This episode features the first official Equity at the Table event.

It is a recording of a panel conversation moderated by Klancy Miller, an EATT Advisory Board member and author of Cooking Solo. Host Julia Turshen was the author on the panel and was joined by Kara Rota, a cookbook editor, Cindy Uh, a literary agent with Thompson Literary Agency, and Heami Lee, a photographer who shoots cookbooks plus other work. They cover everything from book proposals to writing, shooting, and promoting a book.

The goal of this event was to try and create some transparency and to foster community. The publishing industry is really opaque and so much of book publishing, and definitely cookbook publishing, is relationship-based. Familial terms abound— for example, publishing companies are referred to as publishing houses. The agent-author relationship is often discussed like dating— about finding the right match. Authors refer to books as their babies. Relationships between authors, editors, photographers, and even readers often transcend the professional and become personal. Which can be wonderful, but also confusing. How do you navigate when something isn’t going well? How do you get in the door if you don’t know anyone?

This episode attempts to answer some of those questions.

Here are some additional resources:

The episode also features: