Don’t let her old-fashioned dress and bonnet fool you. Pinecraft cookbook author Sherry Gore, 47, is a modern social media sophisticate. She has a Facebook page with 4,000-plus followers, YouTube videos, Twitter feed and a website, sherrygore.com, where she posts blogs on subjects ranging from National Buttermilk Biscuit Day to musings on Amish faith and wisdom.

All of this has helped Gore land an agent, a publicist, a branding manager, a virtual assistant and a three-book “Pinecraft Collection” deal with America’s largest Christian publisher, Zondervan/Harper Collins (the first, Simply Delicious Amish Cooking: Recipes and Stories from the Amish of Sarasota, Florida, came out in May); profiles in media as diverse as Guidepost magazine (circulation 2 million) and Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest daily newspaper; and a recent appearance cooking Amish pot-pie stew on the Today show’s website.

Worldwide fame and serious money don’t scare her, she says: “My genuine fear is being too busy and not able to devote enough of my time to friends and family.”

Next: Steve Seidensticker >>