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I probably wouldn't buy it for me, unless I knew the kid or parents.

I suppose I might buy it as a gift for a youngster who was learning how to cook, but it would have to be for someone younger than the author, I think. Buying it for someone who was, let's say, 19, might seem sort of insulting, particularly if the author's age was part of the "hook" for selling the book. Someone 19ish would probably rather have a book by an anonymous author (like a Betty Crocker or Good Housekeeping book, for example) or from someone who fit the category of "older and wiser."

I dunno, I own a lot of cookbooks, and I still buy them now and then, and the age of the author never crossed my mind as a reason why I would buy. I look through the recipes to see if they include ingredients I'm likely to want to eat, and I page through to see if any recipes sound particularly interesting. If it's an ethnic or regional book, I usually want some assurance that the writer knows the topic.

I guess what I'm saying is that if the book is good on its own, the age of the author should be irrelevant. But in this case, we're talking about a subject where experience comes into play, so a really young writer would be at a disadvantage, trying to convince buyers to make this purchase. In other words, why would I choose a book by a young author to give to a young friend over a book by an older author who has more education and/or experience in the field?

Overall, I'm thinking that playing up the author's age might be more of a negative than a positive, in terms of marketing. Unless the author is someone who kids would know or relate to in some way.

Then again, if it's in Borders or Barnes and Noble, it means that a publisher feels that it's worth the risk, so the book would have already passed that test.

Would this be something that would be sold in the kid's section, or the cooking section, I wonder?

A well written book by anyone is better than a poorly written one. I don't care how old the author is. The Chocolate and Zucchini girl Clothilde duSoulliere and Jamie Oliver are pretty brilliant young things. Their books are excellent because they are coming from a specific point of view and that is what makes a difference.

There are millions of cookbooks that any intelligent kid can pick up and start cooking from that isn't dummied down for a "youth audience". Beware of getting too specific in who you think your book will appeal to. Just make the writing, recipes and design REALLY GOOD. Remember Batali's design fiasco Simple Italian Cooking? It sunk the whole book.

That said, your proposal sounds pretty run of the mill and has "remainder" written all over it. Think about this project carefully and make it really unique so that anyone will want to read it and start cooking!

Hi cooked7,

From the little interaction that I've had with you, it's obvious that you're very passionate and motivated to make your dream of publishing a cookbook into a reality. I congratulate you on this.

To answer your question, no, I wouldn't be interested in buying such a cookbook, but I'm the wrong person to ask. I'm not a young cook, I don't have children, and my friends' and relatives' kids are too young to read.

I think you're making a smart move by attempting to gauge the interest in your cookbook. From my perspective, it seems as if there are 3 potential audiences:
1. Kids who are interested in cooking and would buy this themselves
2. Parents who want to encourage their kids' cooking skills and buy it for their child
3. Friends who buy the book as a gift for a child they know

I think you need to ask each of three audiences how interested they would be in such a book, and--if they're not interested--what you could do to make it more appealing to them.

I'd also suggest that you get a thorough idea of your competition. How many other books on the shelves are geared toward young cooks? If you look on Amazon, you'll be able to get an idea of which books are more and less popular. (Look for the Amazon sales ranking.) Try to figure out what makes one book particularly successful (contents, design, well-known author, etc.), and what makes another less successful?

The fact is, name recognition has a lot of influence over cookbook sales. I think Jamie Oliver recipes are bland and boring. But regardless of the quality of the content, "Jamie Oliver's Cookbook for Kids" is going to outsell "Chgoeditor's Cookbook for Kids" any day because Jamie Oliver has been marketing himself for years, first through his restaurants, then through his cookbooks and TV shows.

Good luck in your market research!

@cooked7 -- "On par with restaurant-quality dishes" is an interesting statement. Next question is, what sort of restaurant?

The sort of restaurant dishes that I'd want to try to replicate in my kitchen, and that I'd need a cookbook for, are probably not the sorts of foods that any but a very sophisticated kid would want to eat, much less attempt to cook.

And if you just meant restaurant-quality, without being restaurant-style, that doesn't mean much. Restaurant food can be anywhere from terrible to divine.

I think the first step might be to figure out who your market really is, and then figure out ways to target as much of that market as possible. You're already looking at a small market if you're going after kids who like to cook, and then you've got to contend with the idea that for the most part it will be parents or other adults who will be buying the book for those kids. So you have to appeal to those adults, as well. It sounds like a tough sell.

If the recipes are that good, then just let it be a cookbook and skip the kiddie angle, because you'd lose the adult market, and there are a heck of a lot more adults who try to cook.

You could make a point of saying the the recipes are easy enough for kids to follow, and that you used both kids and adults to test both the cooking and the eating, and that both kids and adults can make the recipes and enjoy eating them.

Most adults wouldn't buy a "kiddie" cookbook for themselves, even if that's where their skill level is. But if the book says that kids were used as test cooks for this regular cookbook, the cooking-challenged adults might be much more willing to buy the book and use it themselves.

Sadly, it's not so much about who would like the book, it's more about who the publisher thinks will buy the book. If you say it's a book for kids who like to cook, it's a small market, and publishers aren't going to get too excited. The only publishers you're going to attract are the ones that publish the books that end up in the sale bins. But if you say it's easy enough for kids, but also appealing to adults who are at the kid-level of cooking, then that's a much larger market. If the recipes are really good, and it just happens to be easy enough for a kid, then it's even a larger market. If the market seems to be large enough, you might find yourself a publisher that can get your book distributed.

I hate to say it but a cookbook for a young adult, while a wonderful idea, sounds a bit too much like a niche market. You might check into marketing through a local market rather than aiming for a national book chain, think about vanity presses and selling through local farmers markets and health food stores, most of all though good luck!

I have a 13 year old step son who is very interested in cooking (although a little leery of unusual (in his world) ingredients!) My thought would be that he would enjoy such a book, but I am very leery of anything that smacks of precociousness. I detest that characteristic in any child, be they famous actors, cook book authors, or the kid at the local park. I found, as another poster pointed out, that some young chefs managed to rock their youth without being cutesy or the like - Jamie Oliver was definitely one of them. I plan to buy my step-son a decent cookbook for Christmas this year and then work through the recipes with him so I'm on the lookout for something appropriate. I think a new thread is in order!

I don't think I'd buy it. There are plenty of Essentials/ Basics cookbooks out there already that were written by folks with a lot more experience than a 15 year old, and many are written in language that is clear to both adults and teens.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't write a book, though. Think about changing your focus a bit. And whatever you write, if you feel it is worthwhile, see if you can get a publisher interested.

IF the stories from your life are a key aspect, then you need to make damn sure that the writing is great. Have you considered trying to get some more writing experience via blogging? It's free and a great way to build an audience and a voice.

I actually think that would be interesting, now that you've described it differently--going from the simpler to more complex and showing what you learned along the way about cooking/life gives the book more structure. But definitely with the 'entertaining' inserts, or about parties you threw/would throw--I think even on this board there was a thread about teen Halloween parties and the lack of party food/entertaining ideas that filled the gap between the 'cup of pudding dirt and gummi worms' crowd and the 'stiff Bloody Mary' crowd.

I would have to see the cookbook before I say for certain, but there are three things that make me disinclined:

1) Very few recipes. These days, unless it is a booklet or has some very specific theme (ice cream, or cupcakes, or muffins, or sandwiches) I don't think a cookbook with only 68 recipes would be very successful.

2) Too often cookbooks by or for younger persons seem to be focused on the kinds of food they enjoy. I may or may not like that kind of food. If I want a focused cookbook (beautiful basics, or vegan) there are usually cookbooks with a broader range of recipes that I will investigate. Also, if written for beginners or younger cooks, I find that it's not a basic cookbook that I need.

3) Unless the recipes build on each other, I probably won't be interested. If you show a technique in the "homey" section (such as, how to make a white sauce that turns into mac-n-cheese) that then is the basis for something in the more elegant section (souffle), that could be useful. But saying "a beginner cook needs to know mac-n-cheese and meatloaf, and for entertaining you need to know beel Wellington and three-layer vegetable pate" - where's the link? Why should I get THIS cookbook over all the others that tell me how to make these things?

I agree that the age focus could be a problem for a lot of people. It could limit the audience even if you don't think it should be. Books that focus on beginning cooks, new cooks, people on their own for the first time, seem to be more successful angles for the type of book you're describing.