The Future of Regional Cookbooks - Part 3

Electronic publishing is here to stay!  With the advent of the tablet technology and the inexpensive cost of an electronic reader the move away from paperless is inevitable. Today, the most popular titles being published in electronic format are trade novels. I believe this genre will remain the undisputed number one for the foreseeable future. In addition, it makes sense to speculate that educational publishing will be the next big category moving to electronic formatting.

But what about cookbooks?  The trend for the present seems to be that a publisher should offer books in both formats. While some people enjoy the ability to pull a recipe from a book up on their electronic reader, at the store the huge demand for e-cookbooks hasn't hit. However, as today's youth ages and becomes the consumer for e-cookbooks, I believe the demand for e-cookbooks will increase significantly. Having spoken to many individuals since the advent of electronic readers I have heard countless times that today's consumers prefer a printed cookbook.

One big factor is cost. In shopping for electronic cookbooks consumers want more than just the recipes--they want enhanced content in the form of cooking videos which are expensive to develop. In addition to being costly on the front end most feel they shouldn't have to pay as much in retail for an electronic book and therefore profits are slimmer. The business model for electronic cookbooks being highly profitable is not quite there yet.

So, should you convert your existing book over to electronic, or if publishing a new title offer it in e-format? Absolutely. I say this because the cost is insignificant and making it available in whatever format the consumer is considering just makes sense. There will probably come a day when the only printed copies of cookbooks are print on demand; however, we aren't there yet.

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".

What is the Downside of E-Books?

The statistics overwhelmingly support the fact that consumers are buying e-books. This past Christmas season saw a record number of e-readers sold with the introduction of the new Kindle Fire as well as other e-reading devices. And we know that there is now a Chef Stand and Stylus on the market that allows us take our readers into the kitchen and use an e-book without ever touching the tablet.

But you might be thinking, I have a lot of inventory of printed books that I need to sell first. My response is the two are not connected. People that don't have e-readers are not going to buy an e-book but those with e-readers are looking for content to use on their devices. The right strategy is to offer both formats.

There is no downside. It is too early in the game to quote any accurate statistics (even if you can find any; I haven't been able to) regarding how many cookbooks have been purchased in an e-format but that doesn't mean consumers won't buy if they are available. Plus, if your book is on Amazon.com and clearly marked as available in an e-format you target both demographics--those with an e-reader and those without or who just prefer a printed cookbook.

The way I see it you can't go wrong with promoting and offering both formats.