difference.<\/p>\n Quick Answer:<\/strong> The Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit helps cookbook editors promote and sell their printed cookbooks by giving them ready-to-use marketing tools, sales materials, promotional support and even a listing on Amazon.com. It is especially useful for family reunions, holiday gifts, memorial cookbooks, community cookbooks, fundraiser cookbooks, and editors who want to sell more copies beyond their immediate household.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Most Family Cookbook Project cookbooks begin for a personal reason.<\/p>\n You may want to preserve Grandma’s recipes. You may want to gather years of handwritten cards into one place. You might be creating Christmas gifts for the family or documenting recipes that have been served at family gatherings for generations.<\/p>\n Those reasons do not change when you add a Marketing Kit.<\/p>\n What changes is what you can do after the cookbook is printed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Instead of thinking only about how many copies you need for your immediate family, you can begin thinking about a larger audience.<\/p>\n Could cousins in other parts of the country want copies?<\/p>\n Could people from your hometown enjoy a cookbook filled with local recipes?<\/p>\n Could members of your church, school, civic organization, alumni group, or community be interested?<\/p>\n Could friends who have heard about the project want their own copy?<\/p>\n If the answer to any of those questions is yes, the Marketing Kit gives you tools designed to make selling those additional books easier.<\/p>\n One of the most important elements included with the Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit is an International Standard Book Number<\/strong>, better known as an ISBN.<\/p>\n An ISBN is a unique 13-digit identifier assigned to a particular published book. It helps the publishing industry identify and track that specific title.<\/p>\n Think of it almost like a fingerprint for your cookbook.<\/p>\n Your title may be The Johnson Family Cookbook<\/em>, but there could be plenty of Johnson families in the world. An ISBN identifies your particular book<\/strong>.<\/p>\n For a cookbook you plan to distribute only to a few family members, an ISBN may not be important. But once you want to make your cookbook available for sale to a larger audience, it becomes much more useful.<\/p>\n It gives your cookbook a recognized publishing identifier that can be used by booksellers, databases, libraries, and other parts of the book industry.<\/p>\n There is also something wonderfully satisfying about seeing an ISBN on a cookbook you spent months creating. Suddenly, the family project sitting on your kitchen table looks and feels very much like a commercially published book.<\/p>\n Because, in an important sense, it is.<\/p>\n Along with the ISBN, the Marketing Kit includes a corresponding bar code<\/strong> on the back cover of the cookbook.<\/p>\n The Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit places that bar code in the lower right-hand area of the back cover. The bar code can be scanned and also displays the cookbook’s list price.<\/p>\n It is a small addition visually, but it can make a big difference in how the finished book is perceived.<\/p>\n Pick up almost any commercially published book and turn it over. You will probably see a bar code.<\/p>\n When your cookbook has one too, it immediately gives the book a more professional retail appearance.<\/p>\n That can be particularly helpful if you plan to sell copies at places such as:<\/p>\n People are used to seeing bar codes on books for sale. Including one helps your cookbook look like a finished publication rather than simply a privately printed collection of recipes.<\/p>\n Creating a wonderful cookbook is one thing.<\/p>\n Helping people find out that it exists is another.<\/p>\n The Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit includes having your cookbook added to the Books In Print\u00ae database<\/strong>. According to the Marketing Kit materials, Books In Print provides bibliographic information used by libraries and others involved in book discovery and acquisition.<\/p>\n That may sound like something only a large publishing house would care about, but it can be useful for independently created books too.<\/p>\n A listing provides another established place where information about your cookbook can exist.<\/p>\n For a cookbook based on a town, ethnic tradition, organization, historical group, church, school, or regional community, that additional visibility may be especially valuable.<\/p>\n Imagine someone researching the food history of your community several years from now. Your cookbook may contain recipes, names, stories, traditions, and local history that exist nowhere else.<\/p>\n Making the cookbook part of a recognized book database helps give it a publishing footprint beyond the copies sitting on family bookshelves.<\/p>\n For some cookbook editors, that alone makes the Marketing Kit worthwhile.<\/p>\n Today, people often discover something they want to buy online before they ever encounter it in person.<\/p>\n That is why the Marketing Kit also includes access to the Family Cookbook Project Showcase<\/strong>, a stand-alone website designed to help editors promote and sell their cookbooks directly to consumers.<\/p>\n Rather than trying to build your own website from scratch just to promote one cookbook, the Showcase gives you a place specifically intended for Family Cookbook Project titles.<\/p>\n Editors complete information about their cookbook so potential buyers can learn more about it.<\/p>\n The Marketing Kit materials also explain that editors with a PayPal account may be able to accept payments for cookbook orders, leaving the editor responsible for fulfilling and shipping the order.<\/p>\n That can simplify the sales process considerably.<\/p>\n Instead of someone saying, “I’d love a copy\u2014how do I get one?” and beginning a chain of emails, phone calls, checks, and sticky notes, you have a more organized way to direct interested buyers toward information about the cookbook.<\/p>\n And an online presence gives you something else that is extremely useful for marketing: a destination<\/strong>.<\/p>\n When you tell someone about your cookbook, you can point them toward a place where they can learn more.<\/p>\n That makes social media posts, emails, newsletters, and word-of-mouth promotion much more effective.<\/p>\n Amazon has become one of the places consumers naturally look when they want to find a book.<\/p>\n The Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit materials explain that, as a qualified publisher, Family Cookbook Project can submit eligible cookbook titles with ISBN numbers for listing on Amazon.com. Editors can then arrange to sell their own printed copies through Amazon rather than Family Cookbook Project maintaining an inventory of the books.<\/p>\n That distinction is important.<\/p>\n Family Cookbook Project is not taking over your cookbook inventory or shipping books for you. The editor remains responsible for the copies being offered for sale.<\/p>\n But having the cookbook listed on Amazon can provide something difficult to create on your own: visibility on a familiar book-buying platform<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It can also make promoting your cookbook easier.<\/p>\n Suppose an old family friend sees a Facebook post about your cookbook and wants one.<\/p>\n Or someone from your hometown hears about your regional cookbook.<\/p>\n Or a distant relative learns about it after the reunion is over.<\/p>\n Being able to tell someone that they can search for the cookbook on Amazon can make the buying process feel much more familiar.<\/p>\n The Marketing Kit instructions provide editors with information about setting up an Amazon seller account, adding available inventory, establishing a price, and fulfilling cookbook orders.<\/p>\n You still control how many copies you want to sell.<\/p>\n One question cookbook editors often face before printing is:<\/p>\n “How many copies should I order?”<\/strong><\/p>\n You know how many immediate family members want one. But what about everyone else?<\/p>\n Uncles tell cousins.<\/p>\n Cousins tell cousins you forgot you had.<\/p>\n A family member shows the cookbook to someone at work.<\/p>\n Someone brings it to a neighborhood party.<\/p>\n Before long, people who were never on your original list may be asking, “Can I buy one?”<\/p>\n Having marketing tools in place can make it easier to think beyond your first distribution list.<\/p>\n Instead of viewing extra books as copies you hope somebody eventually wants, you can approach them as inventory you are prepared to promote.<\/p>\n That does not mean you need to order hundreds of cookbooks.<\/p>\n It simply gives you more options.<\/p>\n Some family cookbooks are very private, filled with stories and recipes intended only for relatives.<\/p>\n Others naturally have broader appeal.<\/p>\n For example, consider a cookbook featuring:<\/p>\n In situations like these, the ability to give the cookbook an ISBN, add a retail bar code, establish database listings, create an online showcase, and pursue an Amazon listing can be particularly helpful.<\/p>\n Perhaps the nicest thing about adding marketing tools is that they do not change what made your cookbook special in the first place.<\/p>\n You are not suddenly required to write recipes differently.\u00a0You do not need to remove the photos of Grandpa standing beside the grill.\u00a0You do not need to replace Aunt Mary’s handwritten pie story with something more “commercial.”<\/p>\n The cookbook can remain exactly what you wanted it to be: your cookbook<\/strong>.\u00a0The Marketing Kit simply gives you additional ways to share it.<\/p>\n That makes it a particularly good fit for editors who are proud of what they have created and think others may enjoy having a copy.<\/p>\n The best time to decide whether you may want to sell your cookbook is before it is printed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Ask yourself a few simple questions.<\/p>\n If you find yourself answering yes, adding the Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit to your print order may be worth considering.<\/p>\n Creating a cookbook takes effort.<\/p>\n If your goal is simply to print copies for loved ones, that can be a perfect ending to the project.\u00a0But sometimes the story does not have to end there.<\/p>\n The Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit<\/strong> gives editors additional tools to turn a personal cookbook into a book that can be more easily identified, discovered, promoted, and sold.<\/p>\n With an ISBN, a retail bar code, a Books In Print\u00ae listing, the Family Cookbook Project Showcase, and the opportunity to pursue an Amazon listing, your cookbook can reach well beyond the people who helped create it.<\/p>\n And that can lead to something every cookbook editor loves to hear:<\/p>\n “I saw your cookbook. Where can I get a copy?”<\/strong><\/p>\n When you are ready to print your Family Cookbook Project cookbook, consider whether the Marketing Kit option<\/strong> belongs in your publishing plans. You have already created something worth sharing. The Marketing Kit can help make sharing\u2014and selling\u2014it a whole lot easier.<\/p>\n Visit FamilyCookbookProject.com<\/strong> to create, print, and share a cookbook filled with the recipes and memories that matter most.<\/p>\n Bill Rice is Founder and Co-Publisher of the<\/span><\/i> Family Cookbook Project<\/span><\/i><\/a>, the leading online cookbook publisher with a website that helps families and individuals collect, preserve and share food memories by creating their own printed custom cookbooks. He is the author of The<\/span><\/i> Wellfleet Oyster Cookbook<\/span><\/i><\/a> and the<\/span><\/i> Cape Cod Cocktail Cookbook<\/span><\/i><\/a> (Available on Amazon), both created using FamilyCookbookProject.com. He is also editor of the Donovan Family Cookbook, now its third printing and is an avid genealogist tracing his family back to the 1600’s.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Follow Family Cookbook Project on<\/em> Facebook<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Instagram<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> X (Twitter)<\/em><\/a> TikTok<\/a>, YouTube<\/a> and<\/em> Pinterest<\/em><\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is the Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit?<\/strong> Who should add a cookbook Marketing Kit?<\/strong> Can a Marketing Kit help sell more cookbooks?<\/strong> Is the Marketing Kit only for fundraisers?<\/strong> When should I add the Marketing Kit?<\/strong> How do I promote my family cookbook?<\/strong> Creating a family cookbook is a big accomplishment. But once the recipes, photos, stories, and cover are finished, many cookbook editors face the next question: how do we let people know the cookbook is available and encourage them to order a copy? The Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit is designed to help editors promote, share, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":5897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor-tips","has-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5895"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5915,"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5895\/revisions\/5915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Your Cookbook Becomes More Than a Keepsake<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.familycookbookproject.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/5-BlogAdL-169x300.jpg\")
<\/a>An ISBN Gives Your Cookbook Its Own Publishing Identity<\/h2>\nA Bar Code Makes Your Cookbook Look Ready for Sale<\/h2>\n
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A Books In Print\u00ae Listing Helps Your Cookbook Be Discovered<\/h2>\n
The Family Cookbook Project Showcase Gives You an Online Sales Presence<\/h2>\n
You Can Expand Your Reach Through Amazon<\/h2>\n
Selling Cookbooks Can Help You Order With More Confidence<\/h2>\n
The Marketing Kit Is Especially Helpful for Cookbooks With a Wider Story<\/h2>\n
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You Still Get to Keep the Project Personal<\/h2>\n
Think About Marketing Before You Place Your Print Order<\/h2>\n
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You Did the Hard Part. Now Help People Find Your Cookbook.<\/h2>\n
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Frequently Asked Questions About the Family Cookbook Project Marketing Kit<\/h2>\n
The Marketing Kit is an optional add-on that helps cookbook editors promote, share, and sell their printed family cookbooks with ready-to-use marketing tools, an ISBN number, bar code and a listing on Amazon.com and sales support.<\/p>\n
It is useful for family cookbook editors, reunion organizers, fundraiser groups, churches, schools, clubs, nonprofits, community projects, and anyone who wants help promoting cookbook sales.<\/p>\n
Yes. A Marketing Kit can help by making promotion easier, giving editors more reach online, and making it clearer how people can order the cookbook.<\/p>\n
No. It can also help with family cookbooks, holiday gift cookbooks, reunion cookbooks, memorial cookbooks, community cookbooks, and cookbooks sold to cover printing costs.<\/p>\n
Add it when you place your print order, it is part of the check out process.<\/p>\n
Use email, social media, contributor reminders, printed flyers, sample cookbook photos, reunion announcements, holiday gift messaging, and clear order deadlines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"