Cookbook Writing: Tell Stories Through Recipes
Structure Needed for a Pitch
A course by Sumayya Usmani , Creative Writer and Food Educator
About the video: Structure Needed for a Pitch
Overview
“Now that we know how to build the structure of a cookbook. I will explain what you need to do to create enough material to be able to pitch your book to a traditional agent or publisher. We'll also see an example of a book proposal, which you will need if you wish to have your cookbook published traditionally.”
In this video lesson Sumayya Usmani addresses the topic: Structure Needed for a Pitch, which is part of the Domestika online course: Cookbook Writing: Tell Stories Through Recipes. Take readers on a journey of culture and flavor by creating a cookbook that combines recipes with storytelling.
Partial transcription of the video
“Structure Needed for a Pitch In this lesson, I'll teach you how to create a structure for pitching your cookbook. To do that, you have to first create a book proposal if you are going to get a regular literary agent. I'll show you how to do that. Here are a few points about writing a cookbook proposal. A cookbook proposal is written in tandem with your agent sometimes, but if you are pitching it to an agent, it's good to have this formal format, which you can use for most non-fiction books. Since a cookbook is a non-fiction book, this is how you'd start. The idea would be to have contents t...”
This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.
Course summary for: Cookbook Writing: Tell Stories Through Recipes
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Category
Culinary, Writing -
Areas
Creative Writing, Non-Fiction Writing, Storytelling
Sumayya Usmani
A course by Sumayya Usmani
Born in Karachi, Pakistan, award-winning creative writer and food educator, Sumayya Usmani, spent her early childhood travelling the world with her parents. She explored various cultures, countries, ingredients, and cuisines and watched in wonder as her mother lovingly prepared meals. Later, when the family settled back in Karachi, Sumayya observed grandmothers and aunts cooking with ‘andaza’ - an Urdu word for using instinct and estimation. These experiences created Sumayya’s strong foundations and connections to cooking and in her adulthood she found she could cook by simply following her own intuition and senses.
Sumayya went on to practice law for 12 years in London and Pakistan. However, in 2012 she quit law in pursuit of her passion; food writing and teaching. Now based in Glasgow, her life-long love for writing, along with her natural flair, has led her to publish award-winning cookbooks. Her latest book is a food memoir, and ventures further into creative writing, which has won the Scottish Book Trust’s Next Chapter Award in 2021. Sumayya regularly appears at multiple book festivals such as the Edinburgh Book Festival, she has written for and appeared in numerous publications including in The New York Times, The Guardian, and on BBC Food, amongst others. She’s a guest speaker on many podcasts and a regular on BBC Radio. Sumayya also hosts cooking classes, and is a committee member of the Guild of Food Writers.
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