Why You're Wasting Time Waiting for Fun Cookbook News Before You Pitch Media

Photo by Elevae

Fun fact: I had a podcast for 3 years called Babe Cave, inspired by Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, with the idea that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. It wasn’t lucrative creatively, but it was fulfilling. I’d grab friends from all stages of my career to sit down and chat about all the things. We’d go deep and have A TON of laughs along the way. 

Occasionally, I’d get sweet messages from listeners. One gal found the show through Instagram and connected with me there, which was lovely. She was an artist in Nashville, and a few months later, she sent me an email promoting her upcoming album. Also, she wanted to know if I’d like to write a post about her on my website. Weird.

I wasn’t doing features on anyone, and if you looked at my website, you’d know that. And I’d had a good friend of mine who’s also an artist and songwriter on the show, so I thought maybe that’s where she got the idea to pitch me. 

Plus, there was no there there—no story or even a way for me to connect it back to anything I was doing at the time. It was literally, just “hey, I have an album coming out, you should write about it”. My Cooking Light and East Bay magazine days came flashing back with a sea of never-ending PR pitches about things that were never as cool as they wanted to be. 

So, when a client tells me they want to wait to pitch magazines and podcasts until they have a cookbook deal aka something to talk about, I immediately shut it down.

Because if you’re waiting to market or pitch yourself until you have a cookbook deal, you don’t have enough to say in the first place.

An album release or cookbook deal is cool, but so what? Every week, multiple albums drop and another author signs a cookbook deal. What’s so special about you? There’s more to you than you realize, and here’s why you’re wasting time waiting for fun cookbook news before you pitch media. 

A Cookbook is a Promotional Tool, Not the Narrative

In fiction, a common mistake is adding a bunch of plot points that don’t add to the story. One book, in particular, haunts me because it randomly threw in that a Manhattan brownstone was a stop on the Underground Railroad, made it a BIG deal for a few chapters, and then just moved on. And it changed absolutely nothing about the story or what was happening with the characters.

Your cookbook is a plot point. It’s one star on the map of your career, but it can’t be the only thing you talk about. If you’re struggling to find topics besides your book, ask yourself:

• Who were you before the cookbook idea or deal? 

• What were the topics lighting you up at parties? 

• How has your career changed and what do you wish you knew before you started? 

• What’s your controversial opinion about a popular food topic? (Think Anthony Bourdain’s opinion about brunch being trash.)

• Is there something about your process that you feel is special and could help people?

• What’s the one thing you’re most excited about in the food industry right now?

In William Zinsser’s On Writing Well, he points out that no article or book can contain everything on a single subject. So, it makes sense that one cookbook can’t tell us everything we need to know about YOU. 

Editors and producers want to build long-lasting relationships with talent. So, the more stories you pitch, the better. Show them a range of ideas that’ll serve their audience. And the more press you get before your cookbook comes out or in-between books will make it easier to land bigger press opportunities once your book is published.

Publicity Could Land You a Book Deal (and Negotiating Power)

Anytime book proposal submissions come up with a literary agent or publisher, they normally say they rarely accept queries because they’re already scouting talent. It sounds like a bummer, but it makes sense. They should know who the rising talent is because their paychecks depend on it. Plus, most agents and publishers want to develop talent and be with an author for the long haul. It’s never about just one cookbook.

Also, the more publicity you get before a book deal increases your authority and negotiating power. Don’t forget, there are multiple pieces of a lucrative cookbook deal, and star talent is one of them.

It reminds me of this part in the documentary Before the Music Dies, where Dave Matthews shares how he held out on several record deals because they weren’t good enough. The band had been touring, creating music on their own, and making money. So when the folks at the labels tried to make them think they needed a record deal, the band told ‘em to kick rocks. 

And by building your media clips, you’re also showing agents and publishers you can sell your cookbook on your own, aka you have a strong platform, which is KEY for landing a book deal (or a better one).

You Can Share Your Story Now (Instead of When Your Cookbook is Published In 3 Years)

One of the first questions I ask new clients is that if they’re still working on this book in four years, will it be worth it? They all say yes, but also note how they want to have a book deal as soon as possible with their books on shelves in a year or two.

I hate to be the grim reaper of your publishing dreams, but that’s probably not going to happen. A book proposal takes about 6 months to complete. Finding an agent (which I recommend even if a publisher is interested in working with you) can take just as long or longer depending on how quickly people get back to you, what their feedback is, and who is accepting submissions. Once you have a book deal with a traditional publisher, they typically want your first draft in a year, and your publishing date could be two or even three years out from that date.

That’s a lot of time to just be sitting around waiting to share some cool cookbook news. 

Don’t underestimate the power of momentum, either. If you’ve been regularly pitching yourself and sharing your story, it’ll be so much easier to amplify your strategy once you’re closer to a publishing date. You’ll have built a network and community of folks who’ve been following you and can’t wait to pick up your book. 

How to Pitch Food Media When You’re in an In-Between Stage

If you’re stuck on unique stories to pitch media outlets until you get a cookbook deal (or your next one), it’s okay, but don’t believe you have to have fun cookbook news for people to care about what you have to say. Pitching media outlets when you’re in-between things can strengthen your overall story, help the right people find you, and be a tool to share your story now. 

And if you need help figuring out what stories you should pitch, let’s spend some time reevaluating why you’re doing all of this in the first place. My 5 day course, Writing Gold, was created for that exact reason. 

With daily lesson and writing prompts, you’ll be able to cut through the ish holding you down and have a clear path forward for what you want to talk about and what your audience wants to hear. And you can revisit the prompts again and again as your career evolves. It all works together if you know what you’re looking for. 

Sign up here now, and let’s get you excited to market yourself and pitch food media at every stage of the cookbook writing and publishing process. You and your audience deserve for these stories to be heard.