Georgia, I loved reading about your journey with all these different books, including Snacking Dinners. Such a good reminder that every book follows a different trajectory, and sometimes it's really just about timing.
I love how you’ve laid this all out. I do think the specificity and clarity of the idea helped make this a yes—the elevator pitch is just so easy to get excited about. So often book concepts are just trying to do too much to summarize in a one-liner, and that can be tricky!
Georgia, I love reading about your journey with these various books, and congrats on landing this one so quickly! This: "This idea worked out quickly because it was timely and I went for it immediately. Usually I don’t utter a word about my ideas until I’ve done exhaustive research (often years and years of research). This is, I recognize, a common problem women face...." really captures it. I've had a couple of instinctually brilliant and timely ideas in the last 5 years that if I acted on immediately (instead of overthinking and over researching) might be a book today--books that later got made by someone else. I think this is a hard thing for women to learn, to act on our instincts and sometimes pull the plug and send that email!! I'm so happy for you that you did 🤍
I’m glad this resonated. It’s something I really have to try to remember for the next time I have an idea. Though the key, for me, is that I really trust my agent. I can send her an idea before I dive in and get honest and helpful (and judgement-free) feedback.
This is also so wonderfully written and I'm inclined to send the bits about platform & sales to just about every person who asks "don't you want to write a cookbook one day?" which I usually joke that I've made significantly more just by being a project manager or recipe director for other people's projects. Cookbooks are a weird world!
I'm sure Chattanooga isn't on the tour list but if you end up in Atlanta or Nashville, I'll make the drive!
I'm so glad you found this helpful. Cookbooks are definitely not a good way to make money! (I didn't even get into what each of these projects paid me—and how the rates really changed at all in a decade.)
many valuable and honest insights, it was inspiring to read your journey! Thanks for sharing this with us, and the photos from Snacking Dinner look so stunning!
I love the advice here about just diving into your good idea. After a particularly traumatic conversation with an agent, I lost confidence in my own good idea and delayed launching The New Family Table because I had this person's voice in my head lowballing my skillset and my creativity. If I could give my past self advice (besides skipping that conversation with an agent who came to me via an editor intro, not the other way around) it would be to get started, even when it's scary, even when it's not perfect. It's the advice I'm far more able to take when I write — done is better perfect. When it comes to the newsletter, I'm now fully: Get it going, perfect it as you go.
Ahmmm did you write this just for me? So many incredible and valuable insights in here. Thank you for sharing. I also didn’t know about all China traveling and writing. I need to pick up your book - we need to talk about that ❤️❤️
Georgia, this is so helpful and encouraging! It seems like book deals are like children - all different in the way they mature and grow. Thanks for sharing this!
Georgia, I loved reading about your journey with all these different books, including Snacking Dinners. Such a good reminder that every book follows a different trajectory, and sometimes it's really just about timing.
I love how you’ve laid this all out. I do think the specificity and clarity of the idea helped make this a yes—the elevator pitch is just so easy to get excited about. So often book concepts are just trying to do too much to summarize in a one-liner, and that can be tricky!
Georgia, I love reading about your journey with these various books, and congrats on landing this one so quickly! This: "This idea worked out quickly because it was timely and I went for it immediately. Usually I don’t utter a word about my ideas until I’ve done exhaustive research (often years and years of research). This is, I recognize, a common problem women face...." really captures it. I've had a couple of instinctually brilliant and timely ideas in the last 5 years that if I acted on immediately (instead of overthinking and over researching) might be a book today--books that later got made by someone else. I think this is a hard thing for women to learn, to act on our instincts and sometimes pull the plug and send that email!! I'm so happy for you that you did 🤍
I’m glad this resonated. It’s something I really have to try to remember for the next time I have an idea. Though the key, for me, is that I really trust my agent. I can send her an idea before I dive in and get honest and helpful (and judgement-free) feedback.
This is also so wonderfully written and I'm inclined to send the bits about platform & sales to just about every person who asks "don't you want to write a cookbook one day?" which I usually joke that I've made significantly more just by being a project manager or recipe director for other people's projects. Cookbooks are a weird world!
I'm sure Chattanooga isn't on the tour list but if you end up in Atlanta or Nashville, I'll make the drive!
I'm so glad you found this helpful. Cookbooks are definitely not a good way to make money! (I didn't even get into what each of these projects paid me—and how the rates really changed at all in a decade.)
many valuable and honest insights, it was inspiring to read your journey! Thanks for sharing this with us, and the photos from Snacking Dinner look so stunning!
So glad you found it useful!
I love the advice here about just diving into your good idea. After a particularly traumatic conversation with an agent, I lost confidence in my own good idea and delayed launching The New Family Table because I had this person's voice in my head lowballing my skillset and my creativity. If I could give my past self advice (besides skipping that conversation with an agent who came to me via an editor intro, not the other way around) it would be to get started, even when it's scary, even when it's not perfect. It's the advice I'm far more able to take when I write — done is better perfect. When it comes to the newsletter, I'm now fully: Get it going, perfect it as you go.
Ahmmm did you write this just for me? So many incredible and valuable insights in here. Thank you for sharing. I also didn’t know about all China traveling and writing. I need to pick up your book - we need to talk about that ❤️❤️
Georgia, this is so helpful and encouraging! It seems like book deals are like children - all different in the way they mature and grow. Thanks for sharing this!