The Joy of Cookbook Marketing

Cookbook Marketing

Opportunities to market a cookbook are endless, sometimes overwhelmingly so. Social media is a great
place to start, but it’s not the only path! This TipSheet offers a variety of online, live, and unique marketing
opportunities for cookbook authors.

While physical cookbooks are still very popular (and getting more popular by the day), it’s always important
to have a digital version for those high-tech foodies. And digital versions are great for discounting, which
allows tentative buyers a chance to discover you.

The first question to ask is “What makes your cookbook unique?” The answer will become the foundation
of your marketing strategy. Your buyer is NOT all people who love good food. Even if that’s true, it’s too
broad to do you any good in marketing. You need to be able to draw inspiration for your marketing, and
that’s possible only when you narrow things down.

Before we get to the details, there are two things you need in every marketing opportunity (especially
cookbook marketing)—images and reviews.

Images

To successfully market your cookbook, you are going to need visuals. Food is an intensely sensory
experience, so translating that to a screen can be tough. If someone can’t taste the great food
in your recipes, you need pictures that make their mouth water. Video content can add another
dimension your social media feed, and enables you to use sound to evoke your food: the crunch
of a corn chip, the hum of a blender—you get the idea. You can certainly use the photographs
from the book itself, but it’s always good to have unique content too. It’s even better if you have
pictures of people interacting with your food and/or events where your
food is “featured” (even if it’s just your own Christmas dinner). Photos of
you preparing the food offer a personal, behind-the-scenes look and can
reveal your personality.

If you aren’t proficient at food styling or food photography, start practicing now! There are lots
of great articles from food photographers to help you hone your talent for creating Instagram-
worthy food photos. Draw inspiration from Instagram accounts with scrumptious food pictures or
take an online class in food photography. Then, consider how your imagery can sell your cookbook.
Is your food kid-oriented? Is it for a cocktail party, BBQ, holiday? Use this to your advantage and
feature these images in your marketing.

Reviews

Getting reviews is a cornerstone of book marketing for any book, but it is even more critical
for cookbook marketing because in the end, you’re not just asking the reader to buy your book,
you’re also asking them to buy the ingredients to make the recipe and invest the time and energy
necessary to prepare your yummy creation – that’s a pretty big ask. That’s why reviews are so
crucial for convincing potential buyers that you’re worth the risk.

Offer free copies of your books in exchange for honest reviews. This part of book marketing is so
important that we have a whole section dedicated to this in the Marketing COACH Dashboard. Be
sure to check it out.

Now, down to the nitty-gritty. To be successful you are going to need to market your cookbook online, in
person, and in other unique ways. Let’s check them out one by one.

Online Cookbook Marketing

Be sure to start your social media activity as early as possible. This will help you create an audience
of cookbook buyers who just can’t wait to taste the amazing food you’ve been showing them online.

Scheduling your posts in advance is less stressful than posting every day, so check out the tips in
the Blog & Social Media section of the Marketing COACH Dashboard for more information on
simple ways to do this and software that can help you.

Join Food & Drink groups on Facebook that would be interested in your cookbook content.

Find your voice, be genuine, and have fun. Post a couple of times a week to keep your food story
flowing. You can post:

• Recipe photos (including pictures of ingredients and preparation steps – especially if people
might benefit from a more in-depth explanation of a particular step)

• Cooking videos (videos are the preferred content of Facebook and Google, so don’t miss
out on this opportunity)

• Entire recipes (even better if they are not in the book and offered as exclusive content for
your fans)

• Nutrition tips

• Weekly questions and answers for fans about cooking

• Tips for shortening meal prep

• Share other people’s posts and other chefs’ great books

• Or just you chef-ing it up

If you haven’t already, create a hashtag for your book and encourage fans/readers to share their
yummy creations using your hashtag. Even if the result is bad, you still have the opportunity to give
encouragement and offer suggestions or tips they can try next time. By using a hashtag, you will be
able to find everything related to your cookbook.

Be sure your posts contain appropriate hashtags (other than your own) to expand your reach.
Some of the most popular for cookbooks are: #cookbook #cooking #food #foodie #recipes
#cook #cookbooks #chef #homemade #recipe #cookingathome #homecooking #foodlover
#cookbookclub #cookbookaddict #cookingwithlove

It’s important that you engage with your followers, so respond to comments, ask questions, seek
their opinions, and run polls/giveaways/contests where they can get free stuff (everyone likes free
stuff). It’s even better if you actively engage with your fans by liking and sharing their photos and
posts – this, in particular, goes a long way toward relationship-building. The social nature of social
media makes people extra-sensitive to sales pitches and inauthenticity – hard sell tactics will not
work on these platforms. You need to spend time building relationships with your followers and
with other influencers. An added benefit of networking with other foodie influencers is that you
may get the chance to interact with their readers, which may expand your own reader base. This
is a reciprocal process. Don’t expect others to promote your cookbook – just be genuine and hope
for them to do the same.

Take advantage of the targeting and budget-friendly nature of Facebook ads and invest in
advertising. Facebook lets you target audiences who are interested in cooking and cookbooks,
which allows you to reach people who would be interested in your cookbook and who might not
otherwise have discovered it. Since Facebook is a social platform, an ad featuring you holding your
cookbook or your cookbook set amidst a spread of mouthwatering food is a better way to grab
attention than just a picture of the cover of your book. And remember, no hard sell – engage.

Reach out to anyone whose followers would be interested in your cookbook: food bloggers/
influencers, celebrity chefs, health and wellness experts, foodies, bed and breakfast owners, etc.
Or better yet, send them a signed copy of your book – they might just share it with their followers
or write a review for you on Amazon.

Blogs are a great place to reach to foodies and cooks. Many cookbook authors already have a blog
where they share free recipes, tutorials, and tips with fans. These posts are picked up by search
engines, allowing you to be found by anyone searching for your type of recipe. Be sure to fill your

posts with great keywords and visually stunning imagery to increase organic traffic. And be sure
your cookbook is available for sale in the sidebar.

If you don’t have your own, look for blogs who might be willing to feature you as a guest post. Offer
to send them a signed copy of your book. Some bloggers use only their own content, but some are
open to content written by others. Read through their blog to find out which they prefer – you
don’t want to offer pre-written content to someone who posts only their own, and you DO want to
offer content to those who are open to it, since that makes life easier for them. Either way, be sure
you are clear as to why your cookbook would be of interest/benefit to their audience.

Likewise, when pitching bloggers, be sure to offer them something that adds value to their blog
and their blog’s readers. Offer books for a giveaway, provide an exclusive recipe just for their
followers, etc. Making them a great offer increases your chances of being featured.

Get your cookbook on Goodreads – no, it’s not just for fiction books! Promote it to fans of
cookbooks and offer giveaways.

Giveaways are a great way to entice people to buy your cookbook. You don’t have to give away the entire
book, just give away enough to make someone want more – it’s a teaser. There are many tools available
to give away your content (like Rafflecopter, Woobox, and ShortStack to name a few). Pick the one that
works for you and your cookbook. Be creative with your freebie.

• For those with a large fan base, you could offer a signed copy of your book to 1-2 readers
who enter a contest.

• If you are still trying to build a fan base, you could offer an excerpted chapter of your book
for liking your page or signing up for your newsletter.

• Offer free exclusive content to fans who post a photo of their attempt to make your yummy
creations – be sure you have them use the hashtag of your book (the free content could be a
themed recipe that changes every month – think Thanksgiving side dish, Christmas cookies,
New Year’s Eve appetizer, Mother’s Day brunch cocktail – or anything else enticing, just be
creative and keep it current).

• Partner with another cookbook author, blogger, or other related business and you can
double your audience and share the cost and effort of the giveaway.

Giveaways are easy to set up on social media. Just create a post that gets a conversation going by asking
an engaging question, use a giveaway app to gather the comments, then pick a winner from your fans.

Be sure your Amazon listing has pictures of the food in your cookbook and add videos – book video trailers,
a video of you flipping through the pages, interviews you may have done, or a video demo for your favorite
recipe. A strong launch can net you a better Amazon sales rank, which places you higher up search results
and can potentially have your book appearing on the “People Who Bought This Also Bought” section of
other cookbooks and cooking supplies. All of this will help you gain momentum for higher, longer-term
sales on Amazon. Likewise, if all of this is happening right as your book becomes available on Amazon,

you have a better chance of making the Amazon Hot New Releases for cookbooks, which gives you even
more exposure.

Offer cooking lessons or demonstrations via YouTube. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the
world, so take advantage of the visual nature of your book.

Live Cookbook Marketing

When the big day finally arrives and your cookbook is available for purchase, celebrate by throwing a
book launch party! Our “10 Rules for Hosting a Book Launch Party” and our “Book Launch Open House
21-Day Plan” TipSheets offer step-by-step advice on making these events great!

The best part about hosting this type of live event for your cookbook is that you can finally share the food
from your most delicious recipes – which is the best possible way to create sales for your cookbook. If
someone tastes something wonderful, they immediately want to be able to have it again, so they will buy
your cookbook on the spot. This is also a wonderful photo opportunity that can be shared on social media
and used in future marketing, so be sure someone is photographing the event.

Live events give people a chance to get to know you as a person. And they give you an opportunity to
share tips and create bonds.

A cookbook comes with built-in opportunities for events beyond just bookstores. Consider hosting your
launch party or other book event at restaurants, coffee shops, niche food markets that fit with your book’s
“flavor,” farmer’s markets, or other venues that offer their own food-loving audience.

Look for any event or location where you can demo a recipe or sell your book (either live or on consignment).
Contact local cooking stores and offer to host a cooking demonstration. Ask them to sell your book at the
register (on consignment if you have to) and be sure you give them a flyer to display that explains you’re
a local author.

Do you know of local bed & breakfasts you can reach out to? They might be willing to try your recipes
and feature them to their patrons. Many B&Bs have small shops where they could offer copies of your
cookbook for sale.

Other Cookbook Marketing

Contribute recipes to publications that have dedicated food sections. Content is king, and many
larger publications need huge quantities of content for their online (and offline) readers. This type
of exposure offers you access to a large and relevant audience.

Submit your cookbook to applicable niche magazines and local papers. Offer to do an interview for
a feature article or ask for a review. Be sure you offer to bring a sample for them to taste and take
home when you arrive for any live interview. Tailor your pitch to each magazine/paper in order to
demonstrate how your cookbook would benefit their specific audience.

Create baskets or bundles that contain your book and kitchen gadgets/utensils that can be sold as
gifts at farmer’s markets and holiday bazaars.

Giveaways are a great way to entice people to buy your cookbook. Contact independent food
brands you feature in your book, or kitchen stores who sell the merchandise you use in your recipes,
and see if they might be interested in partnering in a giveaway; this allows you both to reach a new
audience. Get creative with partnership possibilities!

Do you have a favorite charity? Partner with them and donate a percentage of your sales in
exchange for exposure on their site.

Remember, the most important element of cookbook marketing is repetition. Potential buyers rarely buy
something the first time they see it. So, the more often they see your book, the more likely they are to buy
it. Focus on your core audience and keep finding avenues to get in front of them in – repeat what works,
eliminate what doesn’t.