It's called Tick Tock, Right?
cookbook authors + social media
“I feel like you are talking directly to me even though I know you are writing this newsletter to every one of your readers.”—said by a NSSA subscriber and it had me blushing bigtime.
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!
Dear NSSA readers,
I will skip this week’s pleasantries and get right to it.
Hi my name is Sally and I have never had a Tik Tok account.
Recently, there has been a LOT of conversation in the news and publishing industry about the connection between social media and books. Discoverability. Marketing. Sales. Influencers. It is all changing and changing fast.
Cool. Cool. Cool.
I want to take a trip down my personal memory lane for a minute. The year is 2013. I was a few years into my publishing career, and it seemed like everyone and their mom was on Twitter.
Especially publishing people.
So I set up an account and started poking around. I read tweets, responded to people, and tried to perfectly encapsulate my thoughts on various subjects into 140 characters.
I even tried to network in the seemingly endless vortex of short one-liners. Soon, I was overwhelmed.
I didn’t “get” it.
A few days later, I pulled my colleague aside and asked her to explain re-tweeting. I knew I had to learn all I could. Though my colleague did her best, I still wasn’t understanding this corner of the social internet.
I made the next logical leap that any sane person would make: I decided to run a March Madness inspired elimination contest in which the winner would win representation by our agency.
The contest was called So You Want to Write a Cookbook.
I ran it entirely through my Twitter profile. Gotta love forced learning!
Each round mimicked the elements of a book proposal.
Round #1: Pitch your cookbook concept in 140 characters.
Round #2: Explain your platform in 3 tweets (who you are, why you are qualified to write your book, who is your audience).
Round #3: Share your POD (point of differentiation) in 140 characters.
It went on from there.
And it worked! Six rounds later (I’m pretty sure that’s the number in actual March Madness) and I had learned how to use Twitter.
Ah, 2013. Ah, the good ‘ol days of social media.
Fast forward, and as much as I am tempted to join the masses and absolutely sh*t on every form of social media and the people who own it (because I absolutely could!), I am going to try my best to stay in my Not So Secret Agent lane and offer practical insight and action items.
Sure, we aren’t in 2013 and there is a LOT about social media that is deeply flawed, dangerous, addictive, and downright scary. Honestly, it was back then too.
But.
Yet.
And…
Social Media is a deeply rooted part of our social lives. They don’t call it Regular Media. Or just Media.
***Not So Secret Agent Side Note: I abhor the connection between social media’s rise and the fading light of true, actual, fact-checked journalism. The demise of print and traditional media is for another post though. I simply couldn’t continue without acknowledging the connection before I plug a few silver linings about social media.***
Social media platforms are one of the pillars of what an agent and publisher expects from cookbook and non-fiction authors. Why? Because in non-fiction, authors must bring an established audience to the table to help directly market (and sell!) their books.
The bigger the audience the better.
But Not So Secret Agent Sally, why is bigger better?? Because on average, only about 1-3% of your audience will convert to buying the book.
It’s a numbers game.
It goes something like this:
Agent gets query. Checks IG (or Tik Tok) account for followers, viral posts, who in the industry they respect that also follows this person, and longevity of the feed. Agent flips to the part of their proposal that explains engagement. Agent likes what they read. Agent replies to query.
***Not So Secret Agent Side Note: if you have good engagement, show it in your proposal. Take screenshots of reader comments, post reach, and viral reportage and include all of that in your proposal. But don’t just show it. Also explain what about that post caught on and why. And then, ideally, give an example of where you have replicated that kind of success.***
***Not So Secret Agent Side Note BONUS points: FOLLOW the agent you are querying if they are on social. Or at the very least, the agency. ***
By now you are probably thinking, But Sally, you said you were going to offer practical advice about how I should handle my social accounts!
Right, right.
Here is a very abbreviated oversimplification of how to handle social media if you want to be a cookbook author or already are:
For aspiring authors with a small (under 100k, I know, I know that is still a LOT of followers) social media followers:
--Pick your top two most engaged social media accounts and go hard. This may be posting 1-3 times a week or whatever feels sustainable to you.
--Start to build an email list. If you already have one, review your stats and double down on emails that worked well for your engagement and community building. The goal here is to build a direct line to your readers and promote trust and community. Every agent and publisher is asking if an author has an email list right now, or they’re encouraging them to start one.
--Shed the sh*t that isn’t working for you or bringing you joy. That might mean going dark on a few accounts, posting less, or just committing to no more doom scrolling or comparing yourself to other accounts.
For aspiring authors with larger (350k+) social media followers:
--Audit what you’re doing on social and think about what you actually enjoy. Cross reference that with your engagement and SUSTAINABILITY. Are you worried that your income would be impacted if your Tik Tok was deactivated? Are you feeling burnt out by the grind of IG? Do you feel relief coming on just thinking about not posting so much? Take that as your sign to prioritize sustainability in your social media life. This may look like setting limits on scroll time. Or maybe putting your phone on Do Not Disturb mode for a few hours each day, or setting aside time to visit a local museum and leave your phone at home.
In many ways the demand for platform runs the risk of ruining creativity. Let’s not let this happen!
--Cookbook deals for creators are still happening (because content creators are awesome!), but the angle of the pitch to publishers is going far beyond their follower count. Decide what your goals are for your cookbook/publishing experience and build this strategy into your social strategy. Talk with your manager about when is the right time to reach out to agents. If you already have an agent, set up a meeting with them to discuss how to pitch your proposal and platform to publishers beyond your follower count. As a literary agent, I focus on presenting the story, recipes, writing, and how everything is backed by a built-in audience. I do not lead with the follower count when I pitch. That has never been the focus of my client list, and I am so relieved and ready for the general tides to shift across the industry.
--Start to build an email list. If you already have one, review your stats and double down on emails that worked well for your engagement and community building. The goal here is to build a direct line to your readers and promote trust and community. (Yep, this is a repeat. EVERYONE should be doing this.)
For previously published authors:
--Take stock of your social accounts and how you connect with your readers.
--Review your recent royalty statement (which shows the previous sales period) and see if there is any correlation between social posts or efforts and sales spikes. If you have access to a real time sales portal (a shocking number of publishers do not have this ability), even better!
--Leverage your community and engage with your readers, fans, followers in ways that feel meaningful to you. Don’t forget that even if your book is not new (released in the past 3-6 months), it is still there to work for you. Ask yourself how you can share a recipe, a headnote, or even a reader review and consistently weave your book content into your social content calendar. Your publisher might be on to promoting their latest titles but your book will always be there for you. Make your book work for you, long term.
For Everyone:
--Don’t put all your eggs in one social media basket. Why should we carry such a fragile breakfast ingredient in a freaking basket anyway?! Grab a sturdy egg carton and build some protection around how you consume social media and how you compare your social presence to others. Seek opportunities to engage. If you are an expert in your subject, be discoverable online. When I google your name along with your topic, the search results should be undeniable if you think you are ready to pitch a book. This means landing a media placement or two five and showing historical expertise across your grid history.
So, whatever happened to the winner of the So You Want to Write a Cookbook Twitter contest?
She did win representation by our agency. After signing, I worked with her to refine her proposal since it began as only a series of 140-character tweets. The client had a very small platform (a blog with minimal traffic and low social media numbers, even by 2013 standards), so every editor passed on the proposal despite having lovely things to say about the author.
We did land a book deal eventually. I pitched the author to a publisher who was searching for someone to write about a specific topic they had in mind.
My Not So Secret Agent takeaway?
It’s okay to get off the hamster wheel and get back to the cheese wheel.
~Sally~
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UPCOMING NOT SO SECRET AGENT ways for us to cross paths:
GUEST CHAT: Monday February 10th 3-4pmET, a virtual subscriber chat hosted by Dianne Jacob over on her newsletter for her paying subscribers only. You can subscriber to her newsletter here. At chat time, you’ll get an email from her that the chat has begun. Click the button in the email to join.
Dianne Jacob coaches food writers on how to get a cookbook published, pitch freelance stories, start newsletters, and improve the quality and effectiveness of their writing. She specializes in book proposals. Dianne is the author of a multiple award-winning book on food writing, Will Write for Food: Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs and More. She also co-authored two pizza cookbooks with chef Craig Priebe. Dianne has judged cookbooks for the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals, where she has been a super judge and member of the executive committee. She has also judged for the Edible Communities national magazine awards. Previously a journalist and newspaper, magazine and publishing company editor-in-chief, she writes a monthly free newsletter aimed at food writers. See more here.
VIRTUAL WORKSHOP: March 5-8th, Women in Publishing Summit. Where to Begin: How to Start a Non-Fiction Book Proposal, on the 5th at 1pm ET! Please note that the link I just shared is an affiliate link. This means I earn a small commission for bringing people to the summit – I wouldn’t teach at an event I am not super stoked to promote.
IN PERSON WORKSHOP April 4-5 in Nashville, Tennessee M.F.K. Fisher Symposium for Women in Food & Storytelling. I am on a panel, hosting a hands-on workshop, and participating in agent speed dating. This weekend is designed to be specific and practical professional development for food writers. Scholarships are available and one equity spot to my workshop will be chosen once all applications for scholarships are in.
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I appreciate this post, and from the perspective of an author, want to share that this feels like a conundrum for authors. It also confirms the decline in publishers representing authors in marketing and PR, and putting that responsibility (along with photographer fees) on the author. Yes, I agree audience is crucial, but given there is an *extremely* low conversion rate in sales on IG and other social platforms, it is a huge ask for authors (who may not have marketing or SM content creation skills!) to put in the ENORMOUS amount of unpaid effort it takes to build a social platform. (This coming from someone who’s been at it for years and has barely seen the needle move.) In many ways it feels like a detriment to skilled authors who have something impactful to say, to insist that their focus is on marketing and social media. I get it’s the world we live in and I don’t know the solution, but as an author, it feels disheartening to be valued by the size of social platforms. And, the flip side is that influencers with major platforms (and very moderate cooking and/or writing skills and experience) are getting book deals because they have a higher chance of selling it. I know publishers are also struggling and following financially viable options, but man, it would be beautiful if the industry was guided by different values that centered works of he(art). I feel very lucky to have had published two cookbooks despite my small platform. I think one advantage is that my platform is diversified between various businesses and online outlets (and engaged), and I suppose that is the advice I would give to authors who are starting from scratch. I know you mentioned engagement as an important piece, and don't want to discount that valuable advice!
This was a tough read for a gal who doesn't have a huge social media following but wants to publish a book. I appreciate you writing this because it keeps it real. I totally 'get it' and I want to push past the need to have an extremely large social media presence and still sell a book. It's hard out there! xx Kristen