Press Publish

Behind the scenes of shooting, writing, marketing, and publishing an ebook.

One thing about me is that I am nosy. Something I really missed during the pandemic lockdown was eavesdropping and I love to share and receive gossip filled voice notes. When I share behind the scenes details here, I like to imagine you are a little nosy too, or at least very curious. Today, we’re going behind the scenes of making an ebook, specifically Meal Prep Made Simple, which came out on Tuesday. Tonight, Erica and I are hosting a celebration in Brooklyn and on Sunday, we’re teaching an autumnal meal prep class in honor of the launch (which includes new recipes that are not in the book! they’re basically a bonus chapter). I’m also sharing a recipe from the book! Btw, if you preordered the book and haven’t received it, check your spam! And reply to this email if you have any questions!

If you like BTS content, you might be interested in how free food at restaurants works, and how a print magazine story comes together.

Why an ebook and why now?

Erica and I decided to publish in ebook in late June after going back and forth on it for a few months. We made this decision with A+ decision maker Leah and here’s what persuaded us: We have been teaching (and developing recipes) together for almost 2 years and we know Zoom classes are not for everyone, especially with Zoom fatigue. We love working together and we love the recipes we’ve created so we wanted to find a way to share them with a larger audience in a more affordable way (one Zoom class is $38, the ebook with 5 meal prep menus is $20, what a deal).

An ebook was the perfect format to share these recipes along with all the tips and tricks we typically share in class so you can reference them anytime. Erica has written several ebooks before and her experience in this area was invaluable, as were a few steps we had taken in the past year, like creating a website on Squarespace, building an email list, and having some professional photos taken. We chose October for the release because we hope you’ll consider gifting the book and because it gave us enough time to put this together and not lose our minds.

What was the process actually like?

Once we had made the decision, we made a timeline in a spreadsheet, which we adjusted several times. We first selected which menus we wanted to include in the book, created a table of contents, and scheduled days to shoot photographs for the book. This was in July and it was so tiring and rewarding. We did four shoots in two weeks in addition to all the other work we do. Each shoot was at least 3-4 hours and we tried to start early in the morning for the light (I am really not a morning person, the early meeting times were the hardest part).

We would divide up the grocery shopping and cook through each menu together, following the game plans we created. Cooking through all the recipes again also helped us make the recipes and game plans more detailed—in class, you can always raise your hand with a question so we wanted the ebook to be even more clear and easy to follow. Erica took the photos (she’s extremely talented) and I was usually the hand model/dishwasher. We wanted to have lots of photo options, so we would shoot the dishes on their own, plated together, in containers, and on a table. I think the photography really elevates the book and food is so visual. We also took some photos of us so you can see our faces in the book. We did a lot of dishes in the process and tried to get it all done in a short period of time. We ate most of the food and gave some away to friends and free fridges. These menus make a good amount of food and I was always happy to have leftovers after a long day of shooting.

The rest of the steps we could each do from home or via Zoom. I took the lead on the writing, which included recipe headnotes, the introduction, the game plans, how to use this book and a section I love called The Lists, which talks a little bit more about our approach to meal prep and food in general. We did several rounds of edits on the words then my mom did a round of proofreads. Then it was time to design and format, which Erica took the lead on. She started with a Canva template and then made it way more beautiful. Again, we did several rounds of edits and more proofreading to make sure everything was consistent, grammatically correct, and readable. During this process, we worked together to figure out a title, tagline, and a description for the book.

While this was happening, we were also setting up an ecommerce shop with Zoe, our web developer. We decided to use Squarespace and had to upgrade our subscription, write the product description and confirmation emails, and other necessary copy. We also worked on our marketing plan during this time, more on that below. When the book was done, we shared it with Zoe, who uploaded it to our site so it could be sent out with each order.

Why did you do preorders?

Preorders are not typical for ebooks, but they’re really important for traditionally published books (more on that here). We are open to doing something in traditional publishing in the future and wanted to try the preorder system. Traditional cookbooks take much longer to produce, but the authors receive an advance to produce the book, which we did not get since this is a self published project.

We worked with Zoe to set up preorders on Squarespace and we brainstormed and created some incentives (in our case, they were kitchen playlists and a discount code for class). Preorders helped us get the word out about the book and build excitement—we first announced the ebook in a live Zoom class in August and then rolled it out on social media and in our newsletters.

The other advantage of preorders was that they helped fund the production of the ebook. We spent lots of time and money producing the book (the biggest expenses were groceries, our web developer, and hosting fees) and the preorders supported that process. As a consumer, preorders always feel like a gift to my future self and we were very happy that people were excited to preorder an ebook.

Did anything go wrong?

We had some roadblocks during this process, mostly minor, like a thunderstorm on a shoot day. We had technical difficulties, I got Covid, we had to set up an new email address and learn many things about domains. We read the book so many times it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel (or catch tiny errors). I’m so grateful to the many people who helped make this book possible (yes, it has an acknowledgments page). Zoe, my mom, Leah, Dale, Quentin, Shelly, and Emma were all instrumental in making this happen. As were all my friends and family who supported me throughout this big project when I was tired or distracted or needed a night in. The day we announced it on Instagram, I was blown away by all the support and I continue to be. I feel very lucky.

Lissette shared a concept on a recent call that I’ve referenced so many times since: life tuition. Sometimes you make mistakes that cost you money or time, or both. These moment are part of your life tuition, where you pay to learn something and take that lesson with you. This could range from a parking ticket to a travel issue to realizing there was an easier way to do something. This was my first time going through this process and while it was mostly very smooth thanks to Erica’s partnership, there are still things you learn the hard way about communication, ecommerce, and more. It’s life tuition.

Who is this book for and what’s happening next?