“But I already know I’m going to write about vegan food!”

Even though your mind may be set on writing a vegan recipe book, you’ll be better off if you don’t just publish a general recipe book. It’s better to narrow down your niche or your audience, or both, at least initially.

Here are a few thoughts about choosing the topic. These are not rules set in stone, so take that advice with a grain of salt.

I recommend – at least initially – concentrating on one ingredient or a handful of ingredients, or choosing a theme for your book to narrow down your niche. For example, desserts, juicing, smoothies, quinoa recipes, pizza recipes, juicing recipes, grilling, or gluten-free recipes. You can choose to focus on a specific group, for example, moms making lunches for school. Perhaps you’ll write a book about creating vegan versions of your favorite mainstream dishes, such as lasagna, pizza, or meatloaf.

You may choose to focus on personal story and healing and may or may not include recipes, for example the theme could be “Healthy Recipes for diabetes – how I conquered the disease via healthful, plant based diet,” “Easy & Tasty Low Fat Recipes to Help You Lose Weight and Lower Blood Sugar Levels.” You can even capitalize on current diet fads – Paleo, Mediterranean, ethnic cuisines, etc.

Select something that you like and would be easy for you to write about. A topic you are familiar with or are willing to experiment with and learn.

Choose a specific topic, not just “vegan recipes” or “vegan diet”. There’s a subtle difference between writing about “vegan food” and “recipes that are vegan.” If you write about vegan food, your book will most likely be found only by people who are searching for vegan recipes, i.e., they are already vegan or interested in becoming a vegan. If you want to target a wider audience, you may want to think carefully whether or not to call your book “vegan.”

I’m not saying that because I think that we should be embarrassed to use this word, or that we should use sneaky tactics to trick people into downloading or buying our book.

But consider this: We want our recipes to be found for all kinds of people, vegan or not. I think some people may be turned off (at least initially) if you talk about “vegan food” or “vegan ingredients”.  This may not even be on conscious level. They may just subconsciously decide that this is not for them.

For lots of people the word “vegan” brings into mind images of imitations that are inferior in taste and nutrition to what they consider “real food”. They might be suspicious of ingredients, such as tofu or tempeh. So in this case, a little bit of sneakiness won’t hurt. Hey, whatever works, right?

In psychology they call it “come without warning.”

I read about it in the book “Change of Heart. What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading the Social Change” by Nick Cooney. Research confirms what many of us may know from personal experience, that when people know in advance that you’re going to try to change their mind about something that’s important to them, they may become defensive, avoid hearing the message, and are less likely to be influenced or change their position. This is especially true when something is important to them, and food is important and very personal to many people.

Choosing a topic like “soup recipes” and posting delicious recipes for soups that don’t use animal ingredients will help people start experimenting with vegan food without any reservations.

Sample topics/angles for the book:

• Detox/juicing reboots, etc.
• Gluten-free cooking tips and recipes
• Allergy-free cooking tips and recipes
• Low cholesterol recipes
• Cooking for diabetes
• Healthy baking recipes
• Recipes for weight loss
• Italian/Mexican/etc. recipes
• Recipes for special occasions: Thanksgiving, Easter, etc.

A note about processed soy products, vegan meats and cheeses: While some audiences may be more adventurous than others, not focusing and overusing exotic or hard-to-find ingredients may be a good strategy, at least initially, depending on your target audience. Some people are scared of soy in any form, that they run the other way the moment they hear about soy milk, tofu, or soy burgers.

Recipes for tempeh, seitan, and tofu burgers are great, and we certainly need those, but many omnivores will be turned off by recipes containing such rare (what they consider “weird”) ingredients, and some of them may be hard-to-find in regular grocery stores. I believe there is value in just creating simple, vegan versions of every-day dishes, using ingredients that are easy to find in any grocery store.

Personally, when I was still new to veganism, I didn’t (and still don’t) love many of these products. Many of them have been on the market for a relatively short time and may still leave a lot to be desired as far as taste and texture.

I don’t like some of the brands, and it takes time to find the ones you like, especially the processed soy-based burgers or sausage (which, by the way aren’t very good for you anyway) and I eat them rarely.

I had tried to sneak them into various dishes for my omnivorous husband and son, and they were immediately suspicious, and refused to eat them. Of course, they can be useful when transitioning to veganism, so I’m not saying avoid them completely. However, for greater readership, don’t make rare ingredients the cornerstone of your recipes.

In order to attract more people to this compassionate way of eating and ethical lifestyle, we need to show people that make it simple, delicious and easy, which it really, truly is.

Have you been thinking about writing and publishing a Vegan Recipe eBook?

Let me know in the comments!

Let’s change the world together, sooner, rather than later,

Joanna

 

 

PS. If you ever thought about it, but have been postponing it, because you believe it requires too much time and you’re not sure where to start, I’m offering a course on “How to Write and Publish and eBook in 6 Weeks or Less” for an introductory price of just $97 (regular price $297) in which I’ll guide you through the entire process giving you lots of tips showing you the best shortcuts I know of on how to get published FAST.

Check it out HERE.

The course starts on Monday, April 27, and first 10 people who sign up will also get their eBook formatted for Kindle and other devices for FREE.