Tips: Writing, and Selling a Nonfiction Book

Do Your Preliminary Research.

It's not necessary to do extensive research in the beginning.  In fact you may have done enough preliminary research by conducting a business or a hobby.  I had one client, who was an educational psychologist at a local school district.  He already had enough knowledge from this job to write a proposal for his book firm discipline for the out-of-control child.

When you think you have enough, put together a one-page summary of your book. This will give you enough information to write most of the proposal.

Create a Table of Contents

A typical nonfiction book is about 15 chapters.  In the beginning, write down a word or two that represents the chapter.  In a book about amateur gold-mining, one chapter title might be The Gold Rush Starts All Over Again.  Each chapter title then represents the content of that chapter.

Write the First Two or Three Chapters

Some writers insist on writing their entire book first.  This isn't really necessary with a nonfiction book.  Most publishers will look at your book on the basis of one or two chapters and a proposal.  I have had many students and clients sell their books this way.  Write the proposal first, then the query letter.  I highly suggest you finish your entire proposal before you send a query letter.  It takes some time to write the proposal and if you get a go ahead, It may well be a month or two or more before you get back to the editor with your proposal -- by that time he has probably gone onto something else.

Determine Your Readership.  This helps you focus on your reader when you write the book.  When I wrote my writing book for Writers Digest, How to Sell and Resell Your Writing I focused primarily on the writer who was trying to make a living writing, or the beginning writer who wanted to break into print quickly.  Every chapter showed one aspect of this.  If I had focused primarily on the beginner, the book would have been slanted differently.  Believe it or not this is an important step.  It helps to slant the book toward your reader

Prepare Your Proposal.  Most nonfiction books are sold today on the basis of a proposal.  Not a full book.  If the editor likes it he or she will take the proposal to the editorial committee who can offer a contract and a date of completion.  The proposal consists of what the book is about -- the marketing section -- competing books -- the authors background -- and a chapter outline.  Do the best job you can here.  I suggest using  How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen, to help you prepare your proposal.

Research the market.

The best place to start is with the Writer's Guide to Publishers, Editors and Agents.  This will help you find the publisher who handles the kind of book you want to write.  It will also help determine the slant of your nonfiction book.  Generally when I am at this stage I look at Amazon.com  to see what books have been published on the subject and what kind of the slant they have.

For fiction we have a website for the various types of fiction genre -horror - women's- westerns- action adventure- mainstream-and more www.bookforce.bizland.com/fiction 

Submitting Your Work

It used to be that you put together a list of all the publishers you thought might buy your book, looked up the editors in the directory and sent the proposals all at once to everyone you thought might be interested.  Today, it's not quite that simple.  First of all, some publishers will not look at any material not submitted through an agent.  Others will let you send a query directly to an editor.  Still others say that you must go through an agent, yet still take some manuscripts directed to an editor.  Some publishers list this information on the website yet, don't tell you which editor to approach.  Start with the Writers Guide to Editors, Agents and Publishers.  You will find this in most bookstores, and at the library. If you need more information, write or call the publisher to request writer's guidelines.