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A promise to honour a father’s memory became a cookbook that rallied a whole barbecue community. We sit down with John Wilson to trace the gritty, very human path from “let’s do a book” to holding a 204‑page charity cookbook that climbed Amazon’s barbecue charts and put first‑time contributors next to big names.

John walks us through the real barriers no one talks about: post‑pandemic print costs that quadrupled, the tough decision to abandon a traditional print run, and the steep learning curve of Amazon KDP. He shares how AI became a practical assistant for formatting recipes consistently, while the painstaking work of proofreading, indexing and layout stayed stubbornly manual. Proof copies exposed mismatched fonts and an off‑by‑one index that demanded days of fixes. Hitting publish brought 72 anxious hours, then a wave of support as cooks opened the book and found their recipes on the page.

There is heart at every turn. We unpack the legal care required when naming charities and using logos, the slim KDP margins that still make the project worthwhile, and the moments that made it all land—like a young contributor presenting his printed recipe at school and earning an award. John also reveals a bold plan for volume two: a global live‑fire collection with curated regional dishes, a “Live Fire Legends” chapter, and a smarter submission flow to avoid duplicate recipes while encouraging cooks to stretch beyond their comfort zones.

Along the way, we talk sold‑out charity events, festival demos, and a playful barbecue bingo segment that lands on sweet chilli halloumi. If you care about cookbooks, community and the craft of getting ideas into people’s hands, this story will light a fire. Grab the cookbook via the links in our Instagram bios, cook a recipe, and tell us what you make. If this conversation resonates, subscribe, leave a quick review, and share it with a friend who loves live fire as much as you do.

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