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What is a Nonfiction Ghostwriter?

What is a Ghostwriter Nonfiction audiences are constantly seeking book titles that offer clear solutions to their problems. From weight loss, to relationship advice, psychological counseling, healthy eating, fashion tips, and home decor, the list goes on and on.

In fact, the Amazon bookstore alone lists over 3,000 nonfiction categories and subcategories in their catalog!

Now, as an expert in your field with many years of problem-solving experience, you’re perfectly positioned to benefit from this thirst for knowledge from the reading audience — but there’s a problem: you don’t feel you have the skills necessary to write a nonfiction book, you don’t have the time to write it or perhaps both.

This is precisely where nonfiction ghostwriters come into play. Ghostwriters are seasoned professional writers. Most of them are traditionally published authors with decades of experience and they have a solid command of the writing craft.

Not only are they experts in the art of nonfiction writing, but they also have a strong understanding of the marketing forces that permeate the nonfiction world. They know how readers think, what captivates them and what entices them to take action.

They know how to connect with a book’s target audience in a deep and meaningful way — in other words, they know how to get into their minds and hearts.

Now, here’s the thing: unless you enjoy the writing craft, and provided that you have the budget for it, it’s always a good idea to consider hiring a ghostwriter for your nonfiction book, because the bar for quality in the genre is quite high.

Nonfiction audiences expect books from experts to be written with excellence. Anything less will reflect poorly on the author, which may impact your reputation and your professional credibility.

A loose analogy would be to walk into a law firm to find lawyers walking around in ripped jeans and t-shirts. That’s not likely the expectation you have for that profession and such a sight wouldn’t inspire your initial confidence, regardless of their talent.

What Does a Ghostwriter Do?

To be able to condense your expertise into a book, ghostwriters need to be able to capture your writing voice so that they can “impersonate” you as the author.

In order to do that, the first thing they’ll need is to sit down with you for an extended interview so they can get to know you, what your area of expertise is, your thoughts about your book’s main idea or thesis, the problem that you’re addressing for your target audience and your solution.

This is the preparatory stage of the relationship.

Next, they’ll want to nail down three very important things:

Who makes up your target audience
The problem you’re solving for them
Your unique solution

Then, they’ll want to take a deep dive into your book’s concept. They’ll need to learn your subject matter in detail so that they can convey it effectively to your audience.

To facilitate their job, you’ll be expected to provide them with all your notes, recordings if any, a mind-map of your book if one is available and your book’s outline and your preliminary table of contents, if available.

At this stage, your ghostwriter will enter the research phase. They’ll take in all this information and begin to thoroughly research your subject to find out what other books in your niche are already out there and what solutions they offer so they can identify your unique selling proposition.

Once this research is concluded, they’ll write your book.

Do You Need to Give Ghostwriters Credit?

This depends on your circumstances and it’s entirely up to you. All ghostwriters expect to be asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement that shields their identity, so if you want to claim 100% credit for the work, it’s really your prerogative.

For example, famous celebrities are more likely to share authorship with their ghostwriters because their lives are constantly scrutinized and it wouldn’t take long for the identity of their ghostwriter to come out in spite of a nondisclosure agreement.

However, most nonfiction experts who aren’t big celebrities expect that their ghostwriter’s identity will be concealed because their books will become an extension of their professional lives and should therefore be identified strictly with their names.

Do Ghostwriters Earn Royalties?

When it comes to compensation, it may be possible to exchange part of the upfront ghostwriting fees with a share of the royalties, but this would only work if you already have a substantial number of followers that can guarantee sales right out of the gate (e.g. you have a sizable email list or a large online presence in social media.)

Having said that, most ghostwriters will require new authors to pay 100% of their fees up front (or more specifically, an advance with the remainder to be paid on completion of the project) and will not accept royalties on future sales to be part of their compensation.

Should I Hire a Ghostwriter?

If a nonfiction book is instrumental in order to grow your business revenue or personal income to the next level AND you don’t feel you have the necessary writing skills to put out a top-tier product, you should definitely consider hiring a ghostwriter.

Although the cost can be high in relation to writing your own book, this can be recouped as you leverage your book to:

- Launch a profitable public-speaking career
- Attract the attention of the mainstream media as a go-to expert in your field, drawing attention to your business
- Increase your chances of landing lucrative government or private contracts — you’ll be automatically deemed to be an expert compared to any (most?) competitors who didn’t take the time and expense to publish a book

Land new clients since your prospects will consider you to be a proven expert in your field upon publication of your book
Develop profitable strategic partnerships, increasing the size of your lead funnel

How Much Will a Ghostwriter Cost Me?

Most ghostwriters will offer you a four-tiered pay structure, as follows:

1) Preparation Stage

For the preparatory stage they’ll charge you an hourly rate. For this reason, it really pays to come prepared to your initial meetings—the more prep work you do on your own the less work the ghostwriter will have to do later on.

Typical charges for this stage range between $100 and $250 per hour, depending on the reputation and demand of the ghostwriter, with a typical project costing between $3,000 and $7,500.

2) Research Stage

The research stage, where the ghostwriter takes in all of your information and then does their own subject-matter research, is also typically charged on an hourly basis. Typical charges for this stage range between $100 and $500 per hour, with a typical project costing between $3,000 and $30,000.

The higher end of the range can be quite substantial because it usually involves ghostwriters writing on behalf of famous personalities and as such the volume of information that they must sift through requires them to hire a small staff of researchers.

3) Transcription Stage

If you’ve captured your book project notes into a voice recorder and/or you have video footage, you’ll either need to hire a transcription service or pay your ghostwriter to do it. Transcription charges can range between $1,000 and $3,000 depending on the amount of recorded material supplied.

4) Writing Stage

The main stage of the ghostwriting process, the writing itself, is typically billed according to the final word count of the book project (by final I mean “publication-ready,” when no further changes are allowed.) Per-word charges can range between $0.50 and $3.00.

3 Key Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Ghostwriter

Since not all ghostwriters are created equal, and given the onerous nature of this process, it’s imperative that you do some serious vetting before you hire a writer. Below, you’ll find three key questions to ask candidates:

1) Is The Ghostwriter Familiar With Your Topic and Niche?

This is a simple matter of cost management. If you hire a general-nonfiction ghostwriter who’s not familiar with your specific topic at all, your research fees are simply going to skyrocket. You don’t want to pay for the ghostwriter’s education when they have a steep learning curve to go through.

2) Do They Have Experience Writing Nonfiction Books?

You will encounter many ghostwriters who will list a multitude of genres on their resumes and may list nonfiction as one of their areas of specialty. However, if all they’ve written before is fiction (either as authors themselves or as ghostwriters) then you’ll want to take a pass.

Nonfiction writing demands additional skills. It also requires marketing knowledge, a command of the art of written persuasion, a knack for problem solving and familiarity with sales copy, among others. Most fiction ghostwriters will likely be missing several of these.

3) Do They Know Your Target Audience?

You ghostwriter will need to know how to address the needs of your audience. If they’ve written about your topic before they’ll have first-hand experience with the state of mind of your target audience and they’ll know how to communicate with your readers in a way that’s persuasive.

In other words, they’ll be able to “feel their pain” and write in a way that creates a deep emotional connection with your subjects, which will make for a much more compelling nonfiction book.

In summary

Writing effective nonfiction books requires a very specific set of skills. If you don’t feel confident in your own ability to produce a top-notch book (say, your business is conducted mostly face-to-face and you don’t enjoy the writing process) or if you’re simply too busy to allocate several hours a week for 6 months or longer to your book project, then you should seriously consider hiring a nonfiction ghostwriter.

Good luck!

If you enjoyed this article and are in the process of writing a nonfiction book, be sure to check out my free nonfiction success guide, drawn from years of experience editing books for bestselling authors (including a New York Times bestseller) and ghostwriting for CEOs and politicians. Simply click here to get instant access.

Ben

Leave me a comment below if you have any questions or a specific need that I can help you address – I operate an author services firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners who want to publish books as a calling card for prospects, to establish their status as an expert or to just to generate additional leads for their businesses.

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors

Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

How Long Does it Take to Write a Book to Help Grow Your Business?

5 Book Cover Maker Mistakes to Avoid When Designing a Nonfiction Cover

Bennett R. Coles is an award-winning author of 6 books published through Harper Collins (NY) and Titan Publishing Group (UK). He is also the publisher at Promontory Press and the founder/CEO of Cascadia Author Services, a boutique full-service firm that specializes in premium author services specifically designed for busy professionals. Our end-to-end services include writer coaching, ghostwriting, editing, proofing, cover design, book layout, eBook production, printing, distribution and marketing.

The Top 5 Strategies of Nonfiction Writers

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

Strategies of Writing Before you embark on your nonfiction book project, you need to learn the best writing strategies in the genre to ensure that you don’t spin your wheels in unnecessary rewrites and instead create a solid manuscript that closely aligns with the needs and desires of your target audience.

If you’re a first-time author, the 5 strategies below will ensure that you stay on track on your journey while minimizing the chances of making rookie mistakes.

Let’s get started:

Strategy 1: Learn From the Masters

Nonfiction is a mature genre, which means that there are well-established success formulas that have been perfected over the years. While nonfiction content has evolved over time along with changes in society, the way that content is communicated to readers has not changed significantly.

Here’s the best part, you don’t have to go to school to learn these powerful formulas. All you need to do is learn directly from the masters by buying their books and reverse-engineering their techniques.

Your first task then is to do research on Amazon to find the bestselling titles in your niche. Once you have a short list of 3-5 books, buy them and read them cover to cover.

For your first pass, put yourself in the shoes of a reader looking for the solution to the problem that the book addresses. Make notes about how those books make you feel and about your emotional response to different chapters.

Also note the choice of language and the approach that different authors use to connect with their readers (e.g. are they using empathy? personal stories? supportive language?). When you finish reading the books, note if you feel you “know” the author, if you feel “connected” to them, if you feel like they’re your “friend.”

Chances are you will. Even though you never met those people, you’ll feel as if you knew them. This is the magic of good nonfiction and the effect that you want to emulate with your book.

Now reread the books through the filter of an author. Take a bird’s-eye view of the content and make notes about the different approaches used to elicit emotions (e.g. do they use personal stories? client stories? descriptive language? dialog?).

These are the techniques you’ll be emulating in your own book to create a compelling narrative that connects with readers, instead of dry informational text that’s devoid of emotional connection.

Strategy 2: Divide and Conquer

Once you’ve learned the tricks of the trade, it’s time to create your first draft. Now, sitting down staring at a blank page is not the best approach to writing a nonfiction book, even if your mind is overflowing with great ideas. In fact, it’s a sure fire way to becoming overwhelmed over time and to lose the joy of writing.

The best way to write a nonfiction book is to use the “divide and conquer” approach. Basically, you need to kick things off with a fully fleshed-out outline of your book (read this article on mind-mapping and this article on book outlining to get you on the right path). Your book outline is the precursor to your table of contents and it’ll show a breakdown of the different topics and subtopics covered in your book.

Then, simply choose the topic that you feel most inspired to write about that day and begin writing — don’t worry if the section in question is in the middle or even at the end of the book: order doesn’t matter at this stage.

Writing a book in strict sequence is usually not the best approach anyway. You could do it if you wanted to, but the end result isn’t necessarily going to your best writing.

On the other hand, writing about what most inspires you in that moment will result in much more compelling writing, even if it feels disconnected from the whole. There’s nothing wrong with skipping five chapters and then going back three, provided that the writing feels inspired.

What you want to avoid at all costs is making your writing feel forced into a strict sequence: in other words, to write for the sake of writing. Keep in mind that at the end of the writing process you’ll be enlisting the help of a nonfiction editor to polish your writing, help you with transitions, and even re-organize the order of your chapters.

Strategy 3: Write From a Stream of Consciousness

When you do sit down to write, guided by your book outline, don’t spend too much time thinking about what you’re going to be writing about. In fact, try to think things through a little as possible. Choose the section that inspires the most and begin to write from a stream of consciousness.

Remember that your nonfiction book is already inside of you. Even though it hasn’t been written yet, all of the content is stored in your brain. Your task at first is simply to channel that content out of your brain and onto the written page.

When you write based on inspiration instead of by force, you’ll find that your ideas flow effortlessly, without having to think much about what you’re going to write. At this initial stage, don’t judge your choice of words and don’t fall into the trap of self-editing as you write.

Don’t linger in thought trying to first formulate in your mind what you’re going to be writing about — that’s not conducive to the creative flow of ideas.

Will you make a lot of mistakes using the stream of consciousness approach? Most likely yes (unless you’re a masterful writer with decades of experience) and that’s totally okay. Your goal at the beginning is to write down your ideas. You’ll have plenty of opportunities later on to shape your writing, but not before you have a solid body of text to work with.

Strategy 4: Create an Advance Reader Group

Nonfiction books should never be written in isolation. Unlike fiction, you’re not writing a made up story for the purpose of entertaining your audience. You’re writing to problem-solve, and for your solution to work it must align with the needs and desires of your target audience.

Not only do you need to know what makes them tick and what keeps them up at night (which is part of your preliminary audience research) but you also need to check regularly with them as you write to ensure that your message resonates with your audience throughout your book project.

What you don’t want to do is to write your entire manuscript first and then give it to members of your audience to read at the end of the process, because if it went off track early on you’ll find yourself rewriting a big chunk of your book, which is not only inefficient but also frustrating and demoralizing.

Instead, establish an advance reader group before you begin your book project, made up of members of your target audience that you know and trust, and enlist their support to help you along your writing journey.

Then, as soon as you finish each chapter, pass it along to them for feedback and comments (the chapters don’t need to be in sequence for this approach to work). What you’re looking for is first impressions — is your writing connecting with your audience at an emotional level? — and also for fit — is the content resonating with your audience, their needs and desires?

If you find a disconnect you can then react and adjust your course early on. In fact, you may find that this approach may even alter the flow that you had initially anticipated for your book into one that’s better aligned with the needs of your audience.

Strategy 5: Hire a Professional Editor

After your manuscript is completed to the best of your ability – that is, you’ve written all the required sections, you’ve incorporated your audience’s feedback and you’ve made a sufficient number of rewrites to improve the flow and quality of the text – it’s time to hire a professional editor.

When readers have a need and search Amazon for books, the majority will search for a solution to their problems and not for a specific book title. Therefore, it’s quite likely that your book will come up in the search results along with traditionally published books on the subject.

And guess what? Every single one of those books will be professionally edited! So, in order to compete you’ll need to establish a level playing field by having your book professionally edited as well.

In fact, the use of an editor is a staple for all professional authors. Even recognized authors with a long history of success would never dare publish an unedited book.

The book you’ll be publishing will act as an extension of your professionalism, credibility and reputation, so this is an area where you can ill afford to cut corners by either self-editing or outsourcing the editing job to a friend or a relative.

Nonfiction professional editors are not only great wordsmiths but also have a deep body of knowledge about the art of persuasion, winning sales and marketing copy techniques as well as reader psychology. They’ll become a crucial ally to generate success on your publishing journey.

In Conclusion

A nonfiction book project can be a very rewarding experience because you’ll be capturing your life’s work into a format that’s easy to consume, highly ubiquitous and broadly accessible to the masses.

By following the above five strategies, you’ll be laying out a foundation of success for your book project that’ll ensure that your message closely aligns with your audience, that’s based on best practices and that’s on a level playing field with popular books in your niche.

All the best on your publishing journey!

If you enjoyed this article and are considering creating a nonfiction book, be sure to check out my free nonfiction success guide, drawn from years of experience editing books for bestselling authors (including a New York Times bestseller) and ghostwriting for CEOs and politicians. Simply click here to get instant access.

Ben

Leave me a comment below if you have any questions or a specific need that I can help you address – I operate an author services firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners who want to publish books as a calling card for prospects, to establish their status as an expert or to just to generate additional leads for their businesses.

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

How Long Does it Take to Write a Book to Help Grow Your Business?

Bennett R. Coles is an award-winning author of six books published through Harper Collins (New York) and Titan Publishing Group (London). He is also the publisher at Promontory Press, editor for multiple bestselling authors (including a NY Times bestseller), ghostwriter for CEOs and politicians and the founder of Cascadia Author Services, a boutique full-service firm that specializes in premium author services specifically designed for busy professionals. Our end-to-end services include writer coaching, ghostwriting, editing, proofing, cover design, book layout, eBook production, marketing, printing and distribution.

The Top 5 Skills of a Nonfiction Writer

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

Skills of a Writer In this article you’ll learn the top 5 skills of a nonfiction writer that are needed to create a compelling book that connects with your audience and that competes effectively with the best nonfiction books in your niche.

These are the same skills that professional nonfiction authors take advantage of every day to produce great books. Master these skills and you’ll be leveling the playing field with the best in the genre!

Skill 1: Write Like You’re Being Paid

In the world of book self-publishing, there are three key factors to take into account:

People buy nonfiction books because they need to solve a problem and they need to trust that the content will be credible, thorough and effective.
Your ultimate goal as a nonfiction author is to expand the reach of your business or career beyond your current boundaries.
In the age of the Internet, books have the unique ability to penetrate new global markets with ease and for a minimal distribution cost, which demands a high level of quality.

Nonfiction is a highly scrutinized genre and the removal of barriers to publication also removed the natural process of selection and curation that’s an integral part of traditional publishing.

So, in order to produce as a self-publishing author the high level of attention to detail that’s expected in the genre, you need to develop the same level of discipline and focus expected from traditionally-published authors.

In fact, these authors have to sign binding publishing agreements that impose clear deadlines, deliverables and consequences for non-performance — this is the stick. The carrot is the payment of a significant monetary advance in exchange for their commitment to producing the desired results.

Now, in your case the carrot and the stick are not as clear-cut as in the above example, but in order to succeed you’ll still need to be subject to them, which is what I mean by “writing as if you were being paid.”

Let’s begin be talking about the monetary incentive. While it’s true that you won’t receive an advance when you self-publish, you will receive a deferred payment which could be as significant as any advance on royalties, if not larger.

Think of the many revenue streams that your book will unlock:

As a calling card to accelerate the conversion of prospects into clients
As a key to penetrate the world of paid-speaking events
As a powerful tool of persuasion when bidding for lucrative private or government contracts
As a way to open global markets through the ubiquity of search engines
And last but not least, through the purchase of books online and back-of-the-room sales at events

That’s your carrot.

Let’s now talk about the stick. How do you find the motivation to draw the necessary discipline and focus that will get the job done in a timely manner and at the high level of quality that’s expected in the genre?

Simple. You need to create an firm and immovable deadline with an arm’s-length party where your professional reputation will be at stake should you not deliver (self-imposed deadlines, on the other hand, don’t usually work because there lack real-world consequences.)

Here are some examples to consider (note: make sure your deadline is 12 months from the beginning of your book project to accommodate a typical nonfiction publication timeline):

Book yourself as a speaker in a conference in your area of expertise where you’ll be unveiling your book.
Schedule a seminar for members of your industry where you’ll showcase the solution that you’ll present in your book.
Book yourself into a panel discussion that covers your upcoming book’s subject
Book yourself to be a speaker in an industry trade show
Time the release of your book with a seasonal sales event in your industry

Once you commit with a clear deadline to an audience of peers, clients, event planners and other stakeholders in your profession, you’ll get the motivation necessary to deliver results because your integrity and reputation will be on the line.

Skill 2: Write Every Day

Once you have a clear deadline in place, you’ll need to develop the discipline and focus required to get you to the finish line.

What sets professional authors apart from amateur ones is the discipline to write every day, come rain or shine. They set a clear writing schedule that typically begins and ends at the same time every day and they stick to it no matter what life throws at them.

Even seasoned authors with decades of professional experience follow this routine — their may have an advantage over less experienced authors when it comes to the volume of work they can produce in the same time frame, but they still stick to a daily writing routine.

Not unlike music performance or other fine arts, the only way to gain mastery in a craft is through constant, uninterrupted practice.

Now, professional authors will usually write for many hours a day (6-8 hours isn’t unusual) — after all, writing is their day job, but you don’t have to commit to even half of this writing regime.

In fact, a mere two hours a day will be sufficient to produce a high-quality, well-written nonfiction book from beginning to end within a year. The key is consistency. You need to be able to allocate two uninterrupted hours per day where you do nothing but write.

This means no responding to emails, phone calls, messaging or even browsing the Internet during this time. Any research or other type of supporting activity required for your book needs to be conducted outside of those two hours.

Also, it goes without saying that you shouldn’t be interrupted under any circumstances during your writing time (short of a real emergency). Make sure you enlist the help of those around you to hold any calls and protect your daily writing time.

The same goes for your electronic devices. Make sure you have all notifications muted, and if you’re using a native program for writing your book, like Microsoft Word or Libre Office, you may even want to turn off the Wi-Fi on your device during this time to eliminate any temptations.

Skill 3: Write For An Audience of One

Now, let’s switch gears to the actual process of writing. Successful nonfiction books speak to a single reader — the one holding the book. They don’t address readers in generalities or as a group, and absolutely never in the first person.

Successful nonfiction is always addressed to an audience of one, thus focus almost exclusively on the pronoun “You.” Problems afflict individuals. When someone purchases a book that claims to offer a solution to their problems, they expect the writing to be addressed to them and no one else.

If your book addresses a group of people, a generic person or even yourself (e.g. by using “We,” “Us,” “They,” “I”) your message won’t be nearly as effective because it won’t be personal in nature. The vast majority of readers are tuned to the WIIFM station: “What’s in it for me?”

The more you address readers directly, the more likely you’ll be in a position to connect with them beyond the written word – that is, at the emotional and psychological level that’s necessary to persuade people and get them to take your desired action.

What you don’t want is for your book to be made up merely of information, data, or just your thoughts. You want your book to be compelling to readers, you want it to connect with their emotional core because it’s at that level that your solution will be embraced.

If you write nonfiction to cater to the critical thinking part of the brain (textbooks or reference books are a good example) you’ll find that readers will put your book down quickly and move on to the next thing.

For your book to effect change, you need to establish a direct path to your readers’ hearts, which can only be achieved by making each one of them center stage in your message.

Skill 4: Write With Your Authentic Voice

Next, you need to make sure that you communicate with authenticity. There’s nothing that turns nonfiction readers off more than hiding behind your writing.

General nonfiction, and problem-solving nonfiction in particular, is very intimate in nature and this intimacy demands that you display your vulnerability, you own voice, unafraid of what people will think.

If you create a barrier between you and your reader, don’t expect them to connect with your message. Readers can quickly sense lack of authenticity and they won’t appreciate it.

By extension, never write in a condescending way or position yourself as the guru on the mountain-top. You want readers to relate to you as much as possible in order to create a true connection.

Even though you may know something they don’t, you still have to relate to them in order to communicate it effectively. If you position yourself as the professor dispensing advice at the lectern, readers will think that they’ll never be able to measure up to you, your success or your breakthrough.

For your solution to be embraced by your readers you need present it as something anybody can implement in their lives. So, if you found yourself in the past to be in the same position your readers are in now, make sure to share this information to show them that you were in their shoes.

Having said that, if you haven’t been in their shoes in the past, don’t be disingenuous and make up or exaggerate stories of hardship, because your readers will see through it.

The best approach is to always write with your authentic voice and never try to be someone you’re not. This is really no different from the way your act in your day-to-day life with your clients or peers.

Skill 5: Use An Economy of Words

Now that you’re writing to an audience of one and you’re using your authentic voice, let’s switch focus to the use of language. Unless you’re a professional writer, you’ll quickly find that the written word is quite different from the spoken word that you rely on in your daily experience.

When making the transition to the written form of communication, you’ll be tempted to “fill space,” to make sentences much longer than necessary through the use of filler words, unnecessary adjectives and adverbs, overly complex nouns, and the use of phrases that don’t add value to your message.

For example, you may write “Indubitably” instead of “Without a doubt,” or “This solution has three components” instead of “This solution has three parts.”

In nonfiction, you want to use words that open a glide path from your mind to the mind of your reader. You want to convey your message in as direct a way as possible.

If you place bumps on the road, such as by using flowery language, complex words or overly long sentences, you’ll make your readers trip and become disconnected from your message.

So make sure to use an economy of words whenever you write. The best test is this: if a word can be removed without changing the meaning of your message, then it’s by definition an unnecessary word.

In Closing

When readers look for nonfiction titles to solve a problem they’re experiencing, they’ll do a search online that will likely bring up your title along with the titles of traditionally published authors in your niche. The above five skills will help you level the playing field with those authors you’ll be competing with.

Good Luck!

Ben

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

How Long Does it Take to Write a Book to Help Grow Your Business?

Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should

How to Nail the Writing of Your Nonfiction Book Introduction

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

How to Writing Introduction

The introduction section of your nonfiction book is critically important for your sales because most readers won’t read past it if they’re not sold by then. In essence, your introduction should be nothing short of a sales letter. How you go about writing your book introduction will make the difference between a book that moves the needle and one that gathers dust on the shelf.

In this article you’ll learn the eight steps required to write the perfect sales letter for your nonfiction book. Your book introduction is an important document tasked with engaging your reader’s attention early on by tapping their curiosity as you build your case why they must buy your book. Let’s get started.

Step 1) Hook Your Reader in and State the Problem

The first step in writing your book introduction is to hook your reader’s attention. You need to tantalize them by writing a good hook that will capture their attention and make them want to keep on reading.

There are many different types of hooks that you can write, for example:

You can begin your introduction by writing a thought-provoking open-ended question, the answer for which contains the solution to their problems (it could be something like “Why do 90% of people who go on a diet end up gaining back more weight than what they took off time and time again?”)
You can begin your introduction by writing a story that relates the life of a fictitious character who suffers from the same problem afflicting your reader. The main goal of your story is to convey to them the emotional journey of someone they can relate to. It could also be something from your personal life that shows them how you overcame their problem, or the story of a client. If you chose the latter, make sure that all personal information is fictionalized for legal reasons.
You can begin your introduction by writing a quotation by a public figure or authority that reflects on the problem your book will solve. By using this type of hook, you get to project the credibility of the public figure onto your book’s thesis through the power of association.
You can begin your introduction by writing about a statistic that illustrates a controversial piece of information that goes to the crux of your book and, by extension, the main source of your reader’s problem. Make sure to know that this statistic can be verified externally; better yet, provide a clear reference in the footer.

Step 2) Now Tease the Solution

Once your readers are hooked and know that your book will address their problem head on, you can tease the solution, but do it in a way that doesn’t disclose critical information. The main point of your book’s introduction is to make your readers curious enough to want to buy it, but not to find out how your secret sauce works.

If you reveal your solution in your introduction, even a summary of the solution, they won’t feel the need to read any further.

For example, you can write something like: “This book will show you the step-by-step approach used to overcome _________ permanently.”

Step 3) Let Your Readers Know Why They Should Listen to You

You’ll be writing this part of the introduction to establish your credibility. Here you can outline the actions and information that led to your discovery. You can certainly make this part personal in order to create a good bond with your reader, but it’s very important that you never write about your own achievements and your pedigree.

This section isn’t about you but about how you came into your discovery in a way that makes you credible in the eyes of your readers. Having said that, feel free to convey your passion for the subject and why you’ve made it your mission to help others afflicted by this problem.

Step 4) Reveal the Roadmap and Show them The Benefits

In this step of the introduction, let your reader discover your roadmap to the solution they’re seeking. For example, you could write something like: “First, in chapter 1 you’ll learn the three ways to ___________. Then, in Chapter 2 you will learn how to __________. In Chapter 3 you will learn how to ____________.”

The goal of this step is to summarize each chapter into a statement of the benefits your reader will receive as they progress in your book.

Step 5) Support Your Solution with Social Proof

In this step of the introduction you need to build your reader’s trust in your book by showing them proof from other people who’ve benefited from the information you offer. Client testimonials constitute the most important source of social proof (incidentally, never make up testimonials!) and if you have a testimonial from a good authority, even better.

Make sure to first ask your clients for permission to publish their testimonials in your book and whether they want their names spelled out in the testimonials or only have their initials shown.

Step 6) Anticipate Objections

This introduction step is optional but can be quite effective. If you already know from your own research what the main objections from your target audience are, it’s always a good technique to dispel them first in your introduction using clear, factual and logically-presented information.

Your readers might feel jaded by solutions they tried before that didn’t work and may have their skepticism barriers up when they read your introduction. By providing a logical framework that explains why those objections are unwarranted in the case of your book, you’ll be encouraging them to take those barriers down.

Step 7) Entice Your Reader to Take Action

Now, as you near the end of the introduction section, you’re beginning your closing arguments – this is where you close the deal by making statements such as:

If you follow the step-by-step process in this book, you’ll double your investment income in just 3 years….
… you’ll lose weight and never gain it back
… you’ll cut your credit-card debt in half
… etc.

Step 8) Transition to Your Book’s Body

Finally, it’s time to wrap up your introduction by inviting your reader on the journey, wishing them well and using this opportunity to transition them to the beginning of your book: Chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, etc.

Next Steps

As you can surmise from this article, the introduction of your nonfiction book is the second most important part of your book after the cover. If your cover makes readers want to browse your book and read the description, your introduction will make them want to click the buy button.

But for this to happen, it has to first capture your reader’s attention and convince them that your book has the goods to deliver them to the promised land. For this reason, you never want to write this section first, but leave it for last after your book is 100% complete.

What you don’t want to do is to write your introduction while your manuscript is still in flux (say, still going through editing rounds) because if the order of your chapters were to change, you’ll be forced to rearrange your road map in Step 4.

Also, you want to run several drafts of the introduction by an advance group of members from your target audience (preferably not the same advance reader group that gave you feedback on your book’s content). You want your introduction drafts to be read by fresh eyes that have never seen your book before.

By running your text by members of your target audience in this way you’ll ensure that you’re hitting all the right notes.

What you don’t want to do is to write your book introduction pretending to be one of your readers, even if the problem you’re solving has afflicted you in the past. For your introduction to be effective, you’ll need to get the feedback from people who are currently suffering from the problem.

Finally, while you need to allow sufficient writing space to cover all sections in a clear and convincing way, you want to use an economy or words to ensure your readers are engaged throughout the presentation. So, try to keep your introduction between 1.5 and 3 pages long.

Good luck!

Ben

Leave me a comment below if you have any questions about this article or a specific need that I can help you address – I operate an author services firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners who want to write and publish books as a calling card for prospects, to establish their status as an expert or to generate additional leads for their businesses.

Here are some related articles I highly recommend:

How to Find A Book Editor That’s Perfect For Your Nonfiction Book

How Long Does it Take to Write a Book to Help Grow Your Business

How to Come Up With Killer Book Titles for Your Nonfiction Book

Bennett R. Coles is an award-winning author of six books published through Harper Collins (New York) and Titan Publishing Group (London). He is also the publisher at Promontory Press, editor for multiple bestselling authors (including a NY Times bestseller), ghostwriter for CEOs and politicians and the founder of Cascadia Author Services, a boutique full-service firm that specializes in premium author services specifically designed for busy professionals. Our end-to-end services include writer coaching, ghost writing, editing, proofing, cover design, book layout, eBook production, marketing, printing and distribution.

How Many Different Types of Nonfiction Writers Are There?

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

Types of Writer

When it comes to nonfiction, there are many different types of writer, depending on the niche. Nonfiction is a very specialized genre, and even though the common thread is telling the truth and focusing on facts, the delivery of content can be very diverse.

You may have some writers who choose to focus on problem-solving, others who prefer to focus on teaching, then others who like to entertain, or inspire, and so on.

The type of nonfiction writer you want to become will depend on what drives you inside, what you’re passionate about and what your skill-set and specialized training look like.

In this article I’ll share the characteristics of the different types of nonfiction writers that exist out there, their strengths, and the type of writing category that they best fit, along with examples of bestselling books in every listed category.

The 8 Types of Nonfiction Writers

Although nonfiction is a very broad genre (Amazon lists more than 3,000 nonfiction categories and sub-categories), there are primarily eight different types of nonfiction writers that you can aspire to become. No one type is better or worse than the other or has more or less chances of success in the market.

Naturally, some types of writers choose to work in very large niches, which command much larger audiences, but they’re also subject to a lot more competition.

Some cater to narrower niches and as a result they’re subject to lower competitive forces. In the end, the writer that you want to become (incidentally, you don’t have to be limited to a single type) will depend on your personal interests.

Here are the eight different types of writers in the world of nonfiction:

1) The Scientific Writer

The scientific writer is someone who typically has a professional accreditation and has trained for many years on a specific profession: e.g. lawyers, academics, physicians, engineers, scientists, economists, etc.

The type of books that they write need to be thoroughly researched, since often times they’ll be based on studies and research that needs to be portrayed with 100% accuracy. These books tend to be more complex and therefore require multiple editing and proofreading passes before they’re published.

Scientific writers tend to be highly educated and have a thorough grasp of the facts in their field of study. They also tend to be perfectionists and pay attention to every detail, which often results in longer publishing cycles.

They usually need to enlist the help of and work in partnership with scientific book editors who understand their area of expertise.

Often times, these types of technical writers come from fields where it’s common practice to publish articles in peer-reviewed publications as part of day-to-day work, so they tend to be very well equipped to make the transition into a nonfiction author.

Nonfiction categories that are ideal for scientific or technical writers, with some bestselling book examples, are shown below:

Health (e.g. Eight Weeks to Optimum Health by Andrew Weill)
Medicine/Therapy (e.g. The Body by Bill Bryson)
Science (e.g. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson)
Academic/Textbooks (e.g. Basic Nursing by Caroline Bunker Rosedahl & Mary T. Kowalksi)
Technology (e.g. Web Analytics by Avinash Kaushik)
Economics (e.g. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner)

2) The Business Writer

The business writer is someone who typically has many years of experience working in a large business, often times in a leadership position, as business owners, or even as academics who teach in business schools.

These writers tend to be less rigid and yet still fact-based, although often times their facts are more experiential than scientific. Since they deal in many cases with human behavior, these books tend to be based on observations and experience rather than hard facts and they can also be more inspirational in nature.

Business writers typically use their books to help and support their public-speaking careers, which in many cases can command substantial fees, especially if their books have achieved bestseller status. Also, business books are often purchased in large numbers by corporations to be used for personnel training purposes.

Many times, business writers, especially those with busy schedules, will compile notes for their book, create the main outline and then give the writing task to a ghostwriter. Those who are avid bloggers will often compile their books by threading together multiple blog posts.

Nonfiction categories that are ideal for business writers, with some bestselling book examples, are shown below:

Business Management (e.g. Double Double by Cameron Herold)
Leadership (e.g. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell)
Finance/Investment (e.g. Financial Statement Analysis by Byron Lund)
Corporate Culture (e.g. It’s Your Ship by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff)
HR (e.g. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni)
Business Training (e.g. New Conceptual Selling by Stephen Heiman & Diane Sanchez)

3) The Spiritual Writer

The spiritual writer is someone who has studied and practiced in a spiritual field for many years and has developed their own interpretations or techniques that they feel are well-suited to their target audience.

Often times, the spiritual writer is someone who has studied a philosophy from outside their own culture for many years and writes a book to introduce it to their own culture in a way that’s easy to understand.

Other times, they take on a difficult philosophy or practice and choose to also write a book in order to break it down in a way that the lay-person can easily digest without requiring years of prerequisite study.

Since many spiritual books are based on philosophical concepts, they aren’t as hard-fact based as the prior examples, but this type of writing still needs to abide accurately by every tenet of its spiritual discpline. Keep in mind that spiritual authors write books only after several years of concentration in their spiritual practice.

Nonfiction categories that are ideal for spiritual writers, with some bestselling book examples, are shown below:

Religion (e.g. The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel)
Spirituality (e.g. The Power of Now by Ekhart Tolle)
Meditation (e.g. The Mindfulness Code by Donald Altman)
New age (e.g. A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson0
Mysticism (e.g. The Essential Kabbalah by Daniel C. Matt)

4) The Problem-Solving Writer

Problem-solving writers are the most widely published types of nonfiction writers. The vast majority of nonfiction books are written by problem-solving authors because they cater to a broad range of needs of the reading population.

Problem-solving writers focus their energies on helping their target audience resolve a long-standing, typically painful problem that has afflicted them for a long time and for which they haven’t found a solution yet.

These types of writers typically have a private practice where they see clients on a personal basis, and choose to write books that are based on their client experiences in order to expand their reach. In this way, they’re able to help people who aren’t in the same geographical area and thus are unable to attend a live session.

Like business writers, problem-solving writers tend to become highly sought out public speakers and many become favorite guests of TV and radio producers.

The problem-solving nonfiction field is very broad and it encompasses a very large number of subjects, from self-help to psychology, to parenting, to fitness, to how-to, and so on, catering to the many needs of the population at large, addressing personal needs as well as consumer needs, business needs, organizational needs, and many others.

Nonfiction categories that are ideal for problem-solving writers, with some bestselling book examples, are shown below:

Self-Help (e.g. Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins)
Weight Loss (e.g. Dash Diet by Marla Heller)
Fitness (e.g. Yoga Fitness for Men by Dean Pohlman)
Relationships (e.g. Getting the Love you Want by Harville Hendrix)
Parenting (e.g. Becoming the Parent You Want to Be by Laura Davis & Janis Keyser)
Psychology (e.g. Reinventing Your Life by Jeffrey Young & Janet Klosko)
Personal finances/Money management (e.g. The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton)
How-to (e.g. How to Make it In the Music Business by Ari Herstand)

5) Journalistic Writer

The journalistic writer tends to be someone who developed their literary chops working as a journalist for a mainstream publication, or sometimes has been elected to public office. They tend to focus on subjects that are controversial or highly charged, whether in politics or in the court of public opinion.

Journalistic writing requires a significant amount of fact-checking, especially when they’re basing their books on evidence from others that needs to be corroborated. This can be a painstaking process, especially when their evidence-based facts are not easy to check.

Although there are exceptions (e.g. Ronan Farrow), most journalistic writers tend to be older since it typically demands a long career in their fields in order to build the relationships and connections that are necessary to develop trusted sources that can provide valuable information when reliable facts are hard to come by.

Nonfiction categories that are ideal for journalistic writers, with some bestselling book examples, are shown below:

Politics (e.g. Let Me Finish by Chris Christie)
Opinion (e.g. Fear by Bob Woodward)
Expository books (e.g. Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow)

6) Biographical Writer

The biographical writer includes people who focus their writing on memoirs, biographies and autobiographies.

A memoir is a historical account of a particular personal experience, therefore it’s usually written in the first person. Examples of popular memoirs are Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and Becoming by Michelle Obama.

A biography is an account of someone’s life, as told by someone else. When the subject of the biography commissions the work and actively participates in the production of source materials, it’s considered an authorized biography. An unauthorized biography is created without the involvement of the subject, and often times against their wishes.

An autobiography is the account of a person’s life written by the subject (or ghostwritten on behalf of the subject). The difference between a ghostwritten autobiography and an authorized biography is that the former carries the name of the subject as the author (e.g. The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump, which was actually written by Tony Schwartz) and the latter carries the name of the writer, not the subject (e.g. Bill Gates: A Biography, by Michael B. Becraft).

Nonfiction categories that are ideal for biographical writers, with some bestselling book examples, are shown below:

Memoirs (e.g. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight)
Biographies (e.g. Good Neighbor by Maxwell King)
Autobiographies (e.g. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama)

7) Narrative Writer

The narrative writer is a cross between a nonfiction and a fiction writer. while the focus is on facts and truths, it’s told using the power of narrative and storytelling. The most popular styles of narrative nonfiction writing are creative nonfiction, historical nonfiction and true crimes, although there are others as well.

Creative nonfiction writers focus on true events that are told in a way that reads like fiction, with compelling imagery and sensory detail. The goal of creative nonfiction is to make factual stories as interesting and rich in the eyes of readers as fiction can be.

Like creative nonfiction writers, historical nonfiction writers focus on actual events re-told in the style of fiction, except that those events are from the past, sometimes recent and sometimes distant. Since historical nonfiction is rooted in fact, it can be much harder to write than historical fiction, where the writer has much more creative freedom.

True crime is a style of writing that borrows from the narrative of fiction to examine an actual crime that has taken place in the near or distant past.

The aim of these types of writers is to capitalize on the public’s thirst for the motivations of the criminal mind. True crime is not only highly popular in written form but also on television and film.

Nonfiction categories that are ideal for narrative writers, with some bestselling book examples, are shown below:

Creative nonfiction (e.g. The Girls are Gone by Michael Brodkorb, Allison Mann et al.)
Historical nonfiction (e.g. The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre)
True crime (e.g. The Pale-Faced Lie by David Crow)

8) Lifestyle/Entertainment Writer

The lifestyle and entertainment writer type is also very popular in the book industry. This category includes writing about food, hobbies, travel, fashion, home, and so on. This is another broad category of writers that covers a large variety of interests.

Lifestyle/entertainment writers don’t require years-long careers specializing in one area in order to succeed. Instead, they need to be engaging, humorous, candid, and offer real value to their readers.

In fact, many writers of this type are quite young in relation to the first seven types of writers, and in many cases are also avid bloggers with a significant presence online as well as a large following on social media.

This is also a great area in the world of nonfiction where one can turn a long-standing hobby into a business by teaching other people who practice the same hobby the tricks of the trade that you’ve learned over time to make their lives easier and more enjoyable.

For instance, if you’ve been developing recipes for a specific type of diet for many years, you can turn them into a cookbook that’ll be of interest to those people who follow the same diet but who don’t have the time to experiment.

Of perhaps you’ve developed gardening techniques to create the perfect rose garden or the perfect vegetable garden and you can now turn this knowledge into a book that will help fellow hobby gardeners by saving them precious time and aggravation.

Nonfiction categories that are ideal for lifestyle/entertainment writers, with some bestselling book examples, are shown below:

Wine & Drink (e.g. Wine Simple by Aldo Sohm & Christine Muhlke)
Cookbooks/Food (e.g. Half-Baked Harvest Cookbook by Tieghan Gerard)
Home Decor (e.g. Inspire Your Home by Farah Merhi)
Gardening (e.g. Peonies by Jane Eastoe)
Home improvement (e.g. Household Hacks by Ace McCloud, Joshua Mackey, et al.)

In Summary

The world of nonfiction writing is extremely diverse and can be very creative as well. There’s a sub-genre for almost every possible area of endeavor. As stated before, Amazon has over 3,000 categories and sub-categories of nonfiction books in their online store, and every area affords nonfiction writers with countless opportunities to express themselves.

Nonfiction is also one of the most profitable types of writing, not necessarily due to high book sales – at least, not immediately – but because of the many other streams of revenue that a nonfiction book can generate for its author.

From opening doors to great opportunities, to launching highly-paid public speaking careers, to acting as a great funnel for new leads for a service business, to becoming a calling card to land new clients, to establishing your bona fides as an expert in your field, and so on, nonfiction writing can be a huge career boost.

Becoming a nonfiction writer is also very rewarding because you’ll be helping other people improve on an aspect of their lives, you’ll open their minds to new and exciting knowledge, and help them solve deep-seated problems that seemed intractable before they got their hands on your book.

This article has shown you the main types of writers that are prevalent in the nonfiction genre to give you an idea of the different styles of nonfiction that are popular in the market, but don’t feel that you have to limit yourself to just a single type. In fact, many authors will move between types depending of their book ideas.

For example, a business writer may write one book about effective management techniques in the corporate setting, and later on may write a self-help book to inspire people to better manage their time and get more enjoyment out of life.

All you have to do is to focus on an area you’re passionate about and learn about the type of writing that best fits your publishing goals, keeping in mind that your ultimate aim is to be of service to others. You’ll be able to do so by informing them, teaching them a skill, entertaining them or using creative nonfiction to tell them a powerful story.

But above all else, whatever types of nonfiction writer you wish to become, make sure that you have fun in the process!

If you enjoyed this post and would like to learn more about how to excel in the writing craft be sure to check out my free nonfiction writing guide, drawn from years of experience editing books for bestselling authors (including a New York Times bestseller) and ghostwriting for CEOs and politicians. Simply click here to get instant access.

Ben

Leave me a comment below if you have any questions or a specific need that I can help you address – I operate an author services firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners who want to publish books as a calling card for prospects, to establish their expert status as well as to generate additional leads for their businesses.

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should

The Hidden Costs of Publishing a Nonfiction Book on Kindle

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

Publishing a Book on Kindle

Publishing a book on Kindle doesn’t technically have any upfront fees. But if you’re planning to publish a nonfiction book, doing so without incurring any costs will more than likely backfire on you.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a scare tactic. It’s just the reality of the high expectations that accompany a nonfiction title when published (via Amazon Kindle or on any other platform).

Here’s the thing. When you publish nonfiction, especially of the problem-solving kind, you’ll be automatically deemed to be an expert and as such you’ll be expected to put out a quality product. This includes the quality of your writing, the production quality of your book (the layout, the images, etc.) and the quality of your cover design.

So, while Amazon.com’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform itself is free to use, you’ll still have to incur some costs so that you don’t end up putting out an amateurish-looking book that may end up hurting your professional reputation.

As a matter of fact, a well-written, well-crafted book will have the opposite effect by opening doors to new opportunities, new business relationships, new clients and even paid speaking fees, in addition to much better book sales.

Let’s look at these costs so you can properly plan what to budget for.

Professional Editing

No professional author who relies on book sales to make money would ever dare publish an unedited manuscript, even if they’ve been writing for decades. Authors are just too close to their work to have the judgement to be objective arbiters of their writing, so they’ll always want to rely on a fresh pair of eyes.

Plus, professional editors are not just excellent wordsmiths but they also know how to keep an audience engaged. They know what it is the readers are looking for and they know how to deliver your message in a way that truly connects with them, creating a bond that will take your readers on a ride from the first page to the last.

Now, professional editors are not monolithic – there are several kinds of editors who specialize in different phases of the editing process.

For nonfiction books, there are four recommended stages in the editing process:

1) Developmental Editing
2) Content Editing
3) Copy Editing
4) Proofreading

1) Developmental Book Editing

In this stage the editor takes a 30,000-foot view of your manuscript to assess whether it adequately supports your book’s thesis. They will then look at the flow of ideas to determine if your manuscript is crafted in the best possible way to address the needs of your readers.

Developmental editors are trained to:

Know the expectations of nonfiction readers when they buy a book title in your niche
Know how to keep readers excited with anticipation
Know those words that make readers engage and the ones that make them disengage
Know how to use the written word to establish a deep connection with readers
Know how to get readers to take action on your solution, increasing the chances of follow-on business

Developmental editors will convey their suggestions to you using two mechanisms, as explained below:

The Developmental Editor’s Letter

The developmental editor will first read and analyze your manuscript from beginning to end and condense their initial thoughts in a letter, where they’ll suggest what changes you need to make at the macro level – these are the structural issues that need to be addressed first before going into the page-by-page, paragraph-by-paragraph level.

Examples of suggestions might include reshuffling some of your chapters, writing new ones and perhaps eliminating some sections that don’t really belong in overall flow of your manuscript. Their goal at this stage is to restructure your writing in a way that aligns with the needs of your target audience.

Once you’ve implemented these changes, you’ll be ready for the second phase of developmental editing.

Page-By-Page Commenting

After you hand the corrected manuscript back to the editor, they’ll go through it page by page and flag any issues in notes they’ll leave on the margins.

At this stage, the editor isn’t looking to highlight poor grammar, spelling or punctuation errors (this task will be performed later on by the copy editor) but will focus instead on structure at the paragraph level.

For instance, they may suggest that you break up a paragraph into two because there are two conflicting ideas in it and this will confuse the reader. Or they might highlight a sentence that goes against the flow and show you what to do with it.

Developmental Editing Rates

Rates will vary depending on the nature of your nonfiction title. For example, text-heavy manuscripts will likely be billed by the word, since this is where most of the work effort will be. Some editors may also charge you by the page instead.

Image, data or science-heavy manuscripts are more likely to attract a combination of rates both by the word and by the hour, to take into account the necessary research time spent by the editor to learn, interpret and craft specialized information.

By the Word Rates

This charge is based on total word-count of your unedited manuscript. Most editors will make use of a tier system such as the one below:

Standard text: 8 cents per word (non-specialized)
Difficult text: 12 cents per word (highly specialized)

Nonfiction topics that are more scientific or instructional in nature (e.g. a medical title) will demand the higher per-word fee.

Once your developmental editor’s job is done, it’s time to begin the next editorial stage for your manuscript.

2- Content Editing

While developmental editing is about structure, content editing is about mechanics.

Now that your flow of ideas is well-established, it’s time to move on to the execution of those ideas. Your content editor will switch the editorial focus to clarity and readability to make sure your message comes across to the reader in the best possible way.

Here’s a rundown of the main editing tasks that your content editor will perform:

At the most basic, they’ll correct spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors in order to create a clean version of your manuscript.
They’ll then highlight any run-on sentences, words that are misused, words that are overused, words that are repeated in close proximity, poor writing style, etc.
Then, they’ll check your manuscript for readability and style, and make suggestions to improve clarity. They’ll do so by rewriting those phrases that are clunky and hard to read, adjust paragraphs that are unclear, shorten run-on sentences and so on.
If they offer a proofreading feature as part of their services, they may also check any references you make to external sources for correctness and confirm the accuracy of any dates, places and facts quoted in your manuscript.
Finally, they’ll suggest the right placement for any illustrations, images, tables, or any other type of graphical element in relation with the text and the flow of ideas.

Content Editing Rates

Professional nonfiction editors with 5-10 years of experience will charge anywhere between $40 and $50 per 1,000 words, provided your manuscript is “clean” – that is, you’ve done the best you can to remove obvious spelling, punctuation and grammar errors.

Once the content editing stage is completed, it’s time to move on to copy editing.

3- Copy Editing

The copy editor won’t focus on book structure or mechanics, but instead will ensure that your nonfiction book is factually and linguistically accurate. They will do so by:

Correcting spelling errors, punctuation and grammatical errors
Correcting syntax errors
Correcting capitalization errors and hyphenation errors
Identifying factually inaccurate statements
Checking for proper wording
Suggesting additional headings
Flagging potential legal issues
Identifying anomalies and checking for inconsistencies

Copy Editing Rates

Typical copy editing rates are 3-4 cents per word for standard text and 4-6 cents per word for highly technical or scientific text.

4- Proofreading

Proofreading is the final book editing stage, which is executed when there are no more changes to be made to your manuscript. In other words, this stage can only be implemented when your book is ready to go to print.

Before committing your hard work to the permanence of printing, you want to make sure that all the t’s in your manuscript are crossed and all the i’s are dotted. Your proofreader will make your book as close to perfect as possible in relation to:

Punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors
Formatting inconsistencies
Incorrect internal references
Incorrect external references
General fact-checking
Caption errors

Proofreading Rates

Typical proofreading rates are 2.5-3.5 cents per word for standard text and 3.5-4.5 cents per word for highly technical or scientific text.

Book Layout

As stated before, by the mere act of publishing a nonfiction book you’ll be assumed by your readers to be an expert in your field. As a result, your nonfiction book will act as a proxy for your reputation. Therefore, you want to ensure that your book layout is top-notch as this will reflect on your overall professionalism.

In addition, book layout design is a key element in the visual appeal of nonfiction books. Unlike works of fiction, where endless streams of similarly laid out text are used to “lull” you into the story, nonfiction layouts respond to a completely different set of needs.

Since the goal of most nonfiction books is to solve a problem for an individual or a business, they need to be laid out to facilitate the transfer of knowledge from author to reader. This requires your text to be laid out in a way that’s simple for your audience to digest – for example, you may want to use charts, tables and images to bolster your thesis.

The nonfiction genre is highly competitive. As a self-published author you need to be able to compete head-to-head with traditionally published books because they’ll appear side-by-side with your book on online searches. So in order to compete, you’ll need to hire a professional book designer to level the playing field.

Book Layout Rates

The cost for a quality nonfiction book designer will range between $350 and $500. You may be able to find a lower cost on gig websites on the Internet, but be mindful that you’ll likely get what you pay for (even if the design looks okay to you, it may look amateurish when compared to your traditionally published competitors).

Cover Design

Of all aspects of nonfiction book production, the most visible is the cover design. Therefore, it’s critical that you hire a professional artist with solid experience in nonfiction books in order to perform this important job.

A professional cover designer is not just a visual expert who knows the best placement of your cover elements to appeal to a nonfiction audience, but is also a “visual marketer,” who knows how different color palettes influence people’s purchasing decisions.

Now, it’s important that you don’t hire a fiction cover designer. A fiction cover’s goal is to capture the essence of the story in the cover imagery by creating a visually appealing representation of the book’s characters and their journey. In other words, fiction covers are about the book, not about the reader.

Nonfiction covers, on the other hand, must always be about the reader and not about the book. The key task of the cover is to show a visual representation of the life of the reader after they put into practice the solution conveyed throughout the pages of your book.

For this reason, you must find a book cover artist who understands how nonfiction works, the needs of your target audience and your reader’s aspirations.

Cover Design Rates

A nonfiction book cover designer with a solid track record will cost between $400 and $600. Once again, beware of the allure of designers on gig websites that will charge you $100 or $50 or even $30 for a book cover. This is another area where you really can’t afford to cut corners.

Kindle ISBN

For your book to be distributed to the trade you’ll need to acquire an ISBN, or a unique book identifier number, which will be encoded inside a barcode on your back cover. This is the code that gets scanned at the checkout counter whenever you buy a book in a brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Amazon.com’s Kindle does offers a free ISBN service, but it’s highly detrimental to authors because they bind their titles strictly to Amazon Kindle book distribution at the exclusion of all other distributors.

As a nonfiction author, you want to maximize your distribution channels beyond Kindle so that, for example, you can sell to bookstores and libraries through printed-book distributors that work with self-published authors, such as IngramSpark, so I recommend that you obtain your own ISBN and pass on Amazon Kindle’s free offer.

Cost of ISBN

To get an ISBN that binds your title to you as the publisher instead of strictly listing your book on Amazon, you’ll have to visit https://www.isbn.org, where you’ll be able to purchase a single number for $125 or a block of ten for $295.

Keep in mind that each format that you want to publish on (e.g. paperback, hardcover and eBook) requires a different ISBN.

In Summary

Now you know the hidden costs of publishing nonfiction via the Kindle book platform so you’ll be able to budget accordingly. Keep in mind that even though these costs can be substantial in some cases (depending on the complexity of your book and on your total page-count), you’ll be able to recoup these costs in a number of different ways.

While it’s true that initially printed or Kindle eBook sales won’t likely cover these costs given the newness of your book, as an expert author your nonfiction title will open many new potential streams of revenue.

For example, you’ll be able to fast-track the acquisition of new clients, you’ll be able generate back of the room sales during public-speaking events, and you’ll have an edge over your unpublished competitors when bidding on lucrative contracts.

All the best on your journey!

Ben

Leave me a comment below if you have any questions or a specific need that I can help you address – I operate an author services firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners who want to publish books as a calling card for prospects, to establish their status as an expert or to just to generate additional leads for their businesses.

Here are some related Kindle posts I highly recommend:

5 Benefits of Self-Publishing on Amazon Kindle for Nonfiction Authors

How to Self-Publish Nonfiction with Amazon Kindle

Self-Publish on Amazon Kindle: A Guide for Nonfiction Authors

The Best Creative Prompt Ideas for Nonfiction Writing

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

Creative Prompts for Writing

The use of creative prompts for writing has been a fiction staple for a long time. With the help of a search engine you can find literally thousands of writing prompts in a matter of seconds to get your creative juices flowing.

But when it comes to nonfiction, the type of creative prompts you’ll find on the Internet won’t be very useful to you – even if they’re labeled as such. Why? Because these nonfiction writing prompts tend to be centered on you and your point of view (e.g. “Write about how you form healthy habits”), whereas successful nonfiction writing requires you to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience.

What Are Nonfiction Writing Prompt Ideas?

What you really need to stimulate your nonfiction creative juices is to figure out a way to spark writing ideas that will address a specific need or desire in your audience – the most specific the better.

But first you need to nail down who you want your target audience to be, and this process must align with the skills that you bring to the table.

Say that you’re a nutritionist and you want to help people improve their health by eating in a more balanced way. You clearly know that your skills and subject matter expertise can benefit virtually anyone. But if you choose an idea that’s too broad, like helping women develop better eating habits, you’ll find it hard to make a dent in the market.

The reason is that there are tens of millions of women in the U.S. alone and they’re hardly monolithic. Within that group you’ll discover many subgroups (hundreds?) that have differing needs, interests and levels of awareness.

So, start by breaking down your main demographic and identifying those subgroups who would benefit the most from your expertise. You need to find those niches that have a high level of urgency for what you offer.

For example, if you’re a nutritionist and you want to write a book to help women improve their health through better nutrition, you may want to limit your focus to women over fifty who suffer from type II diabetes.

Their need for a balanced diet is much more urgent than the general population’s, and by focusing on a specific age group you’ll be able to address their challenges in a unique way.

How to Come Up With Nonfiction Writing Prompt Ideas

To get you on the right creative track, I’ll show you the recipe you need to follow in order to line up a number of creative writing prompts for your nonfiction book project, and then I’ll give some examples based on six of the top ten bestselling nonfiction genres on Amazon.

First, write a list of all the areas of expertise that you bring to the table. If you’re in the home decor field, you may have developed expertise in:

De-cluttering
Organizing spaces
Feng-Shui
Decorating on a budget
Matching color palettes to personalities
Working with open spaces
Working with small areas
Creating urban gardens

and so on.

Then, for each entry write a second list of the different groups of people who you feel will make up an ideal audience:

De-cluttering: Writing for people who feel the stagnant energy in their homes, people who are planning a move to a smaller space, etc.
Decorating on a budget: Writing for students who are moving out of their parents house to live on their own, recent graduates with a small starting salary, retirees, etc.
Creating urban gardens: Writing for people who live in condos, apartment dwellers who want to grow their own veggies and herbs in their balconies, etc.

and so on.

Below, you’ll find some ideas to write prompts of your own in some of the most popular nonfiction categories on Amazon:

1) Biographies & Memoirs

This category is quite broad and it offers a lot of flexibility for creative thinking, given the personal nature of the genre.

Here are some creative writing prompts to get you going:

Write a story about your own experiences in a way that people in a specific segment of the population can relate to (e.g. “My experiences growing up as a mixed child in a small town”)
Write a book about how you dealt with a specific disability and how you succeeded in spite of it (.e.g. “How I went from being wheel-chair bound to becoming a successful Internet entrepreneur”)
Write a book of short stories about your experiences in life that others in similar circumstances could learn from (e.g. “How addiction replaced the void left in my town when the largest employer left and what people did to overcome it”)

2) Self-Help

This is a very large category but there are multiple trends that can be broken down into more specific niches.

Here are some creative writing prompts:

Write a book about a self-help discipline that you’ve specialized in for many years, but directed to a very specific group of people (e.g. “The complete mindfulness guide for teenage girls”)
Write a book that focuses on a self-help practice that caters to people who suffer from a specific condition (e.g. “The best meditation techniques for people who suffer from insomnia (or migraines, or…)”)
Write a self-help book to help people cope with a specific issue that you faced and overcame (e.g. “How to use conscious breathing techniques to help alleviate nicotine withdrawal symptoms”)

3) Health & Fitness

This is another broad category, so the best approach is to limit your topic by writing about a narrow application.

Here are some creative writing prompts to get started:

Write a book that focuses on an unusual health practice that has proven health benefits most people are unaware of (e.g. “The health benefits of drinking and cooking with distilled water”)
If you’re trained in a particular form of therapy, write a book that focuses on a specific demographic instead of everyone who could possibly benefit from it (e.g. “The benefits of weekly acupuncture during pregnancy”)
Write a fitness book for people in a specific demographic or who suffer from a specific medical or physical condition (e.g. “The ultimate weight-training guide for people over 60”)

4) Cookbooks, Food & Wine

This is such a broad category that your best chance of carving a sliver for yourself is by writing a book that addresses a very specific group of people. Your goal is to find a narrow niche that runs very deep.

Here are some examples to trigger writing prompts for your book:

Write a cookbook with recipes that are tailored to sufferers of a specific illness or disorder (e.g. “Safe snacks for sufferers of hypoglycemia”)
Write a wine guide for followers of a specific diet, trend or lifestyle (e.g. “The best keto-friendly wines”)
Write a cookbook for a group of people that share a specific interest (e.g. “The best recipes for avid bodybuilders”)

5) Parenting & Relationships

These are broad categories as well, so you’ll need to use the divide-and-conquer strategy to get traction.

Here are some writing prompts:

If you’re a family counselor, write a book that focuses on a specific segment of the population (e.g. “The psychological benefits of attachment parenting techniques for young parents”)
If you’re an expert in child therapy, write about issues that affect a specific set of children (e.g. “How to help a gifted child successfully navigate the public school system”)
If you’re a psychotherapist, write about a unique technique or about an issue that affects a specific group of people (e.g. “The benefits of therapeutic horseback riding on children (or adults or teenagers or …) with disabilities”)

6) Crafts, Hobbies & Home

This is already a very fragmented category, so most book writing ideas will naturally cater to a small niche.

Here are some writing prompts:

Write about home decor ideas that fit a specific lifestyle, demographic, budget, etc. (e.g. “Organizing ideas to keep the rooms of messy teenagers tidy at all times”)
Write about ideas to make your house look like a model home on a budget (e.g. “The best Ikea hacks to create great-looking built-ins for 10 cents on the dollar”)
Write a book or guide for people who enjoy a specific lifestyle (e.g. “The definitive guide to the best vintage clothing stores in the U.S.”)

In Summary

I hope this article has provided you with the inspiration you need to create some writing prompts for your upcoming nonfiction book project.

The secret to write a successful nonfiction book lies at the cross section of the following three things:

You’re writing about something you’re passionate about
You’ve developed expertise in that area
A specific group of people are actively seeking what you have to offer

Once you find this sweet spot, you can then begin the process of researching your target audience to find out what their hopes, dreams, fears and challenges are so that you create the right prompts that address their needs in the best possible way.

Good luck!

If you enjoyed this article and you feel like learning more about how to excel in the writing craft make sure to check out my free nonfiction writing guide, drawn from years of experience editing books for bestselling authors (including a New York Times bestseller) and ghostwriting for CEOs and politicians. Simply click here to get instant access.

Ben

Here are some related articles I highly recommend:

How Long Does it Take to Write a Book to Help Grow Your Business?

Learn 10 Powerful Writing Habits to Fast Track Your Nonfiction Book

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

How Can Writing a Nonfiction Book About a Topic Help My Business

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

Writing About a Topic

One of the most effective ways to expand the outreach of your business is to write a nonfiction book about a topic that builds on your expertise in order to solve a problem for a specific reader.

Since the main raison d’etre of your business is to solve problems for your clients, your book could focus either on building on your existing audience, or on developing an entirely new audience that could also benefit from your expertise.

For example, if your main business provides videography services for weddings and other family-type special events and you now want to expand to commercial videography, you could write a book about how to produce the perfect corporate video, including what equipment to use, where to get it, how to budget for it, how to set it up, how to operate it, and how to produce the final product.

What’s the Importance of a Good Topic in Nonfiction Writing?

Most first-time nonfiction books are well intended, but they don’t do very well in the market. Their authors often chuck this poor result to excessive competition, limited resources or lack of know-how on how to effectively promote their book.

But the reality is that often times nonfiction books don’t do well because their authors think that they reader are one and the same. In other words, they see themselves in their audience and write their books strictly from their point of view (“I’m going to write a book to solve what I believe my reader’s main problem is”).

As a result, they pick what “they” think is a good topic, which will fall on deaf ears if it’s not aligned with a real need from a very specific target audience. A topic that will make up a solid book thesis must always be defined by the reader and never by the author.

Once you get your topic 100% dialed in, can you then begin writing your book in earnest.

How to Find the Perfect Nonfiction Topic to Write About

To find your perfect nonfiction topic, it’s important that you know with a great degree of certainty the one audience that you’re going to target. You need to develop a full understanding of what that audience thinks, feels, hopes and fears.

If you audience is business-to-consumer (B2C), your topic ideas will likely center around solving personal issues or challenges. If it’s business-to-business (B2B), then you’ll likely be dealing with a business challenge that someone in a decision-making position has been tasked to take care of.

So, your first course of action is to zero in on your audience. Decide who you want to help or, better said, who do you want to be of service to? In order to pick your topic you’ll first need to answer this question.

In the videography example above, if you target your book to marketing departments who are tasked with creating a corporate video to train sales staff, you might choose to focus more on the artistic aspects of video-making, such as how to use different camera angles, how many cameras you need to use for best effect, how to place microphones so that people sound more natural, how to position and angle the lighting equipment for best effect, how to use backgrounds that don’t clash with the subjects, and so on.

But if your intended audience is audio/visual departments, you might choose to focus instead on equipment specs, how to lower camera rental or purchase costs, how to source the best lighting appliances for different budget levels, what microphones have the best sound for video recording at affordable prices, etc.

Sources of Good Topic Ideas

How do you decide what’s the best topic or main idea to write about? First, make an inventory of all the skills and services you and your business have to offer. Then brainstorm what markets you’d like to expand into.

For instance, if you produce videos, list all the possible uses for video services in point form, starting with what you already offer, and then expand into areas that you’ve never serviced before. Here are some ideas:

Current Offerings:

Topic 1 Area: Weddings
Topic 2 Area : Anniversaries
Topic 3 Area: Reunions
Topic 4 Area: Bar-mitzvah

New Topic Areas:

Topic 5 Area: Training/instructional videos
Topic 6 Area: Promotional videos
Topic 7 Area: How-to videos for customers
Topic 8 Area: Live events (seminars, presentations, award ceremonies, etc.)

Then, break down your areas of interest into their different audiences. At this stage, it’s important that you define as clearly as you can who the decision makers are for each area and then research them thoroughly in order to understand their needs, their hopes, their fears etc.

For example, if your intended audience is product managers tasked with creating how-to videos to train customers on the use of their products, their needs might be to have a quick turnaround, their hopes might be to achieve a level of video production and content quality that delights their customers, and their fear might be cost overruns.

Making Your Final Topic Idea Selection

Once you understand and decide who you want to be of service to, then you can begin to hone in on the one topic idea you’ll be focusing your nonfiction book’s thesis on.

It’s very important that you choose an audience that you feel you can easily work with, an audience that has direct access to funds (and you have a good idea of what their typical budgets are), and also an audience that has clear decision-making abilities.

Once you’ve establish who your target audience is, the things that make them happy and what keeps them up at night, you can choose the topic of your nonfiction book. For example, if your target audience is made out of public speakers, your book might be about ideas on how to turn live seminars into high-margin video products.

In Summary

The point of this article is to give you some ideas of what to focus on when writing about a topic of interest for a nonfiction reader interested in your services. Remember, it’s important that you always focus on who your target audience is before you think about what your book’s thesis is going to be.

Focusing all your energies on one idea that you’re enamored with is a recipe for disappointment later on when you fail to find an audience that shares your point of view. The main thesis for your book must always be subservient to the needs of your target audience and not the other way around. If you get this right, you’ll be on the right track.

Now it’s time to begin your research!

If you enjoyed this article and would also like to learn more about how to excel in the writing craft make sure to check out my free nonfiction writing guide, drawn from years of experience editing books for bestselling authors (including a New York Times bestseller) and ghostwriting for CEOs and politicians. Simply click here to get instant access.

Ben

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should

Nonfiction Publishing Success With KDP

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

Publishing With KDP

Is it possible to achieve nonfiction success publishing with KDP? Absolutely, but you won’t achieve it just by uploading your title and hoping people will find it!

Yes, the Kindle Direct platform will make your book available on the largest online bookstore on earth at the push of a button, with localized websites in dozens of countries. But you’ll be also competing with thousands of books published the same day you publish yours, plus thousands more published the next day, and the next, and the next…

That’s the bad news. The good news? Only a very small percentage of those books will bother to follow the critical promotional steps you’re going to learn below.

So, let’s get to it!

The Four Legs of KDP Nonfiction Success

How successful your nonfiction book will become after you publish with Kindle will naturally hinge on the quality of your content and the quality of your production. That goes without saying – that’s the minimum you’ll need as a baseline to compete for the attention of the reading public.

So, to start, make sure that you hire a professional editor, a professional layout artist and a professional cover designer. You’re going to be competing against traditionally published books that employ all three.

But having a professionally produced and edited book doesn’t guarantee success (this is actually the good news for you!). You also need to establish a solid promotional foundation under you by building the four legs of nonfiction KDP success.

This article serves as an introduction to the work you’ll need to perform. In order to learn more you’ll need to click the links in the sections shown below to go in-depth into each area.

Leg #1) Master the Amazon/Kindle Book Review Algorithm

The Amazon.com bookstore search ranking process is driven by software, not humans. So, in order to have your title appear on the first page of search results after you publish, you’ll need to master the signals that Amazon’s ranking algorithm relies on for showing you those results.

Of the many signals that the algorithm uses to establish the pecking order of search results, book reviews is by far the most consequential. Specifically, the number of positive reviews that your title has accrued over time.

Now, here’s a pro trick: The second you publish your title on KDP, the platform has no historical sales record for your title so, to make up for this deficiency, the algorithm will give out-sized influence to the number of positive book reviews that you garner in the first 30 days after publication.

If you’re able to generate a large number of reviews in this time frame (and book reviews do not necessarily equal sales), then you’ll be off to the races.

Based on this statistical information, the algorithm will automatically give your new book prominent exposure in the days and weeks following your initial 30 days on the Amazon bookstore, making your title available to tens of thousands of searchers (or more, depending on subject) looking for books in your niche.

Now, if you don’t build this leg, in other words, you don’t do the work necessary to get a lot of positive book reviews in the first 30 days, then on day 31 the algorithm will programmatically sink your title to the deep underbelly of the massive Amazon.com catalog never to be seen again, unless you search for the exact title and exact author name, which virtually nobody will do outside of your friends and family.

In order to build this leg, read the following article:

How to Get Reviews on Amazon for Your Nonfiction Book

Leg #2) Master Your Title Metadata in KDP

The Amazon bookstore is not only the largest online bookstore in the world, but it’s also the largest book search engine in the world. Not unlike the Google search engine, it relies on user searches to find those titles that most closely approximate user search keywords.

So, you want to make sure you do some serious keyword research on your target audience before you upload your title to the KDP platform, which involves knowing what the vast majority of your readers type into the Amazon.com search box when they’re looking for a title like yours.

By creating your title description to cater to those keywords, and by finding a list of highly relevant of keywords to enter in your title setup, you’ll be maximizing your chances of being found on customer searches. In addition, you’ll need to place your title in those sub-categories in the Kindle platform that have the least amount of competition so that you can float up to the top of the list with the fewest book sales.

In order to build this leg, read the following articles:

Leg #3) Develop Relationships With Online Influencers

Now that you’ve mastered how to publish on Kindle, you’ll need to begin developing an audience outside of the platform.

One of the most reliable sources of online promotion for nonfiction titles is online influencers, or bloggers that specialize in your niche. These bloggers have a large following reading their articles on websites that command thousands of daily visitors plus thousands more syndicated to other sites.

Your job then is to first find and then develop mutually beneficial relationships with these influencers so that they’ll promote your title to their audiences, simply because if you’ve done your research, you’ll find that the content of your title is exactly what those audiences crave – and bloggers will love you for that.

Once you develop those relationships, you’ll be invited to contribute guest posts, you’ll be interviewed on their podcasts and your book will be reviewed by them.

In order to build this leg, read the following article:

How Do I Promote My Self-Published Nonfiction Book?

Leg #4) Build a Solid Public Speaking Schedule

Finally, it’s time to start building your offline audiences. Once you publish your nonfiction book, you’ll be deemed to be an expert by the world, and there’s always a constant demand for expert speakers by thousands of associations and organizations around the country.

At the beginning, you’ll have to do your fair share of free public speaking events since many of these organizations, especially at the local level, don’t necessarily have budgets to pay for speakers, but often times they do have a budget for book orders and, more importantly, they will promote your title internally to their mailing lists.

If you stack the deck with a large number of public speaking events immediately after you publish your book, you’ll be not only selling a lot of books from the back of the room, but those people will recommend your title to their associates, colleagues, friends and family, and guess where they’ll look you up? That’s right, Amazon.

In order to build this leg, read the following article:

How to Make a Book That Generates High Paid-Speaking Fees

In Summary

To find nonfiction success on KDP/Amazon you need to equally cater to two separate audiences: humans and computers, and you can’t focus on one at the exclusion of the other.

The first two foundational legs shown above allow you to generate the information that the computer (Amazon’s product-ranking algorithm and the Kindle platform) needs to showcase your title, and the last two legs will drive more humans (your target audience) to the computer to search for your title and make a purchase.

If you build these four solid legs and have them firing on all pistons, you’ll find the success you’re looking for after you publish your title.

All the best!

If you enjoyed this article and are in the process of promoting a nonfiction book, be sure to check out my free nonfiction success guide, drawn from years of experience editing books for bestselling authors (including a New York Times bestseller) and ghostwriting for CEOs and politicians. Simply click here to get instant access.

Ben

Leave me a comment below if you have any questions or a specific need that I can help you address – I operate an author services firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners who want to publish books as a calling card for prospects, to establish their status as an expert or to just to generate additional leads for their businesses.

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

The 7 Most Effective Book Promotion Ideas For Nonfiction Authors

Learn How to Market a Nonfiction Book to Get Solid Results

Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should

Make Your Own Book And Add 7 Revenue Streams To Your Business

Bennett R. Coles is an award-winning author of six books published through Harper Collins (New York) and Titan Group (London). He is also the publisher at Promontory Press, editor for multiple bestselling authors (including a NY Times bestseller), ghostwriter for CEOs and politicians and the founder of Cascadia Author Services, a boutique full-service firm that specializes in premium author services specifically designed for busy professionals. Our end-to-end services include writer coaching, ghostwriting, editing, proofing, cover design, book layout, eBook production, marketing, printing and distribution.

An Introduction to Nonfiction Paragraphs

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

Introduction to Paragraph

A large proportion of nonfiction literature is published to solve a real-world problem for a carefully targeted audience.

As a result, whenever you’re creating a work of nonfiction you need to keep in mind that every sentence in your paragraphs must have a clear purpose, and that purpose must address both your readers’ problem and your book’s solution.

This article serves as an introduction to nonfiction paragraphs so that you can begin building your case on a solid foundation.

What is Nonfiction Literature?

Nonfiction is a type of literature that is purely based on facts. Every paragraph that you write in a nonfiction book must contain true and factual information. As a result, the accuracy of your content must play a central role in your writing.

Put another way, each paragraph that you write must carry clear meaning and build confidence in your readers about your approach.

If you go on tangents and stray from your main book thesis in a way that dilutes its meaning, your readers will get confused and lose interest in your book, with the resulting loss of your credibility.

Therefore, you need to make sure that you think through your paragraphs carefully before you write them down.

In the nonfiction genre, you never want to write just to fill space. On the contrary, you want to write in such a way that constantly reveals new information to the reader as you add building block after building block of content in support of your message.

The best way to think about it is to ask yourself the following question after you write each paragraph: is this text something that I would want to highlight if I was the reader?

In fact, you’ll notice that the best written nonfiction books happen to be the most highlighted ones as well.

With this in mind, let’s now look at how to compose strong nonfiction paragraphs.

Structure of a Nonfiction Paragraph

As a starting point, you need to be very clear about the stream of content that you’ll be covering in your chapter.

Since nonfiction literature is about facts, before you set out to write your paragraphs you need to know the sequence of concepts that you’ll be elaborating on. In other words, you need a road map of ideas where each one builds on the previous one.

Although the way to arrive at such a road map is outside the scope of this article, I highly recommend that you first read this article on how to outline your chapters to ensure that you’re building your book’s thesis in a clear and logical way.

Once armed with your road map of ideas, you can then begin structuring your nonfiction paragraphs to develop those ideas for your readers.

1) The Beginning: Main idea

Most nonfiction paragraphs begin by introducing the main idea in the first sentence, called the topic sentence.

Always focus on one main idea per paragraph. You don’t want to split your audience’s focus by introducing multiple ideas in a single paragraph.

Now, some seasoned nonfiction writers like to play with the positioning of the topic sentence and will sometimes place it at the end of the paragraph or even in the middle of it.

If you’re a first-time author, however, I don’t recommend this practice until you’ve mastered how to write nonfiction paragraphs using the more traditional format.

While it’s possible to alter the placement of the topic sentence, the order of ideas throughout your chapter cannot be altered as each must build on the previous one.

Any deviation from your idea flow will confuse your readers and could make them lose interest in your writing.

2) The Middle: Supporting Sentences

Once you’ve nailed down your topic sentence, it’s time to elaborate on your main idea. You’ll be doing so throughout the middle section of your paragraph by writing a number of supporting sentences.

This number will depend on the complexity of your main idea, but as a rule of thumb you’re a looking at no less than three and no more than five supporting sentences.

If you need more than five sentences to develop your main idea, then perhaps you need to it break down and devote a separate paragraph to each part.

Since the nonfiction genre is so fact-heavy, your goal is to break down your content into digestible paragraphs that allow your readers to pace the absorption of information in a way they don’t find overwhelming.

3) The End: Summary of Main Idea

Once you’ve expanded on your main idea through a number of supporting sentences, it’s time to bring your paragraph to a natural conclusion.

You’ll want to do so by summarizing the discussion of your main idea in a way that’s memorable for your readers. In other words, the goal of your concluding sentence is not merely to repeat your main idea at the end of your paragraph but to translate it into an “aha” moment for your reader.

While the first sentence of your paragraph might have elicited a response such as “This sounds interesting, I want to learn more about it,” the conclusion must elicit a response such as “Oh, now I get it, this is very cool!”

Final Notes on Nonfiction Paragraphs

When you’re writing a nonfiction paragraph, you have to make each word count – never write for the sake of writing.

If a paragraph doesn’t add to your book’s thesis – if it takes your readers on an unwanted or unnecessary tangent – then either move it somewhere else or get rid of it altogether, even if you’re proud of it!

Remember, you’re not writing your book for yourself, or for your readers to notice you. Your nonfiction book must always be for and about your target audience and no one else.

If you enjoyed this article and are in the process of writing a nonfiction book, be sure to check out my free nonfiction success guide, drawn from years of experience editing books for bestselling authors (including a New York Times bestseller) and ghostwriting for CEOs and politicians. Simply click here to get instant access.

Ben

Leave me a comment below if you have any questions or a specific need that I can help you address – I operate an author services firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners who want to publish books as a calling card for prospects, to establish their status as an expert or to just to generate additional leads for their businesses.

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should

How to Master the Nonfiction Style of Writing

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

The Style of Writing

The nonfiction style of writing is multi-faceted. On the one hand, you need to connect with your readers at an intellectual level so that you can impart your solution in a way that’s clear and unambiguous.

On the other hand, you need to connect with the emotional core of your audience to establish a relationship of trust.

How Do You Find Your Nonfiction Writing Style?

When you have a face-to-face encounter with other people, you rely on many devices to communicate your thoughts and ideas – you use the inflection of your voice, your choice of words, your gestures, your overall body language and so on to influence how your message is perceived by the other party.

The aggregate of all these devices makes up your communication style. Now, since the ways you talk, move and gesture are part of who you are, it requires little effort to connect with others at a personal level.

But when your communication is limited to a single modality – the written word – you have to work much harder to connect effectively.

This is the reason why taking the time to develop your style of writing is critical to becoming an effective nonfiction author. In this article, I’m going to cover the basics of what it takes to develop your written “persona” so that you can come across to your readers as effectively as if you were talking to them in person.

How Do You Identify Your Personal Writing Style?

There are two key aspects of your writing style: An internal and an external one. The internal aspect relates to who you are as a person. The external is based on the mechanics of the nonfiction genre.

The internal aspect is what allows you to convey through the written word the same type of nuance you’re able to convey when communicating in person.

In other words, it’s what allows your writing to “feel” human to others – the written equivalent of spoken language.

Elements of Your Internal Writing Style

You personal writing style is defined by 3 core, or foundational, elements.

These 3 elements are:

Mood

This is the element of your writing style that establishes the “atmosphere” of your work – in other words, the emotional undertones that allow your audience to connect emotionally with your writing.

For example, the mood that could permeate your nonfiction book may be, depending on your subject matter, one of hope, inspiration, compassion, humor, achievement, healing, etc.

The goal of mood is to help communicate your message to readers in a way that aligns with their state of mind, so that they can experience an emotional attachment to your message.

Tone

The tone of your written word expresses your overall attitude toward your message – which is not that dissimilar to the use of the verbal tone in spoken language.

Like its spoken language counterpart, your written tone is defined by your choice of words and the emphasis that you use in your communication.

For example, depending on the nature of your work, your tone could be conversational (e.g. self-help, pop psychology), formal (finance), serious (medical/health), informal (cookbooks), cheerful (fitness), sarcastic (politics), etc.

The way you express your written tone is through your viewpoint and your language, your choice of words and your punctuation (e.g. using exclamation marks to express enthusiasm or to make a significant point, the use of bold, italics and underline for emphasis, etc.).

Voice

Your written voice conveys your personality. Even though you express your voice, tone and mood based on your choice of words, the difference is that your voice is a reflection of “who” you are while your mood and tone are a reflection of “how” you communicate.

For example, if you attend a Tony Robbins self-help seminar and then read one of his books, you’ll be able to clearly “see” him through his words. His written voice will be as much a reflection of his personality as his spoken voice is.

And if you were to read self-help books from different authors, such as Wayne Dyer and Ekhart Tolle, in the same subject area, you’ll be able to clearly detect three distinct voices on the same subject.

When you write nonfiction, you want to develop a written voice that’s as close to who you are as you possibly can. You never want to create a fiction of who you are, or worse yet, to portray someone else.

Either case is inauthentic, which will translate into mistrust for your readers – the death knell of nonfiction authors.

External Writing Style Elements

On top of the above three core elements of your writing style, there are a number of other elements that are more technical in nature, and in many cases genre-dependent. I’ll cover three key external elements of nonfiction writing style below:

Sentence Structure

Once you’ve been able to nail down your mood, your tone and your voice, you need to focus on your sentence structure. How you write your sentences will mean the difference between uninspiring, hard to follow, or even cringe-inducing reading and inspiring, effortless and exciting text.

Although teaching you how to write good nonfiction sentences is well beyond the scope of this article, here are some best practices you can follow that will set you on the right path:

Avoid the use of the passive voice as much as possible
Avoid run-on sentences
Avoid the excessive use of adjectives and adverbs
Be concise. Avoid the use of words that don’t fulfill a clear purpose in your text and are there only for the purpose of embellishment
Avoid the repetitive use of words in close proximity – for example, using the word “clearly” two times in the same sentence
Vary the length of your sentences to avoid monotony
Use punctuation marks correctly to avoid unintentionally changing the meaning of your message (read this article on the correct use of punctuation marks as a reference of what to do if in doubt)

Use of Literary Devices

Literary devices are techniques used by writers to add a desired emphasis to their message, to add clarity, to make a point, or to create a stronger connection with readers.

Here are some examples of the most common literary devices used in the nonfiction genre:

Alliteration: A phrase made out of words that begin with the same sound. For some reason, our brains are wired to remember alliterations more easily than phrases that aren’t alliterated – e.g. the “Fabulous Four” is much more memorable than the “Great Four,” or the “Talented Four”.
Allusion: An indirect reference to an external (usually well-known) individual, place, or event added for emphasis – e.g. “It doesn’t take a degree in rocket science to figure out how to…”
Anaphora: The repetition of a word or short expression at the beginning a multiple sentences, typically used to convey a strong message to your readers. For example: “Fact: 1 in 7 people who take this drug experience… Fact: There’s conclusive evidence that this therapy protocol doesn’t work because… Fact: The FDA has issued a warning about this product stating that…”
Hyperbole: a statement that’s purposely exaggerated for effect – e.g. “After this fitness routine you’ll feel so tired you’ll want to sleep for an entire week.”
Metaphor: This literary device is used when you want to create emphasis by comparing two things that are unrelated but share common characteristics – e.g. “In the end your conscience will always be your internal compass.”
Oxymoron: Using two words in sequence to express a contradiction, usually for emphasis and sometimes to add a touch of humor – e.g. “open secret, deafening silence, unbiased opinion.”

Word Choice

The final external element of your writing style which builds upon your three foundational elements is “word choice.” When it comes to communicating with your target audience, you need to ensure that you always use words that align with their level of comprehension.

Otherwise, your readers won’t be able to connect with your text. This is the reason why in nonfiction you truly need to know your audience as well as you know yourself.

You need to know where they are at so that you can communicate at their level. If you perch yourself up on the guru’s mountain top, you risk alienating your readers, appearing condescending or, even worse, incomprehensible.

On the contrary, if you use a choice of words that’s at a lower level than your audience’s, they’ll dismiss you as too simplistic or perhaps even as insulting their intelligence.

To get into the details of good word choice is again beyond the scope of this article, however, there are some good best practices for nonfiction that you should strive to follow.

Here are some examples:

Always use words that you fully understand and know the meaning of
Avoid “elegant” or unnecessarily complex words (i.e. words that obscure the message you’re trying to convey) – e.g. bifurcate (use divide), Ameliorate (use improve), Commensurate (use equal), Deleterious (use harmful), Expeditious (use fast), Indefatigable (use tireless), etc.
Don’t use acronyms or abbreviations unless you know with certainty that 100% of your audience will know what they mean. For example, it’s okay to use the word “pip” if your book is targeted at experienced foreign exchange traders, but not if it’s targeted at beginners.
Strive to eliminate unnecessary words. If the removal of a word doesn’t alter the meaning of your sentence, then keep it out – e.g. you don’t really need to use the word “thoroughly” in the following sentence: “I was thoroughly awake when she came in.”
Don’t use language that makes you sound “professorial,” and by extension, never try to impress your audience. It’ll make your reading feel distant and disconnected.
Avoid the repetitive use of “crutch” or filler words, such as “actually, literally, in fact, as a matter of fact, etc.” While they’re okay when used in isolation, they become problematic when used repeatedly.

What’s the Best Way to improve My Writing Style?

The fastest way to hone your writing style is to read lots of well-written nonfiction books in your niche (read bestsellers from large, traditional publishers because they have access to world-class editors).

Then, analyze how those authors choose their words to express their unique personality.

Finally, it’s time to let it all sink in through practice, practice and more practice. When it comes to developing your own writing style there’s no silver bullet – and definitely no substitute for rubber to the road!

All the best,

Ben

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors

Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should

The Best Words for Nonfiction Descriptive Writing

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

Words for Descriptive Writing

A picture can tell a thousand words, and descriptive writing can paint a thousand pictures.

Descriptive writing is a very powerful technique because the pictures you can draw with it can cut more deeply into the emotional core of your readers than if you just used informational words alone.

Plus, you can weave those pictures into stories that engage your readers even more deeply.

It’s no coincidence that works of fiction, which rely heavily on descriptive writing and storytelling, grab such a disproportionate chunk of our attention and our dollars.

Think that just two fiction writers alone have moved as many books as earth’s population – William Shakespeare and Agatha Christie – with a combined 7 billion copies of their works printed to date!

But descriptive writing isn’t just confined to the world of fiction. In fact, the best nonfiction books make abundant use of this writing technique as well.

How Does Descriptive Writing Work?

The job of descriptive writing is to emulate our senses and feelings indirectly through the use of the written word.

We perceive the world around us through images, sounds, sensations, smells and taste. So, by using words that trigger these senses, writers can create a pathway to our emotions by stimulating the same nerve centers in our brain.

That’s why when we read a great novel or watch a great movie we feel transported to the world being depicted by it, and even after we finish the book or after we walk out of the movie our brains keep “lingering” in those worlds for some time, until reality sets in and our actual senses begin to take over again.

Can Descriptive Writing be Effective in the Nonfiction Genre?

Nonfiction in general, and problem-solving nonfiction in particular, tends to be very systematic – “You have a problem and I will solve it if you follow exactly these steps.”

The problem with this approach is that it can become too predictable and too intellectual (read: boring and uninspiring, from the reader’s standpoint).

You’ve now added a layer of filtering between your readers’ minds (where information is interpreted and analyzed) and their emotions (where actions originate).

And here lies the conundrum: you need to communicate your “system” to the reader so you can help them, but they won’t take the action required to change unless you can connect directly with their emotional core.

The solution? Descriptive writing and storytelling.

Lists of Descriptive Words Used in Nonfiction (with Examples)

The best way to learn how to master descriptive writing is to read a lot of stories, from both the fiction as well as the nonfiction worlds.

Find 3-5 critically acclaimed books from both genres that are in a subject of interest to you, read them cover to cover and then read them again to identify how they’ve used descriptive writing to connect with your senses.

Then practice, practice, practice! Practice writing stories that relate to your book’s content using descriptive language – for example, stories that illustrate the emotional journey that a client went through as they journeyed from problem to solution.

Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts here. You just have to write a lot of stories before you begin to get the hang of it. The closest thing to a shortcut is this: the more great books you read, the better your chances of getting good at it.

It’s also useful to have a good selection of descriptive words to draw from. To help you out, I’ve compiled and categorized a number of choice adjectives below that you can draw from when crafting your stories.

Adjectives that Describe Sound:

Blaring
Cooing
Deafening
Distorted
Loud
Noisy
Sharp
Shrill
Silent
Soft
Squeaking
Thundering
Whispering

Adjectives that Describe Taste:

Bitter
Delicious
Fresh
Juicy
Salty
Sour
Spicy
Sweet
Tasteless
Tasty

Adjectives that Describe Touch:

Hard
Hot
Icy
Rough
Slippery
Smooth
Tender
Wet

Adjectives that Describe Color:

Aqua
Azure
Black
Blue
Crimson
Cyan
Gold
Gray
Green
Magenta
Orange
Pink
Purple
Red
Yellow

Adjectives that Describe Size:

Big
Broad
Colossal
Considerable
Gigantic
Great
Huge
Immense
Large
Light
Mammoth
Massive
Miniature
Narrow
Short
Small
Tall
Thin
Tiny
Wide

Adjectives that Describe Shapes:

Chubby
Circular
Crooked
Curved
Deep
Distorted
Full
Hollow
Narrow
Petite
Round
Scrawny
Square
Skinny
Tall
Wide

Adjectives that Describe Terrain:

Flat
Heavy
High
Loose
Scattered
Shallow
Sparse
Steep
Straight
Uneven

Adjectives that Describe Places:

Ancient
Beautiful
Boring
Bustling
Charming
Compact
Contemporary
Cosmopolitan
Crowded
Exciting
Expensive
Famous
Fantastic
Fascinating
Huge
Inexpensive
Lively
Picturesque
Polluted
Popular
Touristy

Adjectives that Describe Quantities:

Abundant
Bountiful
Empty
Extra
Few
Huge
Low
Many
Multiple
Myriad
Numerous
Puny
Substantial
Teeny

Adjectives that Describe Time:

Ancient
Annual
Brief
Early
Fast
Late
Long
Modern
Old
Old-Fashioned
Quick
Rapid
Short
Slow
Swift
Young

Adjectives that Describe Feelings:

Afraid
Angry
Anxious
Bad
Berserk
Bored
Calm
Comfortable
Confused
Creepy
Deceitful
Depressed
Disturbed
Dominating
Elated
Envious
Faithful
Fine
Frustrated
Gloomy
Good
Grieving
Happy
Horrible
Hungry
Ill
Jovial
Kind
Lively
Mature
Melancholic
Nice
Peaceful
Protective
Proud
Silly
Somber
Sore
Sorrowful
Testy
Tired
Troubled
Unhappy
Unwell
Vengeful
Weary
Wicked
Wrong
Zestful

Adjectives that Describe People:

Adaptable
Adorable
Adventurous
Affectionate
Aggressive
Alluring
Ambitious
Amiable
Amused
Attractive
Beautiful
Bewildered
Boorish
Brave
Bright
Cheerful
Clumsy
Co-operative
Combative
Compassionate
Confident
Considerate
Courageous
Courteous
Cowardly
Cruel
Cultured
Dangerous
Determined
Diligent
Disillusioned
Drab
Dull
Dynamic
Elegant
Empathetic
Energetic
Erratic
Evil
Exuberant
Fair
Fancy
Fearless
Filthy
Frank
Friendly
Generous
Gentle
Gifted
Glamorous
Gregarious
Handsome
Harmonious
Helpful
Hesitant
Ill-mannered
Impartial
Instinctive
Intuitive
Inventive
Jealous
Jolly
Kind-hearted
Knowing
Lovely
Magnificent
Mysterious
Naughty
Neat
Nervous
Passionate
Perfect
Persistent
Philosophical
Placid
Pleasant
Pleasing
Plucky
Practical
Prim
Punctual
Quiet
Rational
Reliable
Resourceful
Rigid
Sedate
Self-assured
Selfish
Sensible
Sincere
Smiling
Snobbish
Splendid
Successful
Sympathetic
Talented
Tense
Thoughtful
Thrifty
Timid
Truculent
Unassuming
Unbiased
Upset
Vivacious
Voracious
Warm
Wild
Wise
Witty
Wonderful
Worried
Zany

Next Steps

Now, it’s time to put rubber to the road. Write 5-7 stories that will enhance your content delivery guided by the inspiration from the books you’ve read as homework and using the above descriptive word categories for reference.

Then, have them read by people you trust for feedback. What you’re looking for is first impressions that can relate back to you whether your pictures and stories were able to connect with your readers’ senses and engage their emotions.

Have fun!

Ben

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

How Long Does it Take to Write a Book to Help Grow Your Business?

Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should

How to Find the Best Editor for a Nonfiction Book

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

How to Find the Editor of a Book

As a nonfiction writer it’s imperative that you learn how to find the best possible editor for your book. Here’s why.

Nonfiction readers don’t really care whether a book they’re interested in is traditionally or self-published. All they care about is that the book will help them solve a problem they have and that it’s written by an expert in the field.

This bodes well for self-published authors because the stigma of self-publishing is virtually irrelevant to nonfiction readers, therefore creating a level playing field for you.

However, this playing field demands that your book be professionally edited as well as its traditionally published counterparts.

How Do You Find a Good Editor for Your Book?

In order to find the best candidate for the job, you need to know the right questions to ask and the right answers to expect in return. Below you’ll find five important guidelines to follow as you begin your search.

1) Ask to See Their Qualifications

Book editing is a very skill-intensive craft so you want to ensure that your editor’s training is substantial. Ask to see their resume and check that they have a minimum of 5 to 7 years of experience.

Although many authors opt for less-experienced editors to save on costs, this is not such a good idea in the world of nonfiction because your book will become a proxy for your professional reputation.

As a nonfiction author, the reader’s perception of you as a credible expert will rely on the editorial quality of your book, so you should hire someone who’s done this type of work many times before.

Next, ask them for the titles of nonfiction books that they’ve edited before, then buy copies on Amazon Kindle (or in print if not available as eBooks) and read them. If they compare favorably with traditionally published books in your niche that you’ve read before, then you’ll likely be in good hands.

Now, if the editor is unwilling to provide you with a list of qualifications or a list of titles, or if their qualifications are too thin in the nonfiction genre, then you’ll be better off moving on to the next candidate down the list.

2) Ask for a Free Editing Sample from Your Manuscript

It’s standard practice for professional editors to provide you with a sample edit from your manuscript at no cost to you. This could encompass anywhere between 1 and 3 pages of text.

Professional editing demands a significant investment of time and money and there’s no better way to assess for fit than by obtaining an actual editing sample – you don’t want to experience buyer’s remorse after having parted with hundreds of dollars.

3) Ask for References

If you’re satisfied with the quality of your sample edit, then ask the editor for 2 or 3 author references to talk to or email with. Contact the references and ask them about their overall experience and the working relationship.

If the editor is unwilling to provide you with references by stating privacy reasons, then take a pass. Book editing is an unregulated industry that invites a lot of predatory behavior and you don’t want to get caught in the web of a bad operator.

Besides, authors are by nature public figures so the privacy argument is more than likely a front to mask the fact that perhaps they don’t have nonfiction experience (your title will be their first) or simply that they’re afraid of what clients will say.

4) Ask to See a Copy of Their Editing Agreement

Next, ask to see a copy of their standard editing agreement. Read all of the clauses in detail, especially the termination clause. Make sure they have a reasonable path to exit the relationship should that need arise.

Legal agreements are a necessity for high-cost services, especially when the work needs to be performed over an extended period of time. A proper contract will protect both you and the editor.

Having said that, editing agreements are drawn by the editor’s lawyers not yours, so you’ll have to ensure that the fine print doesn’t bind you to clauses that may be prejudicial to you.

Don’t be afraid to request the amendment of clauses that you or your lawyer feel are against your best interests. A professional editor will want your business and will make every reasonable effort to make the necessary adjustments that lead to a successful outcome.

If an editor doesn’t want to provide you with a sample copy of their agreement in advance of hiring their services, that’s a sign of either inexperience or some hidden agenda. If this is the case, take a pass.

When reviewing their agreement for services, look out for the following clauses:

Fees

Standard charges will typically be quoted by the hour for the preparatory component of the project and by the word for the writing component.

Terms

Look for flexible payment terms without large lump sums required to be paid in advance. There will likely be an expectation to receive a small initial payment to lock in the project and begin the work, with further payments contingent on the achievement of certain milestones through to the completion of your project.

Termination Clause

This is a key clause for you in the agreement because you need to be able to have an “out” if something goes wrong for any reason. Look out for a termination clause that allows either party to end the agreement within a reasonable advance written notice. Expect to be required to pay the cost that covers the work delivered up until the effective day of termination.

5) Check for Rapport

Finally, make sure that you have a good rapport with the editor during your initial interview. There’s nothing worse than having to walk on eggshells when you’re engaging in a creative relationship, especially with someone who’s being paid a substantial amount of money.

Also, the author-editor relationship is very close by nature and you want to ensure that you’re dealing with someone you’re 100% comfortable working with.

Listen to your hunches and keep in mind that good relationships are always effortless. If you feel any type of resistance or perhaps a strange energy when you relate with the editor, then it’s better to take a pass.

Next Steps

Once your manuscript reaches an advanced stage of editing, it’s time to begin lining up professional book and cover designers. Here are a couple of articles to guide you in the right direction: 10 Nonfiction Book Layout Tips That Will Glue Your Audience to the Page and 5 Book Cover Design Principles for Nonfiction Books.

All the best!

Ben

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should

How to Get a Nonfiction Book Printed and Bound for Less

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

How to Get a Book Printed and Bound

If you’re wondering how to get your nonfiction book printed and bound in the most cost-effective way, this article is for you. But first, here’s some background:

Prior to the development of high-speed, print-on-demand digital presses, the only way to produce print runs cost-effectively was to use the more traditional, analog offset presses. But the only way to get a low cost per unit was to commit to costly high-volume print runs.

With the popularity of the nascent self-publishing industry in the early to mid-90s, equipment manufacturers realized that a new solution was needed. Today, digital technology has improved to the point of being able to produce high-quality images that are cost effective at low volumes and nearly indistinguishable from the quality standards of offset printing.

Introducing IngramSpark

The first company out of the block to adopt high-speed technology on a massive scale was Ingram, with Amazon coming second. Being the first mover in the field, Ingram has managed to retain the most flexible, option-rich and cost-effective advantage over all other competitors.

Through its subsidiary, IngramSpark, Ingram offers independent authors the most flexibility for printing and binding as well as generous volume discounts. They operate print-on-demand facilities in several countries around the world, offering authors the ability to have books printed, bound and shipped directly to local markets.

Let’s break down their printing options in detail so that you can cost out your book.

(Note to readers: even though I advise authors to print their books using IngramSpark’s printing services, I receive no compensation, finder fees or affiliate commissions of any kind for my recommendation).

Book Binding

IngramSpark offers two types of binding that are ideal for nonfiction authors: perfect-binding for paperback books and case-binding for hardcovers.

Perfect Bound Binding Option

If you’re printing a paperback edition of your book, then you need to pick the Perfect Bound choice. This type of binding consists of gluing all book pages together at the spine and then gluing on top a full-color soft card-stock printed book cover that wraps around the book.

Case Laminate Binding Option

If you’re printing a hardcover edition, then you need to choose Case Laminate binding. Here the pages are also glued together at the spine but instead of wrapping around a soft card stock cover, your book will be wrapped in a hard cardboard cover.

Book Cover Options

Ingram offers two types of book cover options:

Paperback Book Cover

This is a full color book cover printed on card stock that’s glued to the perfect-bound body of your book. This cover is trimmed with a guillotine to fit exactly within the edges of your book block.

Hardcover

Hardcovers offer two types of cover options: full-color laminated printed book cover glued to the hard cardboard, or a dust jacket (a thin card-stock cover loosely wrapped around the book with flaps to hold it in place.)

Book Textures

IngramSpark offers three types of textures for your book cover: matte, gloss and digital cloth.

Matte

The matte option results in a full-color book cover that feels smooth to the touch but has no glare.

Gloss

This option produces a book cover that provides a smooth, durable high gloss finish.

Digital Cloth

This is an option for hardcover books only – it consists of a synthetic “faux cloth” material that is glued directly onto the hard boards. This option is ideal for books with a dust jacket.

Trim Sizes

IngramSpark offers a large number of trim sizes, covering most applications. Here are the available choices (the most popular ones are shown in bold)

Paperback Trim Sizes

4 x 6” (154 x 102mm)

4 x 7” (178 x 102mm)

4.25 x 7” (178 x 108mm)

4.37 x 7” (178 x 111mm)

4.72 x 7.48” (190 x 120mm)

5 x 7” (178 x 127mm)

5 x 8” (203 x 127mm)

5.06 x 7.81” (198 x 129mm)

5.25 x 8” (203 x 133mm)

5.5 x 8.25” (210 x 140mm)

5.5 x 8.5” (216 x 140mm)

5.83 x 8.27” (210 x 148 mm)

6 x 9” (229 x 152mm)

6.14 x 9.21” (234 x 156mm)

6.5 x 6.5” (165 x 165 mm)

6.625 x 10.25” (260 x 168mm)

6.69 x 9.61” (244 x 170 mm)

7 x 10” (254 x 178 mm)

7.44 x 9.69” (246 x 189mm)

7.5 x 9.25” (235 x 191mm)

8 x 8” (203 x 203mm)

8 x 10” (254 x 203mm)

8 x 10.88” (276 x 203mm)

8.25 x 10.75” (273 x 210mm)

8.25 x 11” (279 x 210mm)

8.268 x 11.693” (297 x 210mm)

8.5 x 8.5” (216 x 216mm)

8.5 x 9” (229 x 216mm)

8.5 x 11” (280 x 216m)

Hardcover Trim Sizes

5 x 8″ (203 x 127 mm) Case Laminate/Digital Cloth/Dust Jacket

5.5 x 8.5″ (216 x 140mm) Case Laminate/Digital Cloth/Dust Jacket

5.83 x 8.27″ (210 x 148 mm) Case Laminate Only

6 x 9″ (229 x 152mm) Case Laminate/Digital Cloth/Dust Jacket

6.14 x 9.21″ (234 x 156mm) Case Laminate/Digital Cloth/Dust Jacket

6.69 x 9.61″ (244 x 170 mm) Case Laminate Only

7 x 10″ (254 x 178 mm) Case Laminate Only

7.5 x 9.25″ (235 x 191) Case Laminate Only

8 x 8″ (203 x 203) Case Laminate Only

8 x 10″ (254 x 203mm) Case Laminate Only

8 x 10.88″ (276 x 203) Case Laminate Only

8.25 x 10.75″ (273 x 210) Case Laminate Only

8.5 x 8.5″ (216 x 216) Case Laminate Only

8.5 x 11″ (280 X 216mm) Case Laminate Only

Paper Options

IngramSpark offers three types of paper options, depending on your application:

Creme Paper

Creme paper is an off-white paper stock that’s ideal for hardcover memoirs, historical nonfiction and for other books that have all text with no images. This paper tint affords books with a more traditional “old-fashioned” look and feel.

For this application, IngramSpark uses 50 lb paper stock and they only allow black and white printing.

White Paper

There are two types of white paper available:

50 lb weight, ideal for black and white and standard color printing
70 lb weight, which can only be used for standard color or premium color printing (the latter offers more vivid color for a richer look, ideal for photographic or art books)

Sample Book Prices

Book printing costs vary according to your trim size and the number of pages in your book.

Given the many available options, the best way to get an accurate printing quote is to use IngramSpark’s calculator, but here are some typical choices for reference:

A 200-page black & white paperback-bound book with a 5 x 8 inch trim size on 50 lb paper and a gloss cover will cost $3.66 per copy
A 250-page black & white paperback-bound book with a 5.5 x 8.5 inch trim size on 50 lb creme paper and a matte cover will cost $4.29 per copy
A 200-page black & white digital cloth hardcover-bound book with a 6 x 9 inch trim size on 50 lb white paper and a glossy dust jacket will cost $8.31 per copy
A 250-page black & white case laminate hardcover with a 6 x 9 inch trim size on 50 lb white paper and a glossy cover will cost $8.94 per copy
A 120-page premium color case laminate hardcover with an 8 x 8 inch trim size on 70 lb white paper and a glossy cover will cost $16.87 per copy

Volume Discounts

There are many discount levels depending on your total book order. As an example, if you order 1,000 copies you’ll get an additional 40% discount off the unit cost.

Next Steps

Although IngramSpark offers most cost effective and flexible printing options for self-publishing nonfiction authors, in order to produce a quality product they require that you follow a rather strict set of file submission guidelines.

For best results, this should ideally be handled by your book and cover designer to eliminate the frustrating troubleshooting of highly technical submission errors.

If you enjoyed this post and would like to learn more about how to excel in the writing craft be sure to check out my free nonfiction writing guide, drawn from years of experience editing books for bestselling authors (including a New York Times bestseller) and ghostwriting for CEOs and politicians. Simply click here to get instant access.

Ben

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should

Rules of Writing a Paragraph for Nonfiction Authors

by Bennett R. Coles Leave a Comment

Rules of Writing a Paragraph

In this article, you’ll learn the five rules of writing paragraphs that are necessary to create a work of nonfiction that connects with readers effectively.

Technically speaking, a paragraph is a unit of writing that’s composed of a beginning, where you introduce your main idea, a middle, where you expand on it, and an end, where you summarize it and transition to the next paragraph.

But if you go below the surface mechanics, a paragraph is much subtler than that. At face value it might be a unit of writing, but at a deeper level it’s a unit of thought.

When you write a nonfiction paragraph, you’re creating a mind-to-mind connection between you and your reader. As you transfer your thoughts through your words, your writing becomes a bridge.

If your paragraphs are well-written, your thoughts will flow effortlessly between your mind and your audience’s mind. Reading then becomes enjoyable as you fill minds with ideas that enhance lives.

But if your paragraphs are poorly written, then they turn into thought “blockers” and you’ll fail to communicate effectively. This is when reading becomes drudgery – remember those school textbooks that used to lull you into a sleep?

Nonfiction Paragraph Structure

Before we get into the rules, let’s briefly go over the main structure of a nonfiction paragraph:

1) Introduce the Topic Sentence

Your first sentence must introduce the topic or thought that you’ll be expanding on throughout your paragraph. Your goal is to use a single controlling idea per paragraph.

This idea has to be clearly articulated and be able to stand on its own. Strive to make it short and to the point and resist the temptation to meander.

2) Support the Topic Sentence

Next, you need to expand on your main idea by writing a number of sentences to support it. This section will make up the body of your paragraph.

Here you have options. You can use sequential transitions such as “,” etc., non-sequential transitions such as “In Fact,” “Therefore,” etc., or rely on more conversational language as you flow from sentence to sentence.

3) Draw a Conclusion

Once your supporting sentences are written, it’s time to draw your paragraph to its natural conclusion. It’s now time to sum up your main idea and to transition to the next paragraph. For this purpose, you could use a cliffhanger to entice readers to read on or a simple transitional sentence.

Nonfiction Paragraph Writing Rules

Without further ado, here are the five rules of nonfiction paragraph writing:

Rule #1) Use only one idea per paragraph

Successful nonfiction writing is founded on clarity. As an expert in your field, your writing needs to create an unobstructed pathway between your mind and the minds of your readers.

As a nonfiction author, your job is to convey your thoughts in as clear a way as possible, and that requires that your unit of thought – the paragraph – be centered on a single idea.

If you create a paragraph that contains multiple ideas, you’ll create confusion in the minds of your readers as you split their focus and attention between competing arguments.

Rule #2) Write at least 3 sentences of support

Once you’ve clearly stated your main thought or idea, then support it with three or more sentences to give yourself enough room to fully develop it.

What you don’t want to do is to shortchange your support with sentences that feel rushed or, at the other end of the spectrum, to write for the sake of writing and creating long-winded paragraphs that are hard to read.

Rule #3) Don’t introduce new ideas in the conclusion (and don’t introduce the next paragraph either)

When you’re concluding your paragraph, make sure not to introduce any new ideas at this stage, as this will break your flow and confuse your readers.

Also, resist the temptation to introduce the idea or thought that you’ll be covering in the next paragraph, otherwise the beginning of the following paragraph will feel redundant.

Rule #4) Write for your readers, not for yourself

When you’re writing nonfiction paragraphs, always think of your target audience as you write.

Ask yourself: are these words meant for my readers or are they meant for my colleagues? If your language is too academic or technical, chances are you’re writing for your peers (or worse yet: for yourself).

Remember that you’re writing nonfiction to create a mind-to-mind connection with your readers, so try to put yourself in their shoes whenever you sit down to write.

Rule #5) Use an economy of words

Nonfiction books are by definition jam-packed with information, so for readers to be able to absorb it and retain it you have to make it available in small “digestible” chunks. When you’re writing your paragraphs, always use an economy of words.

Only use those words that are essential to your message; if they aren’t essential then leave them out because they’ll break your connection with your readers.

Here’s a list of non-essential words you should stay away from:

Most adverbs and adjectives.
Long verbs that have a shorter equivalent that has the same meaning. For example, write “Find out” instead of “Ascertain,” write “Try” instead of “Attempt,” or write “Begin” instead of “Commence.”
Elegant-sounding nouns that can be easily replaced with simpler-sounding ones. For example, write “Plane” instead of “Aircraft,” write “Part” instead of “Component,” or write “Warning” instead of “Caveat.”

Next Steps

You now have new tools to add to your nonfiction writing arsenal. If you want to bring another layer of nuance to your nonfiction paragraph writing, check out this article: Paragraph Types with Examples: A Primer for Nonfiction Authors.

Ben