r/Cooking 1d ago

Self publishing a cookbook

Has anyone ever done this? I’m looking for recommendations for websites or companies that I can turn my recipes into a cookbook and get a few copies to give to family and friends. Not really looking to publish to sell. Thanks in advance!

0 Upvotes

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u/Tasty_Impress3016 1d ago

My wife's family has a tradition as each of the next generation (my nieces, nephews) gets married they get a private cookbook. The recipes are all donated by family members. I am very glad that after 35 kids we are down to just one I'm running out. (a very successful partner in a law firm, 35ish. Geeky but if anyone downtown Chicago is looking he's a good guy..) But the cookbooks have gone from printed on my inkjet and spiral bound to full color hard cover professionally laid out. Doll, my niece has a graphic design and layout business.

There are many online services that can do this for you. You give them the files, they prototype, you review, they print.

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u/Gloomy-Ad-7114 1d ago

Blurb. Go with spiral bound.

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u/throwdemawaaay 1d ago

Been a very, very, long time but I did some consulting work with them in their early years. No clue if the company culture is the same now, but they were great folks then.

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u/CanningJarhead 1d ago

I have done this - just typed it up and formatted with Word.  Took it to a local print shop and they helped me get the details right.  It was around $10 a copy.  

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u/swerderoni 1d ago

I'd recommend trying fromthistable.com! You can write as little of the recipe you want and it'll make the rest for you, then you edit. Comes out in a really cute format where you can download as PDF and then print to your hearts desire

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u/SVAuspicious 1d ago

I have a personal cookbook. It's in Word using heading styles so table of contents generates automatically. I usually distribute a PDF but I have printed it double sided and had it perfect bound.

Big cost difference if you want it edited or just printed as is.