So let’s say, for argument’s sake, that I actually did write a book.
I’m not saying I’m writing a book, but I’m not NOT saying I’m writing a book, which is actually a change in my stance toward book writing. Scores of readers have asked me to write a cookbook over the years, and my answer is always the same: nobody wants cookbooks. Publishers especially don’t want cookbooks, because they never make any money on them. Not unless the cookbook’s author has a big TV show, a well-known food column, a cooking school, or a chain of restaurants, and even then the books by those people don’t generate much revenue. There are one or two exceptions to this rule, Dorie Greenspan for example, but most of the time cookbooks function as promotional items, loss leaders written and sold with the goal of promoting brands whose money-making centers lie elsewhere.
READ ON