I haven’t blogged much in the past few weeks because I’ve had so much going on. Part of that busyness is that I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my soon-to-be-released cookbook, World Party: Vegetarian Appetizers, Hors d’oeuvres and Party Plates. Dara Bunjon, Social Media Administrator of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, was awesome enough to have me as a guest blogger at her blog, Dining Dish. I give a little bit of background on the book and a special recipe from it.

There’s so much that goes into creating a cookbook:

• Writing/developing the recipes
• Testing the recipes multiple times
• Setting up photo shoots and taking the photographs (not as easy as you might think)
• Designing
• Layout
• Cover design
• Writing “other” copy (introduction, acknowledgements, head notes, tips, index, source lists, etc.)
• Proofing and revising
• Proofing and revising
• Proofing and revising (yes, again and again)

And then there’s the marketing, which is a whole other job unto itself.

It’s a lot of work. Creating a cookbook is the kind of thing you really, really want to do. It’s a labor of love.

And I do love it. I just wish I could make real money from them. That’s hard to do because there’s a lot of competition out there. But I do the best I can because I believe in my books, in my food, and in what I can offer people who love to cook and eat.

Also in the works is the new editions of my older cookbook, Vegetarian Italian: Traditions.  I will be re-releasing this book, and what was supposed to be volume 2, as ebooks. I hope to get that done by the end of the year. I’ll be posting updates as I go along.

In the meantime, go to Dining Dish and see what international recipe I’m offering (hint: it’s Cuban!).

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