Create your own cookery book with Blurb

This is a Guest Post. I haven't been paid to feature this on my blog - but I think it's a pretty cool idea - after all, who wouldn't love to have their own cookbook. Move over Nigella...

Gift Idea: Create Your Own Cookbook, and Fill It With Recipes You Love!

If you love to cook, or know someone who does (lucky you – yum!) creating your own personalised cookbook is a great idea!

From homemade hearty meals to keep you warm and rosy cheeked in the winter months, to gooey chocolate desserts accompanied by sweet cocktails and quick fix meals – whatever tickles your taste buds can be compiled into one bookshop-quality cookbook for you to keep pride of place in your kitchen, or give to that certain person as a lovely, thoughtful gift. And it couldn’t be any easier! 

Blurb has created their free BookSmartsoftware, where you can craft your own gorgeous and tailor-made cookbook in minutes, and they do everything for you! All you have to do is choose which culinary delights you want to feature – and away you go. 

We love them because they are:

v  So easy to put together– Just create your free login, then download BookSmart - the free book making software, and start making your book.

v  All your own design – Simply just drag and drop your recipes into one of the cookbook layouts or even get creative and make your own layout – play around with different colours and backgrounds

v  High quality books – The books are comprised of professional bindings and your choice of paper and cover options – or you could even  create a beautiful eBook and place it on your blog

v  Quick, efficient and inexpensive – when you have placed your order you’ll have your cookbook in about a week and even receive a discount on volume orders

v  Easily sharable  – Showcase your own book on Twitter and Facebook with a link to a digital preview of the cookbook you’ve designed

v  Easy to sell too – Finally you can even earn a profit with your cookbook! You can set your own price in the online bookstore, sell your book, and keep 100% of the money you make.

Ready to give it a go?
 

This guide will show you exactly how easy it is to put your own stunning cookbook together.

Enjoy!

Getting started

After you have created your free login, you are ready to start making your book! They have a guide to show you how to do everything in the most simplistic way, so firstly all you have to do is click ‘Start a new book’.

Choosing what kind of book you want

You decide what your book will look like from all aspects, so the next step is to choose the size and shape of the book you want. Choose whichever you feel will suit your preferences the best, and you can always change your mind later on! You can also add your name into the Author section, to make it that extra bit professional.

Choosing your layout

You don’t just have to make a cookbook! There are so many other books you can create, such as wedding photo books, portfolios, and simple photo books - so choose the layout that suits your needs the best. In this case, we’re choosing the cookbook layout! This gives you space to add pictures and text, and you can move it around as you like.

Choose the pictures of your recipes you want to add

It is so simple to add the pictures to accompany your recipes, simply choose which ones you want from a file on your computer, and they will be added into the side bar for you to drag and drop at your leisure!

Choose what you do

Adding your photos in can be so easy, they do it for you! You can decide whether you drag and drop your pictures to the place of your choosing, or Blurb can even organise your photos into the book depending on date etc. How easy is that?

Choose your theme

Now you can decide what theme you want your book to have, again once you have decided you can swap it around and see what styles you like the best!

Start adding in your recipes and pictures into your book

Now you have decided on the look and the layout, you can start adding in all your lovely recipes! You can choose how you view your book so you can start to imagine what it will look like when it is finished, and you can easily flip between the pages to add in all the content you want to include.

You can also choose what you want your layout to look like, from the menu on the side bar.

Drag and drop your pictures

To add in the pictures for your book, simply choose which one you want to add from the side menu and drag it to an available box. Image boxes are marked with ‘drag image here’ so you’ll always have a rough guide to make the process extra quick and easy.

 Preview your book

Once you have set everything out as you want and you are happy with how your book looks, you can then proceed by clicking the ‘Preview book’ button so see how it will look when it is published. 

The final checklist

Just to make sure you haven’t missed anything out, they show you a final checklist making sure you’ve spelled everything correctly, kept all your content within the margin, and made sure your beautiful book is perfect!

Sign in and finalise your book

Then all you have to do is sign in and upload your book!

Final steps – Customise your book

Finally, you can choose the materials for your book! Decide on the cover, the type of paper, the end sheets and even the cover linen to make it unique to you.

P.s PDF

You can also get an instant PDF version of your book!

There you go! So get choosing your favourite recipes, and start making your very own professional, published cookbook - or the perfect gift for a foodie you love! You can also make unconventional food books, so get your thinking cap on and be creative! Also, why not share your book with the world and sell it via the Blurb sell your book page.

Disclosure: This is a guest post written by Lauren Tate Content & Online PR Executive on behalf of Blurb.