Creating TCS Cookbook

Please post your ideas here about creating the first ever TCS cookbook. Want to keep the other thread open for recipes only.

To submit recipes, go here:
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...threadid=25241

Thus far:

I think this could be a multi-person job:

- Someone to format the information in Microsoft Word (MomofMany)
- Editing/sanity checking the recipes (MomofMany)
- Someone to put into PDF format for online access (Heidi)
- Collect recipes from old posts (Heidi, George'sMom)
- Someone to collect pictures to include in the book
- Someone to collect bios to include in the book (Fluffy'sMom)
- Someone to handle online posting and setting up online donations (Heidi)
- Someone to coordinate this project and keep it moving forward (collective effort)
- Someone to take care of charitable receiving and giving (Hissy)
- Organize a "Name that Cookbook" contest (Hissy)
- Cover page art (Heidi)
- Opening remarks/introductions (Hissy)

Thoughts on bios: A little information on the folks that contributed the recipes. Something simple - probably not much more than what is posted in here - who you are, where you are from, your human and/or pet families

Numerous suggestions on donating proceeds to rescue groups in need. Logistics will need some thought.

CocaMaui (Ginger) will look into mass e-mail marketing.

Pat & Alix will post advertisement on their charities page.

Hissy will advertise on Meowhoo page.

Any other creative thoughts out there? Anyone else want to volunteer?????

Actually Hiedi emailed this morning with a great idea- here is her email:

So here's my idea.... We could feasibly do it all online, which would make the entire cost of the book a donation, and of course I was thinking of the most urgent cause that I know of, CWSI (Cat Welfare Society of Israel) . I would even volunteer my time to take recipes and pictures and such and make it into a PDF. I know that we've done recipe threads before, so I could do a search for those and include those as well. And we could even have a Kitty Recipe section, for stuff like Kitten Glop, etc.

Then we could sell it using Paypal, once the payment (something minimal, like $5, or more if you want to donate more) is received, whoever is in charge of the selling part would email the cookbook in the PDF format. This way everyone around the world could get it, no hassles with mailing and figuring postage to everywhere, no messing with the logistics of printing and binding, etc. The only thing is finding someone with the time and honesty to be in chanrge of the selling. My thought is that we have someone who has a PayPal account to accept the payments, and then they would make the lump sum donation to CWSI at set points (weekly initially?).

What do you think? Is this something to pursue?


This is now me talking: I think this is a grand idea, and as I routinely recieve donations to CWSI through the Phoenix Fund, we could use the same button to purchase this book. So there is one thought and I am sure there will be other ideas.

I think Heidi's idea regarding the actual form and content of the book is great, and probably the easiest way to do it. I also think that the proceeds should go to a cat charity, and CWSI definately needs a lot of monetary support. Perhaps we can donate say the first $200 to CWSI, and then $200 (or whatever amount) blocks to other groups.

I'll start taking ideas and updating the original post so that everyone doesn't have to read thru the entire thread.....

My fiance Steven is in the email marketing business and I could talk to him about sending the offer out as an email (kinda like spam but to people who opt in to get emails).
I will see what he says and get back to ya'll.

Thanks for posting that email Mary Anne!

I have a fantastic program, Adobe InDesign, that I use for making marketing materials at work and brochures for Save Samoa and Stray Pet Advocacy, which creates wonderful PDFs. So, basically if I can get the formatted recipes in a Word file, I can import it, and then put in the Bios and photos (of the person, of their cats, of the food, clipart, whatever) and make a really nice book which can either be printed and bound or just stored on your computer.

You know, these would make great Christmas presents, and Christmas promotions on websites too!

I'll get the recipes in Word. If someone finds recipes outside the new recipe thread, send me the link and I'll clip them from there.

Heidi - can you take pictures imbedded in Word? I did a cookbook for my family and had pics and recipes all together (the submitter of the recipe had their picture by it).

Originally posted by Coco Maui
My fiance Steven is in the email marketing business and I could talk to him about sending the offer out as an email (kinda like spam but to people who opt in to get emails).
I will see what he says and get back to ya'll.

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I'd be glad to post a note about this when it's available and a link on my Charities page.

Wow! You guys are real go getters! I'm impressed! You really take an and run with it.
I'm not a computer whiz (mangage to get by with my teen-aged son's help and criticism).
I would be happy to contribute (search for)more recipes. . . and do whatever I can (that I am capable of doing). I'm a great typist. . .
I suck at managing images. . . or using Adobe. . .

As for the charitable contributions. . . . IMO it would be nice to donate to more than one cause . . . rather than limiting it to one.

I'm open minded. . . any life that can be saved is worth our effort.

If I can help in any way, I would love to!

I'm a cookbook addict. I just found a fairly new one (from a local hospital) that has info in the back for publishing cookbooks for fundraisers as follows:

"The Easy Way to guarantee profits! Your group can riase between $100-10,000.00! Walter's Cookbooks has the easiest and fastest fundraising plan for your organization. We'll print your favorite recipes in a personalized cookbook. You can have your cookbooks in as few as 45 working days. No money down - 90 days to pay. For free details, fill out the other side of this card and send in today! For super fast service: Call 1-800-447-3274 - Walter's Cookbooks - 215 5th Ave. S.E. - Waseca, MN 56093."

"Keep your family recipes and memories-forever. Now here's an ingneious and long awaited idea. Walter's Cookbooks, one of America's favorite cookbook publishers, can print your book of favorite family recipes and pages of memories. You choose from dozens of designs - including a cover you design yourself. It's the perfect reunion project. A truly unique and personal gift for your friends. And a handsome keepsake you'll treasure - all for less than $8.75 per book."

That does sound steep. I received this particular book as a gift. . probably sold for $10 or so (my guess).

I'm sure that there are other similar companies out there. . .

Laurie

I really love Heidi's idea too about the Kitten/Cat Section If anyone has good wholesome recipes for cat treats, please send them in as well. This way the recipe book will be geared towards cat lovers!
We could perhaps call it TheCatSite.com Recipe Collection or PuurFect Recipes? Or.........any other suggestions out there?

Yes, Amy, photographs embedded in Word come out fine. And I just sent you a whole bunch of links to threads with recipes in them.

Originally posted by hissy
I really love Heidi's idea too about the Kitten/Cat Section If anyone has good wholesome recipes for cat treats, please send them in as well. This way the recipe book will be geared towards cat lovers!
We could perhaps call it TheCatSite.com Recipe Collection or PuurFect Recipes? Or.........any other suggestions out there?

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Ditto. . . . and I love your idea about the possibility of a title - Purrrrfect!

Laurie

I like the names. Should we do a "name that cookbook" contest??? We can set up a poll and have people vote on their favorite.

http://www.morriscookbooks.com/kpsk/kp.asp

There are many companies out there that publish cookbooks. This one sounds intriguing.

How about a section dedicated to those of us who are watching their weight?

Originally posted by jugen
How about a section dedicated to those of us who are watching their weight?

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I started compiling the recipes this morning. Some of the recipes are clearly marked for Atkins or Weight Watchers, and I'll make sure that is noted in here, although I'm not sure that we have enough recipes collected yet to have it's own section. Help me drum some up!

Thanks MA for starting the name the cookbook contest.

I've got 30 pages formatted with about 1/2 ??? of the threads reviewed. The final editing will take a bit of time.

Keep posting those recipes!

I'll have to go home and dig up some more recipes. One question-two of the recipes I posted (Super Bowl Sunday Stew and Beef Stroganoff) came from other sources. I'm concerned about copyright issues, how will that be handled? Probably the easiest is to just drop recipes from published sources.

Wow! What a neat idea!!! Thanks everyone for chipping in - this is awesome!