Hi, friends. I’m popping in today to do a little stream of consciousness writing to explain why I’ve been a bit absent here and why I’m posting fewer vegan recipes.
A year or so ago a book popped up on Amazon. The title was the same as my book Vegan Pressure Cooking. So were the recipes. Except that someone else was selling the book under their name and under a different publisher. Naive JL learned that people steal recipes and put them in crappily designed books on Amazon and make money. And then it happened again. And again, and again. In some iterations, the books had different titles but included my recipes – from my book and my blog. Even my own photos from my blog.
A few months ago a new book popped up on Amazon with vegan air frying recipes. I had only three recipes up here on my website but all three were in it. As were recipes from some very good friends of mine who also write vegan cookbooks and blogs.
So incredibly disheartening.
But, not one to give up, I’ve been taking some time to think through how I can continue to share recipes with you. I don’t have a perfect answer but I have come up with a few strategies.
I launched four Facebook groups to build a community around vegan cooking (note I mean VEGAN cooking, so my groups allow ZERO food shaming re: oil, salt, sugar, soy or gluten). Those groups are
- Vegan Air Frying Enthusiasts
- Real World Vegan Meals
- Vegan Pressure Cooking
- Colorado Springs Vegan Cooking Academy.
I’ve been sharing recipes and meal ideals in these groups and it feels good and comfortable. Please consider joining me in one, two, or all three.
I also plan to make more recipe videos. I will talk you through recipes but I probably won’t write them down (OR, I will develop a back-end “members only” section to this site. I’m exploring that). Most of my videos will probably start on Facebook, either on my Page or in one of my groups. For instance, I’ll be teaching this Vegan Air Frying 101 cooking demo class via Facebook Live next month
(only group members can attend live, but I’ll share the video here as an archive later that week).
My other method of sharing recipes is via my monthly newsletter (a recent issue included a recipe to Curry Cumin Carrot Oats). You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
Finally, I’m also trying to share recipes on my Instagram account. Here’s an example:
(when I do “Insta recipes” I’ll make a point to crosspost to my Twitter and Facebook feeds). Follow me on Instagram here.
Meanwhile, I still have nearly 300 recipes right here on my website: JL’s Vegan Recipes. And you can find my recipes in my books Vegan Pressure Cooking, Vegan for Her and my forthcoming cookbook Vegan Air Frying).
I sure hope you understand and will be patient with me as I continue to try to get creative in how I share my vegan recipes with you. And, as always, thanks for being on this journey with me.
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5 thoughts on “A vegan recipe creator’s conundrum”
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That really is disheartening JL – don’t let ’em get you down. Thanks for all you do!
Thanks for your support, Betsy!
These are very creative ideas. My blog is pretty small right now but I think I’ll consider using some of these options from the start. It seems like a lot of vegan bloggers are having this problem.
Good idea, @ileneklang:disqus!
Oh man, I’m so sorry JL! That SUCKS. Thank you for creating the air frying page on FB btw. I just got mine last week, so I’m learning all of the amazing things it can do. I LOVE IT!