Self-Publishing My Cookbook, Part 1: Why I Decided to Do This Myself

Back in May, I started submitting my cookbook to literary agents and publishers. Over 20 of them.

Some strung me along for weeks, only to go silent in the end. Others rejected me outright. Most, I never heard back from at all.

I can't count how many times I checked my email during that stretch, hoping for a response that never came. That waiting wears on you in a way that's hard to explain until you've lived it. Doing all the research, the outreach, the follow-ups, completely on your own, with no team, no agent, no one guiding you through it, it's exhausting in a way that's different from just being busy.

And underneath all of it was this quiet, honest realization, in this industry, if you don't already have a massive social media following, it becomes incredibly difficult to get anyone to even consider representing your book. I've read posts from literary agents themselves saying exactly this, that getting a book deal often comes down to your following size, not the quality of the work itself. I understand the business logic. But I don't think anyone should have to put their dream on hold simply because they don't have millions of followers across social media, and I genuinely believe so much quality work is being passed over for exactly that reason.

A prime example, I was at Barnes & Noble recently and saw a cookbook from Snoop Dogg sitting right there on the shelf. I mean, need I even say more.

So I made the decision to do it myself.

Through Canva, I'm doing genuinely everything. The font, the spacing, the layout of every single page. Building charts and graphs. Writing and formatting the table of contents. Manually placing page numbers on every page. Writing my dedication, acknowledgments, and about the author section. Going to Barnes & Noble just to study other cookbooks, checking if there's anything I'm missing. Making sure my message and vision come through clearly on every single page, that everything is spelled correctly, that there's real continuity from start to finish. Making sure my photographer sees the book itself so the photos can match the exact colors and font of the design. Even getting a proper headshot taken for the about the author page.

And then there was the search for a photographer. I met with people who quoted me genuinely insane amounts of money for the project. Others I reached out to never even replied, which honestly surprised me, as a business owner myself, that kind of unresponsiveness felt genuinely unprofessional. But I finally found someone amazing, and I cannot wait for you all to see her work.

I'm also uploading every travel photo from my trip to the Amalfi Coast myself, labeling and dating each one, scrolling through my thousands of photos (haha) just to find the very best ones, so readers can see exactly what inspired every recipe.

And every single recipe is added to the book only when it is perfected. I want to set my readers up for real success, making sure their gelato turns out exactly the way mine did, every single time, and that everything I'm teaching feels genuinely accessible, not intimidating.

There's so much involved, and it's constant, always going back in to fix something, adjust something, catch something I missed. As a self-published author, you have to work even harder to make sure your book looks professional and genuinely holds its own next to anything coming out of a traditional publishing house.

Here's the part that's actually been the most rewarding, timing. A traditional publisher can take a year or more just to bring a book to life. Self-publishing means I control the timeline. I get to move as fast as I'm actually capable of moving, not as fast as someone else's process allows.

Yes, it's more work. But if it's your dream, go for it anyway. Don't let anyone tell you that you won't be successful at it. Because at the end of the day, no one is ever going to work as hard on your vision as you will. It's not their dream. It's not their passion. It's yours.

This is Part 1 of documenting this whole journey. There's a lot more to come.