OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
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.
Heather says
Hi Nina,
I have been searching the internet for tips on how to actually write the book. Publishing would be lovely, but it is really important to me to just get it written. I have never written anything longer than a term paper and I’m wondering what are the various approaches to non-fiction writing. So far, I have collected a fair amount of data, created a timeline, and am now starting to free-write, adding in the facts as they come up. But that feels way too unstructured and I know I’m going to have big problems with this approach. If you could point me towards any references that would help me develop a better approach I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Heather
Joanna Penn says
Hi Heather – in terms of writing a non-fiction book, the best way is to create the table of contents e.g. 15 chapter headings around your topic and then “fill in the blanks”. I use Scrivener software to write which enables this organization very easily. Then you go through an editing process.
Here’s how to get first draft material out of your head and onto the page:
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/11/04/writing-first-draft/
and here’s an example of my editing process (which should be similar for non-fiction):
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/12/07/after-first-draft-whats-next/
Here’s more on Scrivener:
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/02/04/scrivener/
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/11/22/writing-scrivener-gwen-hernandez/
But you can also search on Amazon for ‘how to write non-fiction’ as there are loads of books.
Heather says
Thank you so much for your response! This information will definitely get me launched into the process.
Joanna Penn says
** This is from Nina Amir – we’re having some comment issues so I am posting on behalf **
Heather,
I find the best way to begin conceiving a nonfiction book–or even a novel–is to go through what I call the proposal process. Look at the parts of a proposal and accumulate that info, just as I’ve suggested here in this post. Then brainstorm to come up with your content. Try a mind map. This is a very creative method for researching all the different material you might include in your chapters. Organize this into a table of contents (TOC). Then flesh this out with chapter summaries of a paragraph or two in length. Also write a pitch for you book–a 50-word elevator speech. These three items provide a great writing guide.
You can also create a TOC by coming up with 15 questions on your topic and then answering them. You may later want to change the questions to statements, but some books have chapter titles that are actually phrased as questions. Once you have the TOC, you can just write the book by actually answering the questions.
You can do the same as my last suggestion but with a problem and solution model. Once you have your list of problems, write the book by providing solutions.
Similarly, you can create a TOC with benefits, tips, ways, steps, etc. You then write to these. Pretty simple. Of course, you might need to flesh these models out with an introductory chapter or two that contains research or preliminary information. I often suggest an introduction and conclusion for such books.
This should get you started. Also, on my blog, http://www.howtoblogabook.com, I’ve been running a series of posts during April 2013 about how to write a blogged book, but the information pertains to any book. You might find it helpful.
Thanks, Nina
Christa says
Hello Joanna and Nina,
Thank you for this post. These are all very helpful tips. One issue I’ve been having is coming up with a focus for my book. There are multiple ways I could tell this story and I’m having a difficult time making a decision. It is very important to me that my story is a unique one and that it is of interest to the reader (I am a journalism grad and I understand the importance of grabbing the reader’s attention). I know that the general topic has been covered to a point, but I feel very passionate about the topic, and would like to find a way to provide readers with a fresh perspective.
It isn’t just the focus of the story I’m attempting to narrow down it is also the way in which I execute the story. For example, do I tell the story from first person perspective, or do I find another creative way to get my point across to the reader? Or what about both? Should I tell the story as a curious journalist who is trying to understand the mind of the main character or has it been overdone? I am also related to the main character, should I go that route? The main character in this story was the victim of a crime that is known worldwide. The story of the crime has already been written, however I have sources that will allow me to tell the story of the next generation victims of the crime—but would the second-generation spin be enough to make an intriguing story? Perhaps I need to do more research on what is already out there on the topic and hopefully that will help me come up with a focus and a unique twist.
Although I have written bits and pieces and have conducted a few interviews, and I know the story first hand, there are still various ways this story can be told. And of course I would like this book to be a success. So, I’m afraid I’m still stuck on #1 but at least I know what to do next when I finally decide on my focus and angle. Or maybe I should go ahead and choose one focus before committing to that focus and pitch the idea to a few publishers to find out if there is enough interest in my book idea. What do you think?
Thanks again,
Christa
Joanna Penn says
Hi Christa – I think you would benefit from working with a structural editor in order to work out what you want to do with your book if you want to self-publish. But if you want to pitch publishers then yes, you’ll just have to choose a focus and go with that.
Joanna Penn says
** This is from Nina Amir – we’re having some issues with comment posting **
Christa,
As you mention, you need to take the time to do research on your competition. This can be very enlightening. Find out exactly what books have been written and what angle they have taken as well as what material they have covered. Also consider what market you want to target and who your ideal reader is. Then, look at your material and determine these things: the angle you think you would like to take on your subject to best target your market, provide the most benefit to readers in that market and to provide the most unique book; the theme you would like to focus upon; the benefits you want to provide to readers; and the purpose of your book (and even your purpose in writing it).
With all of this information, you will be able to come up with a Table of Contents. Then you can flesh this out with chapter summaries. Last, relook at your competition and see if you are providing a unique and necessary book that targets your market.
Joanna is right; a developmental editor or book coach might be helpful. I work with my clients to do exactly what I just suggested here. We do it together and also map out the content of the book. I’m sure you can do this. You are a journalists and know how to research. You simply need a unique and necessary angle–one that offers a view on the story that interests (offers value) to the most people.
Thanks, Nina
elvis Tognia says
Thank you for sharing. I am at that stage where the mind is on something but things are not quite clear and then goes a search to figure that out,
Thank you
Nicki Britt says
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?
Joanna Penn says
** 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
Melanie says
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
rose says
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?
Joanna Penn says
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.
rose says
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.
Joanna Penn says
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.
Ashley says
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.
Lola says
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.
Joanna Penn says
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/.
ramona says
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
Kat says
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
Tiara says
Hi Nina,
I’ve seriously been considering writing a book about a condition that I was diagnosed with a few years ago. In my research, I’ve found that there are many medical books, articles and journals written by doctors and scientists, but none written by people who have actually been living with the condition. I’m inspired by people like Kris Carr who wrote about about her life and surviving cancer. I really want to write it from the perspective of someone who’s going through it, as a means of knowledge and support. The main thing that makes me apprehensive is that I don’t have any experience in the medical field, so any part of my book would have to come from research and speaking with specialists about it (which I don’t mind at all). Is this something that’s typically done, and if not, is it feesable? Thanks for your input!
Tiara
Ricardo says
Hi Nina, found your article quite interesting. I just completed my writings for a book, “An Impatient Conversation with a Patient God.” It covers questions I asked during meditation periods for 1 year and the answers that came back to me. The questions covered a wide range of issues from finances, love, marriage, addictions, low self esteem, etc. My concern for my book is that although I feel like it is finish, I only have 15,000 words or 116 pages. Should I continue writing? And how many pages will be reasonable for a non-fiction book?
Thanks Ricardo
Kim Fournier says
Hello Joanna, Nina, or anyone who can help,
There is allot of great information about writing a non-fiction book on this blog; however, I am still left wondering how does one determine if a book will be marketable. I am contemplating writing a book about emergency preparedness, which will take considerable research and and so before I take on this project, I’d like to have an idea if there is a market for such a book. Based on my market research, there is no book similar to the one I intend to write. This tells me that there may be a market because there is no such book, OR, a similar book doesn’t exist because there isn’t a market for it.
Any thoughts or suggestions are most welcome.
Kim
Debbie says
Hi Nina, I would like to write a non fiction collection of stories surrounding myself & family. These stories have been passed down through the years from my grandmothers and, mother all of whom were great story tellers. I have told these stories to my children and, grandchildren, they never tire of hearing about long ago christmas’s, a trip to the old country store, back in the good old days, etc. I am 53 yrs old and, have a strong desire to put all of my stories and, memories to paper. My children and, grandchildren love the stories about their parents (my 2 daughters) myself and, their great grandparents. I know they will be stories they would want to pass down to their own children in the future but, as time passes memories fade. I will one day not be here to answer when I hear, Nana tell us a story. I was blessed with a great memory, going back to about 2 yrs of age and, remembering these stories as they were told to me I could close my eyes and see every vivid detail of each story. I guess my question is do you think I should give it a shot? I have no formal training as a writer I am a nurse by profession. I just have a very strong desire to keep these stories of our family and, our past alive.
Thank you
Debbie
Shruti says
stereotypical behavior and teenagers — that’s a thread itself.
I was observing 3 High School Math teachers in excruciating detail Friday the 13th at a charter school “Stern Math And Science School” from 7:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
They draw a 98% Hispanic student body from down-scale East Los Angeles, and get spectacularly good test scores and college admissions. I’m keenly interested in finding out how they do it.
The two most interesting comments that I got from teachers after their students left, and I was putting away my 30+ pages of hand-scribbled narrative and dozens of pages of assessment instruments, were these.
JVP: Do you have any comments on Classroom Environment Warmth and Control?
Teacher #1: “Behaviorally, they can’t help themselves, because their brains are simply not like our adult brains.” She then went into a profound summary of the Amygdala as it is involved in behavior, per fMRI data and her analysis. How often do people bring up “Amygdala” in
ordinary conversation? “Isn’t that, like, the Queen in Star Wars?”
Teacher #2: “What I have here is ‘controlled chaos.’ When I started teaching, I thought that a ‘good’ teacher kept the students at their desks and quiet. Now, you saw that when you observed my Algebra class a couple of weeks ago, but in the AP Calculus class, they are bouncing around the classroom, communicating with each other all the time. It is noisy, but noise is NOT chaos. So long as they are getting the material, and happy about it, I’ve learned to accept abandoning
rigidity, not cooling them into a crystal, not letting them be a hot gas, but right on the edge of the phase transition, they are creative and grasping things well, each in a different way. Today’s transition from antiderivatives to integrals — I didn’t think they’d get it, but they seemed to. We’ll know in May with the AP exams, but they are combining the algebraic and the geometric viewpoints better than I expected, so I go with the flow and allow for surprises.”
Since my 100+ pages of notes towards an Ed.D. dissertation for a program I’ve been informally invited to (saw the prof. Dr. Stephanie Evans who invited me, a couple of weeks ago; she was back from a long trip to Cuba), but haven’t applied, deals with Neurophysiology and Chaos Theory as the foundations of a New Pedagogy, I could hardly have been more delighted.
It was pouring with rain (snow level down to 3,000 feet) but my heart was filled with sunshine.
Shruti
Tina says
Hi Nina,
I found your article very helpful! I’ve been thinking of writing a book about aquarium snails. It’s been a passion of mine for a long time, and I have a decent amount of experience to share. However, I don’t have any scientific credentials. If I were to write this book, I would want to delve into anatomy and physiology, chemistry (of tank water), shell composition, etc., all of the issues I’ve dealt with as a snail owner that I couldn’t get answers to on the internet. I thought about seeking out a biologist or malacologist to provide the scientific information. How would that work as far as compensating them? Would I need to get a lawyer and draw up a contract? Also, what about using photos and stories from other snail owners? Obviously I’d need their permission, but would I have to pay them too? Just wondering how all that would work.
Alex Clifton says
I am so thankful for this blog post. I am currently working on a non-fiction project. Only recently did I have an epiphany about the fact that as a non-fiction writer I am always so super stoked about my book, but my excitement does not mean that others are readily or instantly invested in my project. Moreover, I have learned that it is really important to be able to sum up and discuss your project–coherently and succinctly, at times (there was a time that I wasn’t able to do this, and someone asked me about what I was writing).
AngelTwedt says
Hello my name is Angel, I have been most of my adult life, I suffered from lung cancer at 29, and had major lung surgery in which I had an after life experience, some how with the prayers and a host of crazy things I tried.I was cured!!!since that time I have been intubated 5 times due to lung problems…..two and a half years ago I was diagnose with ms…I started on daily injections and declined very fast within a few weeks I started having plasma infusions every 3 weeks, they didn’t work. Soon I was in a wheel chair then was unable to care for myself or my 2 year old daughter any more, the electric wheelchair came next, and a whole house reno, which included track lifts, and 12 hour a day care…the next thing was chemo for aggressive MS I filled my life time max it didn’t work!!! Still declining……….lots more to tell, but after 2 years in a wheel chair I started walking again and now am off 29 meds a day!!!!! this is an amazing story of faith love and triumphs….I just don’t know how to tell my story as Im not a writer by any means….any help would be great, I live in BC Canada….thank you Angel
Mae says
Hello am so thankful for this privilege that I can also share something. I don’t have a journalistic profession but for the past 20 years in my life I spend it both broadcast and print. I used to handle counselling program way back home in my country and once an associate editor in one of the daily newspaper. I have the passion to write. Recently I met a friend where we graduated in the same college and her story attracted me to writer. I started the 1500 words until I came across this space. My purpose to write this book is to create a valid reason to awaken the reader that there is always a reason and purpose for our every battle in life and we deserve absolute victory. That prayer works wonder.
Alistair says
Nina Hi,
I’m hoping to write my own story based on childhood abuse. I wondered what the legalities of using actual names of those involved would be? Any advice welcome