The Future of Regional Cookbooks Part 4.

Free content--WOW! This is one of the biggest hurdles for a regional cookbook to overcome. The good news is that with the proper planning in place a new title can be successful in spite of this obstacle .
Let me explain.

Many years ago popular regional cookbooks were simply a collection of regional recipes. As time went on the demand for more than just recipes in cookbooks grew. Photographs, historical information about the recipe, cooking tips and shortcuts all became popular and necessary for success. Today a successful regional cookbook must be well themed, have GREAT and unique recipes as well as beautiful photographs or illustrations.

There is no way to turn the clock back on the availability of free content. Today's cookbook author has to develop content that readers will be willing to pay for in either a print edition or electronic edition. The collection of content must be put together in a package that is entertaining and fun as well as one that works. Junior Leagues were really brilliant by insisting that their recipes be triple tested. They developed a reputation for offering community cookbooks that worked. This feature is even more important today.

If you are developing a new cookbook, do some research. Is your idea unique? What makes it so? If it isn't what can you do to adjust? Who is your target audience and how will you get to them? Planning and great execution is the key. Cookbooks are still one of the most popular gift ideas around. Gift giving isn't going away anytime soon, so you have an opportunity to sell thousands of copies of your cookbook if you will simply take a little time to develop a unique cookbook that works.

What is the Future of Regional Cookbooks? Part 1.

Everyone in the book publishing world is trying to understand where the market is going. Never in my thirty-two years of experience have I seen things so muddled. Of course, selfishly I am focusing on the publishing of regional cookbooks but all genres seem to be dealing with the same issues.

What are the issues? In my world the 3 major issues are:

• Consolidation of the brick and mortar bookstores--only one national chain
• The advent of electronic publishing and e-readers
• Free content

The first is problematic because in times past an author or organization had many "community" outlet options for distributing a cookbook. In addition, the chain stores were at least pretending to be "community-friendly" by stocking and promoting regional titles. With only one national chain store in business there isn't much competition. It has become "do it our way or you are left out in the cold".

The electronic issue is a challenge because no one has a clue how the purchase of electronic versions of a title will affect the inventory needs for printed books. Of course, the number of printed copies affects the cost per book as the more books printed the cheaper the price per book.

The free content is especially daunting if one falls into the trap of believing that consumers only buy your book for the recipes. It is absolutely true that you can log onto a bevy of websites and find multiple versions of any particular recipe that you want.

Do the challenges stated above signal an end to the "regional cookbook" genre? I do not think so and many experts agree with me.

These challenges simply mean that an author or organization must be better organized, plan their content more carefully and implement a marketing effort before the books even hit the stores. In the next several posts I'll discuss these issues one at a time plus discuss the fallacy that is being sold as "Print on Demand".