Editing An Air Fryer Cookbook

It was a month ago now, when we shared with you the recipe testing process of our cookbook and now, we are back, talking about the editing process of a cookbook. Or more specifically editing The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook.

You Can Preorder Now!

But first let’s talk about preordering because you can preorder our cookbook.

Because we are making a quality international cookbook for people around the world i.e. it will be available in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa and many other English speaking countries, it is easiest for me to share one Amazon link with you, then no matter where you live, it will be easy to order.

Click here to reserve your copy

You can also read more about how the preorders work of this cookbook here and what it means to YOU.

The Editing Process Is Not As Bad As I Thought

I must have read a zillion food bloggers talking about the editing process of a cookbook and many more talking on podcast interviews.

I remember one telling me I had to clear my schedule as I would have 40 hours of edits to go through all at once.

And that I could not have a recipe with large potatoes in one recipe and medium potatoes in the air fryer.

I must admit I was petrified.

But the big difference between our cookbook and others is that our air fryer cookbook is considered a trend. That means publishers want one made and they want it fast so that they can get in on the trend.

Vs a blogger that has got a regular audience and it doesn’t matter if her book is out this year, next year or the year after that.

This meant I had from November (we signed the contract in early December) and January to have all the recipes in.

To speed up the process rather than sending in an entire cookbook of recipes we did it whenever a chapter was complete.

This meant that the editor received the content in batches and I received it back in batches.

I was then told that I should expect queries back.

I mean as a new author what on earth was a query? I soon found out that queries were simply her questions about the recipes, making sure they worked and her suggested edits.

She went through each recipe with a fine toothcomb and brought out a lot of things I wouldn’t think of. Such as what potatoes are best for a recipe, do you really need this quantity of a certain seasoning, or how does an air fryer newbie know this recipe is properly cooked. 

So, I would read through a chapter, then agree or disagree with the editor’s recommended changes and send it back.

Then of course make sure all queries had been answered, for all chapters by the time we went to the photoshoot.

Order The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook Now!

• USA/Canada: Amazon USA – Amazon Canada
• UK/Australia/South Africa: Amazon UK – Amazon AU – South Africa
• Cookbook Details: More Order Options + Cookbook Info + Reviews

There Has Been A LOT Of Reading!

Until you publish your first book, I don’t think you realise just how many queries and how much reading there will be.

The night before the photoshoot Dom was kind enough to print it all off and in a font that was big enough for me to read.

Font size 20 I think it was.

So, the pages looked slightly bigger than they were.

Then I took them to the photoshoot with me. I read through them all and found typos and found edits and anything that could be done to make them better.

When the editor had edited the content, she had made a few typos herself, so it was a mix of mine that hadn’t been picked up so far and her own.

Things I noticed was Celsius and Fahrenheit not matching and the worst of them all was yet to come.

And OMG drove me absolutely crazy and something I never considered when I started the process.

And that was metric to imperial was NOT CORRECT. I mean how did it manage to look so bad?

I had taken the measurements in grams and metric is my main measurement. But when converted into cups some recipes read as 1 cup plus 1tbsp or 1 cup less a teaspoon and they were painful to read.

Our editor (during the photoshoot) mentioned it was because when cups are done, you measure cups first and then into grams. This gives the equal cups.

So, I had to convert and re-test a lot of recipes, so it made sense. For example, I remember to get the cups spot on that we had to reduce the flour for the pull apart bread from 450g to 440g to make exact cups. I then became obsessed with the pull apart bread and that the measurements would still work, that we cooked it another 8 times.

Round #2 Read Through

Then after this, I had written on the print outs all the edits that needed doing and then read the whole of the chapters again.

Then I got Dom to read through every bit of text as well.

Eventually we got through all the recipes and all the text and made a few extra changes between ourselves. Such as adding in that for chicken about the internal temperature or above and his other food hygiene requests.

Or another thing he noticed is that what I had labelled up as a blender was not enough and we changed this to food processor as our blender is more powerful than most peoples.

I am so glad a chef gave this the once over.

And we spent every night after the photoshoot up until midnight reading through these chapters until we were both happy with them.

Here are the chapters all in different chapter piles in front of the fire waiting for us to give them the once over.

Consistency Is Key!

One big area we looked at was consistency. For example, we have a lot of recipes that feature extra virgin olive oil as it’s the best oil to use in the air fryer.

On the ingredients list it is called extra virgin olive oil and then in recipes because its long the editor had changed it to read on the recipe instructions as olive oil. But it hadn’t been edited on them all. So me and Dom went through the whole of the recipes to make sure the instructions read as olive oil.

We also noticed some recipes called for 28g for an ounce and some called for 30g and made sure that they all said 28g.

Order The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook Now!

• USA/Canada: Amazon USA – Amazon Canada
• UK/Australia/South Africa: Amazon UK – Amazon AU – South Africa
• Cookbook Details: More Order Options + Cookbook Info + Reviews

Changes Are Then Typed Up

The changes are then typed up in Microsoft Word and sent back to the publishers editing team.

Its then the turn of the editor to check them, implement changes and see where we are at.

Then at the same time those edits also include what has been picked up at the photoshoot from the food stylist and last minute checks from recipe testers to make sure everything is perfect.

Then The Bad News

Then the worst thing ever happens……… The edits are done, you’re all happy and you realise that there is still not enough space in the cookbook and text needs chopping.

You have put your heart and soul into these recipes, and you must decide what must go and what must stay.

You have to think about what is most important in the content of the cookbook and what no longer feels important.

Now that part was harsh – but don’t worry all your favourite air fryer recipes and step by step guides are staying.

In some cases, you need to re-word recipes so that they will fit because for example two of our sweet treats recipes are over, mainly because they have more ingredients than most. Mainly this can be fixed by editing the intro to make it shorter. 

Then We Edit Again

The print outs for me and Dom to read through and check are now in the format that they will appear in the cookbook. I.e. instead of working our way through a word document its landscape PDFs. Which is nice because we can see the space and what it will look like when people read it.

So the process now is to read through and check for further edits, and make sure everything flows. That pages that follow each other do, and that any extra edits we have picked up on have been done.

Me and Dom have done this over a few late nights with a good movie on in the background and its just amazing to see the difference.

Here are the piles of printed out recipes in the latest format, ready for checking:

What’s Next In Our Cookbook?

We now play the rinse and repeat system. The editing is almost over but not entirely over.

We have done our original round of recipes to the editor, the editor sent back queries, then we agreed/disagreed, then they completed changes, we read through it, added changes, then we read through it again. Now the next step is for the calories to be added to the recipes on a per serving basis along with a proof reader to read the entire cookbook before it goes to print.

Then YIPPPPEEEEEEE we are off to the printers, we get to get over the stress of the cookbook process with 2 weeks on the beach drinking cocktails and then the marketing begins…..

Are You New To The Air Fryer?

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Listen To Magic With Gadgets

We have also dedicated an episode of Magic With Gadgets to info about our new air fryer cookbook and can’t wait to share it with you. Simply press play or access it via your favourite podcast player.

You can use the player above to listen to this episode of Magic With Gadgets. Alternatively search for Magic With Gadgets on your favourite podcast platform or click the links below:

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