X Marks Cookbook?

[jordanjm]

Maybe we could set up a set of threads in the off topic forum for various types of recipes?

[Chef]

I have worked on a number of other author's cookbooks and I am currently getting the chance to work on my own. I have preliminary interest from a publisher on concept and am now working towards a full commitment. I have also been involved in self publishing of a book with the St. Andrew's Society in New York.

Things I would add from my experiences: self publishing (which is what we would be doing) is not terribly expensive depending on the number of copies you order as well as the quality and style of the final product. The cost can run from a few dollars to over $20 a copy. Still, not a bad deal if the interest is there. However, who is going to pay for the books to be published before they are sold? Who is going to handle the distribution etc. Normally when a group publishes a book (a church or school for instance) the central organisation does this. That is not the case here. Vanity publishers want a single order not orders from many individuals.

One of the problems of self published cookbooks is, more often than not, many of the recipes do not work. Not because its a bad recipe or because the writer is a bad cook but self published cookbooks are notorious for errors and for badly written recipes. Even the best recipe can be ruined by a reader if the instructions are not clear to the them. Unfortunately the recipe's writer is the worst judge of whether or not a recipe is written well because they know how to make the dish.

Professionally written cookbooks spend more time on recipe testing and editing than anything else. This is what I have worked on for cookbooks. Many recipes will be tested four or more times, by different testers, with edits after each testing before they are ok for print. In days gone by, the church committee in charge of the cookbook might spend some time recipe testing but that rarely happens now, particularly now that it is possible for individuals to load up the recipes rather than having them gathered by a committee. A partial reason they are no longer viewed in the same light as they once were.

There used to be a really good market for local organisation cookbooks. The local school supporters or church ladies would put it together and sales to the local community would help raise money. That is not as true now. Vanity cookbooks often only sell to a few people other than those who have contributed to the book (people like to see their name in print). They are not considered the great fund raisers they once were even though the price to publish has actually decreased.

Now that I have said all that, I think the project could be a fun one. Morris Cookbooks is probably the easiest one to deal with. Vanity publishers that don't specialise in cookbooks are usually a mistake unless special formatting and graphics are what you are really looking to do. Of course that all costs money and it is really a different project than putting together a collection of recipes.

[CactusJack]

I love the sound of that cake! Recipe PLEASE.

You can find it here.
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/r...081/index.html
Sorry it took so long to get back to you.

[creativeaccents]

The "cake" sounds delicious...something for a cold winter day that would stand up to a Guinness!

[CactusJack]

The "cake" sounds delicious...something for a cold winter day that would stand up to a Guinness!

Trust me it does...

Also if you want you can substitute the yellow cake mix and vanilla pudding with chocolate, we did and it was very good.

[Gryphon noir]

If I had found this thread earlier, I would have posted the vegan haggis [really...no kidding] recipe here. Yes, I like the idea of an X marks cookbook, but judging from the response to my aforementioned post, it might end up being an object of derision which could serve to take a bit of pressure off the usual suspects.......