to you makes a cookbook successful? Seriously, I really want to know, because I might want to write more and don't want to disappoint! If you liked this post on Writing a Successful Cookbook, check out these other links: Personally, I think there's 3 main keys to a cookbook that I know I'm going to pick up and reference time and time again. 1. Simplicity 2. Organization 3. Pictures! I reference Ratio, Ruhlman's Twenty, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (hold your laughs, folks.....I think it's a fantastic cookbook for busy families) and a few others so frequently because they're organized well and easy to utilize. For the Ratio book, I reference it more now as a quick guide and confidence-builder, just top make sure I'm not messing something up that I've picked up from heart. Ratio also gets a pass in the photography dept. because it's not talking about specific recipes, per se. Although it does make the cookbook much more expensive to produce, there is no substitute for quality photography, of virtually every recipe in a book, if possible. For many home cooks, it's tough to visualize what that recipe is going to resemble at the end of it. Even if most cookbook photography isn't always an accurate representation of the final product, it certainly triggers the mind of a cook to either go for it, or move on to something else. In a cookbook with no photos (Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food comes to mind), it's difficult