How to Write Non Fiction For Profit

What To Write About

Okay, what do you want to write about?

Now - today, this moment.

Sometimes the answer is the first thing that comes into your head!

But it’s okay if you don’t know yet.

In fact it’s quite common for the urge to write to strike an author before he or she has a particular topic in mind.

I think it’s because what we’re really looking for is the state of mind, or the perspective, even the peace we imagine we may have access to when we commit our time to creating a book.

Of course, professional writers know there’s no particularly fabulous feeling associated with writing.

If anything, it’s more like an addiction - where “not writing” is more psychologically unpleasant than writing.

Just like the alcoholic feels life is not complete without a glass in his hand, the career writer needs to be in front of that blank screen, filling it with thoughts, ideas and concepts. 

So, now you want to write a book, what is going to fill the pages of that book?

Many of us think we should have a topic we’ve been meaning to tackle and, when we finally get the time, we can sit down and get on with it.

But actually, that rarely works.

Basically because if you haven’t worked on something already, you’re unlikely to have much enthusiasm for it.

In order to make a start, one that has a chance of being fulfilled, the experienced writer needs more.

You want freshness.

The sense that something needs to be urgently told, or information needs be imparted because it’s important, relevant, life-changing.

As a result, you need to focus on what you want to write about right now.

Today.

This moment.

Honestly it’s the only way to maintain enthusiasm over the long term.

Here’s a tip.

In order to write well and quickly, and with a hope of finishing a new project, only write what excites you today.

Here and now.

As an exercise, start making a list of possible topics for your next book.

Spend the next few minutes thinking about what bothers you, what interests you, what excites you.

Make notes on your thoughts.

Keep adding ideas to a notebook for a week or two before you decide on one specific topic.

You’ll find this a useful way to explore your mind too.

You’ll begin to see obsessions, concentrations of topics and issues that you find compelling.

So even if you don’t know what specifically you want to write about, you’ll see yourself circling certain ideas, people, events and areas of interest.

Later you may be able to swoop down and start devouring a topic, even picking at the bones of an old idea.

Enough with the vulture metaphors!

I hope you can see that ideas require work.

It’s not enough to sit around and wait for a good idea.

That won’t work.

Indeed it only works if you’re not a regular writer.

Habitual writers receive their ideas, all the time, every day, because the brain is involved in writing.

So take the hint.

Work on the habit of writing regularly first and worry about where the ideas will come from later.

Because you’ll find you won’t need to worry.

Write regularly and you’ll have so many ideas you will hardly know which ones to pick and which ones to ignore.

So if you can’t think of any ideas - and I hear this complaint from many new writers, simply write more.

Ideas don’t some from a thinking process.

No, counter-intuitively, ideas come when you’re not thinking about them.

Usually when you’re busy doing something else - and miles from a computer or a pen!

Luckily most of us now have mobile phones we can make notes on.

I once wrote an entire book on a tablet, something that would have been impossible - and seemed absurd - twenty years ago.

Look around app stores for note and writing software.

There are many good ones.

The hardest part is finding ones that are compatible with each other.

I tend to spend a few minutes every week importing my “mobile” notes into my main Scrivener program.

That way I don’t lose good ideas.

All I need now is for the people over at Scrivener to make mobile and tablet friendly versions of their software!

Come on, guys, how hard can it be?

Anyway, the main takeaway from this lesson is that you must get into the habit of writing regularly, and making notes if you happen to come upon an idea.

Motivation

You can’t write when you’re consumed with worry or stress.

You’re not going to do your best work if you’re struggling with what to write next, or if you’re at all unsure about where you’re going as an author.

About twenty-five years ago, while I was still working in a day job, I spent several months trying to create a book about motivation.

I made notes, I created outlines for chapters.

I wrote sections in a frenzy because I so desperately wanted that book to make me rich, to get me away from the nine to five.

Trouble was, I had no clear idea what the book was going to be about.

I had no anchor on which I could focus.

I had a title which a publisher had expressed some interest in but I kept thinking I was perhaps the wrong person to write the book.

After a few months I decided I couldn’t continue with the project.

Everything I had was a mess.

I was stressed beyond endurance with the pressure I’d put myself under.

I closed my notebook and resolved that later, perhaps, I would use some of the ideas for another project.

So yes, these unproductive things can happen if you’re not ready for your next project.

I use different strategies for writing these days.

I create lists of possible future projects but don’t give them deadlines - too soon.

These days I let ideas for books bubble up and then simmer in my consciousness without any real expectations - at least for a couple of weeks, perhaps months.

I use Scrivener to make folders - which may later become sections or chapters.

I’ll fill those folders with notes, a sentence or two, or perhaps some cut and pasted research.

I let the new projects grow on their own terms.

And if I feel like I’m struggling with a project, I’ll take a step back, work on something more current, or decide I’ll come back to it later.

You’ve got to be relaxed to write effectively.

Objectivity comes from a wise and mature overview.

And confidence comes from experience.

The last thing you want to do is beat yourself up over your writing.

Doing that just leads to self-doubt, blocks and lack of productivity.

Be happy.

Do what makes you feel good.

Keep doing what you do every day but consult your project list at least once or twice a day.

Trust your intuition.

When you wake up in the morning, believe that your mind will know what you want to do.

If it’s a novel that’s calling you, finish that first.

If you feel the urge to create a blog post, do that.

If it’s a screenplay you need to get down, write that.

More than any other genre, you have to come to nonfiction because it’s what you want to do.

Because it will take a lot out of you and you’re going to need focus, enthusiasm, and a great deal of persistence to get it down.

Best to wait until the compulsion to write nonfiction hits you.

Forget about past ideas.

Dismiss all the old, undeveloped projects from your brain.

Let a new one bubble up in your mind and let it consume you until one morning you wake up thinking, 

Yes, that’s the one.

That’s what I want to do now, next, until it’s done.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you should write about something you’ve been meaning to put together for years.

Something that inspired you years ago is not going to keep you motivated.

Trust me, that’s not how it works.

If you’d wanted to do that you would have done it by now.

No, ask yourself. What do I want to write about NOW?

What really interests me?

What can sustain my interest over the coming days, weeks and months?

Next, we undo a gigantic myth that could well be holding you back.

See you soon.

Don’t Wait for Inspiration

I never sit around and wait for ideas to come to me.

Waiting for ideas requires a lot of patience and much wasted time.

Better to expect new ideas to come when you’re working.

That’s the way professionals do it.

I usually come up with new ideas when I’m writing.

For instance, I came up with the idea of doing this course while I was editing another one.

Half way through editing the novel writing course, I suddenly thought, “I really must write a course about nonfiction writing.”

Just like that.

I knew this was my intuition talking to me and I trusted it.

I’m a great believer in following my instincts.

But there are others - some of them highly respected - who say you shouldn’t work like this.

The Wrong Way

I’ve read many Kindle book authors who say you should be entirely mercenary about the process of nonfiction book writing.

This is how these “authors” say you should do it:

Ahem. Don’t write books you want to read, they say, write books you can demonstrate a demand for using either Google Keywords - or Amazon search terms.

When you do this, apparently, you will find under-served topics and niches that are of great interest.

They will therefore make you very rich.

In fact, I know several authors who only write books they think will sell - even if they have no interest in the subject matter at all.

They do it purely for the potential earnings.

But this approach does not always work.

Potentially it may NEVER work.

Why?

Because this kind of “niche-hunting” will always get you into trouble because - even if there seems to be a demand for a certain type of book, you’re not considering a whole slew of other factors:

1. Are you the right person to write this kind of book?

2. Will your audience believe you are the right author for this topic?

3. How much of yourself can you translate into time and commitment to this topic?

The fact is, you - any writer - can probably make any kind of topic successful…

BUT…

You just have to stick with it, and get behind it and be willing to stick your neck out for it.

But to me, your subject matter has to come from within first - otherwise you’re not going to stay with it, through the ups and downs, the highs and lows.

The Right Way

You have to write a book about something you believe in because it’s hard enough to promote a book, even when you believe in wholeheartedly.

Imagine how hollow and false you’ll feel when you’re pushing a book you don’t believe in.

Better to be right behind your topic.

Committed to every word you wrote.

Pushing your subject matter out there, with you in the spotlight, willing to stand tall and be the topic’s best advocate.

Your writing and your enthusiasm for your topic will translate directly on to the page - and people will subconsciously “get” your reasons for putting it together.

If you write purely for the money, that will surely come through in your writing.

Because your writing will lack sincerity and a strong yet invisible sense of conviction.

My advice is:

Be sincere, be helpful, be practical, objective and care.

Don’t bully, intimidate or write because there’s a so called audience of hungry customers.

Don’t even write with an agenda or a covert message.

Make writing an act of love.

Make your nonfiction project a gift to the universe.

In some ways you should expect nothing back.

Be humble.

Be true.

Be the best you can be.

That’s when you’ll do your best writing.

Because the topic should be a direct reflection of who you are, what you believe, and everything you stand for.

If it doesn’t come from that personal place, I’d suggest you wait for a better idea or find another topic.

Something you do believe in!

What’s Your Passion?

New Ideas and How to Harness Them

Go through a week and make notes on what moves you.

You might be surprised at how some seemingly small event, a notion or an opinion can blossom into a book idea.

Be inquisitive but don’t be afraid to record the obvious - because what’s obvious to you is not always obvious to others.

Write down ideas, large and small, issues that intrigue you, look too for angles that make you go, “Hmm.”

Seek out the emotion, not just the subject matter.

Find issues that move you and - more than likely - those issues will move others too.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Great Book Ideas

Blink is a simple idea for a book that became a bestseller.

Malcolm Gladwell one day grew curious over the fact that people could somehow instinctively tell a work of art was fake just by looking at it - and only once.

He wondered how could this happen.

He asked himself:

“What happens in the brain in the blink of an eye?”

And there was his premise for “Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking...”

The self-help guru, Grant Cardone, once - almost jokingly - thought it seemed he had to work ten times harder than anyone else to achieve the results he wanted.

That thought became his premise for “The 10X Rule.”

Titles First?

In case you wondered, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with coming up with your book title first.

Publishers and authors have been doing this since printing began.

Yearly Almanacs used to be popular over a hundred years ago.

Their content was varied and often sketchy.

But they sold heaps simply because in those days the word “Almanac” guaranteed sales, especially if associated with a wise personality, even when that persona was completely fake.

The Interview Technique

Ask questions of people, get them to talk about their past, history, and their place in it.

Get your mind churning over what it was like at certain times in history, how a different time spawned differing attitudes.

Especially if they’re different to today.

Clearly Henry the 8th may have been a scary character.

But even more recent personalities like John Wayne, Ernest Hemingway, even Frank Sinatra might seem boorish and chauvinistic, their behavior inappropriate in today’s world.

Don’t be afraid to ask your grandparents questions about their past.

The little things they mention may be greatly inspiring.

Curiously, you might notice that when you ask people about their time during a war or a plague or some other economic hardship, they will regard that time with some kind of weird affection…

The Angle

If you’re not sure what an angle means, it’s usually a unique sounding take on an old topic.

The easiest way to create angles is to marry two unrelated ideas into one premise.

Tying two disparate ideas together can be a fascinating start to a book.

For example,

You might discover a quantum physicist was also an ardent Christian.

A sadistic tyrant was a vegetarian.

A famous inventor fell in love with a pigeon.

Whenever you’re considering a new topic, whether it be historical, biographical or perhaps a current subject, deliberately look for the angle, an educational or insightful story that reveals the human condition - or that highlights the absurdity of fate or happenstance.

It’s not always the subject matter.

It’s often the angle that is more compelling, interesting, the thing that will draw people to your work.

The Power of The Anecdote.

Look for a great opening anecdote and build your book around it.

When you watch celebrity interviews it quickly become obvious their time on screen is built around three to five anecdotes they trot out to each interviewer.

It may seem as though they are answering questions but actually they are being fed the right, pre-arranged questions so they can squeeze in their stories.

If this is the case, then you know that in the same situation, you will need your own anecdotes ready.

Either for your interviews or because you’re including them in your book.

Ideally both.

Biographical Ideas

When looking to write biographies, don’t always pick the most famous person.

Bios of unfamiliar people can sell just as well if the main character’s lives were interesting and your angle is cute.

Mathematicians, lesser known comedians, second directors of old TV sitcoms for instance can all make for potentially heroic characters.

By the same token, writing unfamiliar stories about famous people can be riveting.

Choose the least known aspect of a famous person’s life.

Choose a little known event in history that (you could argue) had catastrophic consequences.

Of course people often look to their own lives for stories.

What made you successful - or not?

What made your mother, father, grandfather interesting?

If you’re going to use your own experience, make sure you have a riveting story to tell and that your life is not just like many other people’s lives.

What To Ask Yourself

At the end of a week, write out the top five most interesting ideas as a one sentence “pitch.”

Then ask yourself:

What is interesting about this?

How can I make it MORE interesting?

WHO will find this interesting?

Identifying your target audience is just as important as honing your idea.

Conclusion

To be honest, most commercial nonfiction stories need to be profound, moving, and larger than life,

Rags to riches stories are not always enough.

You need grit, insight, humanity, total objectivity, a feel for the zeitgeist and a big story to tell.

Best of luck!

Ethics and Zeitgeist

If you’re totally confident you have a healthy objective viewpoint and have no deep seated prejudices that might interfere with your writing, you can safely ignore this section and move on..

However, if you’re like most people, and have opinions you should probably keep to yourself - or if you’re not quite up on the modern way of looking at the world and its issues - then this will at least make for an interesting lesson.

Zeitgeist: Defining the Term

Zeitgeist is a German word that means “spirit of the age”.

It is an insubstantial thing that changes from decade to decade, year to year, month to month sometimes.

In order to come across as relevant, a writer needs to keep an eye on what’s happening in the world and, more importantly, keep abreast to how most people feel about what’s happening in the world.

Objectivity

Objectivity means, basically, not coming across like a lunatic.

It’s sometimes hard to keep our personal feelings to ourselves but there’s a rule I live by when it comes to writing:

Do Not Deliberately Offend People.

I knew a literary agent once who enjoyed annoying everyone in online forums.

He would rant, holler, deliberately baiting people and rubbing them up the wrong way.

He thought all this was great fun.

Within a couple of years he’d been banned from most discussion forums (word gets around), he’d lost his agenting career as his clients left him, and he’s now a janitor with a mountain of debt he’ll never be able to pay off.

Being angry, speaking unwisely, offending your friends, peers, and colleagues online is a VERY bad idea.

And worse, your behavior will follow you like a rancid smell.

Everything to do or say online is there forever, so choose your words wisely.

Never post anything on the net you may one day live to regret.

Ethics

As writers, we have much more power than we think.

Adolph Hitler understood the zeitgeist of his time: that the economy was in depression because the Jewish people were stealing everyone’s money.

Despite this being a ridiculous notion, Hitler understood the power of the prejudice inherent in this attitude and used it as a stepping stone to power.

He used words is his famous autobiography, Mien Kampf, to sow the seeds of hate and unrest in 1930’s Germany. Then later, he wrote torrid speeches filled with jingoistic propaganda to raise his followers to a fever pitch.

Basically, Hitler used WORDS irresponsibly: to start a world war and murder millions.

Never underestimate the power of your words.

Also don’t underestimate the ability of people to take your words out of context.

You need to think and behave ethically in your writing.

Whether your chosen topic is painting and decorating, art criticism, sports, politics or biography, you cannot inject the text with your darker opinions or your prejudices.

For a start, you will not be taken seriously if your work is peppered with ill-chosen rhetoric.

Ultimately you are judged by your ability to rise above the herd and not get drawn into mud-slinging, hate speech, and general small-mindedness.

Keep Informed

Do not always trust your own opinion on things.

Get used to listening to and hearing what others have to say.

See both sides.

Be aware of the issues and how opinions can change - sometimes overnight.

Stay ahead of the game - that’s what keeps you young - and fresh sounding to your audience.

When you become opinionated you become dry and stale, no longer a thought leader.

Read opinion columns in newspapers and magazine.

Watch the editorial sections on Fox, the ABC, and CNN.

Listen to the radio.

Hear both the shock jock views, the morning show tattle and the more sober views of the state run organizations. Getting the balance between the differing views will give you objectivity.

Write down your own reviews of art, entertainment, science, sports and politics.

Know how you feel through your writing.

Write short essays on issues you seek clarification on.

Plus, use your brain.

Don’t just absorb the party line.

Think things through for yourself.

Decode the spin.

Translate the official line into agendas.

Seek the truth. Have your own view - one that tempers the rest.

But, and this is important, don’t just advocate your own view in your writing.

Be acutely aware you’re writing for the masses - and that you should reflect the majority view in your writing, even if you don’t agree with it.

And, if you don’t, say that.

Be honest and open.

The zeitgeist is flexible, sometimes whimsical, sometimes dangerous.

Don’t get swept along with but do try to understand it.

It’s all about proving a point.

The purpose of writing nonfiction is simple:

You have a point you want to prove.

Look at any of the current bestselling nonfiction books and the first thing you’ll see is an agenda.

And it’s usually right there in the title.

For example, here are three current bestsellers:

Fascism: A Warning.

The Body Keeps Score

Thinking Fast and Slow

You can totally much guess the nature of each book, including the genre and the point the author wants to prove - just from the titles.

And I can assure you that the authors of these books set out from page one to prove their point.

Why is this important?

Because your point, your message, your unique take on a topic is its most compelling selling point.

Plus, it’s its reason to be.

Exercise

Now it’s your turn.

No pressure.

Think of this as a fun exercise.

Think of something you might want to prove in a nonfiction book - right now - off the top of your head.

Write it down.

Underline it.

Now write five chapter headings that prove your premise, based on the essay format we discussed last lesson.

This chapter list would then become your very rough template for your book.

That’s it.

Simple.

Don’t over-complicate things.

I think I’ve already said you should be able to create a rough outline of your nonfiction book without doing any research whatsoever.

Your main point should be obvious to you.

Your premise should be at the front of your mind before you have any facts and figures to back it up.

The purpose of your book is to prove your premise.

Your proof becomes the meat and focus of your book and eventually your marketing angle.

That’s why you should know your premise and the point of your book FIRST - before you begin any writing.

Examples: Look at these bestselling nonfiction authors.

Malcolm Gladwell.

With each of his books you can sum up what intends to prove in one sentence.

For instance.

In “Blink” he sets out to prove that our instincts are more powerful - and intuitively trustworthy - than we might believe.

In all of his books, the noetic scientist, Dean Radin, has one agenda, that paranormal phenomena is real and should be taken seriously.

Grant Cardonne’s philosophy, in this many self help books, can be summed up as “If you work harder, you will work smarter.”

Genre

Just like fiction, your nonfiction work should be easy to categorize and place.

Even a quick look at the title should place your book in either self-help, biography, history, commentary, whatever.

When it comes to nonfiction, focus is crucial.

You’ve got be careful not to mislead people.

The truth is you must give people what they’re expecting.

And then not to lose people in bad writing or shape your arguments in a difficult to understand way.

You logic and your reasoning, like the best Greek philosophy, should be obvious and straightforward.

Research

The very worst thing you can do is to start researching a topic and then hope an angle will occur to you.

This is what amateurs do - and working this way can slow down a book project to a snail’s pace.

Truth is, you can spend years researching a topic.

You can actually talk yourself out of writing a nonfiction book when you realize much of what you want to say has already been said - and often by people who see much smarter than you!

Worse, because you don’t have a particular focus, you’ll get sidetracked into all kinds of avenues and corners but you will ultimately end up with a mess of notes that don’t gel into anything.

Better - honestly - to write your first draft without any reference to facts, figures, or any reference material at all.

Make your argument work simply with the force of your intellect, your argument, your premise, your proof.

Only after the first draft should you then find the information that supports and backs up your premise.

Yes, I know!

This may seem counter intuitive but when you’ve written more than say, four or five nonfiction books, you realize this is the best and quickest way to go.

Write books like this and you can finish them in a couple of months.

Do the research first and you’ll add years to the process which, as a professional, is time you can’t afford to waste.

Don’t be afraid - just start writing…

And keep writing!

Copyright - The Law and Your Rights

Many authors ask me, “How do I know publishers won’t steal my idea and get someone else to write it?”

Simple Answer.

You don’t.

You just have to know that:

1. This only happens very rarely and,

2. It’s actually much more complex than you’d imagine to pull off this kind of scam so publishers simply don’t do it.

Sure, sometimes it happens accidentally.

Sometimes many people have the same idea at once.

Either way, your manuscripts are protected by law.

Any attempt by anyone to steal the writing in your book is punishable by legislation, fines, and imprisonment.

So there’s really no need to worry unduly.

Fact is, if you worry too much you’ll probably end up never writing anything to worry ABOUT.

Copyright

While we’re on the subject I want to clear up a few questions I get asked all the time.

Fact is only amateurs worry unduly about copyright.

1. You can’t copyright an idea, only its execution, that is, only your manuscript can be copyrighted but not necessarily the ideas it contains.

2. You can’t copyright a name, a title, any event - in history or the present day, and thanks to some recent court decisions, you can’t copyright a person’s life - even your own.

3. Copyright is strictly limited to specific artistic and intellectual creations. Objects, inventions, certain goods - but NOT services.

4. There’s no point paying to copyright anything, though you can waste your money doing that if you really want to. There are agencies around only too happy to take your money for an imaginary comfort and sense of security.

5. You should bear in mind that no copyright lawsuit is worth pursuing or fighting unless the amount of money involved is significant. Over a million dollars would be about the right starting point.

6. This is because lawyers will take at least 80% of everything you might make from suing someone.

7. And remember you could lose everything defending a lawsuit that has no merit in the eyes of the law.

8. Bear in mind too that most copyright cases are thrown at pre-trial nowadays, often settled out of court, in private, for undisclosed sums.

The Reality of Plagiarism

Yes, some bad people will steal your manuscript and sell it illegally.

Online and offline too.

Sweat shops in the Far East actually photocopy bestselling books, create facsimiles and sell them in “reputable” stores and airport lounges.

I’ve seen this happen in Thailand and Cambodia, as in I’ve watched them do it - because these countries have no respect for “westerners” copyright.

As the population of the world explodes, piracy has become the scourge of the modern world.

Thankfully America, Britain, and the European Union are very hot on keeping intellectual property valuable.

Every day, deals are struck all around the globe to keep intellectual property sacred, a silent war that goes on under our noses (except in Australia.)

China - a communist state - doesn’t respect copyright because ideologically it believes all things belong to all people.

But even they know this cannot work because Hollywood, and the western music and video industries would collapse overnight if all intellectual product was free.

Hollywood licenses movies to China on the condition they pay 25% royalties.

Not a great return but basically, better than nothing.

Copyright agencies enforce ownership of bestselling material in all countries of the world, no matter their political leaning or ideology.

But what of yours and my material?

Yes, that too will get stolen and copied by desperate intellectual pirates.

(To help you get your head around this. I’ve been online since 2003 and I know for sure that everything I have ever written or produced is available somewhere for free. What can I do about it? Absolutely zip. It’s just the way of the world. There will always be someone out there who will want to get something for nothing. It’s called human nature.)

Bad guys will give your work away for free.

It’s actually a compliment.

It’s spreading your name and your work around the planet. See it as free publicity.

The current music business could not have proliferated in its early days had it not been for tape recorders and the buzz created by hundreds of thousands of young people taping music off the radio.

Curiously, now that everything is regulated, music makes a lot of money for recording companies, but is less important in the lives of average people.

Music has become a commodity that may be bought and sold by the yard.

Hardly satisfactory nor particularly inspiring for musicians the world over.

The best publicity is being read and talked about.

Don’t fight for copyright on your work unless millions of dollars are involved.

There’s no point in being obscure by cutting off your nose to spite your face.

You can get so protective of your ideas you can end up destroying the deals that would have made those ideas famous!

Here’s the best way to protect your nonfiction idea - if you really want or need to for your sanity…

Collect together your proposal, your pitch, and copies of your relevant notes and post the envelope to YOURSELF via registered mail.

Keep the envelop safe and…

DON’T OPEN IT until required to by a judge!

Becoming the Expert

In this module we look at ways to become knowledgeable quickly and painlessly.

This will help your writing - and eventually assist you being taken seriously in the media.

Don’t be put off.

Everyone starts off knowing nothing and as I often say, to be considered the expert, you only have to know a fraction more than the person you’re addressing.

Research

First, decide on your subject matter.

Don’t make the mistake of immediately diving into website data, books, retail outlets or libraries.

No.

First collate a list of where - as far as you can tell - the best data exists.

Classify the information available under the following headings.

1. Authoritative.

2. Useful.

3. Reliable.

4. Suspect.

5. Opinion.

6. Commentary.

These headings will help you distinguish the relative merits of information sources, so you won’t waste time in the future.

Not all places, libraries, websites etc., will be equally useful.

See the overview first, the broad sweep of the topic.

This is the first task of the expert - to know where the right information is collated.

Reading

Once you do start looking at particular books and publications, speed read first.

Again, get an overview of the book.

Ask yourself questions you want the book to answer.

This is called “active reading” - because it’s not passive.

Ask questions in your mind as you read.

Make notes.

Summarize the author’s findings at the end of each chapter.

Dot point the main issues.

Remember you’re doing research to help your own writing.

You’re not just parroting what the author says or believes, you’re questioning its usefulness to you.

Bear this in mind as you make notes and shape your understanding of the issues.

When Writing

Remove the passive and equivocal from your writing.

State your case, your view, your premise with confidence and authority even when you might be wrong.

If you might be wrong in a big way, state that too, loudly and proudly.

As soon as you can, establish a blog about your topic.

Perhaps summarize what you’ve read in helpful posts to social media.

Later state your own opinions and viewpoints on your chosen topic.

Speaking Out

You can make YouTube videos based on your blogs.

Wax lyrical about your chosen topic.

Making videos is not even about gaining followers.

Making your voice stronger and seeing yourself talk on film will help you hone your speaking skills.

You may even want to create a video course based on what you’ve learned.

You could give it away for free from your blog to gain followers and new subscribers.

The more followers you have, the more of an expert you will seem to others.

Network

Contact other experts in your field.

Via email or by more old-fashioned means.

Converse, discuss ideas with them.

You’ll be amazed how approachable and respectful most professionals are.

In my experience, only amateurs are nasty, arrogant and unpleasant.

Pros got where they are by being well-mannered, flexible, and considerate.

Seminars

Later you might need to talk live at events and seminars.

Here’s a great piece of advice to make yourself ready for these occasions:

Have five anecdotes pre-written.

Make them amusing, insightful and/or witty.

Practice telling then as stories - just as you might tell an interviewer.

Practice

In general you should practice talking aloud about your subject.

I find talking into a microphone useful.

Without one I’m shy and retiring, almost embarrassingly so.

Give me a mic and I won’t shut up.

I keep talking, smiling, making things up as I go along.

I think it’s to do with the slight detachment of the sound of my voice from inside to outside, across the room.

Try the same thing.

You too might find that with the addition of a microphone you’re suddenly a fearless speaker!

In General

When it comes to radio, podcasts and TV, don’t worry about not knowing enough to be considered the expert.

Interviewers will only ever ask you what you’ve set yourself up to know and will often provide their questions beforehand on request.

Presenters want you to look good.

Being interviewed can be nerve-wracking and interviewers know that.

On air silence is the enemy of broadcasting.

Nobody is going to want you to stumble, fall, or make you uncomfortable by criticizing you.

You can speak confidently about whatever you choose.

If you’re ever on the spot, being asked a difficult question, look at the way politicians cope.

Steer any question around to what YOU want to say and then keep saying it until the interviewer gives up asking!

Nonfiction genres and how to approach them

Each genre of nonfiction has its own conventions.

Which, if you want to sell books, you may have to follow.

In other words, when readers pick up a nonfiction book, they will have expectations about how the information is imparted.

Expectations that you will have to fill.

Educational

Probably the least stylized of all nonfiction genres.

What do I mean by this?

Well, answer me this.

Did you study history at school?

Don’t you think it’s interesting that the subject matter is often fascinating and inspirational when delivered by a good teacher.

But when you have to read the text books, somehow the whole situation seems dry, and uninspiring.

That’s because educational nonfiction has a specific feel, sound and timbre.

It’s not designed to be exciting and thrilling.

It’s designed to authoritative, definitive and non-confrontational.

In a sense, it’s written to be bland.

It’s not supposed to shock and enthrall you, merely to inform.

Best to pitch nonfiction ideas to educational publishers who will probably supervise your writing and give guidelines on their house style.

Scholarly

There’s a whole subculture of dense writing aficionados devoted to tenured professors and mature students writing doctoral dissertations.

Thing is, most of these pieces of writing are not widely read by the general public and, if ever published, will interest only a few people.

The style allows for a little more freedom and personality, but not too much, but generally the subject matter is so specialized as to be obscure and tedious to people outside the walls of scholarly endeavor.

Publishers are apparently inundated with doctoral theses every year but very few make it to consideration, let alone publication.

Popular Science

As I say, scholarly and educational writing needs objectivity, a sense of distance and little sense of authorial intrusion.

However, the mainstream market needs to be stylistically much more engaging and personal.

Some science topics can be surprisingly popular.

Books like Fermat’s Theorem, and Longitude, were both surprise hits.

Hard facts, when presented in an entertaining way, with a strong narrative thrust, can make for a solid career move.

Niche, often Your Thing.

Many times we’re tempted to write about something special to us, something that has personal meaning to us.

Two things I would recommend.

Check to see whether any publishers might be interested in your chosen topic first BEFORE you begin.

Perhaps ask other authors and experts in the field whether they think there’s any validity in your idea.

Check whether other books exist and how well they have done.

The rule you need to bear in mind is that if there are few books about a subject there’s usually little demand.

But when there are many books about a subject you can be sure there will be sufficient demand for your book.

Many students ask me privately if they should write a book about their sexual abuse/drug & alcohol problems/mental health issues, because they have noticed that books about these subjects are thin on the ground.

There’s a reason for this.

People generally don’t want to read about “problems”.

Yours, theirs or anyone else’s for that matter!

My advice would be steer clear of difficult issues that people don’t like to face.

I know this advice will surprise some, and offend others.

Many new writers will ignore the advice and launch into a memoir about their personal struggles.

Sure, this can be very therapeutic and cathartic.

Good reasons to write but do not hope for great sales.

But I guess you never know.

A few books of this nature do get through every year.

See my analysis of the current nonfiction market in a few module’s time.

More genres coming up next!

More Nonfiction Genres

Travel Writing

Probably one of the most glamorous of all writing genres and highly competitive as a result.

Many great authors have made money from writing books about their travels and adventures abroad but curiously, when you study the genre, you’ll find many of these books are not actually very useful travel books at all.

The most successful travel books are often witty personal memoirs written by talented authors with a great sense of humor and a unique way of looking at the world.

Remember too that travels to obscure places via difficult means will be a lot more interesting than family trips to the beach.

Study Paul Theroux, Bruce Chatwin and Bill Bryson and you’ll see what I mean

The Long Form Essay

A branch of journalism whereby writers take a topic and expand its content from over 1000 words, up to and over 20,000 words.

These essays may find their way into magazines or the Sunday supplements of newspapers.

They often regarded as examples of creative nonfiction and what Hunter S Thompson used to call “Stream of Consciousness” writing.

They are often collected together into novel length books.

Politicians, journalists, intellectuals and university professors will often write fairly un-commercial long form essays  about their specialties, for mostly academic reasons.

That is, they feel their books SHOULD be written and/or become part of the vast corpus of learning in the world.

Science, politics, math and sociology are the general subject matter. 

History

Many books about particular times in history do well.

See my analysis of current nonfiction bestsellers later in this course and you’ll see that history is nothing like a minority genre.

There’s a hungry market for all kinds of historical analysis.

If there’s a particular time in history you love or have some specialized knowledge in, this may be a great topic for your next manuscript.

Well written and entertaining versions of history that take on a new slant do best.

The best way forward can be to find an unlikely hero.

A little known friend of someone very famous, perhaps.

Or an unknown pioneer of a scientific discovery.

Other interesting “histories” might include a new look at an old subject.

“Drugs in the Bible” for instance.

The history of clocks, perhaps.

Something quirky seen through your perceived expertise, no matter how seemingly unrelated can also work well.

Also histories on a small scale.

Villages and towns at certain times.

War and famine during an important time.

Maybe a history of camping in the Eighties.

A memoir of your time Peru etc.

Alternate History

These popular books tend to be sensationalized versions of history that may include a conspiracy or three.

Alternate history theories can cross genre into religion-based myth and legend when, for instance, the alleged “real” story of Jesus or Moses is told.

Other favorite topics include the Freemasons, the Rosicrucians, the Egyptians, and every nutjobs favorite, the Knights Templar.

Famously “The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail” - itself a nonfiction bestseller - became the rough template for The Da Vinci Code, despite what the court case said!

These books tend to be heavy on fact or, more usually, a reinterpretation of facts, plus lots of speculation built into the semi-scholarly format, one chapter point leading to another until the final “inescapable” new theory is presented.

Politics, Economics and Social Commentary

To pull off any kind commentary on current issues, you have to be an ardent follower of the news and modern events.

These can be successful if you know your material, but it’s best not swerve too heavily into opinion and/or editorial.

In most democratic countries these critiques of modern society can become bestsellers, especially when written from the liberal, or socialist, far left side of politics.

Journalists and columnists may have the wit and authority to comment on society and its leaders and the influence of its celebrities but most of us don’t have the weight to pull off these commentaries successfully.

And, unless you were wondering, there’s yet another lesson on nonfiction genres NEXT.

More Nonfiction Genres

Quirky

It seems there’s always room for an original take on issues, especially when there’s humor involved.

I’ve always thought there should be an encyclopedia of world toilets.

(You can have this idea if you want it.)

Or a book about Inuit cooking (there probably already is one.)

Coffee table books are perennially popular.

If you’re handy with a camera you could pitch coffee table ideas to publishers.

Always popular are photographic histories of certain areas of interest: Cambodia, China, Southern France, The Amazon.

Popular Philosophy,

Sometimes these are merely thinly veiled self-help books.

They can take a personal view of the world and wrap it in a Taoist or Buddhist philosophy, for instance.

Or have a more esoteric spiritual elements: Akashic Records, for example, crystal healing, or talking to the dead.

The Secret is a prime example of taking a silly idea like “The Law of Attraction” and making it into a “real” thing.

Curiously that particular “law” is still alive and well out there.

Despite the fact that this massively bogus philosophy attracts only the desperate, the foolish and the gullible.

E Squared is another mad idea.

The book sets out to prove the universe is looking after you whether you know it or not.

It’s silly and the logic is flawed but it’s no less entertaining for that.

Hay House specialize in presenting new and old philosophical systems as self-help books.

Perhaps they should be more accurately called “way-of-life” books.

BTW, if you want to submit to Hay House, be careful.

They may well steer you into their “pay to publish” program - indeed, as may many of the mainstream publishers will these days. Penguin Random, Simon and Schuster, and Harper Collins now have vanity publishing arms. 

Also Hay House expect you have read a massive tome of drivel called A Course in Miracles - and before they endorse you promote you, would prefer you to say you believe in its general philosophies.

Biography

If you’re not tempted to write about your own life then books about celebrities sell, no matter who they’re written by, whether they’re endorsed by the celebrity or they’re unofficial.

You may need permission for some things like photos and to quote certain sources if you’re saying anything controversial.

But much information will be in the public domain.

You don’t always need to cover someone’s entire life either.

Perhaps a bio of a certain time in someone’s life, even semi fictionalized, might prove an interesting topic.

Health and Lifestyle

Murdoch Publishing, believe it or not, publish around fifty health-related, cooking-related, diet-related and lifestyle books every month.

Often disguised as hardback magazines, these are generally well-written and impeccably researched, beautifully photographed and nicely presented editions that are designed as impulse purchases.

It’s perhaps a statement about are current lives that we aspire to change and improve our lives almost constantly.

Everything from the way we look, to the places we live, work and play.

True Crime

Murder is always a good seller.

Again, make sure you have relevant permissions.

If you need them.

Religious Material, Devotionals

I often get asked about how to get into writing for the religious market.

My experience is that anyone who wants to write about God and Jesus can and will.

However you need to bear in mind that the market for this material is limited, like most niche writing, to fellow enthusiasts and may not sell as well as you’d hoped.

Plus, when using Christian publishers, churches, or organizations, don’t expect to get paid.

It’s apparently not the done thing to expect to profit from religious material.

See it as a vocation rather than a paying career move.

Ironically, in these increasingly enlightened times, you’re more likely to get paid if you write anti-religious books.

Intelligent, reasoned arguments against organized religion are presently selling well in the civilized world.

Online Content

Many new writers believe there is money to made writing content for the internet.

This is not strictly true.

(Excuse me while I laugh behind my sleeve at the new generation of wannabes who call themselves “content writers”, like it’s prestigious or any kind of a good thing!)

To me, internet “content” is the literary equivalent of supermarket muzak.

Wikis, blogs, and expert-based community forums are generally no to low paying.

Companies like Medium expect authors to pay for rankings and popularity.

My feeling is that sites like Quora waste a writer’s time.

You don’t get paid for one.

And two you can spend all day answering queries to raise your profile - but for what purpose?

Your time would be better spent writing a book on your specialty.

Conclusion

I hope the last few modules have given you lots of ideas about where you might dedicate your nonfiction writing time.

Remember you don’t have to dive into creative nonfiction full time.

You can have side projects where you might put together a book in your spare time.

On the side or as a hobby.

Next up, if you are going to go pro, we look at interviewing people…

Writing Self-Help

I have to be honest now.

I love reading (and writing) self-help material.

Always have.

I probably would never have had the guts to go pro had I not read the right motivational books.

Reading and writing self-help is both therapeutic, uplifting, and inspiring - for the author as much as the reader.

If you want to write self-help, for reference you should read the classics.

Anything by Anthony Robbins. Napoleon Hill, Susan Jeffers, and Grant Cardonne.

And, of course, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.

The fact is there has always been a good steady market for self-help literature, sometimes called new-age philosophy.

Hay House have regularly released self-help titles - hundreds of them - for the last forty years.

Check out any of these for content, tone, and presentation.

They are second to none.

Style

You’ll find that the best self-help books are chatty and informal.

Of course the subject matter is important and often a new and compelling idea to do with motivation, business practice or lifestyle choices is a must.

(It’s also typical of the genre that you can repackage old ideas too.)

But the writing style is equally if not more important.

If you come across as too scholarly and erudite, you will lose your target audience.

When people want self-help they want to talked to like an equal, like a friend, to be gently encouraged.

And inspired to take action - or at least think about taking action!

Self-help can encompass many aspects: business success, salesmanship, family crises, personal development and motivation, dealing with addiction, shyness, and all kinds of inter-human activity like dating and dealing with abuse..

Your book and its premise should be simple to follow.

Often there’s an inherent moral philosophy or even a religious backdrop, though this aspect is less common these days.

The format is clear.

Focused chapters of uplifting text with beginnings, middles and ends.

Usually there are lots of lists and dot points and acronyms for supposed new “technologies.”

On top of these are general hints and personal tips throughout.

It’s also important for the author to remain present in the text, giving out personal information and opinion, as readers seem to like this aspect too.

And if relating the information is not enough, there are often recaps at the end of chapters, or a precis of information learned at the end of each section, and then detailed instructions on steps the reader can take immediately.

Let’s look at my Recommended Structure for a self help book:

1. Prologue. Start with an overview of your topic, discuss the current state of play and how your “big idea” will help and benefit your reader.

2. Make Promises, show the reader how their world would look, how their success might be assured, how much better their life could be.

3. Next, show the background. 

This is often where authors presents their personal story.

How bad things were and how the book’s big revelation occurred to the author.

Best not to dwell too long on this section, because people don’t really care about you.

They just want to know what will help them.

4. Present the big idea, Here you state your premise clearly.

Be bold, confident and unequivocal.

5. Show the benefits, take the reader on a journey from a new perspective.

Make it personal, vivid, real.

6. Practical advice.

Address the reader’s skepticism.

Teach them how to believe or at least adjust their prejudices.

7. Show how your philosophy or strategy can take hold.

Go further.

Explain how your big idea can seriously alter your reader and their entire world.

8. Finally, offer a succinct conclusion, detailing the whole book in precis form.

Then wish your reader well, hoping they will enjoy their new life.

9. Further reading, index etc

Remember that good self-help books are a bit like drugs.

They give the readers a shot, a buzz, a fix of intellectual adrenaline.

Self-help readers often become addicted to them and need regular fixes.

It’s not always the solutions they’re looking for but the way the book makes them feel.

Therefore it’s important to use uplifting language and deliberately offer encouragement and engender self-belief.

Your tone - that is your optimism and your ability to inspire - is often the most important aspect of your book.

Next, we look at more genres in the nonfiction world.

Introduction to Interviewing

Interviews can be a great source of material, and an easy way to build up a wealth of research quickly.

There are four main ways to interview people, each with its own issues.

1. In person

2. On camera

3. On the radio/TV/pod cast

4. Via email

The easiest of these is the fourth, via email, but usually the best and most revealing is the first, in person.

The trouble with live and camera interviews is that other concerns (time, light, sound etc.,) may interfere with the questioning and more importantly, undermine the confidence of the interviewee.

Celebrities are used to the artificiality of filming on camera or recording in a studio but often amateurs are horribly intimidated by technical equipment, especially microphones - which can inspire freezing pauses and dreaded silence in newbies.

At every stage of an interview it is your job to make your subject feel relaxed and confident.

You must remain fascinated and rapt by your subject, almost as if you’re in love with him or her.

Maintain level eye contact at all times and never look like you’re more interested in something or someone else.

In any of the above interview environments, research is key.

The interviewee must know that you know them, and that you have dug into their lives and especially their achievements with thoroughness and, most importantly, respect.

To get the best from your subject, it’s always best to act as though you’re in awe of him or her.

It helps bolster their ego and seeming subservient will provide the right sense of balance.

Remember, you are not equals.

This is not two people meeting in a restaurant to exchange gossip and banter.

This is an interview.

You are a humble follower who has gained a rare audience with a star and their ego.

That’s the right balance.

If a star chooses to be humble and effacing all well and good but don’t expect it - and don’t be fooled either.

Prepare all of your questions in advance, based on your research.

Have a direction and ask your questions in order, all of them.

Don’t let yourself get steered away from asking the hard questions.

If necessary ask in the third person: “What do you say to people who say this about you?”

It’s about building trust, gaining a rapport and keeping the process fun, relaxed, so that you can continue gently probing.

That’s why it’s best to use a recorder but also APPEAR to take notes at times.

The Three F's of Interview Technique

1. Focus

2. Flexibility

3. Follow up

It’s sometimes too easy to stick to your script.

Sure, it‘s good to be focused. It makes you seem professional and in charge of the interview.

But you need to listen to what the interviewee is saying and adjust your questioning to suit.

Plus, you should follow up on little hints to other avenues.

The interviewee might have a wealth of personal information to give you but if you miss an opening, these things will go unsaid.

The three F's are a delicate balancing act but bear them in mind if you want to get the best out of your interview.

Always be subservient and immensely grateful to your subject.

They will remember your grace and kindness long after they’ve kicked themselves for revealing too much!

Writing The Interview

Don’t interview with an agenda but have one in your writing.

To a reader - and an editor - your “angle” is often more important than the information.

It’s about giving your article or your book focus.

Me, I ask questions based on what I think my final angle will be but I allow myself the flexibility to change my mind, based on what the interviewee says.

This approach works best for both of us because, if the interviewee picks up on my agenda, then they can try to change it - and that can make for a more compelling interview!

And a better article or book.

It’s perfectly fine to use direct quotes, even to tidy them up to make them clearer.

It’s also perfectly fine to paraphrase your subjects words, position or philosophy but only if any reasonable person would agree with your assessment - perhaps based on your notes and your recording. 

Definitely never attribute something never said.

When it comes to writing up your interview it’s often a good idea to set the scene a little, so the reader can see the interview in context.

Description of the interviewee’s house, their favorite space, their appearance, their manner, can help.

Plus - and you need to be careful and sparing with this - you can add yourself.

How you felt about the person, how they made you feel, your impressions, your overall feeling can be just as important as anything else - especially if you think your reader would feel the same way.

Above all else, look like you believe in yourself.

Be brave and confident!

Talking of personal mindset, well be digging deeper in that next lesson.

The Process for New Projects

Here’s a process I recommend using to develop new nonfiction ideas.

You’ll find this strategy works more quickly than most and saves time in the long run.

1. First, write a contents page

2. Then write the back blurb

3. Then write a “Foreword” which explains to your reader “why they should read your book.”

Now, none of this work need be part of the finished product but using this process is a useful way of making sure your project has validity.

In my own case, I usually write about 3000 to 5000 words - to myself - before I know exactly what I want to say and how I want to say it.

This is just how I work.

I don’t sit down and map everything out perfectly because that just seems like a lot of effort.

Especially if the idea is flawed.

Which at the beginning you can’t know precisely.

Besides, experience has proven to me that things never work out the way you plan them.

Better to think as you write and let the project take shape in your mind as you create short sections of it.

Let the project grow over time.

I find Scrivener, the famous writing software program from Literature and Latte, is perfect for this process.

I’ve created my own Scrivener template which has, when it first opens, six folders for chapters.

As I add notes to the project I open up various chapters, make notes, add pieces of information, in the rough order I see the book unfolding.

The thing is, you can’t know how a book is going to pan out until you’ve been working on it for a while.

Many people delay the writing by planning everything down to the last period, semi-colon and inverted comma.

But you really can’t do that because - not only will this process be slow and laborious - your best laid plans probably won’t reflect the way the book turns out anyway.

Better just to make it up as you go along.

Besides, I find I have much more to say when I’m working without a formal structure.

I learned this technique when I wrote plays.

Write text in dialog, write mere snippets when you’re inspired.

The snippets can be unconnected, unrelated, unformed even, but each will be filled with urgency and purpose.

Later, when I’ve run out of these snippets of inspiration I go back and rewrite them, fill in the gaps, and link them into a whole with structure.

Usually I think of a lot more to say as I’m linking the information and trying to create a cohesive journey through the text.

I’ve trained myself to work in this way out of habit and necessity.

I found that if I try to be to ordered and logical about writing I can up with nothing.

But if I write quickly and with an apparent deadline in mind, I can come up with more to say, even if at first it’s rough and sometimes incoherent.

The last thing you want is to have to stare at a blank sheet of paper and wonder what you’re going to write next.

Worse, to know exactly what you need to do and say but feel no compulsion to do it.

That’s why you need to keep things edgy.

To be rough and ready.

Sure, once the first draft is down, you can spend all the time you like polishing and tightening, making the whole thing look like it was exactly the way you imagined it.

Many writers say they don’t know what they think about things until they write down their thoughts.

I think that’s a good description of the way book writing works best too.

You may have profound thoughts but simply collecting them together does not a good book make.

However, if you write fast and furiously, trying to solidify your thoughts, you may unwittingly create a long stream of profundity.

This is how it works.

Forget what you English teacher told you.

Often literary professors have no idea how writing is created.

The rough and ready process has been taught out of them by professors who imagine what writers are thinking - but who don’t understand the creative process AT ALL.

That it’s organic, which means it’s not always logical, coherent or even meaningful.

A gifted painter can spend just as long working on a completely terrible painting as he can spend on creating a masterpiece.

A good artist doesn’t always know the difference until something is complete.   

A writer can spend many days writing total crap only to suddenly understand what he’s doing wrong and then fix it.

Try not to get too attached to a process when you write.

The one that keeps you writing is the right process, no matter how that works for you.

Just do what feels right and don’t worry, don’t even think, just write.

Templates

Personally, I don’t understand why people should find organizing information so difficult.

Many new writers resist the idea of templates because they believe that they hamper creativity.

They love the process of spontaneously creation so much that they get precious about it.

But templates are not designed to straight-jacket you.

They’re designed to free you.

Because only when you don’t have to think about your outline, can you get on with writing fast.

If you’re constantly having to stop and think and wonder what to right next, you’re doing it wrong.

A template for your book is really only a list.

And once you write down a list, you don’t have to think about your tasks anymore.

You just have yo look at one thing - the next thing - and let your subconscious feed you the relevant words.

A template is merely a list of things you want your reader to know and understand, in order.

If you don’t construct a template, you basically have to memorize what needs to be written - and why waste energy doing that?

A template, a series of notes about what to write about next, will free you to be creative with the framework of your book.

Being organized is something we all have to do these days.

As writers and entrepreneurs we need to itemize and list our thoughts all the time.

Simply take the straightforward process of making a “things to do” list and apply it to creating a list of chapters.

List everything you want to cover, move the order around until you have a pleasing symmetry and there’s your nonfiction book template.

Simple!

Plus, believe or not, this ten-minute activity will likely save your thousands of hours of rewriting and misguided research.

The Suggested Template

If you want an easy way to do this, simply make a folder on Scrivener of the following sections:

1. Title page

In WORD you will need to put a page break after title pages but Scrivener creates them automatically if you book is broken into file folders.

2. Copyright information

Copy and paste something appropriate from a published book and then change the references to your own work accordingly.   

3. Chapter Listing

Again, in WORD you will eventually need to link these chapter headings to the chapters in your book. Scrivener will also do this automatically.

4. A Dedication

Who doesn’t want to thank their loved ones for supporting their writing/vision/lifestyle

5. A Snappy Quotation (optional)

A good quotation can set the tone for a book, will let your reader subtly know you know your influences, and that you are probably well read.

6. Endorsement foreword by another author/expert/celebrity

NY entirely necessary but good if you can get a suitable expert to endorse you and your work.

7. Your Introduction or Prologue:

Where you will

Outline your premise

Make your promises

Briefly mention the highlights

Hint at the big ending

Leave on a high or a cliffhanger

8. Your Chapters

Make enough folders to container your manuscript. I usually start with ten blank chapter folders, which I will title as the mood takes me.

Always start chapter one with a fascinating fact or anecdote of some kind.

I’ve noticed this is what many bestsellers do.

You’re not relying on your own skills as a writer to suck people in but on a piece of fact that is in itself amazing. The best nonfiction books follow this advice religiously.

Chapters two to ten list the steps that outline, document and prove your premise.

Remember that your nonfiction book is not just a long list of facts.

It is a reasoned argument that sells a point, premise, or a proof.

It has to.

Without a point to prove there is no reason for the reader to read the book.

Take your time.

Don’t hit your reader with everything up front.

Your argument must be paced not get too bogged down in unnecessary detail.

The last couple of chapters should be your big point and its ramifications.

The final chapter should be a wrap up with a precis and a rounding off all in one.

Leave the reader on a high note, metaphorically wishing them well.

9. Bibliography - where you list all your references

10. Further Reading (also where you can recommend you own books!)

11. Index

This template order is not set in stone.

You can change the order as you see fit.

It’s really just a guide so that you can start to see the wood for the trees.

Taking on a new nonfiction project may at first seem overwhelming.

But when you use a template you can start to see that it’s more of a “filling in the blanks” process.

Nice and straightforward.

Only the writing to worry about!

And that’s what we’ll be looking at next.

How To Start a Book

Your first chapter opening is the gambit that will make or break the success of your book.

How you start your first page will define whether 99% of people will continue reading.

You should always imagine that a STRANGER will be the first person to read your opening paragraph - and that you have to grab them immediately.

If you’re starting to worry about your beginning, you should.

That’s the point of this lesson - I ‘m trying to make you worry and take your opening very seriously.

You have to imagine you’re at the wrong end of a firing squad.

What would you say to delay your imminent death?

What smart one liner would you choose to arrest the attention of your killers?

Would you go for shocking?

Funny?

Amazing?

Endearing?

Whatever your opening gambit, it has be strong enough to stop a hail of bullets.

Yes - it’s that important!

So how do you open a nonfiction book well?

Luckily I’ve done some research for you.

Here are the seven ways that the best nonfiction books open:

WITH:

1. A revealing anecdote

2. A profound quote

3. A startling fact or statistic

4. An outrageous opinion

5. An instant solution to a major problem

6. A crazy promise or

7. A simple challenge

Each of these will make a good opening.

It will be up to you to pick one, or have something similarly arresting, that will jolt the attention of the reader and make them inquisitive enough not to immediately put your book down.

The opening paragraph is actually the third “grab”.

First came the cover, second a quick scan of the back, then the opening.

99% won’t give the cover a second glance, and and even smaller amount will make it to the back cover - or the “Book Description” on Amazon, and even fewer will make to you opening sentence.

Which is why you have to make an immediate grab for the reader, and not let her go!

I think you get the idea that you cannot be passive.

You have to go for the jugular, as the saying goes.

Equally important, here’s what not to do:

1. Do not start with a birth

2. Do not introduce yourself first

3. Do not describe the backdrop unless it’s arresting

4. Do not skirt around the issues, dive right in

5. Do not begin with an overview

6. Do not insult the reader

7. Do not talk down to the reader

You job is to get to compelling specifics right off the bat - and draw your reader into the world of your book.

That’s why it’s best to start with ONE fact, ONE statement, ONE opinion - and state it BOLDLY so that the reader can get a good idea of your style, your personality and your commitment to you subject.

If you start of woolly, unspecific and indecisive, the reader will think the worst of you.

Just like in TV and movies, you have to start with your best shot: shock and awe your reader into submission.

It’s the modern way.

But, conversely, the way you structure your writing AFTER your opening is as old as the hills. 

Follow the scholarly essay format for the first chapter.

In case you don’t know what that is:

1. Introduction

2. Terms of reference

3. Premise

4. Proof(s)

5. Conclusion 

Use this format, and/or derivations thereof, for paragraphs, sections, chapters and your entire book.

This practice will mark you out as a confident writer, someone who clearly knows what they’re doing.

This structure is as old as writing itself.

You don’t even have to make it obvious you’re using it but you do have to use it.

Other Useful Tips

Writing these days is not like playing cards.

You’ve got to show your hand.

No whispering, or staying silent.

Shout your premise loud to your readers, no matter how daubed or controversial.

Lay everything out in the open.

Hold nothing back.

Be honest, even if it hurts you to reveal your secrets, even your dirty laundry.

Tell it like it is.

But… don’t tell it all at once!

As Charles Dickens one said about writing, “Make ’em laugh, make ‘em cry, make ’em wait.”

This quote succinctly describes how to write compelling text, even for nonfiction.

Readers like to feel they’re heading somewhere and that they will be rewarded (it’s called “the pay-off” in literary jargon) when they get to the main point of your book.

So make your reader wait for certain pieces of crucial information.

Deliberately withhold the pay-off.

However, be sure to explain everything in order, so the pace seems logical.

But resist the urge to explain yourself in a couple of short paragraphs.

Better to be subtle, clever and fun, leading the reader gently deeper into your world, so before the reader knows what’s happening, they’ve read, absorbed ad enjoyed at least a dozen pages of your book.

After that, they’re pretty much hooked.

The Writing

Getting Mentally Prepared

The following is what you need to bear in mind before you start writing.

You can’t approach nonfiction with any kind of fear.

It will not help you if you think you’re not as good as other writers or that somehow you will never make the cut.

You just have to start, keep going, and try not to question yourself as you work.

Set yourself a daily word target.

Make your count low enough to build in inevitable bouts of procrastination.

Don’t set targets for every day, only work days.

That way anything you write at the weekend is a bonus.

Decide to push all your other projects aside for the time being.

Don’t do anything else but work on your nonfiction project - especially during the first draft.

Every day, simply complete your daily word count, even if you think the writing is terrible.

Even if it’s not well-researched or you realize there are large gaps in your knowledge.

Don’t let anything stop your first draft.

Honestly, that first draft is probably the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do, psychologically.

Best to get that completed.

The rest, the editing, the rewriting, and the polishing may be tedious, exhausting even, but the first draft is an enormous hurdle that MUST be overcome.

Focus all of your energy on that.

Because, to be brutally frank now, if you write the entire first draft you’ll be further ahead than 99% of all other wannabe writers who never get as far as completing a first draft.

In fact, most wannabes might spend their entire lives thinking about writing a book, planning, researching, making notes, dreaming, fantasizing… but never actually making the commitment to create and finish the first draft.

Don’t you be like that.

Commit to GETTING YOURS DONE!

Your Space

Having a dedicated writing space is not as important as you might imagine.

Yes, every new writer’s fantasy is to have a dedicated desk in a perfect room with a sensational library around them.

And a beautiful view, of course (even though busy writers never stare out of the window!)

The fact is the writing space is part of you, inside of you, alive in your head.

Writing requires dedication.

Sometimes you need a space to remind you to work.

Actually professionalism is more to do with tricking your brain into writing as its first port of call.

Making it a habit, which you can do if you write every day for about a month, even if only for ten minutes.

Having a regular time will go a long way to providing the impetus to push you forward on your projects.

My feeling is the most important aspect of your space is that it’s private and you will not, cannot be, disturbed during your writing time.

Getting those around you understand your need for quiet time and space can be hard.

But getting yourself used to solitude and writing time can be harder.

If you’re not used to having your own dedicated time and space, you may at first struggle.

You may even get to your space at the appointed time only to find you’re not inspired, couldn’t write if you wanted to.

Some new writers - like busy young mothers - say the time they first spend on their own is so rewarding they don’t feel like writing at all.

Just the silence and the solitude are too blissful to contemplate doing any work!

On the other hand, you may feel guilty about having found some time and space to yourself.

Perhaps you can’t slow your mind down.

It’s racing with all your usual responsibilities and duties.

You can’t think straight.

Okay. These things happen.

It took me a long time to get comfortable just sitting in one place for a long time.

When I was teenager I liked to move about a lot, didn’t like watching TV, preferred to walk around.

It took me perhaps twenty years to get into the habit of not taking a break every twenty minutes of writing time. Simply because I couldn’t sit still.

Things are different now of course.

I could write all day but I get a sore butt and need to get away from my computer if only to make tea or take the dog for a walk.

The trick with writing is to find what works for you, personally.

Then persevere.

As I say in my motto, keep writing.

That simple phrase contains the whole of the answer.

Technique

Writing good nonfiction is about:

1. Choosing a tone

2. Deciding on a style

3. Being aware of pace

4. Pitching the right intellectual level and,

5. Engaging the reader

Let’s look at each of these aspects in turn.

Your Tone

Casual, informal, unaffected or erudite?

Much will depend on your subject matter and on how comfortable you feel communicating with your reader.

These days even the most intellectual of topics is approached with an informality designed to appeal to everyman, rather than by using a dense tone that may alienate most of your audience.

We’re all so used to TV and movies, the informality of the dialogue, we want reading to be the same pleasurable and easy experience.

If you’ve ever written educational material for the screen you will know it’s actually quite hard to pack in lots of information without losing the audience’s attention and interest.

TV and movies teach us that the human brain likes to process information in easy-to-digest chunks, even by having the obvious and familiar explained to us before we’re taken into unknown territory.

You need to be careful with your word choice too because even just one hard to understand word can push your audience away.

And yes, I did wonder whether or not to use the word “erudite”.

If I was not addressing writers, I would probably use a more familiar word like highbrow or literate, even brainy.

Best to keep your tone light and informal, even chatty at first.

You can always tone down your overly-friendly phrasing later, if necessary.

Generally the rule is: the easier your work is to read, the more popular it will become.

Your Style

Style is distinct from tone because style has a lot to do with sentence length and the complexity of your grammar.

Again, the trick is to keep things simple, easy to follow, and a pleasant experience for the average reader.

Keep away from long compound sentences that may confuse your reader.

Take a look at my other courses for the general rules of writing well.

Failing that, get yourself a copy of The Elements of Style.

There’s actually a very simply rule when it comes to style, however, and that is the best writing style for you is the easiest one for you to adopt.

Basically it’s up to you how you write but the worst mistake you can make is to attempt to use someone else’s style or to adopt a style that is difficult and unnatural for you.

Better to sound like a confident amateur than someone who is trying to sound clever and failing.

See the following lesson for more information on pace, choosing the intellectual level and reader engagement.

Technique TWO

Pace

The best way to deal with your new writing is not to worry about the mechanics at all, at least for the first draft.

Your main concern is finding the story.

There’s no point in listing facts and data because that’s boring to read.

You have to find a way of making a narrative by selling your premise in chunks.

Again, think visually.

How would a TV show introduce a topic?

Usually by showing an establishing shot of a place, perhaps from above or outside.

Then moving in closer to a room, then a person, then what that person is doing.

Use the same technique to pace your information.

Use the constraints of the medium to your advantage.

Don’t talk in generalities.

Be specific about people, times, and places - but only at the relevant times.

Take your reader right inside the events and the things you’re describing.

Be detailed, tactile, vividly show rather than tell your reader what they need to know.

Let them live inside your writing as you gradually introduce them to your nonfiction world.

If this sounds like storytelling, you’re exactly right.

Good nonfiction works in the same way as good storytelling.

To pull readers in you need to find a point of view, describe your characters and develop their agendas.

Then take your reader on a hero’s journey journey through normality, resistance, possibility, adventure, and finally resolution.

Level

Finding the right intellectual level for your book is a simple matter of deciding on your target audience.

With most nonfiction your target audience is someone not unlike yourself.

There’s good reason for imagining yourself as the target audience.

You won’t talk down to your reader.

You should always imagine your reader is at least as smart as you are.

This will stop you from over-explaining and/or making the easy seem complicated and vice versa.

Your voice should sound as natural as possible.

Now, of course if you’re a tenured professor surrounded by dons all day you natural voice may not resonate with the common man.

On the other hand it could your target audience is other intellectuals - your peers perhaps.

Most likely you’ll want to appeal to the most people possible.

If that’s the case and you’re not what your preferred audience reads, best to buy and read what’s popular.

You’ll quickly get a feel for the kind of informal yet authoritative tone and voice that is prevalent in the marketplace.

Reader Engagement

Fully engaging your reader is about presenting a logical and compelling nonfiction argument.

It’s also more than this.

It’s about creating a pleasant facsimile of your inner world so that your reader can live there for a while.

Reading is unique in the sense that we can actually feel what it’s like to be someone else.

But only if we’re totally absorbed.

Good writing can make us forget where we are, make us so involved in the world the words evoke, we might even forget we’re reading.

As the poet Samuel Coleridge called it, a willing suspension of disbelief.

Our brains actually crave the experience of letting go and becoming someone else, being somewhere else, for a while.

It’s why TV, plays, the movies and even music work so well for us humans.

Our brains need entertainment - detachment from ourselves - in exactly the same way as some of us need drugs or drink.

And for the same reasons.

Escape.

And once you create text that can transport readers out of themselves and into your world, you have mastered writing - and you’re officially a “word dealer!”

Fact Checking

I know this will fly in the face of everything you’ve been told about research but here’s a great time saving tip:

The time for serious fact checking is AFTER the first draft.

As I’ve mentioned several times already, the most crucial aspect of your nonfiction book is its first draft.

My contention is that continued research is just an excuse for not writing.

Hell, you may research so long and hard you forget how to write!

It is never too soon to start writing your nonfiction book - prior to any research if that’s what gets you going.

As I say, the strongest idea for a nonfiction book is one that involves a compelling premise you can prove - even without fact and figures.

Your premise should ideally strike a chord with your reader - even before you “prove” it to them.

This is how to create bestsellers: state a new idea and make it seem obvious.

Write your first draft with the evidence you assume will be out there, and when you’re done, go looking for the facts and figures that will illustrate your premise.

This was how The Secret was written and compiled.

First state the premise, then find the proof.

Honestly, the fact checking process will be much easier when you’ve completed a rough draft because you’ll know exactly what you’re looking for.

If you like, you can include information that appears to disprove your claims - just to show you’ve considered all the angles.

But do collect as much “proof “ as you can muster.

Research

You can now indulge in all the research you need because now you have direction.

You know what you need and you know when to stop looking.

The first draft has given you focus.

If you’ve ever started a project by doing research alone, you’ll know this can be a lengthy, dispiriting, and often pointless activity.

Because unless you sit down and create a first draft from your notes, ideas and research, you’ll never have anything to show for your efforts.

I once spent months researching The Black Death because I wanted it to be the focal point of a book I was planning to write.

Guess what?

I never used any of the research in the final book.

I became an expert on Thomas More, his house and his family, his effect on history and yes, you guessed it, none of that made it into the final book either.

You really have to be careful when it comes to research because it’s almost always a waste of good writing time.

Yes, of course some research can be useful, especially if you’re not sure you have certain facts right.

But don’t let research absorb you until you spend years avoiding the writing of your book.

It’s more easily done than you’d imagine because it sort of feels like you’re getting somewhere.

But this is an illusion.

Researching is stagnating.

Your References

Keep a note of all the facts and figures you quote - and make a note of where you got the information, even if it’s from web pages.

Note names, dates, sources, everything. Be careful with URLs.

Make sure they’re accurate.

If you can’t find an exact quote, put the whole quote into Google.

It will often find it for you, or at least where someone has quoted it!

This is a perfect time to compile the information that will go at the back of your book: your references, your glossary, your index and suggested further reading, even appendices of extra text and information you want to include - but just not in the body of the book.

Make sure every reference you refer to is credited.

These days copyright is king.

You don’t want some big publisher forcing you remove your book from sale because you forget to credit someone else’s idea, or didn’t adequately credit an authors words and books.

Remember too that even song lyrics need to be credited these days.

Even sometimes PERMISSION needs to be sought to quote from a published song.

Copyright is a minefield in these litigious times so it’s best to quote everything and anything.

Too much is better than leaving something in your book uncredited.

Here’s a tip:

Make this a fun activity now (after the first draft) because later - if you leave it till the very end - this can often seem like the most tedious of all activities.

Editing and Polishing

I have constructed many courses about editing technique and best practices.

I don’t want to repeat all the basics here.

Suffice it to say I expect you have familiarized yourself with the principles of good writing.

If not, read The Elements of Style or take one of my editing courses.

If you’re strapped for cash, there are many online colleges and universities that have basic style manuals and lists of issues that commonly plague new authors - even some old authors!

If in doubt, pick up an old dictionary.

Many of them have guides to writing style at the beginning.

Or at least they used to!

Now, the fact is, there are as many way to edit and polish manuscripts as there are authors.

Everyone develops their own technique.

In case you have no technique as yet, here’s what I do.

The First Pass

Read the first draft quickly, pick up the sense of what you’re trying to say, make notes on what was missed.

Think hard about whether you have dealt with all the issues you envisaged.

What needs to be added?

What can be deleted?

Is everything in the right order?

If not, change it.

Immediately re-order your text where appropriate.

Do it now, before you forget.

Even if you know you’ll need to add linking text later.

The First Re-Write

Sit down and start writing again, adding what you missed while creating the first draft.

Write fairly quickly so you can still grasp the whole rather than the specifics.

Fix typos as you go but don’t let that slow you down.

The most important decisions during the first rewrite are to do with structure.

Does your manuscript feel like it will have symmetry?

Is it balanced?

Is the argument and the premise sound?

Have you given the various issues the appropriate weight and attention.

Is there a better way to convey your argument.

If so, start changing it now.

The Second Pass

Read you manuscript fairly fast again, as though speed reading.

Can you grasp the whole manuscript in your mind?

Ask yourself whether you need to add more bridging text to help the reader move smoothly through the book.

If so, add words so that the text is coherent and well paced.

Keep moving from beginning to end in this way until all the rewriting is done

The Second Re-Write

This is the time to put the brakes on.

Read your manuscript slowly, in short sections, less than 1000 words long, even in 500-word sections.

Make these small sections perfect.

Fix typos, strengthen the grammar, make every sentence sing, make sure the sense of everything is totally clear.

Ensure all ideas glide easily from one to the other.

Add wit, charm and a casual friendly quality if necessary.

Don’t get hung up on words and phrases some quarters think are considered bad writing.

Sometimes trying for perfection makes writing sound dry and lifeless.

Don’t be afraid to use extra, perhaps unnecessary, words to achieve informality.

Make the reader feel comfortable.

The Third to The Twentieth Draft

Yes, you read that right.

There’s anything wrong with reading and polishing your manuscript up to twenty times.

Sometimes it just needs that much work to make it “just right.”

Don’t feel bad about it.

The longer your editing passes take, the sharper and more compelling your work becomes.

Don’t ever think, “Oh, that’ll do.”

Make your work as perfect as you can get it.

It’s worth it.

Beta Readers

Many writers swear by beta readers to find their mistakes and to help them improve their texts before the general public sees them.

I’ve also noticed that authors who use beta readers, even proof readers, still don’t check that those people have done their job.

The gurus on Amazon Kindle who brag about having a fast writing process based on using beta readers invariably have a million typos in their work.

Clearly the message is, you can’t let your work go without checking it thoroughly YOURSELF.

Even after the final edit and polish by a third party or three.

I’ve never used an editor whose work didn’t need checking AFTER they’ve supposedly done their work.

My feeling is that professional, that is expensive proof readers and editors are probably worthwhile but, with your average book release, you may never make back the money you paid for them.

A good editor will charge a thousand or two to make your manuscript perfect.

Trouble is, as a Kindle author, you may never make that much money back.

Perhaps over the years, but not in the short term.

Of course we all want to make money quickly - and lots of it.

But in the real world we have to balance cost against revenue.

ROI, as business people call it.

Return on investment.

This requires choices you’ll need to make.

But rather than rely on paying for editing and then crossing your fingers, I’d suggest learning to self-edit and self-polish as much of your work as possible, at least until you have enough money coming in - monthly, like a few thousand, before you start regularly investing in editors.

The Problem With Beta Readers

Like the famous box of chocolates from Forrest Gump:

You never know who you’re going to get.

It’s simple to set yourself up online, call yourself an expert and start charging for your services.

I have commissioned many people to edit and proof my work and only a small percentage have been worth the money I spent.

Many are just chancers who think they’ve discovered an easy way to make money from working authors.

There are a lot of businesses out there who love exploiting writers…

I see it as a balancing act.

Is the relative benefit I get from a bad editor worth the hassle, expense and extra time spent fixing what he or she has done to my work?

Again, this is a decision that you will have to make.

Again, better to do it yourself.

The typos you miss might be well worth the extra expense you didn’t create!

Plus, some beta readers just want to read your stuff for free and can give you about as much good feedback as your dog.

Some people just aren’t capable of giving worthwhile feedback.

They don’t see books the way authors see them.

They don’t question the same things that authors do.

Editing is a great skill and well worth the money if you find a good editor.

But beta readers are really just members of your audience who may not understand what is required of them.

Never rely on beta readers, editors or proof readers to find all of your mistakes.

Indeed, never rely on them to find ANY of your mistakes.

It’s your job to find ALL OF THEM and then get other people to find the invisible ones, the ones that weren’t there as far as you were concerned!

Don’t get into the habit of thinking other people will fix your work because that sets up bad habits in you.

The best, most professional authors don’t let their manuscripts go until they’re convinced they’re perfect.

That’s how they got to be professional in the first place!

Using Beta Readers

Okay, now you know what I think, here’s how to best use beta readers.

Commission at least five.

Give them all the same manuscript to read.

Give them a month.

Most will finish the MS within a week or two.

Let them give a paragraph of their own feedback - usually via email.

Only ask them questions if you’re not satisfied with their responses.

You should not present your beta readers with a list of questions before they start reading because this will taint the way they read the manuscript.

If you want to ask questions, do so at the end. Things like:

1. Did you understand the premise?

2. Could you tell me what you thought the premise was?

3. How was the manuscript pace-wise? Too fast, too slow?

4. Did I bog you down with too much detail?

5. Did you find many spelling mistakes?

6. Did you stumble over sentences?

7. Did you get lost in places?

8. How do you think I could improve the manuscript?

9. What other advice/comments would you give me?

And any other questions particular to your manuscript.

The point of all this is to find out what most of your beta readers are saying.

Individual comments are all well and good but you’re not perfect and you can’t please everyone.

What you need to do is to pick up on what most people find “wrong” and fix that - and regard the rest as feedback and interesting commentary.

Honestly if you try to fix everything people suggest, you’ll never stop.

You simply have to draw the line somewhere

And where YOU decide the line goes is the RIGHT place!

Self-Promotion

Nothing happens without a bit of self-promotion these days.

To remain anonymous, release your books and do nothing.

To make sales or achieve headway in the marketplace, you  need to make people - and not just your family and friends - aware of your existence.

The good news is you don’t have to let the entire world know who you are.

That would be prohibitively expensive and a likely waste of money.

You just have to let enough of the RIGHT people know - and they are those who want to buy your stuff.

This is not as difficult or as costly as it sounds.

As Facebook and Google has proved, blanket advertising is to everyone is expensive and largely pointless.

Look at it this way:

If an author paid millions to get an ad on during the Super Bowl, they probably wouldn’t sell many books - because very few of the target market are in that audience.

The same would apply to you.

Better to do small-time advertising and find your tribe of perhaps one thousand people who WILL buy your books, support your efforts, endorse your world view, and ultimately enable you to live the life of a writer.

Because that’s the truth of it.

You can make a very comfortable living as an author with only about one thousand buyers of your work.

But how do you find your own personal army of those crucial fans?

The Usual Ways

As you’d probably expect, the way to gain followers is to make a noise and attract their attention.

Plus, give them free stuff to help them out.

Just like you would if you were hawking your wares at a local market.

You know, in the real world.

The process is similar.

You shout louder than other hawkers, say more outrageous things, give await trinkets to people who will stay and listen to you, and then you treat those people like family when they’re on your side.

Online, this is achieved by writing blogs, influencer articles, and helpful posts and putting out links to these things on social media.

You might even consider automating this process although the social media sites are cracking down on this style of promotion.

Twitter and Facebook in particular are anti-automated posts because they say it threatens their idea that social media should reflect real time activity.

(Excuse me while I chortle at the idea these companies have ANY interest in anything but the money.)

I use Missing Lettr, who cleverly send out my articles as though being sent out by a real person all year long.

This means my articles get seen a lot more times by many more people - and encourage more writers to sign up to my Academy.

All of them potential customers.

Social Media

Facebook is going out of favor, as a means of safe, fun and relatively secure communication.

Young people are apparently turning their backs on facebook in literal droves.

Also, as a business tool for entrepreneurs and authors, it’s beginning to show its limitations.

Ironically for its customers, as facebook’s profits soar, its effectiveness plummets.

As a business model it assumes people are online to be targeted for sales.

But this woolly thinking.

Nobody on facebook wants to buy anything.

That’s not why they go there.

Sure, recently they’ve added a function where you can buy and sell personal items but really, that’s not the same.

That’s just trying to be Craig’s List.

Social media has shown time and again that the more you put ads in front of people, the less they use your app.

Online, ads either become irritating, invisible or get ignored.

Personally I’ve never been convinced that social media advertising works AT ALL.

The Future of Social Media

I’m sure social media was once effective as an author revenue source and still is, sometimes.

You can be sure of one thing: the more people you see flocking toward a certain type of marketing, the less effective it becomes.

I’ve been in business online for twenty years and that’s the way things pan out on the internet.

When somebody gets up and announces a surefire way to make money, that opportunity just passed!

It could be just me but I think Twitter is a stupid waste of time, certainly for anyone trying to sell anything.

For a start, followers drop you like a stone when you try and promote things that cost money…

Instagram is nice for seeing what celebrities are doing perhaps.

But on the whole facebook and Instagram are made tedious by the blanket ads.

Google Plus never found its feet.

It’s shutting down as I write this.

LinkedIn had potential but it’s getting too full of losers who pretend they’re successful business people but often have nothing more than the clothes on their back and an internet connection.

In my more cynical moments, I think we are all just trying to scam each other on social media…

From celebrities downward.

If we’re not trying to get money from people, we’re trying to con them that we live a rock star life.

It’s funny that there are reports appearing all the time that social media addiction is dispiriting and depressing.

They say surfing doesn’t make us happy.

Only obsessive, paranoid, lonely, and melancholic.

Even suicidal.

So what is the answer?

I think the trick is not to see social media as a profit source at all.

Private Funding

I’ve followed start-ups online who spend millions of dollars building an online client base.

They use venture capital money to do it.

Problem with that is they never make that money back and lose a massive percentage of their company to the venture capitalists.

Once upon a time I was a corporate buyer and one of my suppliers was a great guy who “sold” his company to venture capitalists for 90% ownership of his company.

Sure, they gave him a couple of million to expand but he said, after a couple of years, it was the most depressing way to make a living.

To work like a slave to make money for other people.

To make a company successful but never feel like more than a lowly employee.

He warned me against using investor money to fund your business.

The price is too high.

Conclusion

There used to be an online phenomenon in the early noughties called FFA.

These were “Free For All” sites where you could place real time ads on a rolling list that punters could see.

Trouble was, these sites only ever attracted sellers, so you could send out ads all day and never hit a buyer or make a sale.

This is exactly what social media has become today.

A rolling platform for ads that don’t work.

I know it’s hard to believe that ads DO NOT CREATE SALES, because we’re programmed to believe that they do.

Let me explain.

The ads you see on TV, everywhere, do not create sales - directly.

That’s okay, because they’re not designed to.

Advertising executives will tell you that advertising pays for itself INDIRECTLY by increasing the awareness of your product in the marketplace.

This MAY increase sales in the long run, but probably won’t exceed the amount of money you spent on the ads.

You see, people buy the products you see advertised ANYWAY.

That’s the hugely important thing to remember.

You should NEVER advertise a product that isn’t selling ON ITS OWN.

Without any help from you.

Remember, advertising is there to increase awareness.

Advertising as a revenue raiser only works when you raise the awareness of product that sells WITHOUT advertising.

Yes, I know it sounds like a Catch-22 situation, and it is.

But there really is only one thing to learn from this.

Advertising will NOT help sell a noncommercial product.

(Since the history of time that has never worked!)

So what does make a nonfiction work sell?

If we knew the answer, we’d be buying the solution at Walmart.

Truth is, nobody knows.

It’s to do with the zeitgeist of the age.

Some things just fit and are absorbed, elevated, and celebrated.

Most stuff is not.

Your job is to write something that people like and want.

And fingers crossed, will buy.

Paths Available to Non Fiction Authors

For many reasons, non-fiction writing is often considered the poor cousin of ‘real’, that is fiction, writing.

Being a novelist seems far more exciting than being the author of a guide to Georgian architecture.

But for a career author, there’s really not much difference between any of the genres.

They all require writing pages full of words.

It’s all work.

It’s all about writing books.

If anything, writing a novel will require far more stress and revision than the average nonfiction work.

Short Form Nonfiction

I think one of the problems with nonfiction is that new authors are often put off writing full length books because writing short nonfiction articles is so hard.

At least it’s extremely difficult to get magazine articles published because the competition for space is fierce.

Not only do you have to know your subject intimately, you have to be able to write without affectation or agenda for the general public - and a picky editor.

But actually, writing short form nonfiction needn’t be so onerous

For a start, as I recommend elsewhere, you shouldn’t actually write ANY articles for submission.

No, you should pitch IDEAS and ANGLES for articles to editors and only write the articles IF and WHEN they ask for them.

Plus, articles are not always about the subject matter.

Many articles focus on style rather than content.

And if you get the style of your target market right, you’re usually more than half way to an acceptance.

Long Form Nonfiction

In my other freelance writing courses, I offer lots of advice on how to make money from writing nonfiction book pitches and being commissioned by publishers.

In my “Secrets of a Freelance Writer”, there’s a huge list of publishers actively looking for nonfiction books.

This may shock you but nonfiction actually outsells fiction.

Publishers therefore are much more interested in nonfiction work than new novels.

If you’re stuck in the fiction rut, as many new writers are, even aspire to be, then you might seriously consider writing nonfiction to get your creative juices flowing and, who knows, actually start to make money.

To give you some clue here, my nonfiction books probably account for 95% of my writing income.

And, as much as I love writing stories, there came a point in my career when I realized - if I wanted to live in a nice big house and continue writing for a living - that writing nonfiction most of the time was the only sensible way to go.

Of course we can all live in a garret or sponge off our partner until the fourteenth novel suddenly takes off but most of us don’t have partners that patient, or even capable of hanging in there for the long haul.

Better to be kinder and more responsible and show our love by writing the odd nonfiction book, biography, self-help, cookery or travel guide, to help pay the mortgage and some of the bills!

Internet Content and Sales Copy

The world is full of fake news.

Mainly because of the internet and its tendency to demand hype over reality.

For the same reason, there are increasingly many fake job opportunities.

There may be a demand for e-zone articles, Wiki-type content, and endless blogs but they’re generally unpaid.

Unless you’re extremely lucky, nobody is going to pay you to create content - even sales copy - for their websites.

Even if they do, you might get perhaps a dollar for every 1000 words.

Most likely you’ll write like a demon for free.

Writing content is like breathing.

Anyone can do it.

Sure, they might not do it as well as you but only large corporate bodies care enough to employ someone to do it for them.

And those jobs are few and far between.

Even then, these companies only employ content writers because they can afford to absorb a loss-making exercise in the course of “seeming relevant” to their customers.

Writing content and sales copy for yourself will always be the most lucrative way of spending your time - because the purpose of that will be to sell your own nonfiction books.

Biography

Everyone wants to write about themselves or their family or people they have known.

Yawn.

There’s a much easier way of making a living here.

Write about other people!

There’s nothing stopping you writing unauthorized books about a celebrity’s life, even a popular historic figure.

Travel

A tough market to crack sure but if you approach your travels with wit, charm and a good sense of story, there’s no reason why you cannot compete.

Self-Help

One of the many advantages of writing self-help literature is that you can scale up quickly and effectively.

What do I mean by this?

You can create live tours, seminars, and speaking engagements based on your book.

Tour with your info, your personality, and copies of your book at the back of the room.

If you don’t like leaving your home you can create courses, start schools, and become a guru online.

You can even franchise your ideas, spread your teaching technique for a fee, and reap the profit of selling your self-help ideas to the world.

I hope this short section has given you ideas as to how you might move forward.

Where To From Here?

Many new writers get frustrated with the slow pace of a writing career.

Book writing is certainly not a get rich quick way of making a living.

Writing often takes you in far different directions than you first envisage.

Certainly the fragile reality of sitting around writing books for a living may quickly dissolve into a mad scramble for something, any form of scribbling, that provides much-needed cash.

You’re not alone.

Since the beginning of time authors of the works you most admire had to make money any way possible.

Only now do we have the ability to pick and choose our careers with any degree of freedom. 

Assuming you have written one book, however, and have either published the book yourself, put it on Amazon to see how it does, or started submitting the manuscript to publishers (doing all three options at the same time is a perfectly valid way to go) then what do you do now?

Two things.

1. Build your reputation.

2. Keep writing.

Reputation:

To a large extent, as a writer, you create your own reputation.

Even the persona you want the world to see is almost always of your own creation.

This is because, when you are responsible for self-promotion, you are the one writing your bios, your bylines and your “signatures”.

Even when you're introduced at seminars and speaking engagements, it’s most often with something you’ve crafted beforehand to give to the organizers.

If you’re like me and you run a blog with almost one thousand articles on it, you can be damn sure many of them are about me and so, if anybody was interested, they could get a pretty good idea of how I feel, how I work, and who I love from my blog articles.

And that’s not including the personal information I put in my books.

So, in order to enhance your reputation, you need to control the information that comes from you - and ensure you don’t inadvertently make yourself famous for doing something you didn’t want anyone to know about!

Activities

Maintaining a writing career of any form is about writing, which is its own blessing and curse.

In order to keep going you’ll need to keep writing.

And the following are the best ways to do that.

1. Write more books and articles.

This is how you get to where you want to go.

Don’t stop doing this when you get some success because that success will likely evaporate

2. Write a regular blog

Keep it current, write about current issues, and release a blog post AT LEAST once a week

3. To go with book releases, send out Press Releases.

This can become expensive online as now people want money from you distribute your releases to obscure publications all over the world.

But don’t forget you can send your own press releases to local newspapers and magazines, via fax or email.

Often local news outlets are starved of decent news.

Make your press releases fascinating and insightful in their own right and you’ll do well.

4. Contact TV and Radio stations if you like being interviewed - or hire PR people to do this for you.

5. Public Speaking can be profitable and fun.

You can join a group like toastmasters if you like.

I did once and I hated it.

Their rules are stupid and completely non conducive to good public speaking.

6. Organize you own speaking events at local libraries and other institutions like Churches, veteran organizations, writers groups and the like.

Doing these events for free can easily be profitable because of the books you sell at the back of the room.

7. If people aren’t inviting you to seminars, create your own.

To Repeat, Write more.

You’re only as good as your last book… until you start selling many books - then you’re only as good as your NEXT book!

You should enjoy the book writing part because you’re a writer.

Right?

Some people get others to ghost write their books because it’s the presenting, the being interviewed, loving the audience that they enjoy the most.

Having said I’ve met many ghost writers who resent people who take their words and claim they are their own.

Me, I’d rather get famous for my own words.

I can’t think of anything worse than people loving me for something I didn’t do.

I’m not sure I could live with that.

Conclusion

Much depends on your personality type and the sheer force of your ambition.

Some people will not stop until they get what they want and you have to admire people like that.

I have simpler ambitions.

I’ve done all the hype and glory bit and I just want to write - and have fun doing it.

Hopefully that’s still what you want - and I wish you well with your next project - nonfiction or otherwise.

At the end of the day, it’s all writing.

The best to you,

Rob Parnell

Rob's Writing Academy

Analysis of the Genre

For the purposes of this course, I have studied the current nonfiction book genre.

Not just the online Kindle part of it but all nonfiction on sale in the real world too.

I have reached certain conclusions using my own classification system and basically, the following amounts to little more than my opinion.

However I believe you might think my findings are interesting and may steer you into considering what’s commercial and viable and steer you away from projects for which there may be little demand.

The New York Times Bestseller List

Here’s what I discovered about a list of over 1000 nonfiction bestsellers

A full 47% - almost half - were historical in nature.

But “history” can cover a myriad of topics.

Half of all nonfiction books are classed as historical in nature whether an analysis of ancient man, a treatise on societal injustice during a certain period, a memoir of a politician’s time in office, or a study of a recent murder spree.

Around a quarter of books are biographical - from celebrities and public figures to stories of ordinary courage and historical figures seen through modern eyes.

Relevance is key here.

Not just writing about someone but making their story meaningful to a modern audience.

One in five of nonfiction is medical, about new treatments, the inadequacy of old treatments, sometimes about more esoteric medicine: spiritual healing, food fads, alternative and/or holistic.

Self-help is still a popular genre, despite New York publishers frequently proclaiming the death of the self-help book.

Notwithstanding, a fifth of all new nonfiction is self-help and inspirational in nature.

Though not religious.

In these turbulent times, writing about religion, it seems, can only get you into a lot of trouble.

One constant of the nonfiction bestseller list is that no matter how depressing the topic, the message should be uplifting.

Nobody wants to read depressing books, although many topics would appear at first glance to be rather serious in nature.

Indeed, many titles even seem to proclaim the futility of analysis.

The current zeitgeist would appear to have us all living in a post Orwellian nightmare.

Look at the fatality in the following recent bestselling titles:

The Last Pass

On Desperate Ground

Facts and Fears

Democracy in Chains

The Death of Truth

My guess is that, with the proliferation of news manufacture, celebrity-focused trivia, global warming, strained international tensions in so many regions and our general loathing for authority, we’re getting the books we deserve.

Paranoid, fatalistic and downbeat.

I’ve noticed too that as a reaction to media hype, nonfiction authors love to bag pretty much everything and everyone, as though this marks them out of as authors of distinction.

The adolescent idea that to be condescending is a sign of superior intelligence.

I didn’t find that patronizing attitude was convincing at school and I haven’t changed my mind since.

It’s easy to hate - easiest to hate everything.

It takes wisdom, objectivity and rationalism to see the good.

In one week’s recent top ten there were books about prehistoric massacres, war, racism, medical malpractice, the failure of justice, a murder spree and the failure of the death penalty, drug addiction and the need for harder work when it comes to creating success.

Note that all the “easy success” (get rich quick) manuals are no longer fashionable.

Hard work and accountability is in.

Luck, magic, faith, chance, belief, and esoteric universal laws are definitely out.

It’s little wonder the world is in such a downward spiral.

Our focus in on the negative.

Our problems are center stage.

It’s no longer fashionable to see the good because that’s what the Pollyanna's who live on Facebook do.

The rest of us - the literate perhaps - are apparently hard bitten realists for whom there is only gloom and the need to be critical but without taking action.

It’s interesting that just about every politician these days wants to weigh in with severe criticism of their own leaders, despite them obviously being part of the problem.

Political criticism is a hot bestseller at the moment.

We all love to bag our presidents, our prime ministers, and our leaders generally, not appreciating the immense power struggles that beset our leaders minute by minute.

In a world where data overload in the norm, how do we write books that stand out?

Those that are critical of current issues do well because the media likes to report on those issues, the more current the better.

The problem being that if you are going to comment on current issues you’d better either have appropriate credentials, be a career journalist, or have a large online blog following.

Say, over 100,000.

A decade ago it was fashionable to imagine that writing a blog could make you famous.

That’s a pretty slim chance.

A blog certainly won’t make you rich, nor even provide a nominal income.

But having a blog can get you followers, which can mean sales of your book when it’s released.

Plus of course the advantage of blogging is that everything you write is memorialized by the net forever, meaning that if one of your titles becomes a runaway success, you have a lot of ready material when people start Googling your name!

Keep writing!

Nonfiction Bestsellers

The following gives you an idea of what is currently commercial in the nonfiction world.

I picked a week in the New York Times at random but - honestly - this is a typical list of the top-selling nonfiction titles.

Number One: “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari

This is a semi-scientific analysis of how homo-sapiens became the dominant species on Earth.

So far - as at Feb 2019 - it has spent 38 weeks in the New York Times bestseller list.

Number Two: “Fascism: A Warning” by Madeleine Albright and Bill Woodward

As I mentioned, the premise is often in the title.

Written by a former US politician, this book is part 20th century history, part scaremongering - cashing in on the current anti-Trump zeitgeist. 

Number Three: “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo

Part social commentary, part historical and sociological analysis of how white people get defensive and exert their prejudices, making it hard to see an end to racial discrimination.

In the chart for thirty weeks so far.

Clearly there is a political element in many modern books - it’s basically trendy to discuss social unrest and point fingers.

Number Four: “The Body Keeps The Score” by Bessel van der Kolk

A medical self-help book about how trauma creates emotional as well as physical scars, plus some new age ways of dealing with attempts at rectifying the damage done to the body over time.

Fifteen weeks in the chart.

Number Five: “The Innocent Man” by John Grisham

Forays into nonfiction by bestselling authors are often successful, when suitably rare.

Patricia Cornwell has had similar success with her nonfiction, although her idea about Jack the Ripper being Walter Sickert are still ridiculed.

Forty seven weeks in the chart.

Number Six: “Grit” by Angela Duckworth

23 weeks in the chart another self-help book that, inevitably, argues passion and perseverance are more important than talent and ability.

This is a trendy topic at the moment - given the fact many people seem to rise to public prominence with no obvious talent!

Number Seven: “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson

A collection of memoirs on freeing innocent people initially condemned to death.

138 weeks in the chart.

Another book that points the finger at the system. Is it time to abolish the death penalty once and for all?

Number Eight: “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann

An account of a Red Indian murder spree in 1920’s Oklahoma when the FBI was in its infancy.

44 weeks in the chart.

Number Nine: “Being Mortal” by Atul Gawande

A surgeon ponders modern medicine for the elderly, and finds it wanting.

71 weeks in the chart.

Number Ten: “The Last Black Unicorn” by Tiffany Haddish

Written by a comedian, straight in at #10, it’s a rags to riches story set in LA.

Number Eleven: “Hillbilly Elegy” by J D Vance

A personal memoir about the struggles of growing up as white and middle class.

Seriously?

31 weeks in the chart.

Number Twelve: “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman

As you’d expect, a self-help book about intuition versus logic.

A staggering 200 weeks in the chart.

People just love self-help!

Number Thirteen: “Go Ahead In The Rain” by Hanif Abdurraqib

A history of a hip hop collective called Quest, published by the University of Texas.

Straight in.

Number Fourteen: “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight

A memoir by the co-founder of Nike.

29 weeks in the chart.

Number Fifteen: “Beautiful Boy” by David Sheff

A memoir about a father dealing with his son’s meth addiction.

An unusual topic for a bestseller but the writing is moving, if a little manipulative. Now a movie.

This list of popular books is interesting because it shows what people are generally moved by.

It’s also interesting for the kind of books it leaves out.

It’s clear that a particular type of gritty memoir and self-help is interspersed with books critical of medicine and politics.

Both easy targets by the way.

Note there are no history books that cover the traditional periods. Only recent history seems to be of interest to our rampant selfie-society, as though our generation alone has all the answers.

Note also the lack of qualifications displayed by these authors.

Hardly a doctor, a professor, or even an intellectual among them.

I hope this list inspires you.

If only to prove there is no subject too off the wall or seemingly unpromising that can’t catch the public imagination.

Best of luck!