After losing my corporate job in March of 2009, I did not waste time. I quickly leveraged a book I had self-published, and went on to found Balanced Rock Press, a new publishing company in northern California.

My motto has become: “From Laid-off to Launching an Empire!”

It’s been a busy time for me since I lost my corporate job as a quality manager back in March of 2009. A self-published cookbook author, I quickly determined it was time to begin marketing the book aggressively – something that had eluded me while I was employed.

I launched several websites during 2009 including The Rose Diva and The Cookbook Coach. All the sites I created during that time were related to cookbooks, writing, and publishing.

No newcomer to writing and marketing, I had 17 years of experience under my belt when I was laid-off. I identified a need for a cookbook writing system, a cookbook advertising web site – The Cookbook Advertiser, and an association for cookbook writers, The International Association of Cookbook Writers – IACBW. All of this creativity was leading to what was percolating in the background – a publishing company!

The question I get asked most often is, ‘How can I get my cookbook published?’ With all the turmoil and change going on in the publishing industry, I decided to take my established writing coach business a step further and offer publishing to my clients. I saw my clients suffer rejection and wasted time submitting proposals to publishers. Yet I believed in their projects, so I said to myself, “Why not publish them myself?”

With my experience in internet and social media marketing, I now find myself sitting on sixteen titles that are scheduled for publication. Balanced Rock Press has taken off with a bang! With new client interviews taking place weekly, Balanced Rock Press is a dream come true for me. I’m truly in my element and I’ll take things even further next year when I attend the second annual Paris Cookbook Fair in March 2011.

I’ve been personally invited to participate as a possible contributor for a break-out conference for cookbook authors at the fair by none other than its founder, Edouard Cointreau. I’ll be taking a select number of cookbook projects to the Paris Cookbook Fair for possible foreign rights sales.

I’m extremely happy to be a passionate serial entrepreneur who is truly on the move. My latest venture, Balanced Rock Press, is a growing independent publishing company located in the beautiful Sierra foothills of northern California. The company publishes traditional books, eBooks and audio books.

I’ve established a special division for eBooks called “Enbrightened eBooks.” Though presently a small company, Balanced Rock Press is thinking globally. I’ve established and maintained strong business contacts with the east coast in both New York and Miami. And, I’m planning to attend several of the large world book fairs each year including Frankfurt and London.

Balanced Rock Press is a growing independent publishing company located in northern California. We publish traditional books, eBooks and audio books. We accept proposals for cookbooks, gardening, natural living, holistic, and inspirational topics.

Ms Denktash has appeared on local television shows, and is a popular guest for radio and teleseminars. Her creativity, enthusiasm, and strong commitment to quality are unwavering. Since her lay-off she enjoys inspiring others and speaking to groups about her favorite topic – “Never Give Up.” She is available for telephone consultations with prospective cookbook, gardening, holistic, and inspirational authors. For submission guidelines, visit her publishing site at
Balanced Rock Press.

Many of you have heard me speak of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.  You’ve also heard me mention the Paris Cookbook Fair. The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards will now take place along with the Cookbook Fair each year in Paris. How nice!

I thought it would be a good idea to understand the qualifications of submitting a work to this prestigious event. There is still time to complete a cookbook and submit for the next fair which will take place in Paris in February 2011.

The following information is from the Gourmand website….

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards were founded in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau. Every year, they honor the best food and wine books.

The Objectives

The objectives of the Awards are:

• To reward and honour those who “cook with words”
• To help readers find the best out of the 26000 food and wine books produced every year.
• To help publishers with international rights to translate and distribute food and wine books.
• To help book retailers find the 50 food and wine books that each year should be offered to clients.
• To create an opportunity to access the major markets in English, Chinese, German, Spanish or French for books originated in other languages.
• To increase knowledge and respect for food and wine culture, which promotes peace.

The winners in each language are announced in November, and compete for the Best in the World, announced in April of the following year at a gala dinner.

The Impact of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

• Winners books get more visibility in the marketplace and higher sales, often with new print runs.
• Translations and international rights deals are negotiated.
• Winners use self-adhesive stickers to announce their award to the public. They issue press releases in their local markets, which helps make the Gourmand Awards known worldwide. The winners give permanent presence to the awards on their internet sites, in publishers catalogs and in the following books and authors biographies.

The Categories

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards are the only truly international competition. There are many local or national awards for food and wine books, with many different categories.
In order to fully represent the diversity of food and drink publishing around the world, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards have 41 categories for cookbooks and 18 for drinks books.

The Process

• In 2009, over 6.000 books were received, from 136 countries.
• The books have first to qualify in a national competition, with results announced in December.
• They represent their country in the “Best in the World” competition, which are proclaimed the following year.

The Rules for the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2010

• All books published between November 15, 2009 and November 15, 2010 qualify.
• Manuscripts and publishers proofs are also accepted.
• Books compete in their original languages, in all categories, except the category “Translation” created in 2008.
• There are no entry fees. The competition is free and open to all.
• Books may be entered by anyone: authors, publishers or even readers.
• The Jury decides in which category books compete, and may change nominees from one category to another at the final jury meeting. The Jury may decide that awards for some categories remain vacant, and there may be more than one winner per category.

So now you know what you need to do….it’s just a matter of getting started on your cookbook. Contact me if you need help. Would be happy to discuss.

I will be going to next year’s Paris Cookbook Fair and plan on taking some manuscripts with me! I’ll be representing my new publishing company and as the founder and CEO of the International Association of Cookbook Writers – IACBW!

Tomorrow we will talk more about the Paris Cookbook Fair….

WOW! It sounds like a good time was had by all at the first ever Paris Cookbook Fair.

The fair was held last weekend in conjunction with the Gourmand International Cookbook Awards.

This will be an annual event and the event will make its home in Paris.

I can’t think of a better reason to go to Paris next year!

I’ll be attending as the Founder of my new membership organization – the International Association of Cookbook Writers – IACBW, and as a publisher for my new publishing company.

I am encouraging all of my students to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity and get their cookbooks completed!

If you have been thinking about writing a cookbook, make it happen this year.

I will be taking manuscripts with me to next year’s Paris Cookbook Fair!!

From the sounds of it, there were not that many American publishers in attendance.

So let’s sharpen up our French language skills, and let’s go. How much fun would that be?

Is anyone game?

If you need help getting a cookbook started….contact me!

YouCanWriteACookbook

Chairman and founder of Gourmand International, Edouard Cointreau will launch the first annual Paris Cookbook Fair in February 2010. Speaking during an interview with Edward Nawotka from the Beijing Book Fair earlier this year, Mr. Cointreau stated he has decided to launch the first Cookbook Fair in conjunction with the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, an event he started in 1995. This event will be the largest cookbook and wine book trade fair in the world.

The first Cookbook Fair will take place February 11-15, 2010 in Paris at Le104, a hip new industrial exhibition/arts center which opened in October 2008. There will be a reasonably large space provided for publishers, cookbook authors, agents, chefs, journalists, and others to meet and mingle. Cointreau went on to say there would be space for cooking demonstrations, samples, and what he referred to as a “rights center” where deal making could occur. There is also a large bookstore on the site.

Even in the recession, cookbook sales have steadily increased, with sales in the US up 4% over last year. What’s truly exciting about this is that the fastest growing segment of the cookbook business is self-published cookbooks. Cointreau felt this to be one of the most important reasons to start his own fair just for cookbooks.

Referring to undiscovered talent that may not get any attention at traditional book fairs Cointreau said, “We plan to invite all of these authors, including the self-published, to Paris,”  “There’s no reason, provided their books are high quality, they shouldn’t be able to participate on equal footing with all the other publishers. There’s a real opportunity here for cookbook publishers to discover some new talent, particularly from other countries.”

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards have been presented annually in a variety of global locations, from Kuala Lumpur to London, honoring cookbooks in 58 different categories of food and drink. The Gourmand awards are open to any book from any country written  in any language. Books from 126 countries were submitted at the most recent competition.

Cointreau will be looking to capitalize on the geographically vast network he’s established. He’s chosen Paris as the permanent location for the Cookbook Fair. Cointreau elaborated, “Paris is a city that has a reputation for culinary excellence, is halfway between Asia and America, just two hours by train from London, and a place where people from the Middle East are comfortable visiting.”

For more information about this event contact:

Edouard Cointreau
edouard@gourmandbooks.com
CookbookFair.com

You can find more information about self-publishing your own cook book by visiting Cookbook Coach.com … a leading authority for self-published cookbooks .