by Eric Ruark

Created on: February 13, 2009   Last Updated: February 15, 2009

How To Choose A Cookbook Publisher

You've just spent 10,000 hours in the kitchen writing a cookbook. You have painstakingly gone over each and every recipe. You've measured, tested, tasted, and religiously noted everything down. Each recipe is as perfect as you can make it. They are all full-flavored and capture the essence of your cooking theme. After all that work, you have a cookbook that you are proud of and you want to share it with the world. But you are not Nigella or Emeril or the Barefoot Contessa. So where do you go?

Changing gear:

If you want to get your cookbook published, you have to change gear literally. You have to hang up your apron and put on your deerstalker. You have to change your mind set from Julia Child and become Sherlock Holmes. Finding a publisher is not hard. But it is time consuming. You will have to put in the same kind of effort researching the potential publishers as you did preparing each and every recipe.

The first place you need to go is to your favorite mass market book store Brentano's, Barns & Noble, Borders whatever it's called in your area. Head straight to the cooking section. You are on a quest. You need to look for cookbooks that have the same theme that yours does.

Have you prepared a Tex-Mex cookbook with Cajun flair?

Have you written a New England cookbook featuring recipes from family diaries or memoires kept in the local historical society?

When you find those cookbooks, open them to the title page and see who published them. When you've written down the publisher, look for the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS page. It will either be in the front or the back of the book. Read the acknowledgments.

Authors have a tendency to thank both their editors and their agents. Those are two very important names. Write them down and save them.

The Truth about Publishers and Editors:

Publishers have niches. What you are looking for is the publisher whose niche fits your book. Publishing houses are creatures of habit. Their editors are employees of habit. An editor keeps his job based on how well the books he purchases do in the mass market. If he buys a book that doesn't sell, his job is in jeopardy. Too many bad sellers and he gets fired. Because of this, editors tend to be very conservative people. They like their jobs and want to keep them. Editors will very rarely stray from the niche that has made them money. The bottom line won't let them.

If an editor/publishing house specializes in Southwestern cooking, they are more than likely willing to

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