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                MyBinding Blog > cookbook

                How to Self-Publish Your Church Cookbook

                June 23, 2010 by Jeff McRitchie Leave a Comment

                GBC-Velobind-and-Surebind-Binding-Machines

                Have you seen church cookbooks from other churches and wondered what would be involved in publishing your own? You’re in luck! This article will tell you everything you need to know to get started on publishing your church’s cookbook. You will be pleasantly surprised by how cost-effective and simple it can be-and by how much money you can make for much-needed programs.

                The first step in publishing your church cookbook is to determine the initial budget. You want to be sure you establish a start-up budget that is not overly optimistic. It should be based on real numbers you obtain through research. You will be printing and binding the publication yourself, so you will need to purchase paper and binding equipment. There are many types of binding machines available. You can look into plastic comb, plastic coil, UniBind, VeloBind, thermal, ProClick, and wire binding varieties. While all of the different varieties offer their own benefits, the most common binding for church cookbooks are plastic coil, wire, or plastic comb binding. The machines and supplies vary in price based on their capabilities and capacities. Be sure to choose a machine that can handle the volume of pages you are planning to publish.

                In addition to assembling the right equipment, you will need to organize a project team to help you organize the cookbook. Begin by choosing a chairperson or co-chairpersons to lead the project. Once you have established leadership for the whole project, the next step is to divide it into smaller sections or tasks and assign responsibilities to members of the team. You can divide responsibilities according to document sections or according to task. For example, you can ask people to assume responsibility for the entire chapter on main dishes or desserts or you can divide people by tasks such as typing, editing, creating the table of contents, or designing the cover
                . Some combination of both approaches may yield the best possible results.

                Obviously, to have a cookbook, you will also need recipes. Place a call for recipes in the church newsletter and on the church’s website. Be sure to list the various recipe categories you seek. You will also want to publish any rules you may have for submissions, such as limits on the number of recipes per person or the number of submissions per person per category. You can save some time and frustration by asking contributors to email you the recipes. If they are emailed, you won’t have to spend time typing them. For some older or less technologically proficient parishioners, you should offer to type their handwritten recipes.

                As you begin to sort and type the recipes, you should establish a style guide to maintain consistency across the sections of the publication. The more consistent your choices in font styles and sizes, margins, and the like, the more professional looking your cookbook will be.

                Once you have assembled all of the recipes and sorted them into chapters or sections, you will want to make a table of contents. People love to see their names in print, so consider listing the contributor’s name next to the recipe’s title in the table of contents. Check and double-check spelling and formatting. Word processing programs will catch many mistakes, but not all of them. There is no substitute for a personal review by an expert speller and grammarian. Ask an English teacher from the congregation to lend his expert eye to the editing the cookbook.

                Print the covers and pages and bind the cookbook using the binding equipment you selected. Advertise the cookbook on the church website and in the bulletin. Set up a table at the busiest church events to sell copies of the cookbook. Encourage parishioners to buy copies for themselves and as gifts for their friends and families.

                Filed Under: Binding Tagged With: binding equipment, Binding Machines, binding supllies, book binding, cookbook, Wire Binding

                How to Design a Fundraising Cookbook

                June 17, 2010 by Jeff McRitchie Leave a Comment

                Cookbooks are tried and true fundraisers for organizations of all types. Here are a few tips for designing and putting together a great one.

                The Cover:

                There are many ways to go about choosing and designing a cover for your fundraising cookbook. If you are working with a small or online publishing company, they may have a stable of cover templates that you can use. However, you will probably want to use something that conveys the feel of your organization a little better, such as a logo or an original photo or artwork. If you are lucky enough to be working with a designer within your organization, you can discuss with him or her what your options might be. If you are still stuck, you can always revert to a little bit of imitation. Take a look around at some of the cookbook covers that seem to really work for you, and do what you can to implement some of the aspects of the cover (without outright stealing ideas, of course). The professionals call this “design study” and it is very much a legitimate part of the design world, so dig in and see what you find.

                The Dividers:

                A lot of cookbooks (depending on how they are bound) rely on a system of dividers to enhance usability my making the sections easy to find without having to refer to a table of contents or the like. Types of binding styles that can easily accommodate dividers are: plastic comb, spiral coil, and double loop binding. You don’t often see divider systems being used in hardcover (also known as thermal) style binding, as the index tabs would likely stick out beyond the cover of the book.

                The divider pages are also a great place to put some artwork, such as a nice photograph of one of the finished dishes and the title of the section. Again, there may be templates for these at your publishers, but if you are publishing the book yourself, or want to do something a little more original, consult with your designer or do some research yourself.

                Page Layout:

                For the typical recipe page, you will want to keep graphics to a minimum in favor of readability and functionality. Leave the fancy graphics to the chapter headers and cover. Again, if you need a little bit of help when it comes to layout, take a look around at other cookbooks that you feel are easy to use as well as attractive on the page.

                You will also want to have some introductory pages and perhaps short bios of the main officers of your organization. A table of contents would be a nice addition as well, along with a title page and perhaps a short history about your organization and the work that it does.

                Binding Style:

                As stated above, three great binding styles commonly seen in cookbooks are” plastic comb, spiral coil, and double loop wire binding. All of these styles allow the book to open flat for easy functionality in the kitchen, and are fairly rugged systems that keep the pages together well. If your organization has one of these binding machines on hand, you can even bind the books yourself. If not, you can go to your local printer, or buy an inexpensive binding machine.

                Filed Under: Binding Tagged With: binding equipment, Binding Machines, Binding Styles, cookbook, fundraising cookbook

                Selling Your Fundraising Cookbook

                June 15, 2010 by Jeff McRitchie Leave a Comment

                Cookbooks can be a great fundraising tool. Here are a few tips for getting your cookbook ready to publish and for selling as many of the books as you can.

                Finishing Touches:

                It should go without saying, but it is going to be said anyway: before you get to selling your cookbook, before you even print the final version, you need to go through the book with a fine tooth comb and find any and all grammatical and spelling errors. If at all possible, get a number of people with some sort of writing or editing experience to work on this project, or hire the services of a professional proofreader. Print the pages as they will appear in the final version so you can make adjustments for photo placement and margins and whatever else as well. If you are working with a printer or small publisher, they should be able to print up a sample copy for you to look at. Just remember that there is no worse feeling than having boxes and boxes of books that contain some egregious error, and your advertisers and sponsors will be very upset if their ads or pages contain any errors too.

                Just remember, the more professional your cookbook looks, the easier it will be to sell, and the more successful it will be as a fundraising tool.

                Your First Line Of Attack:

                Fundraising cookbooks tend to sell well among those who contributed recipes to the book, because hey make great gifts and allow the contributors to show off a little bit. You may find that some contributors expect free copies of the cookbook for their contribution. If that is the case, just gent;y inform them that the cookbook was created to raise funds for your organization, and that you have a certain amount of costs to cover before the book actually starts to make money. This should be enough for most people, but if it doesn’t work, simply tell them that once costs are covered they may have one cookbook for free. Of course, you can help to avoid this situation entirely if you state beforehand that no books will be given out for free.

                Local Businesses:

                Go back to the businesses that advertised in your cookbook, and if at all possible, ask if they will help you to sell the book in some way. In some cases, they may be able to give you a small display area, or at the very least, you might be able to put up a flier with information on how and where to find and purchase the cookbook. Ask if the businesses have a newsletter and whether they would mind including some information about the cookbook in the next issue. Offer to write the article for them. If your organization has a website, make sure that there is a way for people to order the book from there.

                Press Release:

                Send out a press release that gives the details about the project, including information about your organization, who contributed to the book, and where it can be purchased. If there was a specific organizational goal that the book was produced to meet, give some details about that too.

                Filed Under: Binding Tagged With: binding, Binding Machine, Binding Supplies, cookbook, fundraising cookbook

                Making a Family Reunion Cookbook

                June 10, 2010 by Jeff McRitchie Leave a Comment

                binding-cookbook-maPutting together a family cookbook for your next reunion might make a fun and rewarding project. Here are a few tips to get you started.

                Gathering Recipes

                This will take a fair amount of planning, preparation, and cooperation. Start as soon as you know when your family reunion is taking place, and contact all of the members of your family, letting them know what your project is and that you would like them each (each family, not each member of each family) to contribute at least 3-5 of their favorite recipes. A mass email is probably the best and easiest way to let everyone know, and that way family members can discuss among themselves what kinds of recipes they will be contributing, and help to make sure there is not too much repetition.

                Have the families email their recipes to you along with any photographs or other informational blurbs they want to include, such as “this is my take on Grandma Ethel’s apple strudel.” If they agree to participate and you don’t hear from them for awhile, don’t be shy about sending a friendly reminder every now and then. The sooner you gather all the recipes, the sooner you can begin. Let your family know that the goal is to present them with a copy of the cookbook at the reunion.

                Organizing The Recipes

                Once you have gotten all the recipes you are going to get, you can start to put your cookbook together. If you have a layout program such as InDesign or QuarkXpress, and you have an idea how to use them, great. If not MS Word should suffice in putting your pages together. First you will want to organize your recipes somehow. There are, of course a number of ways to do this, including by family or by type of cuisine. There is a good case to be made for either method, so you will just have to go by whichever feels and looks the best to you. If you choose to organize your cookbook by food categories )appetizers, main dishes, etc.), you can also include a separate section wherein each family gets a short bio, so everyone knows who contributed what.

                Depending on what you want your final product to look like, you may want to get as many high-quality photographs as possible, both of the finished dishes and of the families who are participating. This will help to add some flair to your cookbook as well as giving everyone something they will want to use and hold onto for a long time to come.

                Editing And Proofreading

                Spend some time making sure that the recipes are clear and easy to follow as soon as you begin to receive them. If you have questions about anything, make sure that you have time to clear them up with the contributor before you start printing.

                Printing and Binding

                Use laser printing to print your pages, digital if there are color photos. When it comes to binding, there are a few different options, including plastic comb, color coil, and the old standby 3-ring binder. All of these forms are hands-free functional which is a big plus in the kitchen. For those who like to do things themselves, binding machines are inexpensive and easy to use. Take a look online or at your local print shop to see what will work best for you.

                Filed Under: Binding Tagged With: binding, book binding, cookbook, family cookbook, making cookbook

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