It’s the season of New Year’s resolutions, and as the temperatures drop, what better season is there for spending time in the kitchen honing your cooking and baking skills? Whether you’re sharpening your skills for fun or as part of your career, a valuable resource available to you in your culinary endeavors is your local library. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of libraries is books, and the library offers a wide selection of cookbooks about nearly every subject in the culinary universe. Along with family favorites like the Betty Crocker Cookbook, recipes from Taste of Home and Food and Family, and classics such as Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the cookbook world is diverse and can be surprisingly specific. For instance, a book called Sauces teaches readers about which sauces taste the best on which things, and picking up a specific skill can be easy with cookbooks about specialized techniques like preserving, sous vide, or cooking with cast iron. There are also plenty of cookbooks from your favorite TV shows, books by industry specialists, and even some by celebrities. Books with recipes especially for those with diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, and autoimmune diseases, and cookbooks for special diets such as keto, gluten free, or vegan are now more widely available than ever before. Furthermore, books like The Science of Cooking and How Baking Works explain the fascinating scientific processes behind cooking and baking, and The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt is…
‘Get Smart’ About the Business of Your Book Distribution is not a dirty word. No one talks about it much in literary circles and it is something you may not have thought much about as an author. Perhaps you are more conscious of its importance when it comes to films and music. Distribution determines what movies appear in which theaters. What selection of music is… [Read More]
Filed Under: Baker & Taylor, book stores, Consortium, Distribution, Ingram, IPG, libraries, NBN, Publishers Group West, sales and marketing
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Query Letters: When to send them and what to write. The single most important key to opening the door to an agent or acquisition editor is your query letter. You will only get a response if your reader is interested in knowing more about your book project. No response is a no. If you don’t receive a reply within a week, move on. Maybe there… [Read More]
Check your facts. You might not be Brian Williams. Maybe you don’t plan to write a memoir about your experience in the war against terrorism, cancer, death, or addiction. If you are a professional writer, you need to know facts still matter. Especially to your readers. If you write nonfiction, your credibility as an author depends on it. Corroborate your facts with additional documentation. Immerse… [Read More]
Writers need nurturing. They need time, space, sunlight, and fresh air. They need quiet. And, once in a while, they even need to eat. Writer’s retreats provide an opportunity to develop your skills, receive feedback if desired, make progress on a particular project, or recharge creative energies. There are many varieties of retreats; natural settings, rustic cabins or artistic colonies, instructional, or isolated. If you… [Read More]
Filed Under: Elsewhere Studios, MacDowell, Martha's Vineyard, Millay, Norman Mailer, Ragdale, Writing Retreats
Now that the new year has begun I have been asked repeatedly whether I’ll lead any winter workshops for writers. Since we live where it’s snowy and cold I’ve decided it’s too difficult for me, and likely for you, too. With all the snow in the past week, I am ready for a road trip. I’m headed to Tampa tomorrow where I’ll offer an intensive… [Read More]