How to Write and Self-Publish a Cookbook

If you love cooking and like sharing recipes, creating a cookbook can be a fun and even profitable project. In this article, I'll show you an easy way to write and self-publish a cookbook with a very minimum budget.

1) First, register with Lulu.com or a similar website that will allow you to self-publish for free.

I like Lulu because they don't charge you any upfront costs to publish and only make money when you make money.

2) Next you'll need to download a template for the size of the cookbook you'd like to create.

I've found that the US Trade (6" by 9") size is the most economical if you want to sell physical paperback or hardback books. If you want to do e-books only, that doesn't matter as much.

3) Type up all of your recipes in the Word document, keeping one recipe per page for easy reading.

You can use "Save As" and use the same template over and over to keep from having to download it again for each book that you do.

4) Select the "Publish" tab of the website to get a program wizard that will give you instructions on how to upload the Word document, pick a cover, and determine what you want to charge for your book.

If you wish, you can then buy copies for yourself at wholesale. It's not a requirement however.

5) Lulu will create a unique web page for your cookbook.

You can then link to this site from your blog, personal website, or social networking website. I've made money just from doing this without spending a dime!

Additional Tips:

• If you play with the dollar amount using different bindings, etc., you can come up with a cookbook that you can reasonably use for fund raisers or for personal profit.
• Don't copy and paste other people's copyrighted work (including recipes) into your book without permission.

How to Write and Sell an Ebook

When I first started writing for profit, the idea of creating ebooks was very appealing to me. I just didn't really know how to do it. In this article, I'll show you one option you can take. It's not the only way to do things, but it's a way I know that's legitimate and helpful.

1) Obviously, you're going to need to have an idea or some existing material in mind to do this project.

For me, I had some short stories on a site called Writing.com. Basically on that site, people could read my work for free. After I had written 14 short stories, I decided I wanted to combine them into a book and if possible, an ebook that could be instantly downloaded.

2) At this point, there are a lot of options out there available to you. After I did some research, I personally decided to look into a site called Lulu.com.

Basically they're publishing on demand, meaning you don't have to put up money to be in their system and sell copies of your books and ebooks. Lulu and sites like it make money when something sells, and the percentage isn't bad considering a few people who've bought my books found them on their own without extra marketing on my part(one even lived in Singapore!). My general recommendation however is be very careful when it comes to your money and finding a distribution source. There are scams out there, as well as good opportunities.

3) Lulu and similar sites like it have templates where you can upload a Microsoft Word copy of your work and have it formatted to an Adobe Reader download.

I recommend this because it works with a lot of different electronic readers as well as most computers since the program itself is free.

4) If you do self-publish, keep in mind that your marketing is primarily in your own hands.

This can actually be a good thing if you enjoy it. I personally keep my marketing very simple. I have a blog and just write in a lot of different areas to where there's at least some name recognition and hopefully the realization I put a lot into what I'm doing. You just have to be patient, and good things will happen for you if you're persistent.

More Tips:

• Even if you don't consider yourself a writer, there's a high demand for knowledge in a lot of different areas. Give it some thought because you may have something to offer that other people would like to know more about.
• Unless it's a copy of an actual print book, I'm learning to keep ebooks shorter due to people read them during shorter time spans.
• Don't assume that if you just write the book that people are going to flock to buy it. Writing the book is about 50% of the work and marketing is about the other 50% when it comes to making an income doing this.