How to Write a Recipe Book or Cookbook

Cookbooks and favorite recipes are popular

A recipe book or cookbook can be written with minimal effort in comparison to other writing tasks if you have an organized mind and the ability to make decisions. You must choose the type of cookbook you want to publish and develop or locate recipes for the content.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• recipes available that are not copyrighted
• 3 by 5 cards and a pen
• the ability to make decisions
• knowledge of a desktop publishing program or Word.
• the ability to write and spell or to know someone who will proofread and correct grammar

1. Decide what kind of recipe book or cookbook you want to publish, and find the recipes you would like to use. To make this decision, look at categories on this website or others. You may use family recipes or your personal recipes, or if you need additional recipes for the cookbook, you can contact a group to provide recipes for the food type you want to include. You cannot use recipes from magazines, other cookbooks, or the internet unless you get permission from the provider.

2. Assemble the recipes on 3 x 5 cards because you will need to shuffle them by type and what fits on the page. Develop a Table of Contents for the cookbook. Sort the recipes by groups or establish an order for the cookbook. Once these are sorted, you can start with a Desktop Publisher or a Word document to place them in book format, sequentially as you want them to appear.

3. With the draft cookbook in Word or in a Desktop Publishing program, make revisions, corrections, and remove or insert any recipes that fit. If you have incomplete pages or if the recipes run from one page to another, you might consider some line drawings or artwork to fill in. You can also write about the cookbook theme between recipes so the recipes fall on the pages in a pleasant format.

4. Design a cover or make plans for a cover design for your recipe book or cookbook. Make sure it reflects the kind of recipes the cookbook contains, and that the name, editor, and maybe publisher name can be located around the design.

5. Copyright your recipe book or cookbook. Be sure the recipes are original, either your own or your friends, and not previously copyrighted. See Resources below to find copyright information.

6. Find a publisher. There are companies that publish cookbooks, and some that publish specialty cookbooks. If you can qualify as a charity cookbook, or a church cookbook, or even as a celebrity cookbook, you can probably locate a specialty publisher on the internet. If not, go to your public library and check the cookbook section. Find one you like, and see who published it. Contact a publisher and see if they will take a look at your recipe book or cookbook for publication.

Tips & Warnings

• If you need to contact others to provide recipes, you can give each contributor's name following the recipe as a token of appreciation.

• If you intend to make money from the cookbook, it would be nice to give an autographed copy to those who helped with recipes or proofreading for you.

• Copyright 2009 Linda Richard

• We often write about writing, copyrights, and the English language. See more articles like this in Resources below.

• Do not copy recipes from other sources, but contact your family and friends to see what recipes they have developed over their years of cooking.

Resources

• Use Correct English Grammar
• Do Creative Writing with a Friend
• Write Articles with Speed and Accuracy
• How to Check Copyright Laws
• Apply for a Copyright