You may have heard some of the podcast episodes Jennifer Harshman has been on, such as The Mark Struczewski Show or Debi Ronca’s Transition Bridge, or you may have seen some TikTok videos that caused you to wonder, “Who is The Book Baker? What is the concept of baking a book all about?”
Jennifer Harshman, The Book Baker
If you haven’t already, then meet Jennifer Harshman, The Book Baker. She hosts Your Book Bakery, a book-writing program. An author of several books, she wrote one for the program, and eventually may host a podcast related to it. She also has a TikTok channel where she helps people become authors and talks about a few other topics.
Jennifer’s been helping authors for decades, but only recently was she named The Book Baker by some of our clients. Why? Because she says if you can follow a recipe to bake a cake, then you can write a helpful nonfiction book.
That’s right! All you need to write a book is willingness and the right recipe, and Jennifer Harshman gives authors book-writing recipes all the time.
How did Your Book Bakery come to be?
We wanted to create a group-coaching program that would eventually give rise to a self-paced course. Jennifer’s process of helping authors write a draft in 12 weeks or less was perfect for that. She’s helped authors one at a time for years. So she created a program to walk a small group through it. Some people who were interested in it wanted her to call it a book boot camp, but she wanted something that sounded softer and sweeter. No yelling, please. Thus, the Your Book Bakery: 12 Weeks to a Manuscript book-writing program was born.
What’s with the whisk?
For years, people told her to “find her yellow tux.” She didn’t want to take that literally, and she already had some service offerings and other things that made her unique. Because of that, she didn’t focus on looking for some visual imagery that would make her stand out.
No ideas for that came to her until she started a TikTok channel and needed visual signals to show viewers whether a video was in the realms of writing, editing, or publishing, or whether it was about something else. So she chose to use a whisk for the writing-related videos. She has a small one and, thanks to a comment from a Facebook friend who saw her videos, a giant whisk. Those are her “microphones” on those videos.
Why does Jennifer Harshman wear a baker’s hat and apron?
John Schuchman of The Real Estate Survival Guide is a great friend and client. He follows Jennifer on TikTok. When they were talking one day, he told her he just had to see her in the whole getup for The Book Baker: a baker’s hat (called a toque) and apron to go with the whisks.
Jennifer thought that was hilarious, but it fits with the lighthearted approach to producing great books. She immediately ordered them. So that’s why. Peer pressure. 😀