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Ep8: Food Blogging & Cookbook Dreams with Dianne Jacob


Ep8- Food Blogging & Cookbook Dreams (1)Listen to this episode:

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Is starting a food blog worth your while in 2015?

You may read some online sources that say the food blogging sphere is overcrowded. Perhaps the same thing can be said about blogging in general. I’m one of those people that has to disagree — particularly if you are blogging as an entrepreneur.

You see, there’s a big difference between hobby bloggers and entrepreneurial bloggers. Hobby bloggers are not necessarily blogging for the money. Many are happy just connecting with like-minded individuals. Some food bloggers get to the point where they get offered sponsorships from food companies sometimes for $100 to $150, at best. That’s not exactly money you can live on. However entrepreneurs have several income streams and the blog becomes a space where you can market your other services and products.  If you are an entrepreneurial wellness entrepreneur who can develop her own audience, then I don’t see why you couldn’t make food blogging part of a profitable business.

In today’s podcast, I get to speak with one of my food and recipe writing mentors (at least in my head anyway…), Dianne Jacob. You may know of Dianne from her book, Will Write for Food, the premiere book on the art and science of food writing. I particularly recommend it for its section on writing recipes. I know many of you health coaches, nutritionists, dietitians, etc. are out there creating brilliant cooking classes that encourage families to eat better, but fall short on communicating written recipes to your audience simply because you never learned how. You don’t have to go to cooking school to learn this skill because Dianne has already laid out the “how-to” for you.

Aside from writing such a useful book, Dianne has also written and edited cookbooks, is a journalist, and also trains food bloggers all around the world. This episode is full of great takeaways. If you would like to connect with Dianne, you can find her on her website, DianneJ.com.

Would you like to know more about how to self-publish a book? Then sign up for your Publish & Profits Toolkit at DigitalWellPublisher.com for practical publishing advice, podcast interviews from industry leaders, and support from other entrepreneurs like you.

Halona Black is an Author, Book Coach, and Publisher who works with health and wellness entrepreneurs who are ready to share their million dollar story and change lives in the process. You can find her at DigitalWellPublisher.com.

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Ep4: Recipe Writing Blunders

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There is so much to writing a good food recipe than just transcribing ingredients and directions on a page. There are rules that should be followed so that your readers will be able to follow your instruction on how to recreate a recipe in their own kitchen.

The challenge for many wellness entrepreneurs is that they never started out wanting to be recipe writers. As a result, they may not have attended culinary school and there are very few resources available that offer lay cooks the information they need to learn how to do recipe writing well.

I, for one, don’t believe it is necessary to attend culinary school in order to learn how to write a good recipe. Culinary schools often focus on teaching basic cooking techniques that can be brought into restaurants. However, many wellness entrepreneurs are not interested in starting a restaurant (I said, many, not all…). What many health coaches, dieticians, and other entrepreneurs who may include some component of food are doing is teaching people how to cook and make decisions about what they eat within their own kitchens.

So what you will read here and find in the podcast episode are just a few notes from me concerning recipe writing blunders with a few tips on how you can improve your recipe writing without having to go to culinary school.

Recipe Writing Tips

  • Create a food philosophy.
  • Allow your recipe titles to let the food speak for itself – i.e., stop calling your recipes, “Healthy Guacamole…” It doesn’t sound delicious, particularly to people who are new to healthy eating. “Guacamole with Smoked Peppers and Sweet Corn” – now that’s delicious! The fact that it’s healthy should be an afterthought.
  • List your ingredients in order of use.
  • Be specific about how much of each ingredient you use.
  • Use standardized measurement (a standard teaspoon and a cereal spoon are two different things…).
  • Be sure to explain less obvious steps in recipe preparation (preheating, presoaking, pre-cooked ingredients, etc.).
  • Walk through the steps in preparing your recipe as you would to a kindergartener. Use short sentences.
  • Tell your reader how to store the food once it’s prepared. Does it need to be eaten immediately, or can it be frozen?
  • Add variations on the recipe. Can you swap out one ingredient for another to make it palatable to people with allergies, vegans, or for people who may not have access to that ingredient that season, etc.

Resources

If you want to learn more about the proper way to write recipes, how to write a food blog, write food related articles for magazines, etc., then you need to buy Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob — today! You can also view her blog jam packed with food writing advice and interviews.

Here are some of the other food and wellness bloggers mentioned in the show that may inspire you:

 

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