Licensed cookbooks historically have been connected to a limited number of closely related properties, such as food brands, restaurants, and chefs, with other property types popping up very occasionally. Over the last few years, however, cookbooks have become a standard format to be considered as part of licensed publishing programs tied to entertainment and pop-culture properties for all ages.
A sampling of deals in the last 18 months from a range of publishers illustrates the diversity of properties that are entering this category:
- Insight Editions. Insight has become the most active partner for pop-culture cookbooks, sometimes adding the format to a broader deal encompassing a range of novelty books and sometimes serving as the licensee for cookbooks alone. Some of the properties for which it has published cookbooks in the last 18 months include Crayola, ZAG’s Miraculous, Paramount Global’s Yellowstone, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Game of Thrones and its spin-off House of the Dragon (both included in one title), Amazon MGM’s Fallout, Microsoft and Mojang’s Minecraft, Hasbro’s Candy Land, Sega’s Sonic, and many more. The company also has a full program of cookbooks tied to Disney properties, including Alice in Wonderland, Nightmare Before Christmas, Disney Villains, and Disney Princess, among others.
- Penguin Random House. A variety of imprints within this publisher have produced licensed cookbooks. To name a few examples: Random House Worlds, which exclusively publishes licensed pop-culture titles, is creating The Wednesday Cookbook: The Woefully Weird Recipes of Nevermore Academy with Amazon MGM—Random House Children’s Books is releasing other book formats for the property—and the Official Stardew Valley Cookbook, based on the ConcernedApe video game. Penguin Books for Young Readers added Bluey and Bingo’s Fancy Restaurant Cookbook to its vast array of Bluey titles. And DK followed up its young readers’ encyclopedia, Elmo Asks Why?, with Sesame Street: Let’s Cook Together.
- Quarto Group. The global publisher’s U.K.-based White Lion imprint started its Peaky Blinders publishing program with The Peaky Blinders Cookbook, before expanding the list to include a wit-and-wisdom book and a visual companion.
- Ulysses Press. This company, which has released a number of unofficial cookbooks tied to pop-culture properties, secured the rights from Asmodee to publish cookbooks based on two of the latter’s board games. Catan: The Official Cookbook came out in September 2023 and Ticket to Ride: The Official Cookbook in April 2024.
- HarperCollins. The HarperCollins Children’s Books division is the master licensee for Lumistella’s Elf on the Shelf, and William Morrow, known for its celebrity cookbooks with the likes of The Pioneer Woman and Guy Fieri, joined its sibling imprint to publish The Elf on the Shelf Family Cookbook.
- Scholastic. As the long-running publisher of novels and other book formats for Scottgames’ video game property Five Nights at Freddy’s, Scholastic added The Official Five Nights at Freddy’s Cookbook last fall.
Many other publishers and properties are involved with this sector as well. This list, while not comprehensive, gives a sense of the current breadth of the licensed pop-culture cookbook landscape. The market has become crowded, especially when the many unofficial titles inspired by TV shows, films, and video games are added to the roster of official titles.
For the most successful pairings, the property usually has some logical connection with food. Stardew Valley’s game play is set on a farm, where players can grow crops and raise animals as well as encounter monsters and find treasure. In the Miraculous TV show, the family of lead character Marinette operates a bakery. Yellowstone: The Official Dutton Ranch Family Cookbook is written by one of the show’s stars, Gabriel “Gator” Guilbeau, who plays a chef on the show and is also a chef in real life. Sometimes the connection may be visual (Crayola’s recipes mimic the colors in its crayon box), holiday-related (Elf on the Shelf), or part of a property’s educational mission (Sesame Street).
In some cases, a cookbook is simply a new way to connect fans with a popular property, no matter its themes. Not only does a cookbook represent a novel product offering, but it creates ongoing experiences for fans and their families as they try the recipes over time, forging a stronger bond with the IP. While creating a cookbook can be more complex than other publishing formats, fans’ embrace of the category, along with the added experiential benefit, make it worthwhile for many entertainment/character licensors.
To keep up with the latest in licensed book publishing news, especially in the children’s space, sign up for Publishers Weekly’s free Children’s Bookshelf e-newsletter. Karen Raugust’s ongoing column on the intersection of licensing and publishing, the Licensing Hotline, appears there first before being archived on the Publishers Weekly website.
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