3 Steps to a Winning Marketing and Publicity Plan for Your Cookbook Career
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“They said I need to spend more time building my platform.”
This line could be dragged and dropped into most conversations I have with clients after a chat with a literary agent. The “platform” is your ability to sell books. It could mean speaking opportunities, guest posts, interviews or an established online business. While most people think it means social media numbers, it’s not the only thing agents and publishers are looking at.
It’s confusing to know what numbers to hit for the “ideal platform”. One person can get a book deal with less than 5,000 followers, but a strong network, and someone else with 100,000 followers can land a deal with absolutely no network.
The key is creating your own marketing and publicity eco-system that you can use beyond the book deal. A mistake a lot of food writers make is believing you really only need to promote the book about 3 months before it’s published and 3 months after it’s published.
So, they think they should wait to build their email list and pitch themselves to outlets until “it’s time”, and by then, they’ve already missed the window.
Cookbooks and food memoirs won’t make you rich. The advance is paying for you to produce the book. But a book deal can open doors to a host of new opportunities, and it’s vital you have your marketing and publicity strategy in place, so you can make the most of it when it happens.
I’ve collected the resources I feel will be the most helpful for you to build a thriving marketing and publicity ecosystem. All roads lead to email ultimately, so I started with that. The other pieces are less linear, but there’s a flow for driving traffic to your email list on every other channel.
You’ll also find a lot of overlap between the resources below, so if something doesn’t connect the first time you hear it, I guarantee it’ll come up again with someone else.
Let’s go!
(Quick note: I only recommend products and services I can’t shut up about. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links at no additional cost to you and may put some dollars in my pocket.)
Email:
If you do anything, start an email list. It’s a resource you own, and it’s also a way you can convert subscribers into buyers. Your email list is a warm audience, so you can test ideas and services before launching new projects. It’s also an excellent way to strengthen your storytelling skills and create a regular writing practice.
Flodesk: This is my email service provider, and I honestly don’t know how I survived so long without them. The design is intuitive and simple. You can easily create endless workflows, schedule, and design emails with just a flat monthly fee. One benefit of a typical email service provider is that you can create segments, like people who pre-order your book or opt into a specific offering. You’re able to personalize the email with the reader’s first names, and you can export all of that content.
There’s also a new “checkouts” feature, where you can create sales pages for any future offerings you want to sell (classes, guides, etc).
It’s pretty drag and drop, and you’re not dinged for growth. (And if you decide this is the best move for you, you can get for 50% off your first year).
Substack: You can’t get very far without someone mentioning Substack, especially since it seems to be a favorite option for so many food writers. You’re able to monetize your list, if you’d like, and set up subscription features similar to Patreon.
They’re adding new features in the platform to make your content found more easily, but you’re still not able to address people personally, create segments of readers, or automations. All the above are really powerful when you’re trying to reach specific people and grow your income. From what I can gather, Substack is also working to keep folks locked into the platform rather than making it easier for people to export content elsewhere.
If you’re able to sign up and have a look around at the features, I’d say it couldn’t hurt. Ultimately, you want something you’re going to use, and it looks like you can export your list (but I’m still not clear if it includes people’s full names and email addresses or just the email addresses), so you can experiment with it.
Moral of the story: Whichever way you decide to go, you’ll still have to spend a good amount of time growing your list. It just depends on which method you believe will be easy to use and allow you to stay consistent.
Tools to Help You Get Started & Grow Your List:
The Relaxed Business Owner’s Guide to Building a Profitable Email List by Amy Porterfield: This free masterclass is great for some of the strategy pieces you can use on social to get more eyeballs on your list. I believe she talks about an opt-in—your free piece of content you give folks in exchange for their email address—if you started with Flodesk. You can use the inspiration for the opt-in for a paid subscription feature if you use Substack.
She also has a list building course too. The thing I love about Amy’s work is she shows you how to use social media to grow your email list, so it creates a built-in social media plan.
Writing Gold: 5 Days to Kickstart Your Cookbook Writing and Grow Your Audience of Raving Fans: My free video course walking you through editorial guidelines for your list, and email and onboarding templates to get you up and running quickly.
Instagram:
I dipped out on Instagram for a few years because it didn’t feel fun to be there. Honestly, I’ve had long periods where I’ve stepped away and returned because I just needed to. But it turns out, my ideal client hangs out there A LOT, so I have to too.
It’s your job to make it easy for people to find you, and Instagram continues to be a really valuable tool in making that happen. Yes, some people look at follower counts, but my advice would be to focus on value and a sustainable strategy for yourself first.
A mistake a lot of food creators make is just getting into a content creation cycle without a plan for how to move people off of the app. If you want to create a healthy marketing eco-system aka a plan that won’t leave you screwed if one platform disappears tomorrow, it’s vital to know how to leverage Instagram.
3 resources to Get You Moving:
Jenna Kutcher: I’ve done her InstaEssentials program, which she created during lockdown, but a lot of it still applies to an overall strategy. It’s very bingeable, so you could get through everything in an afternoon. She also has a longer course, The Instagram Lab, which goes into more depth on how to use it to convert followers and there are also bonus trainings on getting started with video.
The Table by Oh Sierra: If you’re looking for regular support with your social media strategy, this is the place you should be. This monthly membership has been helpful for me to focus on community building through Instagram which feels authentic to me and what I’m building. With monthly classes and ongoing community support, it’s an awesome resource to help navigate the constant changes you have to make to your own strategy. And if you’d like to get started now, you can sign up here.
Skillshare: If you’d prefer to create your own adventure with your Instagram strategy, this may a good option for you. With hundreds of classes to choose from, you can dig into growth strategies, filming techniques and content creation. The only note I’d have about this is it may be easy to go down a million rabbit holes. Have a goal in mind of an area you’d like to focus on, and build your plan out from there.
Pitching + Publicity:
I start book proposal clients off by creating a magazine pitch because I believe every book idea is inside of one. It not only creates clarity about what your book is and isn’t, but it gives you experience pitching your stories.
A common mistake writers make is pushing something that’ll help themselves, instead of looking at how they can add value to the person on the other side. Editors, content creators, and even literary agents want powerful stories, but there has to be a clear reason why they should choose your story now. Because your friends and family believe it’s a good story, isn’t enough.
By regularly pitching yourself, you’ll become more confident in the stories you’re telling, so when you finally pitch agents and publishers, you already know what they’re looking for.
Here are some places to get you started:
Selena Soo: As a student of Selena’s, I’m a big fan of her work. Especially because her free resources are packed with value that can immediately help you pitch yourself to the media. She helps you identify ways to stand out to publications, so they’ll want the stories you’re pitching. But she also helps you see what editors are looking for, so you can make the biggest impact.
Susie Moore: I’ve taken a few of Susie’s classes, and I really enjoyed them. She’s quite conversational and grew her business and email list through guest posting. Her free class Overnight Rockstar is a great intro to her signature course, Five Minutes to Famous, which covers everything from writing your media bio to how to pitch the media.
Stephanie Moon: From one-on-one marketing coaching to an entire suite of classes, Stephanie has something for whatever stage of the cookbook writing process you’re at. She’s led campaigns for New York Times bestsellers and past clients include Chronicle Books, Hardie Grant, and Harper Collins aka she knows what she’s talking about. If you do connect with Stephanie, please tell her I sent you!
Some additional places to pitch yourself:
Podcast Guests allow you to be listed as a guest expert, and you can sign up for their newsletter and pitch shows they feature. I’ve done both, and I’d suggest starting with the newsletter first, and seeing how it feels.
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a free list-serve with 3 daily newsletters filled with calls for pitches from national publications. Read the entire ask for the publication before responding, especially what the deadline is for submissions.
Marketing and Publicity for the Long Haul
As long as you’re creating work you want people to see, you’ll need to market it and pitch it for publicity. It’s your responsibility to make it easy for people to find you. So many folks assume people will automatically buy a book just because they write it, but that’s not true. Think of the people who you follow and admire—chances are they relentlessly share about their work and projects, but you’re not judging them for doing it because you’re invested in them.
You’re harder on yourself than you are on anyone else, and it’s making it easier for you to hide. People need the story you have to tell. The only way marketing and publicity become easier is to jump in and trust you’ll be able to figure it out along the way.
Part of my work as a cookbook and food memoir coach is to help with the marketing and publicity pieces. If you’re ready for the next step with your work, grab your spot on my coaching waitlist here. Let’s make this part fun again, so you can dive into your story with enthusiasm because you’re so freaking excited to share it with the world.
