Many of the food truck owners I have spoken with are always looking for alternative revenue streams for their mobile food business. Some look at opening a brick and mortar location. Others want to take popular menu items, sauces or seasonings to market. Others dream of turning their food truck recipes into a cookbook.

If the cookbook idea is something you’ve tossed around let’s look at some numbers that might help you proceed.

Why Food Truck Vendors Should Create A Cookbook

Something few people are aware of is that cookbooks are one of the top two best-selling book genres, second only to mystery novels. That’s right; more cookbooks are sold than any other type of book with the exception of mysteries. In North America alone, consumers purchase 60 million cookbooks each year.

With so many books on the market, you may wonder if there is a need for yet another. The simple answer is yes.

The cookbook buying public is huge. Do you really think there would already be so many cookbooks out there if there wasn’t an eager market for them? Do you think publishers would release as many cookbook titles as they do every year if there wasn’t a constant demand for more?

New cookbooks are being released all the time, and new authors appear every day.

Create A Passive Income

While the best reason to write a book is probably the same reason you started your food truck. Because you want to share your great food and terrific stories with the public it may not be the only reason. Whatever your motivation for writing a cookbook, the bottom line is writing a cookbook can help you create a new revenue stream for your food truck.

An added benefit is that writing a cookbook is more than just a new way of generating immediate income. That same book has the potential to turn into a long-term profit producer. Cookbooks often continue to sell for many, many years after they were first published. A single book can continue to provide long-term profits even years after you’ve written it.

The cookbook you write now could still be making money for you even if you shut your food truck business down. This is referred to as “passive income” because after your initial investment of time, effort and money, you can sit back and spend your time doing other things while the money still continues to roll in.

But while a lot of people dream of writing a cookbook, for most it never goes beyond that – a dream. Why? Because they really have no clue how to do it. And so they may try, but don’t get far. Or they may never even try, because they lack the motivation and confidence. Or they know they lack the necessary knowledge and guidance.

In future articles I’ll cover some of the aspects of writing a cookbook. Including topics such as working with a publisher and self-publishing.

RELATED: Open New Revenue Streams For Your Food Truck Business

The Bottom Line

As a final note, just remember if you choose to start writing your own food truck cookbook, don’t get discouraged. Julia Child was rejected by almost every publishing house because “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” wasn’t considered a book that would sell.

Are you ready to take your dream of being a published cookbook author into a full-fledged and very profitable revenue stream for your food truck empire? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Facebook | Twitter