How to Self-Publish Your Family Recipe Book at Lulu

Many people are familiar with the cookbook fundraiser. It is the recipe book commonly prepared by a local church, club or organization. Publishers who specialize in these types of books, such as Morris Publishing, will often allow legitimate non-profit organizations to arrange paying after the books are delivered and proceeds from the fundraiser are collected. With little or no upfront money required, many charities take advantage of this opportunity.

But, what about the individual who wants to print a limited number of books for family or friends? For those people, print on demand is an excellent option. With print on demand it is possible to order just one paperback book at a time, for less than $10 per copy. Of course prices vary, depending on page count and color verses black and white.

Several years ago I self-published my own family recipe book. If you would like to write and publish a cookbook for your family and friends, and choose to self-publish via print on demand, you will need to be able to use a word processor and the Internet. A popular print on demand site, suitable for this project is an online company known as Lulu.

The compressed version of the process goes something like this: look at other cookbooks, go to www.lulu.com and register as a free member, collect and organize your recipes, type the recipes into a word processing document, format the document, upload your document at lulu.com, and order your book.

That was the condensed version, now let's explore each step.

Why should you look at other cookbooks? Normally, when we open a cookbook, it is to read a recipe. Have you ever paid attention to how it is organized? Recipes are typically grouped in categories. Notice the location of the page numbers. Page numbering varies from book to book, which design appeals to you? Pay attention to how different books place headers on the pages. If you are well versed in using your word processing program, you can mimic a design you admire. Notice, there are no page numbers on the first pages of a book, and that the title page and dedication page is on the right hand side, and the copyright page is on the reverse side of the title page.

If you don't have many cookbooks at home to study, visit the library and browse. Your recipe book formatting does not need to be complicated. Choose one you admire, and use it as a pattern to format your book, mimicking the placement of the title page, copyright page, page numbers, headers, footers, dedication page, table of contents and index.

Your next step will be a visit to www.lulu.com, where you will sign up as a free member. When filling out the online application, you will be asked to choose a store name. Your store name is the lulu web page that will be created for your account. This web page will be where you or family members visit to order future copies of any books you upload at lulu. The name you choose may already be taken by another Lulu member, so this sometimes takes several tries to find an available name you like. Think of it as the name of your online bookstore.

After you join the website, surf around a bit, and see what Lulu has to offer. On the site you will find formatting information for your document. Although you have a variety of book size options, I prefer the 6 x 9" for a cookbook.

There are various binding options, such as perfect bound (typical for paperback books) or coil bound. I prefer coil for cookbooks, because it allows the book to easily lay flat on the kitchen counter, while reading a recipe. The cost for coil vs perfect is the same. Another binding option is saddle stitch, which is used for books with fewer pages, or small booklets. In saddle stitching the books are stapled in the center. When opting for perfect bound, there will be a minimum page count required, and when opting for saddle bound, there will be a maximum page count.

The next step will be collecting and organizing your recipes. Arrange the recipes into categories, and place them in the order you want them to appear. Typing the recipes in the desired order will make the process easier. But, you can always reorganize the recipes, by cutting and pasting within the document.

Your next step will be typing your recipes into your word processing program. Before you begin, make your page settings. If you are creating a 6 x 9" book, set your page size to 6 x 9", all margins to .5" and make your gutter setting .25", left. Should you want another size book, check the Lulu website for the correct page settings.

When typing recipes, be consistent in your formatting. Will you be spelling out "cup" or abbreviating with a "C"? Whichever you choose, be consistent with each recipe. Type the list of ingredients and instructions in the same style for each recipe.

After your recipes are typed, you may want to include additional copy, such as family stories or histories of various recipes. Remember to add in your title page, copyright page, dedication page, table of contents, and index. When you add the page numbers, remember to leave them off those first pages. You can also insert images into your document. Inserted images should be a minimum of 300 DPI.

Since this is a family recipe book, not intended for public distribution, you do not need to worry about ISBN or Library of Congress pre-assigned numbers. You will want to include your copyright notice, on the page directly after your title page. It can look something like: Copyright © 2008 YourNAME, All Rights Reserved.

Even without the ISBN or Library of Congress pre-assigned numbers, you can still offer your book for sale to the general public, via your Lulu store page. Yet, don't expect a great many sales, unless you do some serious marketing.

When you format your book, choose a basic, easy to read font. If you choose a font not commonly used by the Lulu printers, your document may change in appearance when printed. One way to avoid this is to convert your document to a PDF, with embedded fonts, and upload that file to Lulu, instead of your word processing document file. But, since this is your first book, keep it simple. For a sample of commonly used fonts accepted by Lulu's printers, visit the website.

If you are using Word 2007, you will want to save your document file to an earlier version of Word, before uploading at Lulu.

After you finish typing and formatting your document, have someone proof your work! Recheck recipes and ingredients. This is very important!

When your document is ready, go to the Lulu website and follow the instructions for publishing a paperback book. During this process you will upload your formated document file or PDF, and create your own cover, using cover art provided by Lulu. Advanced users can design their own cover art.

After your successful upload at Lulu, order just one book. When the book arrives, proof it carefully, to see if you need to make any changes before ordering copies for your family and friends.

Writing and publishing your family cookbook may seem overwhelming to some, yet it can be an incredibly rewarding project, that will be appreciated by your children and future generations.