HOW TO GO ABOUT WRITING A COOK BOOK?
My mother is a most appropriate prepare we know, as well as most of my friends as well as her friends agree. She loves cooking, as well as has been meditative about presumably essay a prepare book with her (and our) prime recipes. She has additionally been meditative about edition it if it turns out good.
She’s never finished this before, so a little assistance is needed…
- what module should she make use of to write it upon a computer?
- how does she hit edition companies?
Thanks in advance!
Go check out lots of other cook books, see how they have done it, then try do yours a different way.
Check out who publishes theirs too and send in the finished book to them.
Use whatever program you are good at using!
The program you use isn’t quite as important as you might think…the publisher is likely to redo the layout anyway based on the physical size of the book, pictures available, etc.
Instead, your mother should focus on making her recipes readable, accurate, and engaging. She should also make notes on where cooks using her recipe for the first time are likely to make mistakes: such as being sure not to overcook chocolate, stirring this sauce constantly is not an option, or any other semi-complex techniques needed to make the recipe work.
You should also consider who your target audience is: are they beginners, intermediate, or advanced? Are they going to understand the difference between simmer and saute? Especially if you’re targeting beginning cooks, make sure to have a glossary defining any terms you’re using.
She should also note which ingredients are optional, substitutions that work well (in case of allergies or preferences), or garnishes that can help improve presentation. If you choose to include pictures, use someone who can take professional quality pictures at a high resolution. Don’t use a cheap camera, since this will also make your book look cheap.
You should also focus on organizing the recipes well: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, deserts, etc. Make your recipes easy to find. You may also want to include a “like this?” type of section, where you’d include similar recipes (recipes that use similar ingredients or techniques), or a “recommend with” section where you’d include wines, deserts and/or other complementary foods.
Programs you can use (depending on your level of proficiency with a computer and budget for software):
OpenOffice/Microsoft Office
Adobe Framemaker
Corel Ventura
Adobe InDesign
For finding a publisher, find some cookbooks that you like (as far as layout is concerned) and contact them. Since the book isn’t written yet, I’d recommend you wait until you’re nearly complete before sending out a query letter (not a complete manuscript). Most (if not all) major publishers also have websites where you can find manuscript submission guidelines. Most of these also require that you send a query letter first (include a self-addressed stamped envelope, aka SASE).
You should also do online research of the company before submitting your manuscript, especially by searching for something like ” complaints”. This way, you’d be able to find out that a publisher is non-reputable very quickly.
Best of luck as you start on this journey!
Wow. Congrats to your mom. Publishers would prefer it if you write it simply thru a rich text format type of computer software such as Microsoft Word, Wordpad and such.
No page breaks, as much as possible do not layout it yourself. You can always talk to your layout artist on how you wanted the page to look like. The importance here is that you are able to separate the text from the photos. 
Maybe you would like to ask around and perhaps shop around. Many would also suggest getting an agent which could take SO long for them to sit down and actually notice what you have there and believe me, we are not just talking months here but years. Let me give you something to peruse at while you are at it and hopefully this will help in your ride to the wagon of success.
Your mom’s book will be published, protected and distributed globally for everyone’s buying perusal. The good thing about self-publishing companies is that they are Print On Demand and your moms book will be listed under a database for a lifetime.