Gather local recipes. Think about your favorite recipes from your childhood and also women in your community who are known for being excellent cooks. You may even want to visit the local county fair to see who is winning 4-H ribbons for baked goods. Approach these women with an e-mail, letter or telephone call. Explain you are putting together a hometown cookbook and would like to include one of their recipes.
Organize the recipes. Once you have collected popular recipes from your hometown, organize the recipes into categories. You might choose to have only hometown desserts in your cookbook, but you still will need to organize those desserts into cakes, pies, cookies and candies. If you decide to offer different courses in your cookbook, then other categories may include main dishes, sides, breads, and beverages.
Form a committee to test the recipes. The locals providing the recipes may make the dish so often they forget to include something simple in the directions. Test the recipes to make sure they look and taste the way they should.
Add historical or biographical information for each dish or contributor. If Mary Beth creates her special gelatin casserole every Fourth of July for the local community picnic, ask her to write a short paragraph about when she first started this tradition and what it means to her. These small details will record hometown history that will be treasured for years.
Edit the book. Enlist the help of local English teachers and editors to go over the book. They should look for typos, misspellings of names, and inaccurate factual data.
Send the book to a publisher. Most cookbook publishers accept books in either Microsoft Word or PDF format. Any specifications required will be listed clearly on the publisher's website. If you are inexperienced with laying out a book, use a publisher with simple templates you can use, such as Morris Press Cookbooks or Fundcraft.