Wheat Allergy Turns into Publishing Business

Independent Publishers Celebrate Small Press Month in March

PRNewswire/Denver: Carol Fenster is an accidental author. When she was advised to stay away from wheat ten years––to get relief from chronic sinusitis––she thought she was doomed to a life of boring, tasteless food choices. For someone raised on a farm in Nebraska and who married into a wheat-farming family, this seemed almost un-American.

Back then, “I had no idea I would overcome this obstacle to the ‘culinary good life’ by becoming a publisher,” says Fenster, whose firm, Savory Palate, Inc. (www.savorypalate.com) now has four cookbooks for wheat-sensitive people.

It was her passion for good food––and a suspicion that this idea just might be the answer to her dreams of owning her own business––that sent her to the kitchen in search of alternatives. “I realized that the wheat-free dishes I created for myself could be a cookbook for others with similar needs“, she says, and it became Wheat-Free Recipes & Menus––one of the first cookbooks for wheat-free living, now sold around the world. 

When she decided to publish the cookbooks herself (rather than pursue large New York publishing houses), Fenster joined the growing list of independent publishers––nearly 300 in her hometown of Denver and over 50,000 nationwide––that chose this route, giving them total control over how they write and promote their books.

“Although this expands my potential for profit,” Fenster says, “it also means I wear many hats––author, publisher, manager, accountant, designer, shipper, publicist, and so on. One of the purposes of Small Press Month is to acknowledge independent presses like mine.”  

But the heavy workload is offset by extreme gratification. “Helping people eat the dishes they love is extremely gratifying and I have the satisfaction of building a business from the ground up,” she says. And, she’s expanded the business beyond publishing. 

Recognized as an authority on wheat-free living, Fenster is food editor of Living Without magazine and recently co-hosted its wheat-free culinary tour to Italy. She appears on a new allergy-free cooking show “Food for Life” on WebMD Television’s Health Network, writes for Veggie Life magazine, and consults with wheat-free manufacturers.

Fenster’s books are available at health food stores and www.Amazon.com. For wheat-free recipes, see www.savorypalate.com.