How to collect recipes from a group

What reply rate should you expect?

Expect about half on the first ask and two thirds after one chase. That is a good outcome, not a poor one, and planning for it is the difference between a book that works and a book that is missing the people you most wanted in it.

The practical consequence: invite more people than the number of recipes you want. If you want thirty recipes, ask fifty. Our own wedding book got 130 invitations and came back with enough for 106 pages.

The people who do not reply are almost never refusing. They opened the message somewhere inconvenient, meant to come back to it, and did not.

When should you ask, and how long should you give people?

Give three to four weeks, and set the deadline about two weeks before you actually need it. Shorter than three weeks and you catch people mid-fortnight with no time; longer than about five and the whole thing slides out of mind.

The buffer is not padding. It is the fortnight in which you chase, read the book, fix the recipe with no oven temperature, and still print on time. Every collection overruns, and a deadline that is also the print date means it overruns into the thing you cannot move.

If the book is for an event, count backwards from the event and then take two more weeks off for printing and delivery. Hardbacks are printed to order.

What should the first message say?

Name the person, name the recipe you want from them, say when you need it, and say how long it takes. Four sentences. The most common mistake is explaining the project at length and never quite asking.

Something like: "We're making a cookbook for Mum's 70th. Can I have your paella — the one from Christmas? It takes two minutes and there's a box for a message to her underneath. I need it by the 14th."

Naming the specific recipe does most of the work. It removes the decision, it flatters the person, and it tells them you have actually eaten their food and remembered it.

When and how should you chase?

Chase once, about a week before the deadline, individually rather than to the group. A group reminder makes everybody feel it is addressed to somebody else; a message with a name at the top gets answered.

Keep it short and take the blame: "No pressure at all — just in case it got buried. Still after the paella." Nobody needs to be told twice that they are late.

One chase is the right number. Two is a favour; three is a nag, and by then you would rather have the person at the party than the recipe in the book.

What do you do about the people who never reply?

Ring them, or write the recipe for them. If somebody matters enough that the book is wrong without them, a five-minute phone call gets the recipe and a better story than any form would have.

Older relatives in particular often will not use a link at all, and it is not stubbornness — it is a form on a phone. Ask them to talk you through it while you type. You will end up with the asides, which is the good part.

For the rest, let it go. A book with thirty recipes in it is not improved by chasing the four people who did not want to be in it.

What is the best way to gather them — email, a group chat, or a form?

One link that everybody uses, whatever the tool. The problem with email and group chats is not that people ignore them; it is that replies arrive in five formats across three threads and you become a data-entry clerk.

A group chat

Best reach, worst record. Recipes get buried under replies within a day, and you cannot tell who has answered without scrolling the whole thread.

Email

Keeps a record and is easy to chase from. People reply with attachments, photographs, pasted links and plain text, and you convert all of it by hand.

A shared document

Free and surprisingly good for a small, confident group. Falls apart past about fifteen people, when the formatting drifts and somebody deletes a section by accident.

A collection link

Everything lands in one place in one shape, and you can see who has replied. Worth it mainly above about twenty people, or when you want the chasing handled for you.

Should you ask for a message as well as a recipe?

Yes, and ask for it in the same breath. The notes are the part people read first and the part they keep, and asking separately halves how many you get.

Keep the prompt narrow. "A line about why you chose this" gets an answer; "a message" gets "Happy birthday!" from everybody, which is worth nothing on a page.

The good ones are specific and short: when they first cooked it, who taught them, what went wrong the first time. Two sentences is plenty.

Questions

How far in advance should you ask people for recipes?

Three to four weeks before you need them, with the stated deadline about two weeks before your real one. Under three weeks people have no gap to do it in; over five and it drifts out of mind entirely.

How many people should you invite to get thirty recipes?

Around fifty. Roughly half reply to the first ask and about two thirds after one chase, so inviting the exact number you want leaves you short of the people you most wanted.

How do you chase somebody for a recipe without nagging?

Once, individually, about a week before the deadline, naming the specific recipe and taking the blame for the message getting buried. One chase is expected; a third message is a nag.

What do you do when older relatives will not use an online form?

Telephone them and type while they talk. You get the recipe, and you get the asides and corrections that make a much better page than anything they would have filled in.

Should everybody send a photograph of their dish?

Only if the book is printed in colour, and consider whether you want it at all. Phone photographs of finished food vary enormously in quality, and a page of typeset text with a handwritten note under it is more consistent than a page with somebody’s dim kitchen on it.