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#2 in a Series of Posts About the Decisions You Need to Make If You Want to Publish A Cookbook.
By Matt and Ted, Sergeants at Cookbook Boot Camp in Charleston, SC

One of the first questions chefs typically ask us about cookbook publishing has nothing to do with writing or recipes but rather the business end: Do I need an agent? Many of these chefs have heard (from peers who’ve written cookbooks) that literary agents typically take 15 – 20 % of an author’s advance payments; and, being shrewd businesspeople, they’re thinking: Do I really want to give that up?

We always advise chefs who want to publish a cookbook nationally to get an agent. Especially if you’re new to publishing, it’s highly unlikely you have a personal rapport with a great number of the cookbook editors who are the audience for your proposal. And a good agent knows all of them — which is key, because ideally, you want your proposal seen by the largest pool of interested editors possible. Agents serve many functions: they send your proposal to the editors at publishing houses who will be the ones reading it and then deciding if they want to make an offer. They will be the ones following up with any editors they haven’t heard from — and remember, since they only get paid when you get paid, they tend to be tenacious beyond belief!

Your agent is also, if you choose well, the person most capable of steering editors’ interest in your proposal toward the best possible deal for you.

But agents remain your greatest advocate once your book is sold — as the key liaison with the publisher when points of conflict arise. A great agent will have years of experience, and other clients to use as leverage, allowing him or her to lobby hard for your interests. (And, trust us, issues will arise, not just in editorial matters, but in design, layout, cover, marketing plans, publicity strategy.)

How do I get an agent? The best way is by referral. Ask chefs whose cookbooks you admire who their agents are — and you might even solicit a personal opinion of their performance at the same time. Your goal, once you have your proposal in hand, should be to send it to a handful of agents and to meet with the ones who express interest, much in the same way your agent will send it to the widest possible net.

There are as many styles of agenting as there are agents, as you might imagine. Some are more nurturing and hand-holding, and get involved in your manuscript from an editorial perspective; others are more brass-tacks, investing a lot of time in the strategy of the deal, but pretty much let you go own way until you call upon them to assist. The best way to get a sense of what kind of agent you might want is to meet with as many as possible, and to trust your instincts: is this someone I can see myself doing business with over the long haul? In the best-scenario, this is someone you’ll be doing business with not just for book, but for two, three and four as well!

For more detailed information on agents – and the questions to ask during your agent meetings, join us at our January 2017 session of Cookbook Boot Camp. For more info, visit Cookbookbootcamp.com.

In the next post in the series, number three, it’s about the idea for your cookbook: Is it about me, or the restaurant?

Click here to return to the first post in the series, “So You Want To Write A Cookbook!”

By Matt and Ted, Sergeants at Cookbook Boot Camp in Charleston, SC

Publishing a cookbook is hard from every angle–difficult to conceptualize, tough to break into agents’ and editors’ offices, and near-impossible to sit down and write the manuscript. But there are at least 5 ways in which luck breaks your way:

1. The book proposal can be brief.
2. Once your proposal is done, and before you sign a deal, you are at your most powerful in publishing.
3. Publishers know restaurant chefs can, at a minimum, sell books through their restaurants, and this contributes to editors’ eagerness to publish–and to pay bigger advances–to chefs with a successful business.
4. No matter what you do, you can be confident that your best recipes are different from everyone else’s. Don’t be concerned about originality; you are already unique.
5. Every step of the process can be outsourced.

Here’s why:
1. While the typical proposal runs to about 35 pages, some books have been sold on a paragraph (we know from personal experience!). Put together a strong mission statement and 10 of your best recipes and you’re probably over this mark. The entire process of creating the proposal will take a lot of thinking and conceptualizing, but may be the easiest, quickest skirmish in the creation of your cookbook; creating the full manuscript will be the drawn-out battle.
2. Editors are motivated by great ideas but also by the fear that their competitors will grab you before they do. Keep hope alive, but also ask the tough questions now, before inking the deal: once you sign, you become a burden to the winning editor and persona non grata to the underbidding editors.
3. Books can be another dish to add to your menu. Once a ticket is open, adding the chef’s cookbook to it is a no-brainer.
4. As Mister Rogers said, there’s no one like you. Own every part of it, the trials and tribulations as well as the successes.
5. Writers for the proposal and manuscript, recipe-developers to transform your stained binder of material into something publishable, testers to make sure they work, art directors to run the photo shoot–you name it, there are plenty of talented and eager freelancers out there who would be thrilled to work on your project and won’t charge an arm and a leg. In fact, if it’s the difference between getting the cookbook done and it never happening, spending money on publishing teammates may be the best value in the world.

If you are ready to explore cookbook-making with us in a two-day seminar that will educate you about the entire process, go to CookbookBootCamp.com to find out more and to register for one of these exciting and motivating sessions.

We are thrilled to announce the debut of our first TV show on Sunday, June 14 at 8pm on Ovation (Comcast 255 in Charleston; visit http://www.ovationtv.com/zipcode to locate Ovation in your area).

“Southern Uncovered with The Lee Bros” will take viewers deep into the cultural life of the American South, with a culinary focus. We’ll introduce you to the places, the people–and the foods and beverages–that make today’s Southern cities the most exciting destinations in the world.

Ovation, the country’s only arts network, is broadcast into over 54 million homes nationwide. Episode 1 is about Charleston, our hometown, and subsequent episodes take place in Atlanta, Louisville, Dallas, New Orleans and Asheville. New episodes will debut on successive Sundays throughout the summer.
For updates (and sneak peeks from our adventures), follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @theleebros.

We’ve always wanted bring our particular style of immersive, wonky culinary travel (which we’ve practiced for the last decade primarily for Travel + Leisure magazine) to TV, but have been holding out for the right fit. The reality show ideas (eg “Sibling Rivalry!!”) didn’t appeal, and straight-up food and recipe shows have an especially hard time breaking through on the food channels–fancy that! Most production companies wanted us to look and act more like hillbillies, to fit their misconceptions about the South.

What worked this time around was finding a channel focused on arts first, rather than travel or food. Also essential was hooking up with a super-talented SOUTHERN production company, Trailblazer, in Raleigh, who understand us, and understand contemporary life in the South.

We hope you’ll enjoy our show, which is about the flavor, fun and diversity of Southern life today!

Ed Lee, Matt Lee and Ted Lee will present and perform “The Boiled Peanut Hour: A Live Cooking Show about Southern Identities” At Actors Theatre of Louisville this June.

At 6:30PM on Friday, June 19, 2015, and Saturday, June 20, 2015, Louisville Chef Edward Lee, of the restaurants 610 Magnolia and MilkWood, will team up with writers Matt Lee and Ted Lee, authors of three award-winning cookbooks about the South, to present a live cooking show in the Bingham Theatre—an intimate, 318-seat theatre-in-the-round inside Actors Theatre of Louisville.

“The Boiled Peanut Hour” is an hour-plus-long cooking, storytelling, and trash-talking show that sees the three Lees cooking favorite dishes from the southern canon that illuminate strongly-held beliefs about what it means to be a southerner. Bourbon tastings are included during the show, and afterward, a reception featuring a selection of the recipes from the show, prepared by MilkWood, will take place in the Sara Shallenberger Brown Lobby of the Theatre. The reception will offer an opportunity to meet the players and purchase autographed cookbooks.

Tickets are $45 and include the show, food and wine reception, and book-signing. Advance tickets at $40 are on sale until April 30. A limited number of VIP tickets are available, which include an after-show dinner and cocktails with the Lees. For all tickets, call Actors Theatre of Louisville, 502.584.1205, visit ActorsTheatre.org, or visit Actors Theatre’s box office in person at 316 West Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202.

We have just a couple open spots left in our Cookbook Boot Camp session in Williamsburg this June. In our two-day seminar, you’ll get all the tools you need to make your book happen! For details, click here.

The work we’ve done over the years for the Grey Lady has been added to their new app and web site, and so a number of recipes that we’ve never published between two hard covers has been made easily available, everything from Crown Roast of Lamb to Kalua Pig to Horseradish Vodka (yeah!!) is now yours. Get the app and check out our oeuvre online via this link: http://cooking.nytimes.com/search?q=matt+lee+and+ted+lee