Our Story
My recipe for success comes from an entrepreneurial mindset and having always been one heaping scoop of creative soul, two big helpings of outside the box thinker, and a pinch of nostalgic. It all began when it seemed all my friends were getting married. So, when it was my best friends turn at the altar, I got the idea to build a cookbook including recipes and words of wisdom from all the invited wedding guests. What a hit, and she still has the cookbook to this date!
Creative Cookbooks was born all the way back in 1994 when graphic design software was primitive and desktop publishing was new. The early projects involved receiving submissions via snail mail, and using digital images to jazz up the content. I used a fancy comb-binding machine to finish the product, and everyone loved it! Orders started rolling in!
We’ve come a long way since those unrefined versions of cookbooks, but not without growing pains. As time went by, email became a thing, and actual photographs could be included in collaborations, making things faster and more modern. It worked for a bit, but color ink became prohibitively expensive and self-publishing online wasn’t easy to navigate. At the time, there was no cost-effective way to reproduce full-color, photographic images in professional book form. This caused a pause in Creative Cookbooks service for some time as self-publishing and technology was evolving.
Fast forward to today - the advances in technology have opened up endless possibilities for Creative Cookbooks. Above all, pricing and timelines have improved tremendously. So, the time came to relaunch in a big way. It’s now possible to professionally publish (in a cost-effective way), full-color, bookstore-quality designs. New tools help us to collaborate faster than ever, and social media helps to spread the word far and wide.
This used to be a word-of-mouth business, but it’s been exciting to have the capacity to reach a wider audience with which to share our services. The redesign of our website includes a new Client Portal (aka Recipe Box), making collaboration faster and easier than ever. Our social media presence has increased, and it’s been possible to build more options for our clients to monetize their cookbooks.
I’ve never been more excited to get creative with clients! Out of all the new possibilities, it’s been really fun to branch into working with food bloggers, businesses, and non-profits. My all-time favorite new thing made possible by technology is the ability to include replicas of the cherished handwritten recipe collections that are so dear to families everywhere.
I’m beyond grateful and always touched by the emotional response from clients when they finally see the end result. I strive to make the process easy and affordable so together we can bring joy to many, many others!
Personalized Cookbooks
Creative Cookbooks specializes in collaborating with both families and businesses on designing your very own, one-of-a-kind cookbook. No book or idea is too big or too small. We incorporate your unique ideas and ours into an affordable, custom-designed, professionally published, bookstore-quality cookbook for you to distribute or sell as you wish.