I was reading several references on copyrights in The Complete Guide to Self Publishing by Tom and Marilyn Ross, when I came across an interesting, and apparently, a common practice among major publishers. In a nutshell, “When a book will roll off the press anytime after September 1, it is automatically assigned next year’s copyright date.”

So, a book published August 5, 2009, receives a 2009 copyright date. While a book published September 5, 2009, receives a 2010 copyright date.

This accomplishes several things, primarily though, it prevents what is known as the yearling effect – that everything on January 1st becomes a year older. Why would you want to do this? Well, it has a lot to do with marketing a book, especially with book reviewers.

Put yourself in the mindset of a book reviewer for a minute. What would you rather review, a book published last year or a book hot off the press this year? If at all possible, reviewers want to be one of the first to review a book, so they’re going to take the newly published book. Even though there may only be a few days - 30 in my example above - between their actual publications.

While the August 5, copyright date gives you four months as a newly published book, the September 5, gives you sixteen months as a newly published book. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have sixteen months to market my book as newly released instead of only four.

So, give serious consideration to your publication date. It may be worth postponing your books publication date. I did. It’s September 24, 2009.

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So, I’m currently seeking stories for inclusion in my new cookbook, The Joy of Breakfast. I am looking for 10 to 12 first-person true stories focused around, you guessed it, breakfast. I am particularly interested in inspirational, heart-warming, humorous and/or powerfully moving stories about ordinary people. If you’ve got a story, I want to read it.

You can submit your story of no more than 1,000 words to cookbook (at) wffrederick dot com. Please include your story in the body of an email - no attachments please. The deadline for submissions is Friday, July 30, 2009. If your story is selected, you will be a published author and your biography will be printed in the book – if you so choose. As the author, you will retain the copyright to your story.

I am unable to compensate you monetarily, but you will receive 5 free copies of The Joy of Breakfast to give to your family and friends.

I can’t wait to read your stories!

Friend: Hey, I hear that you’re writing a cookbook?

Me: Yeah. I’ve been working on it for a couple of months now. I’m discovering some really delicious breakfast recipes and learning a lot about the cookbook writing process.

Friend: That’s really exciting! I’ve always wanted to write a novel. What’s the title of your cookbook?

Me: The Joy of Breakfast. It will have 50 or so delicious breakfasts that you can prepare in 20-minutes or less. It’s for …

Friend: [Interrupting me] When can I get a copy?

Me: Ummm, huh? Oh, wow! [Beads of sweat start to form on my forehead and my mouth gets dry. It’s difficult to speak.] Look at the time! Nice talking to you, I gotta go. Bye.

Then I blurt out some lame excuse about picking the kids up before making a hasty exit.

I hate not having the answer to that question, “When can I get a copy?”

As the author and publisher I need to remember that I am in control of the entire writing and publishing process – I am self-publishing my cookbook.

After some close examination, I think I’m falling into two common cookbook writers’ traps here. First, there are always going to be more recipes to be developed and tested that can be added to the cookbook. The cycle of developing, testing, tweaking and re-testing a recipe can go on forever. I have to decide when enough is enough. And I need to decide it sooner than later, or, I’ll never get The Joy of Breakfast to the printer and ultimately onto bookstore shelves and into your kitchens :). So, I’m setting the number of recipes in The Joy of Breakfast to 75. There, that’s settled. Any additional recipes can go into my next cookbook.

Many writers share the second common cookbook writers’ trap I’m falling into, and that’s paralysis of perfectionism. Thinking, either, “If I can’t do it perfectly, then I won’t do it at all,” or, “That’s good, but I can do better.” I fall into the second, “I can do better,” group. Sometimes I, we, just have to realize that good, is good enough. If I keep trying to make The Joy of Breakfast perfect, whatever that means, it will never be sent to the printer and will languish here on my hard drive in sort of a cookbook purgatory waiting to be made perfect. Let me tell you, perfect ain’t happening. I got to move forward with this cookbook and remember that good, is good enough.

The best way I’ve discovered to overcome these two obstacles is by setting a deadline and sticking to it. And, one way to practically guarantee that I stick to my deadline is to let everyone know about it.

So, after putting pencil to paper and doing a little backwards planning, The Joy of Breakfast, will be published on or before June 11, 2009, with the “official” release date being July 11, 2009. Some book reviewers like to have read and reviewed a book “before” it is released. To accommodate them I set the “official” release date one month after the actual publication date.

I know, that’s less than three months away, but as my mentor Jim Rohn often says, “With one bold challenge, the impossible becomes a reality.” And, sitting where I’m at right now, this looks a bit on the impossible side. Anyway, that’s my goal and I’m sticking to it.

How am I going to gather and test 75 recipes, finalize the manuscript with editors, proofreaders, graphic designers, photographers and food stylists? File for a copyright and negotiate with printers and select cover stock, binding and fine-tune the layout of The Joy of Breakfast? I’m not 100% sure yet. In fact, I’m not even 10% sure. But as Seth Godin says in his post, In Search of Dolphin Leather, “Don’t choose your dreams based on what is certain to happen, choose them based on what’s likely to cause the change you want to occur around you.” Writing and publishing this cookbook will, “cause the change I want to occur around me.” It is foundational to several other goals I have. I can’t move forward with those goals until I’ve successfully completed this one.

I’ll let you in on a secret … not only do I want to write and publish a cookbook; my ultimate goal is for The Joy of Breakfast to become an Amazon Bestseller. I’ll talk more about that later.

So, the cat’s out of the bag. If you’d like to follow my progress and either cheer with my success or jeer when I fail, you can follow me on twitter, subscribe to my RSS Feed or sign up for my newsletter. Whatever you decide you won’t be disappointed and I think you’ll learn some valuable lessons about writing and publishing a cookbook. I know I am.

The thought of making a large up-front cash investment to purchase hundreds or even thousands of books before making a single sale holds many people back from writing and publishing their cookbooks … especially during uncertain economic times. How can a cookbook author overcome this obstacle?

Enter Print-on-Demand Publishing (POD). POD is a product of the internet and it permits authors to print their books - in a cost effective manner - one at a time as they are sold.

Basically, with POD, your cookbook is stored as an electronic file, an electronic book, on the printer’s computer. When a customer arrives at an online bookstore, they’ll see a picture of your cookbook, a compelling description, possibly customer reviews, and other details of your cookbook - think Amazon.com here - and an option to purchase your cookbook.

When the customer places an order for your cookbook the printer goes to work. They’ll print and bind your cookbook and ship it to the customer, all within a couple of days.

Of course the printer keeps a small fee for printing, binding, and shipping your cookbooks. (Note: This fee, as well as the quality of printing and binding, varies from printer to printer so shop around for the best deal.) They then send you a check for your profits, aka your royalties.

Publishing your cookbook by POD totally eliminates the need to pay for and store hundreds or even thousands of cookbooks. You don’t even have to fulfill the orders. All you have to do is some marketing and promotion, which you’d have to do even if a leading publisher published your cookbook, and cash the royalty checks the printer sends you. Oh, and get started writing your next cookbook.

I don’t mean to make POD sound simplistic. There’s still a lot of work involved. But I think that if you’d spend a couple of hours investigating several different POD companies you’ll be sold on the benefits it offers to many cookbook authors.

Well, that’s all for this series. I hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think in a comment.

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Truth 7: I need a large advertising budget and a sales force to attract paying customers and make any sales. This, as General Norman Schwarzkopf would say, is pure bovine scatology, and it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

I’m sure you’ve heard the business maxim, “Time is money.” When it comes to advertising and marketing your cookbook, time is money. Starting today, I’d like you to think of your advertising budget a little differently. From now on whenever you think about your advertising budget, think in terms of time and not money. How much time are you willing to invest in making your cookbook a bestseller? They’re not called Best-Selling Authors accident. They actually go out and sell their books.

Here’s a tip. If, as you’re writing your cookbook, you systematically build your writer’s platform – that is, your audience – it is entirely possible to have hoards of people eager to buy your cookbook before it is even printed or written. And, it’s easier to do than you think. You see, people prefer to buy from people they know, like, and trust. Your job is to become known, liked, and trusted, as you write your cookbook.

How? Simply by learning to use social media sites like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter – which is beyond the scope of this post - you can literally build your platform and promote your cookbook on a $0 budget.

That reminds me, if you’re not already following me on Twitter you can do so here @Bill_Frederick. And, once your cookbook is written, send me a direct message and I’ll be more than happy to help you promote your cookbook.

I’ll see you back here tomorrow for the 8th and final Truth that Rachel Ray Hopes You Never Find Out About Writing a Cookbook.

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One of the steps I missed, especially since I’m planning to market my cookbook to libraries, is that I haven’t requested a Pre-assigned Library of Congress Catalog Card Number (LCCN). What’s an LCCN? Well, from the Library of Congress Page it’s …

A Library of Congress catalog card number is a unique identification number that the Library of Congress assigns to the catalog record created for each book in its cataloged collections. Librarians use it to locate a specific Library of Congress catalog record in the national databases and to order catalog cards from the Library of Congress or from commercial suppliers. The Library of Congress assigns this number while the book is being cataloged. Under certain circumstances, however, a card number can be assigned before the book is published through the Pre-assigned Card Number (PCN) Program.

You can learn more about the process, your eligibility, and the purpose of LCCN, by visiting the Electronic PCN: Cataloging in Publication Program (Library of Congress).

So, I opened a new account. This is a two-step process and don’t worry, it’s free. Today I filled out their online form - this took all of about 3 minutes. Now, I wait for them to process my application. Looks like it will take about a week. When my application gets approved, they’ll send me an account number and password. And I’ll be able to logon to the PCN system and complete a Pre-assigned Control Number Application Form for my cookbook.

Oh, I almost forgot, you need to have an ISBN for your book before filling out the form. I already have these.

I’ll let you know when my application gets approved.

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Truth 6: All of the good cookbook ideas have been used. While it is true, there’s “nothing new under the sun.” You are the ingredient that makes your cookbook unique, not the idea for your cookbook. And, there’s no one like you in the world. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that your idea may not have any competition. You see competition is a good thing. Let me illustrate with an example.

Pop on over to Amazon.com and do a search for breakfast cookbooks - that’s what my upcoming cookbook is about. You’ll see that Amazon lists around 50 cookbook titles dealing with breakfast. I’ve got lots of competition and, I’m loving it! I explain why in a minute.

Now, type your cookbook idea in the Amazon search box. How many different titles show up? Lots I hope.

Let’s go back to Amazon’s main book page. Over on the left you’ll see a category for Cooking, Food, and Wine. Click it. Next you’ll see Cooking, Food, and Wine broken down into even more targeted categories. Pick the one that you think your cookbook idea fits into. How many titles are you going to be competing against? I hope a lot!

You see, you need to be concerned only if Amazon lists a few or, worse yet, no cookbooks published about your cookbook’s idea. Why? Amazon only carries cookbooks that people are buying. So, searching their list of cookbooks for sale is a good indicator of the popularity (and the profitability) for your cookbook.

If there’s little or no competition that may indicate that either people aren’t interested in buying a cookbook about your idea or (and I hope this is the case) your idea is so fresh and unique that people just aren’t aware of it yet. I’ll deal with these two issues in a later post.

I’ll see you back here tomorrow for Truth 7. Until then, happy cooking!

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Truth 5: Many would be cookbook authors make the assumption that they need to have an agent or a publishing contract with a big-time publisher to get their cookbook published and placed on bookstore shelves.

At one time - not too many years ago - that may have been true. Today, with the internet, print-on-demand, and self-publishing technologies, it’s never been easier for someone to write and publish their own cookbook.

And, self-publishing you own cookbook has tremendous rewards. Including, you as the cookbook author, are in complete control of the publishing process (great if you’re a control freak), your cookbook can be for sale on bookstore shelves and on the internet within months instead of years, and, the granddaddy of them all, you get to keep most, if not all of the profits.

On the downside though, you also assume all of the risk. However, with proper planning and research, and a strong belief in your cookbook’s idea, you can eliminate or greatly reduce any risk.

Truly, I believe that self-publishing a cookbook is a win-win situation for any cookbook author.

I’ll see you back here tomorrow for Truth 6.

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Truth 4: It’s nearly impossible to verify where a particular recipe originated, even those handed down from my mother or grandmother, and I may get sued for using a recipe that belongs to someone else. This is a commonly held fallacy of many first time cookbook authors. Ask any chef and they are likely to agree that there are no original recipes out there.

While I do agree that it is hard to verify where a particular recipe came from, even those handed down from your dear old granny, verification is not as important when writing your cookbook as you might think.

Let’s look at U.S. Copyright Law for a clearer explanation.

I think two caveats are in order here. First, if you live outside the United States, consult your own country’s copyright laws for clarification. Second, I am not an attorney – don’t even play one on TV – so I’m not offering legal advice. When in doubt, consult a professional. Use your own common sense here.

So, let’s look at what the U.S. Copyright Law says.

Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds, or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, when a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.

Protection under the copyright law (title 17 of the United States Code, section 102) extends only to “original works of authorship” that are fixed in a tangible form (a copy). “Original” means merely that the author produced the work by his own intellectual effort, as distinguished from copying an existing work. Copyright protection may extend to a description, explanation, or illustration, assuming that the requirements of the copyright law are met.

You can read it for yourself here.

The “literary expression” that they are referring to is the directions accompanying a recipe. You cannot copy these. You must write the directions in your own word to have an original recipe. And, as J. Kevin Wolfe points out in his book, You Can Write a Cookbook,

For legal purposes, publishers will tell you, if three measurements are changed from the original, the recipe is considered new.

In other words, you can use the list of ingredients from someone else’s recipe, but you must change the directions or some of the ingredients.

I’ll see you back here tomorrow for Truth 5.

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So, here’s my confession … I do not know what Rachel Ray wants people to know about writing a cookbook. Never did. Probably never will. What I do know is that I’m impressed with the successful empire she’s created – all of her cookbooks, her television show, and her magazine - who wouldn’t be impressed?

I know, I know, there are more than a couple of people who dislike her for one reason or another. Some even go so far as to hate her. That’s their choice. Now, I have no aspirations of having my own cooking show or even a cooking magazine, all I want to do is write a cookbook and maintain this blog. And, I do believe that she can be a great example to anyone that aspires to author a cookbook.

With that said, any reference made in relation to Rachel Ray is only for the purpose of providing a metaphoric framework to dispel some commonly held myths about writing a cookbook. So, moving on …

Truth 3: Many people falsely believe that you that you need to have hundreds of recipes that you’ve personally prepared and tested to write a cookbook. Let me ask you a question, do you really believe that Paula Deen personally tried the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of recipes in all of the cookbooks she’s either written or co-written? Well, that may be a bad example; Paula is a prolific writer and cook;-)

For the most part though, as long as a recipe fits into the theme of your cookbook and you can prove that it works, you can think about using it. A word of caution here, you cannot take someone else’s recipe and claim it as your own. That would be plagiarism. And it’s against the law. Remember the Jessica Seinfeld Cookbook Controversy? Need I say more?

Anyway, you don’t need to have personally prepared and tested every recipe that you include in your cookbook. In a later post I will share with you several places where you can find recipes that you can use in your cookbook without fear of being sued for plagiarism.

I’m taking the weekend off, so I’ll see you back here Monday for Truth 4.

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