You don’t need me to tell you that top TV chefs like Jamie Oliver and Delia Smith have made MILLIONS from selling their recipes. Delia is in fact the UK’s best selling cookery author having sold 21 million books… imagine if you had a pound or two from each of those!
What you might not know is that Delia Smith started out as a humble recipe writer. Her first piece featured kipper pâté, beef in beer and cheesecake – an exotic dish back in the 60s! So how could you follow in the footsteps of the famous cookery writers and make some money from selling your recipes?
There are a LOT of recipes out there. So you traditional Italian recipes need to be quite smart if you want to sell them. Here are a few tips:
* Your recipe ideas need to be original. Never try and sell recipes that you’ve read in another book. Traditional old family recipes are great for selling – as long as they are original. Or recipes you’ve found when on holiday abroad.
Recipes that are tasty-but-cheap are also in big demand right now.
* A clever idea is to take an existing recipe and give a unique twist and so make it your own. For example, take a classic recipe and convert it into a healthier, low fat one that is just as good. Or make it suitable for those with a food intolerance.
* Before you try selling anything, try and have a range of related recipes so that if one sells you have others ready and waiting to offer. Recipes for entire meals (or dinner parties) are also a good idea.
* Research your recipe clearly. We’ve all tried recipes from magazines and so on that the writer has obviously never made. They usually turn out to be a disaster. So make sure you ACTUALLY try your recipes for family meals and so on to make sure they work.
* Make your recipe sound interesting. Create a story behind it that will help with selling. For example, my children wouldn’t touch fruit… until I created this recipe for them… now they love it!