Want to Self-Publish a Book of Family Recipes?

Howdy cookbook fans!

And welcome to my last hot Austin update because Monday means BELGIUM!!! Where it is currently *checks phone* a reasonable 82 degrees and will be in the 60s all next week. Which means I am packing SWEATERS!! Monday also means fall cookbook season, and you will be getting your September book preview soon.

Once again Frances Abrantes Baca is back to share design insights, this time on Yogurt & Whey by Homa Dashtaki, in The Creative Brief! And there’s a bunch of cookbook news! So let’s dive in.

Publishing Start-Up Launches for Collaborative Cookbooks

I’ve been wondering for awhile now why this doesn’t exist, and now it does! Spice Write Inc. is a new self-publishing platform that allows you to collaborate on a cookbook with friends and/or family. It seems to function similarly to a Remento or Storyworth, in which family members are asked to write down memories and upload photos, which are later combined into a book and printed.

You can pick from a variety of themes, and the recipe editor seems pretty robust in terms of layout and format capabilities. Once your cookbook is complete, you can get your book printed as an 8 1/2-inch square spiral-bound book, which is the cheaper option, or an 8 1/2-inch square hardcover. Pricing varies based on page count—the base pricing starts at 24 pages—and is priced per book. Neat!

KICKSTARTING Canadian nutritionist Stacey Green is raising funds for a cookbook called You’ll Eat It & You’ll Like It, a cheeky cookbook about cooking for kids, written the grown-ups who love them (and are occasionally exasperated by them). $45 CA gets you a copy!

The Creative Brief

Yogurt & Whey by Homa Dashtaki

Many of the most compelling cookbooks are windows into an author’s life: an invitation to meet their loved ones, experience their cultures, observe their tastes, and glimpse their dreams. Homa Dashtaki’s Yogurt & Whey is a supreme example of cookbook as personal narrative. It not only offers thoughtfully written recipes, but also a portrait of Dashtaki herself—of immigrating to the United States from Iran, of assimilating into American culture while holding fast to her identity, and, finally, finding purpose making yogurt in the traditions of her