Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Memoir, Recipes, and More

by Dianne Jacob

Book Overview

The go-to soup-to-nuts guide on how to really make money from food writing, both in print and online
With recipe-driven blogs, cookbooks, reviews, and endless foodie websites, food writing is ever in demand. In this award-winning guide, noted journalist and writing instructor Dianne Jacob offers tips and strategies for getting published and other ways to turn your passion into cash, whether it's in print or online. With insider secrets and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738218057
• ISBN13: 9780738218052
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Reource for Culinary Writers. Buy It!

`Will Write for Food' by culinary journalist and writing teacher, Dianne Jacob is a must read for everyone who has any intention on entering the culinary writing field. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Ms. Jacob makes it clear that like virtually every worthwhile endeavor, success with culinary writing is difficult. As I have occasionally given some thought to trying my hand at submitting culinary writing for publication, I have thought that there may be some `easy' markets, if I were just clever enough to find them. Ms. Jacob has convinced me that there are no easy markets, at least none which actually pay real money for publication. Even the seemingly `easy' outlets such as local newspapers, magazines, and niche magazines have so many sources of either free or relatively inexpensive material that even these markets may be tough to crack. The major national markets such as `Gourmet', `Saveur', and `Food and Wine' are virtually unreachable by the newcomer. The second most important thing about Ms. Jacob's book is that it does not intend to teach you how to write. She does give a few pages of suggestions and hints, especially on word usage in culinary applications are spread here and there around the book. And, a few references to sources on training for writing are given, including my very favorite `The Elements of Style' by Strunk and White. Thus, the book is more about the food writing market than it is about writing. This is a very good thing, as all your writing efforts are worthless if you don't have a clear notion of your audience, your medium, and your medium's picture of their audience. And, the quantity and quality of sources, especially web sites given in this book are truly astounding. There is not a single culinary web site of which I am familiar that is missed, although the name of the TV Food Network web site is a bit out of date. And there are many, many more which are new to me. I am also happy to see that Ms. Jacob includes a mention of a personal web site or blog as a means of getting your writing in front of an audience. This is the modern world's version of self-publishing with even less overhead than a paper and hard covered book. She even mentions `printing on demand' where the vendor only prints the physical volume when they receive an order for the book. All this means is that this is a very up-to-date manual on all your outlet alternatives. So, Ms. Jacob's primary focus is identifying all the culinary writing markets, finding the one which best suits your interests and skills, and giving you suggestions on how to maximize your success in each market. Along the way, there are lots of interesting bits of information on, for example, why there are so few negative restaurant reviews. From the newspapers' point of view, there is simply no point to publishing a highly critical review of a local eatery, even if they don't advertise in the paper. People give much more interest to suggestions on where to go than where

Excellent primer and useful reference.

For the last year or so, I've been trying my hand at writing restaurant reviews. With no experience or qualification apart from the fact that I like to eat, it has been an interesting experience. Fortunately, as Dianne Jacob shows, experience is not necessary. As long as there is passion, you can learn the rest, and "Will Write for Food" is a perfect step to help you go from passionate novice to professional. This book helps quell some of the myths surrounding the profession of Food Writing, and is endorsed by many big names in the industry, including Anthony Bourdain, Greg Patent, Andrew F Smith, and Darra Goldstein. Throughout the course of the book, she uses the expert opinions of heavyweights like Alan Richman, Jeffrey Steingarten, Judith Jones, Molly o'Neill, Ruth Reichl and Tom Sietsema to name just a few. The broad range of style and experience of her interviewees helps to bring together a solid image of what Food Writing exactly is. "Will Write for Food" has helped me refine my existing skills and has given me plenty of other resources as to how to acquire more. If you are, or want to be, a food writer, this book should be the first thing on your shopping list.

FINALLY!

I can't believe no one came out with a book like this sooner. Thank you Diane Jacob. Finally a book that deals with the actual writing about food. I have read many books on how to publish magazine articles etc... but none of them deal with the actual style in which you write. I even attended a food writing workshop and to my dissapointment we barely touched on improving our writing skills. We were told "it can't be taught".

Great resource for foods writers

This is a great book about food writing. It has advice on writing cookbooks, restaurant reviews, articles, memoirs and fiction. Although I have written several cookbooks and many food-related articles, the excellent advice in this book will make my future books and articles even better. I also got ideas for new markets for my writing. One other thing I loved about this book were the quotes from food writers and exerpts from books. I now have a huge list of books I want to read. "Will Write for Food" is a book I will definitely refer to again and again.