publishing a cookbook??

[oldcharm]

Over the years, I have gathered hundreds of recipes. I have about 20 that I truly love and turn to most often. This weekend a couple guests asked if I had a cookbook. I said, 'no', They said, 'if you did, we buy it!!' So, this got me thinking.
Has anyone ever made a cookbook for their inn? I don't need to work with a publisher or anything, but I'd like to put something together for my guests. (plus its a way to put a little extra money in the bank.) Advice? Ideas?
Thanks all!!

 

[SeeBen21]

If you use a mac have a look at "mac gourmet"

 

[wendydk]

We published an "e-cookbook" that we sell for $9.95 in PDF format on our website. It was easy to do and has been a great seller....it's 20 pages with about 35 recipes.

 

[oldcharm]

If you use a mac have a look at "mac gourmet".

Sorry... no mac here..

 

[oldcharm]

We published an "e-cookbook" that we sell for $9.95 in PDF format on our website. It was easy to do and has been a great seller....it's 20 pages with about 35 recipes..

Cool! Never heard of such a thing. What's your web address? Maybe I could have a look?
Thanks again!

 

[wendydk]

Giving you the web address wouldn't help you, as all you will see is the advertisement for the book and the paypal buy it now button, not the cookbook itself.
All you need is a way to print or save a document as a PDF...I use the printer driver PDF995 and have since we opened. Download it for free here http://www.pdf995.com/download.html. You can also use adobe or any number of other PDF programs.
Just type out your cookbook in Word or Works, or whatever wp program you prefer. Save it in PDF format, pop it on your website with whatever payment option you like...I use paypal for that particular item. In fact, you could really probably send it in word format after payment is received.....although some people are highly sensitive to attachments being viral.

 

[Mr.Design]

I've created a cookbook for my site through Cafe Press. It worked out very well
http://www.cafepress.com

 

[EmptyNest]

YEs, I used MS publisher and created my own. Like you it had about 20-30 recipes in it. Had it printed locally and sold it for I think $3 or $4. ANyone who asked for a recipe. I told them it was in the cookbook. MOst of them bought it. If they didn't want to buy it, I told them to just look in the book and copy it down. It saved me time in the long run and made most folks happy to have it.

 

[gillumhouse]

Until my C-drive ate itself, I had one that I did in WORD and printed as needed. I did it as a 4 x 5.5 size so 1 recipe per page (regular size paper folded in half). I bought a stapler that I could put staples in the middle to hold it together and sold it in my gift shop. Maybe I will rebuild it even better this winter.....

 

[Sanctuary]

I haven't done it yet, but this is something I want to do. I have a program called "Cook'n" that is a glorified data base, enabling me to organize/sort all of my recipes (I must have a couple hundred or so that I use). The most recent updated version I got give me the ability to print my cookbook, even to a pdf, or in various size pages from recipe cards to full pages. Very convenient. I can even send it all to the printer and tell it to make every recipe "6 servings", for example. That doesn't work well for cakes and pies, of course.