Who is Your Audience?

In my last post, I spent some time discussing the value of content in planning a cookbook.  Something else that must be considered when developing content is your audience. I say this for two very important reasons - content must appeal to those whom you want to purchase your book and you must have a way to reach this audience.

Let me give you some examples to illustrate.

If you decided to publish a cookbook for individuals afflicted with Celiac Disease you would obviously be narrowing the number of interested buyers to the Celiac population. At the same time you could be developing a database of Celiac sufferers within a certain region or area for social media efforts. Perhaps you would approach the medical community to assist in your marketing efforts--patient brochures, copies of books in allergist offices, finding medical blogs that deal with Celiac Disease to promote your title and so forth.

If, however you are generating a community cookbook targeted to raise funds within your town you would take a totally different approach in both content and marketing. You would start your book by involving your membership for recipes and orders, then work your way out for marketing purposes into the local media and distribution networks. Your might seek appearances on local cooking shows, promote to the Convention and Visitors bureau, hold book signings and tastings in local retail book or gift stores, for example.

You would also base your book order based on the universe your title would appeal to. I've never heard of an exact formula but you certainly wouldn't assume that everyone within your target audience would purchase, but rather you would agree on a reasonable percentage likely to buy over a 12-24 month period. The Melting Pot Restaurants based their first printing of Dip Into Something Different (15,000 copies) on a percentage of their preferred customer database and then ordered additional books as inventory was depleted. Their total print run now totals well over 50,000 copies.

This bit of legwork and planning up front might slow you down but will pay off in success if you develop the plan, identify the audience and then work the plan.

How Good is Your Content?

Are you considering developing a regional or specialty cookbook? Let me encourage you to invest some time in planning your content. There was a time in the not-so-distant past when an organization could reach out to its members and collect popular recipes of the day, rate and test the recipes and then use the ones selected for the book. Times have changed.

A successful regional cookbook today must carry a strong theme and this is where a bit of creativity comes in.  One of our most popular books over the last three years carries a fondue theme. Other popular themes I have noticed are seasonal, event driven, single food category, quick and easy, unique number (usually 4-5) number of ingredients, city or community driven. I'm certain that with a brainstorming session many of you can come up with even more creative or unique themes.

When it comes to selecting the recipes I think we can all agree that including recipes that are not in every other cookbook known to man is the right way to go. You will probably never find recipes that are not available elsewhere, however, you can come up with unique twists to the "tried and true". Another element that I personally recommend is to include a story about each recipe. Where did it come from? How has it been altered? What do guests say about it? Is there one ingredient that gives it a special oomph? Does it go with a particular dish? Do you have plating advice? and so on.

If you are going to develop a new cookbook and ask folks to pay for it or companies to sponsor it, you want to give them a great value. The way you accomplish this is to sell a lot of them (for the sponsors' benefit) and develop a book that is as fun and interesting to read as it is to cook from.