Important/Not Urgent

How vacuuming your ceiling might just help you write that cookbook in 2025

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Not So Secret Agent is an email newsletter that delivers the inside scoop on cookbook publishing from senior literary agent, Sally Ekus. Make sure you never miss an email. Subscribe!

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This is the year I WILL finish my book proposal!

2024 was the highest revenue I have ever made from brand work. 2025 will be even higher!

I am manifesting hand delivering a copy of my cookbook to my culinary idol!

I want to be on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, so I am putting that into the universe!

These are just a few of the goals and reflections from my clients as we head into the new year.

In my last newsletter, I got a bit snarky as I vented shared some quick pitches I had been receiving. I underscored the importance of doing things right, not rushed.

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As we close out the year, I am in major nesting mode. No, not full-on Shop-Vacing my basement ceiling (yes you read that right) like when I was 8-months pregnant. But I am proud to report that my dry erase board is clean, and my 2025 personalized planner and erasable pens are at the ready!

This got me thinking. If writing a cookbook is on your goals list, how can I help you take that important next step of working on (and completing) your book proposal?

***Not So Secret Agent Side Note: I am the kind of person who adds things to my to-do list each day that I have already accomplished, just for the pure satisfaction of then crossing them off. Can you relate?!

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Have you ever heard of The Eisenhower Matrix? While it was developed by our 34th president, it was popularized by Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Even still, I didn’t learn about this from Dwight OR Stephen.

This grid was first brought to my attention through my membership in Women Presidents Organization, a global collective of women leaders.

Check it out:

This graphic came from David Weller over at Barefoot TEFL Teacher.

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This grid has proved invaluable to me time and time again.

I lovingly refer to this as my decision-making grid.

I come back to it when my inbox is overflowing with emails.

I come back to it when my phone is blowing up AND my inbox is overflowing.

I come back to it when my daughter is having a meltdown tough moment, my phone is blowing up, and my inbox is overflowing.

I come back to it when I have three proposals all ready to go out on submission, a current client wanting to schedule their marketing & publicity kick off call, a contract that just came in, a voicemail from a legacy client I haven’t spoken to in seven months, and four new submissions in my inbox in the last hour.

You get the idea.

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I also come back to it when I am chatting with clients. Not like pull it up and reference it, but I am always keeping the principles of the grid in mind as we talk tasks, goals, frustrations, reflections, etc.

And it’s been on my mind A LOT as I wind down for the end of the year and prepare to come back refreshed in January (not before the 13^th for those keeping tabs on when to reach out to me).

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So, if you are an aspiring cookbook author hoping to finally check off finishing that book proposal or landing an agent this upcoming year, here are three questions to ask yourself as you filter through your “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts”:

Will X raise my profile?

Is X “worth” my time? (also, can I get paid?!)

How can I say “No” or “Not right now” and keep the door open to revisiting this conversation when it benefits my larger goals?

Of course, there are a million sub-questions and considerations hidden in the questions above, so I went ahead and added my Not So Secret Agent spin to the Eisenhower Matrix.

The grid above is not meant to be an exhaustive or exact list (or decent art obvi!) of how aspiring cookbook authors should think about completing their book proposal. However, hopefully it helps you start to filter your upcoming year through the lens of becoming a published author.

***Not So Secret Agent Side Note: if you are already published and wondering how to utilize the chart, put your leading 2025 goal at the top and adjust from there.

Let’s begin from the bottom and work our way up to what should be the true priorities:

Not Urgent/Not Important, aka things to DELETE from your to-do list:

SET ASIDE the other book ideas you’re juggling.

• Instead, pick ONE idea and write a book proposal.

STOP chasing trends.

• Instead, become an expert in your niche and write the book no one else can write.

AVOID comparing.

• Stop comparing your social media following to your colleagues.

• Stop comparing your work to others.

• Stop comparing your follower count to everyone else who has or has not yet landed a book deal.

Urgent/Not Important, aka things you can DELEGATE to someone else*:

DELEGATE copyediting your own proposal.

• Instead, hire out. This will be money well spent and an investment in yourself. You will also learn a LOT about being copyedited.

DELEGATE recipe testing.

• Can you hire out or ask a friend to test?

DELEGATE administrative tasks.

• What is your time worth (literally, what is your hourly?) and is there a virtual assistant, local internship program, or even neighborhood student looking for hours and experience?

*The main caveat to the delegating section is that I have specifically picked out ideas for tasks that could outsourced but are still skill-based tasks. I recognize that not everyone is in a financial position to be able to hire outside help. This further underscores how hard it can be to work on a creative project like a cookbook while also juggling the other areas on your grid.

Not Urgent/Important, aka things to SCHEDULE into your workflow:

Build your platform/social media.

• Pick two platforms and commit to consistent posting. IG should be one if you want to publish a cookbook since that is the platform that ranks highest on conversation to sales. Also, “the industry” notoriously scouts IG.

Research literary agents and make a query plan.

• Check out Operation Find an Agent by Kristin Donnelley.*

Develop and test recipes.

• Your proposal should have 8-10 sample recipes that have been fully tested.

• Yes, I also mentioned this could be a delegating task. It’s really up to you.

• Carve out time to work on each section of your book proposal.

• No need to work linearly since it can feel like an overwhelming document.

Reference these guidelines for comprehensive cookbook proposals.

*Kristin Donnelley also has an epic Year-in-Review document she generously shares in her newsletter which you can find here. It totally fits with the spirit of looking back to look ahead and has all the details to help you feel accomplished and prepared for 2025.

Urgent/Important, aka things to PRIORITIZE:

Any income generating work and deadlines.

Comp research on your idea.

• Go to your local bookstore (first thank them for making it through the holiday season 😊) and reverse engineer your idea by asking yourself:

• What bookshelf would readers of my book go to? What books do I see there?

• What topics do these books cover? How are they organized? What is their tone? How many recipes are in them? Notice the structure, format, publishers, authors, agents (look in acknowledgement sections).

• Pull your comp notes together into that section of your book proposal. Yay, you have begun!

Network with the industry and do your homework.

If you don’t know where to begin, see here.

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There you have it, a to-do/goal-setting grid created by a US president and your own NSSA variation to use during the year ahead. I hope these are helpful as you set goals, intentions, resolutions, or simply double down on the things you love most about your life moving into 2025.

Heading into the holiday break here is what I have on my Urgent/Important list:

• Stress wrap the last few gifts that I need to pry off my frozen front porch.

• Clorox wipe the base of toilet and bathroom floor where my five year old’s tiny pee drops like to hide.

• Count and organize last year’s leftover Hanukkah candles.

• Make my grandmother’s salad dressing recipe to bring with the salad I am prepping for Christmas dinner with family.

• Drafting a witty yet informative out of office that somehow captures all my client’s books available for pre-order and also doesn’t leave anyone out yet is short and pithy. Actually scratch that. I’m moving this one to my not urgent/not important quadrant. DELETE! Instead, a short and sweet out-of-office will do just fine this year. Time to go play in the snow with Maybelline!

Whatever your impending to-do list looks like this year, if you are reading this, it means we have crossed virtual or real-life paths, and you have found your way to my newsletter. I must close this year expressing my extreme, massive, HUGE gratitude to you for being a NSSA reader.

It has been a very hard, very wonderful, very intense year. Thank you for being a part of it all.

When people say they wish me a happy and healthy new year, truly, I take a breath to let that into my life. Thus, I hope you can hear me when I say:

I wish you and your loved ones a very happy and healthy new year!

Thank you for being here.

~Sally~

P.S. What is one Urgent/Important OR one Not Urgent/Not Important thing you will be either doing or letting go of in 2025?