Episode 563: What You Need to Know Before Self-Publishing a Cookbook (+How to Avoid The Mistakes I made) with June Dick

EBT563 – June Dick

Intro 00:00

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

Megan Porta  00:37

If writing and publishing a cookbook, and doing it on your own self publishing, is something that’s been on your radar, you should definitely tune into this episode. Jun, from practically homemade, joins me to talk about her experience. And she has been self publishing her cookbook. For the past year or so. She talks about all the things she wish she had known from the beginning things she’s learned along the way, things that she wished she did differently. And also talks about some things she did really well that have worked out for her overall, she talks more big picture to like what to expect from this process, how to find the right help for things that maybe aren’t your strengths, how to get help from your audience to put your cookbook together, and how to think about promoting your cookbook as well. I think projects like this are going to be increasingly popular this year, just with the volatility of Google traffic and all of that. So this might give you some motivation to start a fun new project. I hope you really enjoy it. And plus June is just such a lovely person and so fun to listen to and talk to. This is episode number 563. And it is sponsored by RankIQ. 

Sponsor  01:52

Food bloggers, have you experienced traffic loss after the recent Google updates. Are you feeling confused about how to move forward? I get it. I have been a food blogger for nearly 14 years. And I’ve been through the wringer with industry changes and business changes. You name it, I have been there. When I look back over my tough times. The thing that pulled me out of slumps and traffic loss and disappointment was always people. We need each other right now more than ever. You are in this food blogging game for the long haul I know you are. And that means you need to find people to collaborate with to connect with and to learn from. Eat Blog Talk has two great options for you coming up. The 2025 Eat Blog Talk mastermind groups and in person retreats. We are now taking applications for the 2025 mastermind groups. This year we’re splitting the group’s in two. It’ll be intermediate and advanced and beginner. We also lower the price to accommodate traffic and revenue dips a lot of us are experiencing apply now as the first four people let into the group will receive 20% off the whole year. Go to eatblogtalk.com/mastermind to apply today. And there are still a few spots remaining for the 2020 for Fall Retreat, which is also discounted this year due to revenue loss for so many. Join us in October in Minnesota. It is my favorite time of year here in Minnesota for three incredible days filled with laughter, great food, tons of learning and connecting and honestly, they’re just so much fun. You will not regret attending this retreat, head over to eatblogtalk.com/retreat to apply for that today. I hope to see you in one or both of those spots. I can’t wait for the next 12 months and to see all of your businesses explode. And trust me having those people in your corner is going to help. 

Megan Porta  03:52

June Albertson dick is the recipe developer and photographer for her food blog practically homemade. Here you will find simple recipes for everyday families inspired by years of being a restaurant owner, high school culinary teacher and mom for now as an empty nester Jun is still looking for shortcut ingredients and kitchen hacks to save time in the kitchen. Her life mission is to share them with you so that you can have time back in your life to enjoy the little things. June, welcome back to the podcast. How is your day going so far?

June Dick  04:25

It’s going great. Thank you for having me back. Megan, I’m excited to be back.

Megan Porta  04:28

I always love talking to your, you have so much to share. And today we’re gonna talk about self publishing a cookbook. I know that you’ve been in this process for a little bit. So we’re excited to learn from you and everything that you’ve been through. Do you have a fun fact another one to share with us?

June Dick  04:46

Well last time I talked about my family but I thought today I would tell you the first time I decorated a cake like for an event or holiday or whatever I was nine years old. We had a family friend to decorated a cakes and she kind of took me under her wing and I started making cakes when I was nine.

Megan Porta  05:05

Wow. So did you make a lot of cakes and desserts as you were when you were a kid?

June Dick  05:11

I did. I kind of stopped when I was in high school in college. But when I came back and got married and had my kids, I did it as a side business and kind of still do for friends and family. But yeah, it was then I think that my bug for all things food kind of started.

Megan Porta  05:29

So do you remember the first cake you made? 

June Dick  05:31

Yeah, I remember that. It was like to tear round cake and I used yellow frosting. That’s about all I remember. I can’t really remember and remember the event it was for but…

Megan Porta  05:43

Sweet that you remember it though. And it was a layer cake. Awesome. I love that. And I also love when parents or mentors or family members encourage kids to get in the kitchen and bake or cook when they’re young. Right. I think that’s so important. 

June Dick  06:00

Yeah. Especially going on to be like a culinary teacher, high school culinary teacher. And my mom always had us like in cooking for age and different things like that. So she was big into cooking and it just kind of rubbed off on a couple of us. One of my sisters is like, yeah, I don’t love it. But that’s okay. 

Megan Porta  06:18

Yeah, that’s okay. Not every it’s not for everyone. But clearly for you. You’ve had so much success with your blog, and now you’re republishing a cookbook, do you want to talk first, just a little bit about your blog, give us a history, like when you started, just give us a little bit of what your blog is about? 

June Dick  06:35

Sure. I started my blog in November of 2017. As kind of just a way to have an outlet, my kids, our two oldest children had left the nest and I was trying to think of something that I could do, just to kind of occupy my time. And so at that point, I was also a high school culinary teacher. And so I did that until the summer of 2020. I had replaced my income and my husband and I decided it was time to just blog full time. And so I’ve just been doing that. Since it’s you know, a blog where there’s super simple recipes, people are coming to me for ideas for great food that doesn’t take a lot of time. And they can use kind of shortcut ingredients and things like that. 

Megan Porta  07:18

Awesome. And you are also in the Eat Blog Talk mastermind. I love having you there. Thank you for being there. 

June Dick  07:25

Yes, I love it. It’s great. 

Megan Porta  07:27

Good. Okay, so that gives us a little bit of a background on your blog. So when did you decide to self publish a cookbook? 

June Dick  07:36

Well, having a writing a cookbook has been on my bucket list, I wrote this big bucket lists, gosh, I can’t even remember it was like 15 years ago, and on there was to start a food blog, and also to write a cookbook. And so I’ve always kind of had it in the back of my mind. And last year, in May, I can’t remember the exact date. But I just decided I’m doing this. I’m not waiting for some publisher to come and offer me some, you know, an offer to write a book, I’m just going to do it. If I want to do it. I’m just going to do it. So I purchased Chelsea’s course from a Duck Seven. Yeah. And she had a great resources for it. But I’ve also, you know, learned lots of other things kind of along the way. It’s been kind of quite the process.

Megan Porta  08:23

So that was did you say last year? Or when did you make that decision? Okay.

June Dick  08:28

Yeah, it was in May of last year, I told my husband, he came home from work. And I said, You know what, I’m going to write a cookbook.

Megan Porta  08:34

Like, okay. That’s funny. I think us food bloggers, we operate much the same way. Because I remember when I was gonna start a podcast, same exact thing. My husband came home from work. And I was like, I’m going to start a podcast. And he just looked at me like, Oh, okay. Sure you are. I mean, 

June Dick  08:56

Well, it’s still going. So I think Dough’s like, are you really going to publish a book like, this has been a while. 

Megan Porta  09:04

This actually happening? I know, some projects just take a little bit of time. But I don’t know. I feel like it’s going to be super successful. So tell us kind of about the process. So you decided to do it. You took a course. How did it go from there?

June Dick  09:20

I will say that the first thing I did was kind of come up with my topic, which was good, but I kind of just jumped in with both feet and started making my recipes, which I wish and I’ll talk about that I guess in a minute, but I wish I had done a couple of things before that. So I shot the entire there are a few recipes from my blog, but most of the recipes are new, and I shot them in a month because I didn’t want my blog to suffer. And so that was kind of intense. So July of last year, I shot. I mean, I was making four or five recipes a day. It was crazy.

Megan Porta  09:59

So how many recipes are in the book total?

June Dick  10:03

There are 75 recipes in the book 25 are from my blog, and 50 of them are brand new.

Megan Porta  10:10

Oh my gosh. And you shot all of those in a month? Those 50? 

June Dick  10:13

I did, yes. 

Megan Porta  10:14

Oh, my goodness. And mostly, baked goods, right? What did you do with all those baked goods? Yeah, it’s

June Dick  10:21

cookies and like cookie bars. And so I was sending them with my husband at work. And lots of times, I’ll take things my son is a first grade teacher. And so I’ll take things to him. But school was out for the summer. And so friends, you know, family, neighbors, everybody was getting baked goods.

Megan Porta  10:40

You had a lot of friends in July of last year. It’s crazy. That’s funny. Okay, so how did you decide on the number? So why 75? Is that just kind of a good number for cookbooks?

June Dick  10:54

Well, I knew I wanted it to have a substantial number, but I didn’t want it to be so much that I felt like it wasn’t attainable. So I can’t remember the exact number of recipes that was suggested in the class that I took. But I knew that was more than 50, you know, to like 135, or something. And so 75 just seemed like, I don’t know, a logical number of recipes that people would be willing to pay for, and that I could actually get done in a decent amount of time. 

Megan Porta  11:26

Okay, so you knew your topic, you shot them all. If you could go back? How would you do that differently?

June Dick  11:34

Well, a couple things have happened in doing it. So I think the first thing I would do if I was to write another one is I would kind of think of your end product and how you want it to look and what how you want everything to be in it. And then think backwards, the steps. Instead, I just kind of didn’t know maybe the what the steps were exactly even though I had the course, which was helpful, different things like how do you want it to look, what’s the size of the book you want? You know, because there’s so many things like the bleed size, and different things like that, that I didn’t even take into consideration really also one of the things that I’ve I’ve ran into a lot of different things, but one of the problems was that I didn’t have a really good format for my recipes, I had to go back and kind of make them when the editor went through it, there were a lot of things I had to fix. And so I would go and make sure that I have like a template, that’s pretty much exactly the same for every recipe and how you’re setting it up. So that it’s super consistent. And I didn’t do that. And I would definitely do that again.

Megan Porta  12:40

Because I’m assuming you spend time just going back and fixing little things. 

June Dick  12:44

Yes, like I would have, you know, like turn on your oven like two steps down instead of at the beginning. And another recipe. So just little things like that, that have taken me time to go back. I also had so the book is all about cake mix cookies and bars. And in the middle of doing the book, the size of the cake mix changed. And so it was a little bit crazy. It was 15 and a quarter ounces when I started and in October, they changed the company changed it to 13 and a quarter. So I had to go back I and you know, retest recipes and change things in the cookbook. And it was that I don’t think could have been helped. But that was one of the crazy things that happened.

Megan Porta  13:29

That is crazy, something you wouldn’t think of right? So Right. Did that change any of the recipes?

June Dick  13:36

I was lucky enough that it didn’t really change a lot. I mean, there was a couple of them that I was like adding, you know, a little bit more flour or something so that it would hold up a little better. But thankfully, most of them still work just the same.

Megan Porta  13:49

That’s so annoying. I bet you were like, What? No! 

June Dick  13:53

Yes, Iwas when people are messaging me because one of the really great things that I did was I reached out to my audience kind of in the beginning, and asked for people who might want to recipe test for me. And thinking I get like maybe 25 answers back and over 200 of my readers messaged back and said they wanted to be a recipe tester, which was kind of overwhelming. But at the same time, it was really wonderful. And one of them were really the ones that said the recipe says this and this is the only size cake mix I can find and I was like oh wow. Okay. Wow, I think I need to go back and look at that. But over 100 of them did go and recipe test for me and most of them sent photos back and notes and it’s just been that was a really probably the the most special part of writing the book for me, just knowing how invested so my audience was. 

Megan Porta  14:51

And that’s the benefit of being a food blogger. You have an audience that you can tap into. And I’ve heard this from other people too, not just you June but you people love being asked to recipe test and they go above and beyond. That’s so cool.

June Dick  15:07

They really do. I mean, I was not expecting, you know, all the photos and I don’t know, it was just it was really neat.

Megan Porta  15:15

And their feedback, did you find it pretty helpful? 

June Dick  15:18

It was helpful. And I really made sure to go back and look at each one of them and kind of take into consideration what they had said to like, to try to make the recipes better. It was a lot to manage, though. I don’t know, if I would do 100 people again. But having a good you know, reaching out to your email list or even on your socials and asking and then maybe doing it having a little smaller list, I would suggest but it was great. It was awesome and fun.

Megan Porta  15:49

Yeah, another friend of mine did the same thing she had, you know, she put that out there. Like who wants the recipe test? She got so many back. And then what she did was she hired like a niece or some someone in the family who, you know, they she paid probably like $15 an hour or something to manage the recipe testers. And she found that really helpful, because I can imagine that that is a lot. 

June Dick  16:15

That really was a lot. Yeah, but it’s been fun. And so they are like, and I get messages from them. Is it coming? You know, like

Megan Porta  16:23

Oh, sure. They’re excited. That’s are lovely. 

June Dick  16:28

So getting your audience invested like that was really fun. 

Megan Porta  16:31

Did you get them invested in other ways, like format of the book or cover or anything like that?

June Dick  16:36

I did, I did ask them. When I had was trying to think about which recipe I wanted to use on the cover. I gave a couple of options on my socials and in my emails. And I had kind of decided which one I really liked. But I thought you know if they like something different, but they unanimously like the same one. So that worked out.

Megan Porta  16:57

Yeah. Okay, so the tapping into the audience is something that you definitely recommend for people, especially sued blogger, audience already established, what else would you do differently or do you want to impart to others? 

June Dick  17:14

I would just make sure that you’re thinking about at the beginning about what you want to include how many recipes at the beginning Do you think you want to do? And then how do you want to set up your chapters, I mean, thinking about all of that ahead of time, instead of at the end, would make structuring your book, and recipe testing and all those things so much easier. I also suggest taking a few different photos of like maybe a close up and then a farther away of your final shots. Because I found that when I was sizing my book, sometimes the photos didn’t exactly work. And I had to go back and take, re-make and take photos of a couple of different recipes, when I could have done all of that the first time that I had, but I usually like the close up shots. And so that’s kind of what I did. And I wish I would have taken a couple of different shots of every recipe.

Megan Porta  18:07

Yeah, that’s a good thing to think through. And then did you do any like process shots or anything like that just to show I don’t know how things look on a cookie sheet or anything along those lines.

June Dick  18:18

I didn’t do much of that I did do some photos for some tips that I was giving that I have like a tip section, some photos for that. And I did take process shots because a few of the recipes I will put onto the blog kind of is like a preview when it gets closer. But I didn’t that’s I think not doing that was how I was able to shoot it in a month. If I was taking process shots and stuff of everything, it would have taken me quite a bit longer. 

Megan Porta  18:45

Right. And that’s one of the good things about a cookbook is that you don’t really need process shots, unless it’s something just a little bit different. Like maybe the batter looks different than normal or something like that. You mentioned templates earlier. Where did you create this book? Did you do it in Canva? Did you do it somewhere else?

June Dick  19:02

I did it in my Adobe shop. It’s called InDesign. And I actually hired someone to help me with that part. I have a graphic designer who kind of is setting it up because I’ve never used the program. And that’s been super helpful having someone who kind of we’ve meet on a Google meet about once a month and kind of go through and if there’s something I’m not really loving then she changes that but that’s been super helpful. I don’t I wish I had learned more about that program and maybe I will you know as it gets closer, but having someone who knows it and has used it a lot has been super helpful because we’ve resize it once and all the different things that it’s had to be changed.

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Megan Porta  20:48

So talking about size, how did you know what size to create? The book did explain that like books are all different kinds of sizes. So how did you land on one? 

June Dick  20:58

I did kind of the traditional, it’s like eight and a quarter by 11. Because I like that size of book when I’m looking at cookbooks. And I wanted to have a nice, full size photo of each of the recipes. The so that’s how I chose it. But I would go into wherever you’re going to print it like if you’re going to do the print on demand with Amazon through KDP. Or whether you’re going to order the books and distribute, you just distribute them yourself and see what options they have before you just think oh, well, I’m gonna do you know, an eight and a half by nine or something and have that not really be an option.

Megan Porta  21:41

No, I like what you said about it’s a size that you enjoy as a user of a, you know, of cookbooks. So thinking through that, but then also like, oh, how are you actually having these printed, make sure it translates because you don’t want to go back and have to format oh, my gosh, every single page, right and like move stuff around. And…

June Dick  22:01

And also knowing like I said before, like how your bleed, you know how much lead into each page you need. It’s different for every place. So kind of having in mind where you want to distribute them, or how you’re going to distribute them in the beginning will help you in finding the size and in your formatting and all of those things. And I’m still kind of mulling over exactly how I’m going to do it. So I wouldn’t get that I would have done that way sooner. 

Megan Porta  22:30

So where do you distribute? I know there are a handful of options, but what are you thinking for yours?

June Dick  22:36

I’m actually thinking of just ordering them and distributing them myself. I have one of my friend’s daughters is helps me and is super good help. And I think it would be something that she could do. And also selling it through Amazon, but I’m gonna actually be the one sending them. I’m a little nervous, because I don’t really want to become a shipping company. But I also feel like, there’s a couple touches that I want to make that I can’t do if I do it through KDP, or the print on demand or Lulu or any of those places. And so I that’s what I’m leaning toward right now.

Megan Porta  23:14

Yeah. I mean, you get more money, right? If you do the shipping and all of that yourself? 

June Dick  23:20

You do. 

Megan Porta  23:20

Yeah. Is it significant?

June Dick  23:22

Do you know the difference? It is pretty significant. It is significant. I’m having them printed through print ninjas. So I mean, it is an overseas company, then you have to have them shipped on a boat over. And so it takes a while for that part of it. And so I think that there’s like a four to six week lead time before you actually get the crates of books. So I was am trying to take that into consideration. But the amount that you make is quite significantly more.

Megan Porta  23:52

Right. Yeah, if you do it traditionally through just Amazon and let them do all this shipping. Oh, my gosh, you just do not make much at all?

June Dick  24:02

No. So there’s so much work. And so, you know, I really want to try to at least make the money that I’ve put into it.

Megan Porta  24:11

Like all this time, all the effort, you want to make the absolute most of it that you can totally understand that. Is there anything else if you could go back to that day when you said guess what husband, I’m writing a book. What would you do differently?

June Dick  24:28

I don’t know I just some suggestions that I definitely would be have is and I think I wish I would have thought about it a little bit more was that? How am I going to continue to nurture my blog in the process. I kind of just was burning the candle at both ends that month that I shot all of everything. But I would plan ahead a little bit better. Like if I know I’m going to shoot a book in July. Then in May, in June, I would be working ahead so that I had content still going out but I wasn’t having to try to do it in the midst of shooting a cookbook. So really thinking about maybe do you need to hire someone to help you with that part? I just don’t suggest that you’re neglecting your blog for the cookbook.

Megan Porta  25:11

Yeah, that does require some foresight, though. And planning and scheduling and all of that. 

June Dick  25:18

Yes. 

Megan Porta  25:18

So maybe some, like lead up time to the project. So you can get things handled a little bit.

June Dick  25:26

I wish I had done that. Because I really by the end of July, I was pretty burnout mode. And I if I had planned ahead, I think it wouldn’t have been as bad.

Megan Porta  25:37

Yeah. Because you did keep up with your blog at that during that time, too.

June Dick  25:40

I did. Yeah, I was posting two or three recipes a week. I mean, some of those were republishes. But yeah, by the end of July, I felt like I was, had been like, I don’t know, in a whirlwind and was just trying to get my feet on the ground. 

Megan Porta  25:56

Yeah. And it’s summer, too. So you don’t necessarily want to be feeling like that in summer. So I, I bet you were just like, oh, my gosh, what did I just do? 

June Dick  26:04

Yes, it’s exactly how I was feeling. And I think my husband was feeling that too, because he would come home. And I think, I mean, it was like all I did for a month. I’m glad in hindsight that I did do that. Because I think if I had waited and kind of done a little bit at a time, it never really would have gotten done. But I would definitely plan ahead better and maybe plan in some days that I wasn’t, you know, take a couple of days off during that month, at least a couple and not work on the cookbook.

Megan Porta  26:35

Absolutely. Yeah. Clear your head a little bit. If you could go back, would you change the time of year you did the cookbook?

June Dick  26:43

Well, where I live in the summers when I have the best light. And so I could have done it probably in the fall and been okay. But because I shoot with natural light, I had to kind of be strategic and how I, you know, I wanted to be able to shoot every single day. And so summer really was the best time for that. It wasn’t great for getting outside and enjoying the weather and all those things. But for sure, you know, getting the photos done and stuff. It really worked best. 

Megan Porta  27:12

Yeah, that makes sense. Winters hard here too, for shooting. If you’re doing natural light, you have to be very strategic with the timing. And like, I don’t know, if you have a cloudy winter day, then everything’s shot.

June Dick  27:26

yeah, I think so I knew I could have, you know, 30 days of pretty good sunshine. I mean, there was a few days in there. But most of the time I could get a shot somewhere in the house. Yeah, there was better light.

Megan Porta  27:38

That’s smart. So do you feel like involving your audience is going to help you once the book is published and selling it and, you know, doing all the promotions and all of that?

June Dick  27:50

I really do think so I have a cookbook waitlist on my email, so that even people who didn’t do the recipe testing for me can still oh, you know be on it. And so I have a list of people that when the book is ready, or when I start my pre sales, which will be the next week or two, they’ll be the first ones to get notice. And so that’s been really helpful. I just put it kind of as basic on my signature of my emails. And I think today I was thinking I might add it to the homepage of my blog, because I haven’t done that. And I have a spot where I have kind of an opt in. And I think I’m going to do that for a month and kind of see how that goes. 

Megan Porta  28:30

Are you doing any sort of opt in leading to your book. So like, I don’t know, a freebie with a few recipes or anything like that. 

June Dick  28:38

I haven’t, I am going to do some like promotion. So the people who helped me with recipe testing are going to get a couple extra recipes that aren’t in the book and won’t be on the blog. And then people who buy it presale will get an advanced, like a couple of advanced recipes ahead of time, because so while they’re waiting, so I’m doing a few things like that and trying to think about how I can serve my audience without having to be out like a ton of extra money. So just giving them things that I can do. Yeah, that are related to the book. 

Megan Porta  29:14

I love the bonus recipes idea. I think that’s good, especially when people are invested and giving you their input. They’re probably like, ooh, extra bonus recipes that nobody else is getting. That sounds pretty cool. 

June Dick  29:25

Yes. 

Megan Porta  29:26

Are there any parts of the project overall, that you’re just like, so happy to hand off? I know, you said that In Design wasn’t really your thing so maybe the layout. What else have you been able to relinquish? And I don’t know free up time for yourself. 

June Dick  29:43

Well, I did have and then I also had an editor come in. I found her I think it was through the program that I had been going through. And she did an edit for me now not having published a book before I was giving her the book. Like Like almost in a finished state where she says usually, it’s like just a rough draft of a book. And then she goes in and does like the styling of it a little bit, you know, gives you ideas for that. Well, I’d already kind of done all of that. I didn’t know that that’s when I was supposed to do the book. But anyway, she was super nice. And she had it for about three weeks, and made some, you know, helped me with the consistency and some different wording and how to set it up a little bit differently, which was nice.

Megan Porta  30:31

Yeah. So you did a lot of her job for her. She was probably like, Thank you.

June Dick  30:36

Yes. Well, when she got it, she said, I’m not going to charge you as much as I was before. And I didn’t think it was a, you know, terrible price to begin with. But you really have done most of the work, I usually get it, you know, like, Yeah, before it even gets to this stage. So that would be nice. I think for me, too, if I decide to do another book to have that, know that in my head that once I have that rough draft, send it off, and then yeah, maybe it would save my I feel bad for my graphic designer sometimes. Because I’m like, Okay, we need to reformat it at once that was it. And then the size of the cake mix, right. And we need to change every single recipe. So sometimes I think she’s probably like, oh, my gosh, she does not know she’s doing. 

Megan Porta  31:22

That is not true. Clearly you do. So for other people, it might be other things right to outsource, like maybe someone is super into photography, or what are some other aspects of it that could be passed off?

June Dick  31:36

Well, definitely the photography and the setup, even coming up with like recipe ideas, or helping you pull which ones you want to from your blog, anything within the process that you don’t exactly love. I, you know, shooting the recipes and making the recipes is my favorite part, whether it’s a cookbook or blogging. And so I knew that was something I wanted to keep. But even you know, helping you write your templates for the recipes, like you kind of give an idea of what you want, and then have people help you with that would be, I mean, it would save you a ton of time for sure. 

Megan Porta  32:13

Yeah. So the parts that just don’t let you up that you don’t get excited about maybe consider outsourcing those. And then I think yeah, just like with your blog, yeah, exactly thinking of it like your blogging business. Because things are gonna go so much more smoothly when you’re actually doing the things that you want to be doing. 

June Dick  32:32

Yes, yeah, for sure. 

Megan Porta  32:33

And then just like, overall, is there anything we missed, as far as like, kind of what to expect in this process?

June Dick  32:41

it’s going to take probably longer than you think I really thought that I could have it done before Christmas of last year. And quickly found out that wasn’t, I was either going to be pushing it through and not having it be how I wanted, or I needed to, you know, take the extra time, it was not going to be done in this six month time. And so it’s gonna take a little bit more time and be okay with that. The other big thing I would tell people, it’s just make sure that you’re choosing something that you really love, because you’re doing this for, I mean, for a year, I’ve been working on this thing. And so I really love cookies, and you know, using a cake mix for convenience and all those things. And so it’s easy for me to talk about, and I don’t get tired of really going and making the recipes or working on them. If it was something that I didn’t love as much it would be harder. And so pick something that you really like and yeah, and

Megan Porta  33:36

Then also marry that with something that you know is going to benefit your people. Right your audience, 

June Dick  33:43

Right. I went to my I did do research and went to my blog and kind of you know, the top 25 recipes what were they will a lot of them were cake mix cookies, or even bundt cakes are things which might be an idea for another book, but most of them were cake mix cookies. And so I knew people were coming to my blog for those already. And so I went to Amazon to see like, is this something that maybe would be good for you know, a cookbook and there are cake mix cookie cookbooks but they’re, you know, older, there’s not really a lot of new ones. And the cookies are really simple. The cookies in my book and the bars in my book are like gourmet cookies and things with the cake mix. I don’t know they have it. They remind me of maybe like a crumble cookie or something like that. They just have extra details and are more gourmet and there wasn’t anything like that on Amazon. So I knew there was probably a place for it. And so that’s one of the things in the program that I took that she kind of tells you how to go in and research. What you know, you have a topic idea, is it really something that people might want to buy? So, yeah, I definitely suggest doing that.

Megan Porta  34:57

Something that sets you apart from your competition and that also aligns was something that you’re really passionate about making, yes. Otherwise, you’re gonna get sick of it really fast. If it’s something that doesn’t light you up.

June Dick  35:10

It’s something you’re going to work on every day for a long time. And so you need to love it. 

Megan Porta  35:15

Absolutely anything else we need to know June that you can think of things you wish you would have done differently, or things that you did really well?

June Dick  35:22

I think I did a really great job at coming up with my recipes I have and my chapters was, were easy because I was using cake mixes, so are, they’re just divided by like the cake mix kind like where there’s a chocolate cake mix chapter and a vanilla. So whatever people have on hand at home, and they, you know, can just go to that chapter. But I definitely just would think about it as an end product before I started doing anything, and how I want it to look and feel and the size of it, and how I’m going to market it and all these things before I actually started so that you have that end goal in mind. And you know, the steps you need to take to get there instead of just kind of doing what you think you need to do and kind of being on that hamster wheel without any real, you know, not really knowing if that’s what you need, or what’s going to work.

Megan Porta  36:14

Great advice and being ready for those unexpected turns of events, right, like the changing of size of the cake mix box. That’s something that you never could have anticipated, and just rolling with it and making it work.

June Dick  36:30

Yeah, have yourself a little cry if you need to. Get going, you know.

Megan Porta  36:36

Gosh, that’s I think that’s true with any big project, like just assume that you’re going to have some tears once in a while and just let yourself do that and then move on, right. Got to keep going. Thank you. This was so helpful. I feel inspired to write a book and I do not need a book in my life. 

June Dick  36:53

But you have wrote one, haven’t you? 

Megan Porta  36:54

What Yes, I have. And yeah, and it wasn’t a great experience, because it wasn’t under my control. It was under the publishers control like you were talking about earlier. So I’ve always been intrigued by this idea of doing it myself. So I can just like I’m in charge of the timeline. And I’m in charge of everything, as opposed to someone else telling me you have to have this done in four months. And it needs to be this many and it needs, you know, like, just having that control over it yourself, I think is really intriguing. 

June Dick  37:25

Yes, I do have a friend who’s doing it through a publisher. And she’s, I mean, it’s been an okay experience. But she says the fact that you can choose exactly what you want to be in the book and how you want it to look is really something she that she wishes she had.

Megan Porta  37:40

Right. There’s something to be said for that for sure. So maybe in the future I don’t know. We’ll see. Not right now, though. But thank you for all of this. We really appreciate all the value you shared and for being back on the podcast to June. Do you have a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with today?

June Dick  37:57

Well, I think just like the words of inspiration, if you have like a bucket list or an item on you know a list of things that you’ve been wanting to do for a long time just go for it and even if it takes a little bit longer than you want or things come up I mean I’m really proud of myself for just stepping outside of my comfort zone and doing this and so excited to have the final product in my hands.

Megan Porta  38:21

Yes, so excited for you. I cannot wait to get a copy of my hands as well. We’ll put together a show notes page for you and then definitely put your book in there when it’s ready. So your show notes can be found at eatblogtalk.com/practicallyhomemadebyjune. Tell everyone where they can find you June.

June Dick  38:43

well they can find me at my blog practicallyhomemade.com I am on Instagram and mostly mostly just Instagram these days and it’s practically homemade by June and on both of those places there’s I do have some other ebooks and things like that that you could purchase or get on my email list.

Megan Porta  39:03

Awesome. I hope you get tons of cookbook sales June I know you’re going to put so much love and effort into this. So everyone go check that out. And thank you again June for being here. And thanks for listening food bloggers. I will see you in the next episode. 

Outro  39:22

If you enjoyed this topic, you’ll also love the episode I recommend in the show notes. Click on the episode description to find the link. Thank you and I will see you next time.