I started with writing non-fiction and it really did change my life. I’m actually working on rewriting my first book at the moment and I also devour non-fiction books so it definitely remains important to me. In this guest post Nina Amir, author of ‘How to Blog a Book’ poses some provoking questions that anyone embarking on writing a non-fiction book should ask themselves.
Inspiration hits. The light bulb goes on. You’ve got a passion, and you pursue it. You see a need, and you fill it. There’s a question, and you answer it. You have a purpose, and you fulfill it.
These are all great reasons to begin writing a nonfiction book. And most writers, when struck by a good idea and the desire to write, simply begin writing. However, an even better reason exists to take a bit of time before you beginning writing to evaluate your idea—at least if you want your book to be successful.
Evaluate? I can hear you groaning. No one wants to evaluate anything, especially that book idea you are so psyched about.
If you simply want to write the book of your heart and you don’t care how many copies you sell, great. Go for it.
If you want to write a successful book, meaning one that sells to lots of readers or to a traditional publisher and to lots of readers, however, it behooves you to take the time to consider if your idea is a good one by industry standards.
To do this, I suggest you discover nine things about your book idea. Once you have this information, you’ll know if your book has a chance of success.
1. What Your Book Will be About and Why Would Someone Would Want to Read (Buy) It
You’d be amazed at how many writers cannot tell you in 50 words or less, or in 30 seconds or less, what their book is about. They also may not be able to list the benefits their book will provide to readers. Before beginning to write your nonfiction book, hone your topic and its angle. Figure out why someone would want to read your book rather than someone else’s book on the same topic. Write a pitch or elevator speech, a short statement that describes the essence of your book, and follow it with some bulleted points—the added value readers will take away from its pages. Think of this exercise like writing back cover copy. What might you say or write about your book that would make someone carry it to the register?
2. Who Wants to Read Your Book
Make sure you know your average reader—that one person you are writing for—as well as the size of your book’s market. Who wants to read your book, and where do you find them? How many of these people exist in the world? Are there enough of them to justify writing your book? This market research tells you if anyone is out there to read (buy) your book and helps you know for whom who you are writing.
3. Whether Your Book Will be Unique and Necessary
Make sure the book you plan on adding to the mix is not only unique compared to the other books in your niche or category but also necessary before you add one more title to the staggering number of books in print. Take a good hard look at what other authors have already written and published. Is what you want to write different—different enough to make someone purchase your book rather than an established title or a book by an established author? And is there a need for another book on the subject? If no books have been written on the subject, why? Is there a need for even one book on the topic?
4. If You Have Enough Content to Fill a Book
Sometimes writers think they have enough material for a book when really they only have enough for an article, or a couple of articles. Or they think they know what content they are going to include in the book, but when they finish the first draft, they discover they produced a manuscript that is scattered, rambling, misses the point, or leaves out essential information. Avoid these problems by mapping out your content first. Actually do a mind mapping exercise, which entails brainstorming while creating a large diagram of all your possible content and then organizing all these ideas into a table of contents or an outline. When you are done with this process you’ll know if you have enough content to fill a book, and you’ll know what content you plan to include in the pages of that book.
5. How You Would Describe Your Book’s Content
Bring your book to life with a short synopsis for each chapter. This accomplishes two things. First, when you couple this chapter-by-chapter synopsis with your table of contents, your pitch and list of benefits, you will have the best writing guide possible. Second, when you have finished the synopsis of all your chapters, and you have completed the previous four steps, you will suddenly have a clear picture of your book and feel ready to write your book. Why? Because it will seem real to you. If you can see it and it seems real, if your idea stood up to all the prior steps, it’s likely a viable book.
6. How You Will Ensure You and Your Book Succeed
Whether you self-publish or land a traditional publishing deal, you will need to promote your book. And promotion does not begin after the book lands in your hands as a finished product. It begins the moment that light bulb goes off in your head. Spend some time considering all the options you have to build awareness for yourself and your book as you begin the writing process as well as after you launch the book.
7. Why You Are the Best Person to Write This Book
Most nonfiction books are written by experts. Decide if you are the expert on your topic, how you will become the expert, or if you might need to bring in other experts (maybe a co-author, contributors or experts to interview). Also, does writing this book fulfill a sense of mission for you? If so, you might want to consider how to get that message across in the book and in your promotional efforts. Plus, in this step, it’s important to ask yourself if you have what’s called an “author’s platform.” Do you have a fan base or a large, loyal following of people who know you in relationship to the topic about which you plan to write? If not, you need to consider how you will begin building that built-in readership for your book.
8. If This is the Only Book You Will Write on This Topic
The more books you write, the more books you sell. That’s why it’s a good idea to spend a moment brainstorming other “spin-off” books on your topic. This is especially important if you want to create a business around your book or attract a traditional publisher. As an expert author, if you have more books, you can create more products and services to sell to readers. And publishers like to take on multiple-book authors.
9. How You Want to Publish Your Book
At this point, if you decided your book is marketable and has a chance of succeeding, you can begin writing your book—with one caveat. You need to know what publishing route you plan to take. If you plan on self-publishing, you can go ahead and write the whole book. If you plan on approaching traditional publishers, you only need to write 25-30 pages, or about two chapters, but you also need to write a book proposal, which includes all the information you just compiled. You then will submit the proposal to agents and publishers
Armed with this information, and assuming you discovered your idea is a viable one, you’re ready to take action on your inspiration. Turn your idea into a successful book.
Do you write non-fiction? What are some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way? Please do share in the comments below.
About the Author
Nina Amir, Inspiration-to-Creation Coach, inspires people to combine their purpose and passion so they Achieve More Inspired Results. She motivates both writers and non-writers to create publishable and published products, careers as authors and to achieve their goals and fulfill their purpose.
Nina is the author of How to Blog a Book, Write, Publish and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time (Writer’s Digest Books) as well as 10 more short books.
A sought after editor, proposal consultant, book and author coach, and blog-to-book coach, Nina’s clients’ books have sold upwards of 230,000 copies and landed deals with top publishers.
{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
I’m writing a book on healthcare (in general). I’ve been working on it for five years (research, data, etc.) I don’t have a PhD. I guess my question relates to “7. Why are you the best person to write this book.” The content of the book is largely common sense, observation and experience because of the field I work in and have for the past 20 years. Do I really need that long list of letters behind my name? I have letters behind my name, but I’ve always been afraid they’re not enough. Will publishers turn me away because I’m an RN and not some PhD?
** comment from Nina**
Nicki,
Your RN degree and experience will go a long way with a book on that topic for sure. That is expert status. You don’t need a PhD. Sometimes being different from the others in the pack of authors in your category is good, sets you apart.
A publisher will also look at your platform, though, to to determine if you are a good publishing partner. So you want to look at that critically–are you speaking, blogging, social networking on your topic to get known as an expert.
Thanks for your comment, and good luck!
Nina
Thanks so much for taking time to read my question. I am a personal assistant for a family who has a child with autism. I kept a journal for a year about our experiences with this child. This story is from my viewpoint but in writing the story I include her mom, sister, school teachers, doctors, etc. I plan to change the names of these people. Here is my question, do I have to get the permission of these people that are in my book even if I change their names? If so how do I go about this? Are there forms that need to be filled out and signed? To what degree do I not have to “worry” about this, etc? Any advice is appreciated!
Melanie
Hello,
Im a recent graduate from university and have had this idea of writing a book about my father for the last 3-4 years. it has now come time to finally get this book going. However my problem is that I never written anything longer than whats needed for a university based paper. I did not grow up constantly writing either. Where do i start? How do i start?
From Nina:
Rose,
I have a degree in magazine journalism. My college professor in my magazine journalism program told me that if I could write a magazine article, I could write a book because a book is made up of a string of articles on the same subject.
If you can write a college paper on one topic, you can write 8-10 “papers” on that topic that are all related. That’s a book.
Think of it that way.
Thank you.
Okay let me elaborate a little bit. My father is quite obnoxious. He is very similar to the character of ‘Shit my dad says,’ except his quotes are not that witty or obnoxious. He is a peculiar character and is kind of a little bit on the ‘Paranoid’ side. This is what makes some of the things he says and does, funny.
Okay, so this is where I get confused in how to start writing. I have kept a compilation of all of the random situations and sayings of him on a word pad on my computer. I think I have at least two years worth of funny sayings and situation. They are also dated.
Would you be able to have some suggestive tips as in how to start writing this. I am extremely confused. I don’t know whether to keep it as a auto-biography, non-fiction, or fiction.
From Nina: Response to Rose:
That is a really personal choice on the one hand and on the other one that revolves around marketing. You have to figure out if the material works best as a nonfiction or fiction. You might need to ask your father if he cares… Or write these vignettes a few different ways and take them to a critique group or to an editor. See what feedback you get. Work with the material to see how it best fits together. Also, determine the way you like to write. And then try to find out how your target audience will best receive it.
Ok I think I can cover those bases, I have been told by several people that I need to write this book. I have over 10 years in the field practical experience and consulting. I have a marketing plan. I was thinking of going with self publishing BUT I’ve had people come to me and suggest I also make a sequel or two. The subject being horse genetics, a niche market. But among horse people its important for breeding considerations. Actually I’ve had more serious consultations since the market collapsed than while it was wild so I think people are more serious about breeding good foals and want the advice. I have a bachelor’s in field (research) biology with a chemistry emphasis so I’d like to take all the actual science and put it in plain terms. My big question is how do I structure things so I don’t get in trouble. I’d be explaining how a biological system works without direct quotes because I don’t want to confuse people with terms like EC exon 14. I’m more than agreeable to citing authorship and date of publication and providing a reference section. I’m all about knowledge is power and giving due credit. I know I’d dislike someone stepping on my toes that way. But I’m wondering if I need traditional permissions for the body of the work in text or would such a thing fall under fair use? I’d be doing my own charts so I think I’m safe there. And if I use someone’s pictures I know to pursue permissions for that. Anyone have some pointers for me? And thanks in advance if you do, I’ve been looking at this issue for a couple days now and am just not getting anywhere.
Thank you so much for all of the great information. This is truly what I needed to at least get started. I am an Albanian survivor of the Kosovo-Serbia conflict. I am interested in writing a book from my experiences as a child in the war. I am having a hard time of distinguishing it from other war stories. The book will also include the great way that America and its people helped my family and I overcome such atrocity. Do you think I have a good shot here of having a successful book? What specific tips do you have to me? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
From Nina: You have a chance if your story is unique among all other stories like it and is compelling and marketable. If you want to learn more about how to create one like this, follow my new book, The Author’s Training Manual (Writer’s Digest Books, Feb. 2014), as I blog bits of it here: http://writenonfictionnow.com/about-nina-amir/the-authors-training-manual/.
Hi Nina, I recently lost my mom to dementia. she was 92 years old. I have learned a great deal about her life from her. I want to write her life history from my point of view and the impact emotionally that it had on me, as well as on my children, as so many traits, feelings and behaviors have been passed on and so many lives seem to be repeats of one another. I know this not much info, but I have read all of your words and I am convinced that this story could be of use to so many people who may have had similar circumstances. I too, do not have degrees of anything major, but I do have enough, that mentally speaking, since my mom suffered from some mental illness, may be helpful. I have a bachelors of science in mental health and worked with mentally ill adults for 14 years.
Could you give me some feedback with what little I have shard with you? thank you and sincerely Ramona Mckenzie
My friend has written a non-fiction book and he is confused about the referencing rules.
He has recorded primary source interviews which he quotes from, with their permission. However, in order to put their accounts in context, he has included lots of data on the second world war (from many sources; home office documents, history books, etc). Is there a way to write this without it looking like a reference paper? His aim is simply to tell their story.
Many, many thanks
Kat
← Previous Comments
{ 3 trackbacks }