I Wrote a Cookbook. How Do I Market It?

7 years ago · 4 minute read

AMA question #14:

“I wrote a cookbook over the last four years and am ready to self-publishing (with blurb.com) and sell it! I have a fantastic family who is supportive and friends all over the world (we’re a military family so we’ve moved a lot) but I need to start reaching more people to boost my followers. The market for cookbooks is pretty saturated. What’s the best way to get more followers and differentiate myself?”

Here’s our answer.

Key points:

• When I hear this question I am drawn to “military family” with “friends all over the world”. Turn the camera on, cook your recipes, show us the craziness of your household and feeding the family.
• Leverage the military community. Do giveaways and interviews.
• Are your recipes easy? Fast? How does it fit a certain type of person? Show me that.
• Look for existing cookbook sites or cooking email lists with a following. Our friend has one called $5 meal plan. If you’re the “military mom” cookbook, you have an angle that they might be down to feature. Or advertise w/them or do a giveaway to their list.

AMA Video Transcript

Dana Robinson: “I wrote a cookbook over the last four years, and I’m ready to self-publish with Blurb.com and sell it. I have a fantastic family who is supportive, and friends all over the world. We’re military families so we’ve moved a lot, but I need to start reaching more people to boost my followers. The market for the cookbooks is pretty saturated. What’s the best way to get more followers and differentiate myself?”

Nate Broughton: Ah, so what’s the best way to market this thing right?

Dana Robinson: Marketing.

Nate Broughton: Right, yeah. All about marketing. First of all, kudos on writing the cookbook. That is not something a lot of people who set out to do can do, so assuming this thing is done and wrapped up, good job. You’ve done some hard work and let’s see what we can do to sell this thing. You mentioned that you don’t have a following, and I think that the best way to build a following, and to sell this, you can think about it in either bucket, or both, is to think about what differentiates you.

Nate Broughton: From this message, you say, “We’re a military family and we’ve moved a lot.” To me, that’s kind of cool, that’s different. I’m starting to envision a mom who is kind of like a power mom, who takes care of a bunch of kids. She’s had to deal with a lot of stuff like moving them around. That’s a hard life, I think you can leverage that in some way. I’ve actually done marketing in the military space because the company used to be CMO of did only VA loans, and that’s a really passionate community.

Dana Robinson: Yeah.

Nate Broughton: I see that as something that differentiates you, and I’d try to play that up, so you become the military mom cookbook. I don’t know if necessarily you want to just rebrand or brand your cookbook in that way, but I think that’s going to make it a lot easier to market. So, the answer is probably, take what’s unique about you and then go out and start marketing from there. How do you market? Flip your camera around like everybody else these days, right.

Nate Broughton: Cook some of your recipes every night, show me the background behind your lifestyle. I assume your cookbook is somewhat tied to who you are as a person, so these are probably quick recipes for a family in a pinch, in a hurry. Start filming yourself cooking some of those things, and tell personal stories. I think people identify with that, and you can also go out there, and now you’ve got these other people that you can reach out to if you self identify as a military family.

Nate Broughton: There’s a big community of people online that are military in all aspects, not just cooking obviously. In finance, in lifestyle, and whatever. Now you’ve got targets to go out and reach to, and say, “Hey! I’ve got a cookbook. I’m a military mom. Do you think it’s fit for your audience?” “I’ve got a creative angle where we send this out to them.”

Dana Robinson: Yeah, I love the video angle, and I think it’s still early in the video business. It’ll be awkward, you know. You’re going to be using your iPhone, or maybe a camera, one angle, and then you’re going to be learning some tools to produce that. But, I can tell you from experience, I’ll actually mention a couple of people that are really successful on YouTube. They were probably really awkward when they started.

Nate Broughton: Yeah.

Dana Robinson: I mean, Papastache is a friend of mine. He’s got 900 videos on playing guitar, so he’s giving it all away. But what happens when you have a million followers is, then you can say to them, “Hey, do you want to buy my package of lessons?” So, if you want to sell a cookbook give away the recipes on video, and build your following by telling people, “Here’s how to do it”

Nate Broughton: I also think, look for existing cookbooks sites. These people have already done the leg work to build a following, and I think if you’re just another cookbook you’ve got a lot worse chance of having them respond, and want to interact with you, but if you’ve got this angle of being a military mom, this is a military mom cookbook, they might be like, “Oh, that’s kind of cool and unique.”

Nate Broughton: Our friend does marketing for a $5 meal plan, which is this thing that’s probably not unlike this. It’s like, it’s a cookbook, and it’s recipes for people that just want to spend five bucks on a dinner, which, there’s a cook marketing angle right?

Dana Robinson: Exactly.

Nate Broughton: But, I think that if you’re the military mom, military family cookbook, you could reach out to them and say, “I’ve got a cool different angle on this. Let’s do some co-marketing. Can I publish some of my recipes to your email list?” If they have an Instagram following, “Can we do a giveaway together?” I think you need to give yourself something unique so you can go out to those people that already have a following and stand out.

Dana Robinson: That’s right. If your niche is something that sets you apart, but doesn’t make you competitive, because your niche is different than other people’s, then you can actually co-market with other people that have a different niche, and they’re not going to be as protective.

Nate Broughton: Right. So, give it a try military mom.