Publishing a Family Recipe Book In the Digital Age

1. Cathy Connell December 15, 2010 Publishing a Family Recipe BookIn the Digital Age Communication & Self-Expression in the Digital Age

2. Table of Contents 1. Background 4. Publishing Options 2. Objective 5. Conclusion 3. Specifications

3. Background Background While in the end stages of COPD, my dad began to create personal recipe books for his children and grand children. He spent many hours handwriting hundreds of recipe cards, which he organized and placed into personalized recipe binders. Dad planned to make individual recipe books for each of his six children and 13 grand children. Unfortunately, my dad passed away before he was able to complete that task.

4. Objective Project Objective To Publish a Family Recipe Book Identify project specifications. Research print and digital publishing options. Evaluate the project’s cost, ease of access, and upkeep. Determine the best publishing option.

5. Specifications Identify Specifications • Should this be a stand-alone project with just dad’s recipes? • Yes • Should other family recipes be included? • Not at this time. • Should this be published digitally? If so, what type of digital media? • Possibly. • Will this recipe book be routinely updated? • No.

6. Specifications (cont’d.) To determine whether other family recipes should be included in the recipe book, I sent an email questionnaire to ten family members asking for their input. Of the fifteen emails I sent out, 33% or five people responded by the due date. The answers follow: Question 1: Publish only Dad’s recipes in the recipe book. Yes = (5) No = (0) Question 2: Publish recipe book with Dad’s recipes and other family recipes. Yes = (1) No = (4) Question 3: Would you prefer a printed copy of the recipe book, online/digital access or both? (Answer all that apply.) Printed = (3) (all chose – soft cover books) Digital = (3) (1 chose website) Both (5) Question 4: How much would you pay for a copy of the recipe book? Nothing = (1) $1.00  to $15.00 =(4)   $16.00 - $30.00 = (0) Over $30.00 = (0)

7. Specifications (cont’d.) After compiling the data from my email questionnaire, I discovered that my family members were interested in having a soft cover printed copy of my Dad’s recipes as well as the ability to access them on line. Of those that responded, most were willing to pay up to $15 for a printed copy. Armed with that information, I can now begin to research publishing options.

8. Publishing Options Publishing Options • Print Media • Professional Printing • MS Word Document & Print  • Scrapbook of old recipes

9. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options “Writing a cookbook is a job that requires lots of patience and passion for the project. It will take much, much more time than you thought possible, so be prepared!” (http://www.gourmania.com/articles/writeckbk.htm) The same is true when it comes to publishing a cookbook. There are many aspects to consider. For example, will you do the typesetting yourself or will you have it done by a professional? I have researched the following publishing options.

10. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options I. Print Publishing Options Self Publish in Print: Lulu.com allows you to create your own cook book. At this site, you choose from among several different sizes and bindings and between black & white or color. You use their platform to design and price it. For example a single custom 50 page 6x9, b+w, hardcover will cost approximately $16. If you place an order for100, the price per unit drops to $13. The more expensive larger, color, 200-page hardcover costs just under $50, but the price comes down as your volume increases.

11. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options A del.icio.us Cookbook:Elise (http://simplyrecipes.com/ ) talks about how to keep track of recipes you happen to find online by using the social bookmarking site del.icio.us. It's pretty cool. Elise gives quite a bit of detail about exactly how it works. According to the del.icio.us site, “Delicious is a Social Bookmarking service, which means you can save all your bookmarks online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking. It also means that we can show you the most popular bookmarks being saved right now across many areas of interest. In addition, our search and tagging tools help you keep track of your entire bookmark collection and find tasty new bookmarks from people like you.” You can easily join for free.http://del.icio.us/101cookbooks

12. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options PDF Cookbooks: This is an areal I was not aware of, prior to my research. PDF cookbooks can be created using Adobe's InDesign to export beautiful PDF documents. If you do not have Adobe’s InDesign, you can always use diffeerent fonts and layouts and photography using Microsoft Word. Each allows you to export to PDF files that can then be emailed, downloaded and/or distributed digitally. Scrapbooking Cookbook: A cookbook made in the form of a scrapbook will allow you to use your own creativity and “save all those important recipes that you've gathered from year to year. You can do it as a family project, or work on a compilation of recipes with friends.” If you choose this method, you will need to organize your cookbook. http://www.ehow.co.uk/way_5405936_scrapbooking-cookbook-ideas.html

13. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options Digital Publishing Options Publishing a digital cookbook, a recipe blog, or an online recipe newsletter provides immediate access to the information. Recipes can be accessed using all many different forms of technology and social media (i.e., an i-Phone, I-Pod or I-Pad, email, or pc.)

14. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options Website: Creating a recipe website requires the knowledge of html, access to a web host, domain name and web authoring software. Creating a website is very time consuming and needs to be kept current. It will also require an email address for contact information. There a many high profile recipe websites on the web such as Allrecipes.com. This site also has a downloadable App for I-phones, etc. which will allow further access to recipes

15. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options Blog: Creating a recipe blog is rather easy. You must have a computer with internet access, a collection of recipes or links to online recipes to share on your blog, and an account with a blog hosting website. An important decision is how often you wish to update your blog. Recipes can be updated daily, weekly, or monthly. Blogs also are a great resource to showcase cooking “how to” videos, photos, etc.

16. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options I found several great blogs, which offered a variety of information and different categories of recipes. One of the blogs that impressed me was Jill’s Recipes . It is well organized, and offers recipes from other authors as well. Favorite Family Recipes blog is another good resource for anyone looking to access recipes online.

17. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options Email Newsletters: Recipe newsletters, like cookbooks usually mix pictures of food with recipes for the food . They are an “enjoyable way for friends to keep in touch, and share the food they love. They do not require an investment in desktop publishing software, either. In this article we will walk through the steps to make your own recipe newsletter with free software and the help of the articles in the DTP channel at Bright Hub.” In the article, DIY: How to Create and Publish Your Own Recipe or Cooking Newsletter written by Rebecca Scudder(Bright Hub website – 9/1/2010) shows a number of different cookbook layouts that can be used for your newsletter.

18. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options Email Newsletters: Recipe newsletters, like cookbooks usually mix pictures of food with recipes for the food . They are an “enjoyable way for friends to keep in touch, and share the food they love. They do not require an investment in desktop publishing software, either. In this article we will walk through the steps to make your own recipe newsletter with free software and the help of the articles in the DTP channel at Bright Hub.” In the article, DIY: How to Create and Publish Your Own Recipe or Cooking Newsletter written by Rebecca Scudder(Bright Hub website – 9/1/2010) shows a number of different cookbook layouts that can be used for your newsletter.

19. Publishing Options cont’d. Publishing Options Email Newsletters: Recipe newsletters, like cookbooks usually mix pictures of food with recipes for the food . They are an “enjoyable way for friends to keep in touch, and share the food they love. They do not require an investment in desktop publishing software, either. In this article we will walk through the steps to make your own recipe newsletter with free software and the help of the articles in the DTP channel at Bright Hub.” In the article, DIY: How to Create and Publish Your Own Recipe or Cooking Newsletter written by Rebecca Scudder(Bright Hub website – 9/1/2010) shows a number of different cookbook layouts that can be used for your newsletter.

20. Conclusion Conclusion My research into how to publish a family recipe cookbook containing my Dad’s favorite recipes provided me with a lot of information. I found out that there are very many different methods of publishing a family recipe collection. One of the most expensive options is professional publishing of a printed cookbook. Printing in color with high color images can run as high as $50 or more. Self publishing appears to be a more cost-effective way to produce a printed cookbook. The method of using Microsoft Word and printed using a personal computer and then having the document spiral bound at Staples is appealing to me.

21. Conclusion Conclusion I still may utilize Lulu.com to publish the document at a later date. I find their service to be time and cost-effective. This option would save me from printing and binding multiple documents. I do not wish to begin creating a Recipe website. The thought of having purchase a domain name, secure a web host and design, layout and maintain a website is more work than I intend to do for this project. I really like the idea of a recipe newsletter. However, this option will require a lot of time and upkeep to produce; it requires desktop publishing and upkeep, not to mention maintaining a database of email addresses.

22. Conclusion Conclusion I plan to create a recipe blog to showcase my Dad’s recipes. The fact that recipes can be accessed 24 hrs./day, seven days a week was something I find most appealing. The learning curve and time required to create and maintain a recipe blog are commensurate with what I envisioned. Blogging is also a way to connect with the digital world through the use of technology. Along with creating a recipe blog, I plan to create a PDF e-book, which can be accessed via the recipe blog for those family members who want a printed copy.

23. Thank You!