The time I wrote a book for fun!

I have been saying that communication skills is one of the most important skills of accountants today. This is one of the reasons that I had decided to start this blog. I wanted to improve my writing skills and thought that would be the best way to do it.

The other dream that I’ve always had was to write a book. I love to read books but the idea of ever writing one was very intimidating. Let me be frank here, I did not write a 500 page novel or even a short story. I wrote a recipe book. And this book only contains 1 recipe! 😂

I recently (3 years ago) became obsessed with bread making and this is what I wrote my book on! No, I did not start during covid. I started AFTER covid. Even though I’ve been baking since I was little, I always found bread making to be intimidating, just like potentially writing a book. As with anything else, I realized it was just a fear of the unknown.

I thought that writing a recipe book would be much easier than writing a novel with a plot and characters and drama and intrigue. I was mostly right. But there were so many things about a recipe book that I didn’t realize would be so much work.

1. Graphics and Design – This is the biggest one that was a shocker for me. Once I started I realized I would need a cover, some graphics, and a potential designer to help me. By nature, I’m not the most creative person, and that was the biggest hurdle. Luckily enough, I had a friend who was really into design and also wanted a chance to create a book. We worked out a deal where she would help me with some of the design elements, in return, I would put her name on the cover and send her some free copies to share with her friends.
2. Photos –  I mean, it’s a recipe book—of course we needed photos! But do you know how many photos? One afternoon, my husband and I turned our kitchen into a makeshift studio, experimenting with backgrounds, lighting, and angles. I was totally out of my depth as a photographer, so I just did my best and crossed my fingers, hoping a good photo filter could work some magic.
3. Writing – I jotted down the bread recipe I was using, determined to keep the book tiny and to the point—minimalist vibes only. It’s barely 20 pages long! Baking bread isn’t rocket science, and the recipe’s super simple, but explaining what I was doing? That was a whole different story. I kept rewriting the same paragraphs, roped in friends and family to see if it made any sense, and then—you guessed it—rewrote them again.
4. Editing – Now I had to put all the pieces together. So many little details go into these books. Resizing pictures to be just right. Moving text blocks around. Numbering the pages correctly. Making sure nothing gets cut off during the printing process. I struck the perfect balance between readability and great design—clear, crisp text without compromising on style. I think I proofread it about 20 times and kept finding new mistakes on every read-through.
5. Printing – The printing process is finicky. Your designs need to be the right size, big enough to cover the overflow during printing, but small enough to fit into the printing template they give you. I spent a lot of time on this step. You upload your design, hit print preview, and cross your fingers that it looks just as amazing on screen as it did in your head. Tweak it about a hundred times until it’s perfect. Sit on it for a few days to create some space from the project, go back and do another review of everything. Close your eyes and press Order now! 🙈

I ordered 30 of these to give as Christmas gifts for my friends. They cost ~$20 per book, but it was worth every penny. The more you buy, the cheaper it gets. I only ordered for as many friends and family as I had, plus a couple extra, knowing that I could always print more if I needed to. I found a couple of mistakes after I printed them 🥲 so it’s probably good I didn’t order more. I sent all of my friends some cookies, and a small bottle of live yeast along with my book.

This is hands-down one of the most memorable gifts I’ve ever given—and people still bring it up. A few friends were inspired to bake their very first loaves, while others proudly display the book on their coffee tables as a quirky conversation piece. I love that something I created ended up reaching so many people. It was such a rewarding project—who knows, maybe there’s another one in my future! Just… not for a couple of years. Haha.

I know this post has nothing to do with Accounting, but sometimes we need to have other hobbies in life. It was my mini passion project for about 2 months and it challenged me to grow in different ways. I learned about project management, design, editing, and writing. The best part was that I did most of the writing while sitting on a beach in Hawaii. What’s something that you’ve always wanted to do but were too scared to start?