The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

052: How to Sell 4,000 Cookbooks Before You Even Publish with Megan Gilmore from Detoxinista

Jun 21, 2016

57:35

Welcome to episode 52 of the Food Blogger Pro podcast! In this episode, Bjork talks with Megan Gilmore from Detoxinista.

We all know that writing a cookbook is a LOT of work. From the recipe development to the photography, a cookbook author is a busy bee. One thing you might not know, though, is that the author is also expected to presell copies of their book to their audience before it even publishes. As you might imagine, this can be quite the task!

When Megan Gilmore, the author behind Detoxinista, set out to presell copies of her first cookbook, they expected the average number of sales - somewhere around 500 cookbooks. Instead, she blew everyone at 10 Speed Press out of the water with a whopping 4,000 cookbook presales - the largest presale in the history of 10 Speed Press. Today, she’s here to tell us how she did it.

In this episode, Megan shares:

How she got her first book deal
What the difference is between an advance and royalties
Why a cookbook deal isn’t necessarily a good way to make money, but is a good business decision
Why cookbook authors run presale campaigns
What she gave away as part of the preorder campaign
How she raised awareness about her book before it was released
How she promoted her book once it was officially released
What the writing process is like
What you need to do before you create a cookbook

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