Chuck Williams was Right

A few years ago, before writing my cookbook, I had lunch with Chuck Williams. He is the founder of Williams-Sonoma and a really nice guy. I asked him advice on writing a cookbook. He said to make sure that you have really nice pictures.

I'm a little slow and just realized the other day that I did not follow his advice. When I think about cookbooks that I buy and really like, many of them tend to have nice pictures. It is great to see the outcome before you make an item. Pictures do that and so much more for a book.

When I wrote my cookbook, Crazy from the Heat, I was more focused on having great tasting, easy to make recipes and funny offbeat text. Pictures weren't a big part of the plan. As the book started taking shape and I looked at it, I did think that it would be more attractive with pictures. I went to the publisher and offered to cut my royalty to get pictures in the book. The answer was no.

Looking back now Chuck Williams was right. I should have fought for those pictures. My book is still funny and has delicious recipes, but probably would have sold a few thousand more copies with eye catching pictures. Mea culpa.