Shutter-bugs, Photographers, Folks with Photo-collections – I need your help!
One of my nutcrackers — not these — will stand guard for Christmas
My latest cookie recipe book is on track to publish Spring 2022. This book will feature tasty treats for winter holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Although time is getting snug, I think I’ll make it – but I need a few pictures …
The photos of my cookies are in good shape. I have found that getting other people involved makes my books more fun. What I lack are pictures for the chapter openings.
What I am looking for are simple photos with a single icon that is immediately recognizable with its holiday. I have a small collection of nutcrackers, and I will be taking a picture of one to represent Christmas. I still need photos that represent Thanksgiving and New Years*.
* Update – I may have some New Years fireworks photos to choose from already.
I will of course need colour photos with good composition, lighting, and resolution. These pictures be used in multiple products – print books, e-books, etc – possibly in some marketing. The contributors of these photos will be mentioned in the Acknowledgements section of the book and receive a complimentary copy of the book in gratitude. Also, the copyright section of the book will acknowledge you as the owner of the image.
(Note that the primary product will be a print book with black & white photos in the interior, including these chapter openings.)
You know that I’ve been posting a FREE Recipe Of The Month on my blog since 01Dec2019 — RIGHT?!? This has been an absolute ball — thinking up something different to present, seeing people’s responses online, and knowing that folks are inspired to try new things in their kitchen.
But could there be … more?
YEP – these cookies are GREEN! Trust me, I know – I live in a state where 1/2 of everything is green. So far as I have found little of it tastes minty though.
During this time I have been thinking of ways to do more with these recipes. I could start an e-mail newsletter, a Patreon account, and maybe even produce demonstration videos on YouTube. While I think those are great ideas, these are not really manageable for me at this time.
Instead I have started turning my Recipe Of The Month content into books. My aim is to publish the first two — the 2020 and the 2021 Collections — in early 2022. Folks who want nicely published keepsake copies will be able to get these for their recipe-book shelf and e-reader. My plan is to keep the prices of these low, and the sales will help to support what I do.
What recipes will be in these books?
These books will feature the twelve recipes from the year — and so far each book has ended up with a few bonus recipes! In some cases these recipes will include previously unreleased photos and additional content. Here’s what’s to come in the first two recipe books …
The 2021 Collection — Burmese Chicken Soup, Hot Fudge Pudding Cake, Farls, Grasshopper Squares, Jambon, Cake Mix Cookies, Lemon Almond Pudding Cake, Peppermint Patties, Dirty Chai Coffee Cake, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Graham Cracker Pie Crust, my current November recipe for Peanut Butter Pumpkin Soup(pictured below), my December recipe which hasn’t been decided yet, and a bonus dessert recipe … which you’ll have to buy the book to find out what it is …. but I’ll tell you this, it doesn’t exist anywhere else!
Keep an eye on the WIBC blog
My aim is to release these first two Collections in Spring 2022 along with a Christmas cookie recipe book. Keep an eye to my blog along with Twitter and Facebook for updates!
Have a recipe to submit for me to present as a Recipe Of The Month? Drop me a line!
Want a recipe book NOW?
Wanna guess who’s my hand model?
My debut recipe book — “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” — is now a 3 year old! If you can’t wait to start buying my Recipe Of The Month annual collection books, fire-up your browser and order a print copy today. Darn Good Cookies is also available in electronic form from most e-book retailers. In it you will learn to make over 50 proven recipes including cookies, biscotti, coffee, some breakfast items, and other comfort foods.
Recently, multi-award winning author, Kathleen Stone, wrote “Scoby’s comfort foods are themselves a thing to behold, but this book is so much more. There are wonderful stories and anecdotes as well as beautiful photographs, and all of that combined with the mouthwatering recipes makes this a book I’m excited to have in my collection. … The book in its entirety embodies what the author is all about — comfort food, family, friends, music and a love for life in general.”
Want to try a few Darn Good Cookies before you buy?
Grab a copy of my FREE SAMPLE e-book “Let’s Bake Cookie Squares and Biscotti!” — available through most major e-book retailers! In the text you will get 2 recipes from Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, which will show you my writing and direction style. You will also see a step-by-step photo section that guides you through a few steps that some folks might find a little more tricky. Check it out!
This morning I woke to a message from my friend, Eldritch Black — another author here on Whidbey Island. He has far more game than I do when it comes to the book-business world. Lacking all possible caffeine in my system, I understood his message to say that “Let’s Bake Cookie Squares and Biscotti!” was listed on FreeBooksy. I thought to myself, “What’s it doing on there — I didn’t list with them?!?” Eldritch went on to say that it was registering at 48 in Amazon’s Top 100 and that I really needed to go take a look.
Saving you details of my sleep-tussled hair and long drawn out drama involved with getting out of bed, I finally got to my laptop and started examining data. Over the course of today I watched the results from my author-interface on Amazon.com. FreeBooksy’s free promotion Made Things GO NUTS!
Before I give you the end-of-day numbers, understand a few things first …
“Free” technically has a dollar amount — it is $0.00.
When someone buys a free e-book it counts as a sale.
My previous best number of sales in a day for Let’s Bake Cookie Squares and Biscotti was 104 copies on its second day of publication. I’ve been proud of that number because most of those came from my work to promote it using my Twitter profile.
By the end of today,
my free-sample e-book achieved…
#35 Free in Kindle Store (Top 100)
#1 in 45-Minute Cookbook, Food & Wine Short Reads
#1 in Dessert Baking (Kindle Store)
#1 in Cookie Baking (Kindle Store)
And my little-ebook-that-could reached a new Record Sales In A Day rank …
Let’s Bake Cookie Squares and Biscotti is free and I intend for it to remain free. It is also available at Smashwords, B&N, iTunes, Kobo, and …. well … pretty much everywhere. Free. Look for it on your favourite e-book retailer’s site. Also, please inform your local library that all of my e-book titles should be on Overdrive and are available to libraries for FREE — ask that they add these to their collection. The recipes and writing in this book are directly out of Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies. If you like these recipes please consider a copy for your kitchen collection. And as always — your book review on Amazon and GoodReads helps to support the author, other readers, and is greatly appreciated.
I am EXCITED to say that I am in the final stages of making a free-sample recipe e-book*. Yesterday I contacted OliviaProDesign, whom I’ve worked with once before, toward handling the cover-art. An author friend recommended her a few years ago — her work POPS!
(*Here’s a secret — I’m actually working toward TWO free recipe e-books!)
I have proposed using two of my favourite photos — one a cookie square, the other some Toasted Almond Biscotti. Olivia is so clever she suggested including my company logo, too — why didn’t I think of that, DUH! Thanks for the pick-up on that, Olivia. My aim is to do the final stages of publishing around the 15th of this month.
Watch here along with my Facebook and Twitter profiles for more announcements!
Last Sunday my latest book — The Patriotic Piper, Vol. I — LAUNCHED!!! This newly published book is definitely different than many others you’ve seen — of that I am certain…
Here’s the short list of what’s in the first The Patriotic Piper …
20 traditional Scottish American military and patriotic bagpipe compositions, arranged into 8 performance numbers
15 delicious Scottish and Irish recipes
Numerous history and trivia writings accompanying the tunes and recipes
The Patriotic Piper is a fundraiser for the Scottish American Military Society Post #1889. Not only am I a member, I also serve as an officer leading our small but stout Pipe & Drum corps. This is the official music collection of the Post. The monies raised by this book will assist Post 1889 with their projects. S.A.M.S. is a national organization and is a Congressionally Chartered Veterans Service Organization, which is dedicated to the preservation of the contributions of the Scots to the American Military and Society.
Back Cover
Since its publishing Amazon has rated both the book and e-book as being a “#1 New Release in Military Marches“. These two versions of the book have held this position for several days during this past week.
Among the early people to comment, several said that they liked my concept of accompanying the music notation with the history of the tunes. Some even said that this was a deciding factor in their book purchase. Numerous people have said that they are excited about my inclusion of traditional Scottish and Irish recipes as the second half of the book. Certainly, there’s something for everyone in The Patriotic Piper, Vol. 01.
The Patriotic Piper is Available Now on Amazon Print Edition — Published 22Nov2020 E-Book — Published 05Nov2020
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You know that I’ve been posting a FREE Recipe Of The Month on 
Grab a copy of my FREE SAMPLE e-book “
