So you want to write a cookbook?

Do you have a food blog and dream of being published? Have you ever been standing over a big pot of stew at the stove and had the perfect idea for a cookbook pop into your head? Now is your chance.

The Lisa Ekus Group, a culinary agency that recently celebrated 31 years in business, is seeking new talent through a Twitter contest. Inspired by the March Madness basketball tournament, the contest will ask anyone who wants to write a cookbook to pitch their best culinary non-fiction ideas to @SallyEkus via 140-character (or less) tweets to #SignMeSal from March 11 -13, 2013. On March 14th, 2013, the finalists will be chosen to participate in the playoffs and entries will be whittled down in subsequent days. Like the March Madness basketball tournament, 16 finalists will enter the playoffs. Remaining participants will then be asked to round out their proposals with further tweets that cover standard proposal elements, such as the book’s point of differentiation, the author’s promotional ideas, and the author’s credentials. The last two finalists will join Literary Agent Sally Ekus in a Twitter chat on March 25, 2013 to discuss their ideas as well as ask questions about agency representation and cookbook publishing in general. Contestants, who were previously eliminated, as well as the greater Twitter community, will be encouraged to join the Twitter chat to ask questions of the final two contenders. A single winner will be chosen and then work with agent Sally Ekus to develop a fleshed out proposal to pitch to editors at publishing houses.

The contest calendar is as follows:
• March 11th-13th, 2013: Tweet your cookbook concept to #SignMeSal
• March 14th, 2013: @SallyEkus will tweet the 16 cookbook concept playoff contenders
• March 15th, 2013: The winning 16 will tweet once what their Point of Differentiation (How is this concept different from what already exists in the market?) is to #SignMeSal
• March 18th, 2013: 8 winners will be announced by @SallyEkus and will proceed to the next round
• March 19th, 2013: The 8 winners of the last round will tweet 3 promotional ideas for how they intend to promote their book once it is published.
• March 20th, 2013: 4 winners from the promotional idea round will be announced by @SallyEkus
• March 21st, 2013: The 4 winners of the promotional idea round will tweet their answer to the final question, “Why me? Why am I the person to write this book?” in up to three tweets to #SignMeSal
• March 22nd, 2013: Two finalists will be announced by @SallyEkus
• March 25th, 2013: @SallyEkus will host a Twitter chat from 1-2pm EST to ask the finalists questions about their concepts and backgrounds. This will also be a chance for the two finalists to ask questions about agent representation and The Lisa Ekus Group, as well as a time for people following the contest to weigh in with their own questions. The finalists should come to the chat prepared to answer questions such as “What does platform mean to me?” and “I want to write this book because…”
• March 27th, 2013: One winner will be announced by @SallyEkus

Interested parties should pitch any idea related to food, health, wellness, and cooking. You may be previously published, but you may not be currently represented by another literary agency. The Lisa Ekus Group is looking for fresh voices, new ideas, and untapped talent. “I am looking for someone who can get their ideas across succinctly, in 140 characters or less,” said Sally Ekus. "The Tweet is the new elevator pitch.”

Contest rules can be found at: http://lisaekus.com/uncategorized/so-you-want-to-write-a-cookbook-contest-rules/