Marketing Your Food Articles, and More
For many years I toiled in noisy, hot, often cramped restaurant kitchens, selling the fruits of my labor to happy and satisfied customers. Hungry patrons paid me for doing what I loved to do most – cook. But, deep down inside my creative chef’s soul I longed for something more than culinary perfection.
I wanted to write about it. But I didn’t have a clue how to get started.
My good friend, Mike Covello, shared a similar goal. He wanted to write about cars, but couldn’t get the editor of the local daily newspaper to respond to his numerous queries. One night we brainstormed how he could market his idea.
Michael was selling insurance at the time, and one of his customers was a large automobile dealer that spent lots of advertising dollars. I suggested he ask the business owner to contact the newspaper and mention Michael as someone who might make a good car reviewer.
A letter from the editor arrived in Mike’s mailbox soon after, and he’s been writing about cars ever since. And, we had learned an important lesson about marketing; business connections can be very valuable.
I wanted to know more about the process of marketing my food writing, so I subscribed to two or three writer’s magazines. Their how-to articles about researching, writing and getting published were always interesting and would prove invaluable.
Shortly after my friend’s success an article in the Writer caught my attention. The author explained that newspaper editors were notoriously overworked. They often would not consider hiring new writers simply because the initial correspondence took too much time and effort. The author said that instead of sending a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) with your sample articles and query letter, to send a self addressed stamped postcard. On the back of the card put two boxes, “I’m interested,” or, “I’m not interested,” and ask the editor to check one.
I took that advice, and the postcard arrived in my mailbox a week later. The first box was checked, and I’ve been writing a food column for that newspaper for over twelve years now.
When I moved from the kitchen to the classroom I was presented with even more opportunities to market my writing. My employer, the Center for Culinary Arts, in Cromwell CT, was a brand new post-secondary training facility. I was fortunate to be hired to develop the curriculum and head the educational department. Being the new school on the block, the owners felt they had to earn name recognition. I showed my boss some of my food columns and mentioned that I thought the school might benefit from sponsoring cooking articles in area newspapers.
Not long after I had planted that seed, the school’s public relations firm worked out a deal with a central Connecticut newspaper chain whereby the newspaper got free articles in exchange for advertising, and the school paid my writer’s fee. Best of all, my column would run in four to five newspapers on a weekly basis.
Business connections would eventually play another role in helping to market my writing.
Part of my school job was to choose the textbooks that would be used for each course. Over the years I met and communicated regularly with many publisher’s representatives and learned a lot about the textbook segment of the market. One day an editor at one of the largest textbook publishers, Pearson Prentice Hall, called with an offer I couldn’t refuse.
Would I be interested in proofreading, for content, a new culinary arts textbook that was in the process of being written? The fee was small, but I thought the possibilities seemed endless. I didn’t think twice before saying, “Yes.”
The book turned out to be over 1000 pages. Twelve months and countless rereads later, the project was done. I received my check and a polite thank you. And I thought that was the end of it. But I kept in touch with the publisher.
Two months later the editor at Prentice Hall called. Would I be interested in writing the Teacher’s Manual and Student Study Guide that would go with the textbook? The Teacher’s Manual paid a flat fee, but the Study Guide came with the promise of future royalties. Where do I sign?
When I received my first writing assignment from my hometown newspaper, I had no idea what doors it would eventually open for me. I’m not sure that the postcard did the trick or not, but it showed that I understood the editor’s situation, and cared about his valuable time. Likewise, when I began my teaching career I never dreamed that it would lead to my having a byline in four more newspapers and a book contract.
Marketing our articles is usually the last thing we want to do, and probably the first thing we should be thinking about. I’ve learned that the art of selling my writing is about keeping my eyes and my business contacts open. Also, a pinch of advice and a dash of luck don’t hurt.
About the author: Richard Moriarty is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and teaches professional chef training classes at the Center for Culinary Arts in Cromwell, CT. He is a food columnist and a restaurant consultant specializing in kitchen design. Chef Moriarty also offers personalized cooking classes in the privacy of clients' homes. Chef Moriarty can be reached online at remoriarty@snet.net.
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