I turned 20 years in software and security into a $16.99 cookbook (for AI prompts)
I've spent two decades building software, running security programs, and more recently working in AI. A few weeks ago I shipped something different: a cookbook. Not a real one. Twenty six tested AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, organized like recipes, because that's genuinely how I use these tools day to day.
Every time I needed a model to do something specific and repeatable, tutoring, research synthesis, a system prompt for a persistent agent, I was rewriting the same prompt from memory, slightly worse each time. No source of truth. No way to hand it to someone else and have it just work.
So I built one, and it turned into a full product.
A 78 page book, twenty six recipes across six sections: family, home, education, business, research, and a bonus course
Three AI skill files, one for ChatGPT, one for Claude, one for Gemini, so any of those models already knows every recipe the moment you drop it into custom instructions
A digital edition on Gumroad, plus paperback and hardcover going wide through IngramSpark and Amazon
What actually took the time
Not the writing. The production pipeline. Every recipe needed a real generated image, checked by hand for watermarks, resolution, and print-safe sizing, before it could go anywhere near a physical proof. Then three separate cover files for three separate print specs (IngramSpark hardcover, IngramSpark paperback, KDP hardcover), each with its own bleed and spine math. That's the part nobody warns you about when "just self-publish it" sounds simple.
Where it stands right now
Live on Gumroad today. Print editions rolling out on a staggered timeline across Amazon and IngramSpark over the next few weeks rather than all at once, deliberately, so I can catch problems on one channel before they show up on all of them.
If you've built something that lives at the intersection of a real skill and a weird format, I'd like to hear how you priced it and where you launched first. This is my first physical product after years of pure software, and the go to market instincts don't transfer as cleanly as I expected.
Link if you want to see the actual thing: https://merakislove.gumroad.com/l/cookbook
One thing that stood out is that the cookbook isn't really the product—it's the packaging.
The real asset is a repeatable way of solving problems with AI. The book just makes that knowledge easier to buy, use, and recommend. That's an important distinction because the long-term opportunity probably isn't tied to the format itself.