How does it work?
We charge an upfront fee to create your book. You’ll work with our editors, photographers, designers and printers to produce the book you have always dreamed of, one that truly reflects your food and business. You take 75% of all the revenue we make between us and we take 25%. So not only can you expect to have a high-quality marketing and PR tool but, most importantly, you’ll also have something that will make you a healthy profit. In certain cases, we are able to be flexible about the commission structure.
Creating your book begins with an initial meeting involving our whole team. Here we will discuss your vision for the book with plenty of opportunities for you to ask questions, making sure we’re all on the same page when it comes to what you want to get out of the publishing process and, of course, your finished book. Following this meeting, we’ll work through the following process:

Step One – Editorial
The first step in creating a cookbook involves writing all the content, from recipes to introductions and anything else your book will include. We will agree a realistic deadline for this to be submitted, allowing you time to finish testing and writing up recipes as needed, and create a style guide with you to ensure the format is consistent. We will then edit and proofread your content for consistency and accuracy, offering creative input where needed, while making sure the style and tone stay true to your overall vision. We can also create extra editorial for you during this process if needed.

Step Two – Photography
Photoshoots are a lot of fun and a lot of work, as you will need to prepare and cook all your recipes to be photographed (unless your book requires a hired chef). We use experienced freelance food photographers who will work with you to capture your cooking at its very best, creating stunning full colour imagery to be featured throughout your book. The photoshoot will be arranged via us or directly with the photographer and we will help you to plan all the photography in advance, so everything runs smoothly on the day. Generally, this process takes a week or two but will depend on how many and what style of recipes your book includes.

Step Three – Design
Once editorial and photography are complete, our team will meet with you again to revisit the original vision and make sure everything is on track, as well as discussing design briefs such as any branding you may want to include, colour schemes, fonts and formats. We will then create templates and cover designs with your input, lay out all your written content and imagery, agree a running order and finalise the cover. We work with your vision to create a standout front cover and beautiful interior with designs that offer a visually coherent and accessible end result. Once complete, the book will then be proofread and a final version will be approved by you before we send it to the printers.

Step Four – PR & Marketing
We will discuss your plans for marketing the book, then devise a targeted strategy for reaching local and national media across all forms of press, from print magazines to podcasts, as well as promoting the book across social media channels. Our best sellers have always been books whose authors collaborate with us to create a comprehensive network of people to promote it. We will also talk you through strategies for finding the best promotional opportunities, how to use your sphere of influence and any other creative marketing ideas. Our team will then work through a four-month priority period, which includes creating press lists, press releases and other marketing content, planning for launch events, and organising pre-orders.

Step Five – Retail
Our sales and marketing team work closely to follow a coherent strategy that combines your sphere of influence with our extensive network of contacts, covering large distributors and independents all over the country. We will ensure the book is available on Amazon and other major online retailers, while our titles are stocked in Waterstones, WHSmiths, Blackwells and lots of other indie book and gift stores. A number of our books have been available in the likes of Oliver Bonas, Harrods, Selfridges and Wholefoods as well as supermarkets such as Waitrose and Booths. We also work very closely with the major book industry wholesalers such as Gardners and Bookspeed.
As with the marketing approach, our best sellers have always been books whose authors collaborate with us to reach the people who most want to buy it, whether this is an existing fan base or your target market. We will also talk you through typical retail discounts, strategies for finding the best retail opportunities, how to use your sphere of influence and any other creative ideas. Our team will then work through a four-month priority period to sell your book and maximise profits.
As of 2022, we now have Australian and north American sales and distribution as part of our offer. We will explain the discounts and profitability of selling overseas to ensure it works for your title.
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“Our best sellers have always been books whose authors collaborate with us to reach the people who most want to buy it, whether this is an existing fan base or your target market.”
FAQs
It differs for every project but on average it takes between six months and a year to create and publish a book, depending on the number of contributors involved.
Our books can be found in a range of bookshops, gift shops and supermarkets – the exact retailers will depend on your book’s target market so we can always make sure it’s in front of the right audience. Our books are often stocked in Waterstones and WHSmiths and we frequently work with Selfridges, Booths, Harrods, Waitrose, Oliver Bonas, The V&A Museums, The Natural History Museum, Daunt Books, Toppings, Books for Cooks and many more.
Yes – our wholesalers distribute abroad and will make the book available on Amazon.com and Book Depository, who ship worldwide. We have a distributor in Australia and North America too, which specialises in making sure the relevant books appear in bookshops and gift shops. We also work with a foreign rights agent, and we can discuss this further if this is the right avenue for your book.
Free for the first year, then monthly charges apply depending on the number of copies we are holding for you.
We will send you a breakdown of the book sales every three months after publication, and you will be paid the following month.
It depends on the deal we agree with you, but our standard rate of commission is 25% on all sales.
If you are a specialist food photographer or professional designer, we can negotiate you taking on some of the work during production to reduce costs. We tailor all our quotes to the client and make sure you are getting the best value for money.
No – our packages include everything! The only time you may incur additional fees is if you decide to print more copies of your book after the contract has been signed, or if the project takes more of our time than expected where we are not responsible for the delays. We will always discuss this with you throughout the project and make sure you are aware of any potential fees to avoid them wherever possible.
You will work with our in-house PR and marketing team and their extensive network of contacts. As a rule, we do not pay for extra publicity and instead use our connections and content to arrange free press and interviews. However, if an opportunity arose that seemed pivotal to the book’s success, it would always be up for discussion.
No, we don’t use food stylists in order to keep your costs down. If you wanted to hire someone or have us appoint a stylist for a photoshoot, we can work this into the contract. The photographers we use have a wealth of experience with food styling and can usually provide props and backgrounds for the shoot, along with plenty of creative ideas to make your food look its best.