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Writing a Book for the First Time: Dos and Don’ts for Nonfiction Authors

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Writing a Book for the First Time

If you’re writing a nonfiction book for the first time, you need to know what to do as well as what not to do in order to succeed.

Book writing is a multi-faceted endeavor with a lot of moving parts. The lack of understanding of this complexity is partly at fault for the 97% of people who start books but don’t finish them.

To make sure you become part of the remaining 3%, follow the dos and don’ts shown below to build a strong foundation for a nonfiction book that can be of service to your audience as well as to your business or career.

Do #1: Create a Mind Map of Your Book

Creating a 200-page book from scratch may seem like a daunting task, and it will be if you don’t have a clear roadmap. Willing a book into being armed with laptop and staring at a blank page is one of the most difficult ways to write a manuscript.

Fortunately, as a nonfiction author you don’t have to follow this painful path because you have a secret weapon that’ll make your book come to life organically.

This secret weapon is effective due to a simple premise: your book is already inside of you, ready to be typed out word by word. It’s just sitting in your brain with content based on your many years of professional experience.

All you have to do now is to find the right methodology to download this information from your brain and onto the written page in a structured way. This is where your secret weapon comes in.

This weapon is called the Mind Map, popularized by British author Tony Buzan. This is a simple yet powerful technique for mapping information from your brain onto a chart, in this case the entire structure of your upcoming nonfiction book.

Mind mapping is so effective because it mimics the way your brain stores and retrieves information. How does it work? In simple terms, you begin by writing the main idea of your book in the center of a large piece of paper (or a whiteboard, if one is available).

Then you break down your main idea into its components, and for each one you draw a branch going radially out from your main idea. You’ll draw as many branches as you have components.

Next, you take each component and break it down into its sub-components, drawing sub-branches in the same fashion. If needed, you can repeat this process for the sub-sub-components.

As an example, here’s the mind map of one of Tony Buzan’s nonfiction books:

For detailed instructions on creating your mind map, read this article:

“How to Use a Mind Map to Create a Great Book for Your Business”

Do #2: Create a Book Outline

Once your book’s mind map is drawn, what you have to do next is to turn it into your book outline. This is a simple process that ultimately generates a fully fleshed out table of contents.

In order to create your book, all you have to do is to write prompted by each section and sub-section in your table of contents, and before you know it you’ll have a manuscript on your hands without ever experiencing writer’s block.

For detailed instructions on converting your mind map into a book outline, read this article:

“How to Create a Book Outline Step-By-Step: A Guide for Nonfiction Writers”

Do #3: Write For An Audience of One

If you’re writing a nonfiction book to enhance your business or your career, chances are that you’re writing it to solve a problem for your audience. You’ve been solving problems for clients face to face for years and now you want to expand your reach.

Problem-solving nonfiction books tend to be very personal in nature because they address personal problems. For this reason, your book needs to be targeted to each member to your audience.

Whenever you read a nonfiction book that truly resonates with you, you’ll find that the entire book is actually addressed to “you.” In most cases you even feel a direct connection with the author, as if they know you and have decided to write their book to help you.

This can only be achieved when you use words such as “you” and “your” to address your reader. If instead you address readers as being part of a group (“us”, “we”, “our”, etc.) your message will become anonymous and your connection will get diluted.

Write your nonfiction book as if you were addressing it to each reader individually and your message will be delivered much more effectively.

Do #4: Write to Connect First, Then to Communicate

Connect First Then Communicate

When you write a problem-solving nonfiction book, you’re doing more than just communicating your ideas or teaching new techniques to your readers. You’re creating a bridge of knowledge between their minds and yours.

The reason you want to build this bridge is that you want to establish a relationship with your readers that’s more than just academic.

You want them to know that you can feel their pain – perhaps you’ve been in their position before – and that you’ll help them overcome it. Your ultimate goal isn’t just to each your readers something new but to entice them to take action.

For this to happen you’ll need to gain their trust. Knowledge without trust leads to suspicion, not action. Write your book primarily with the intent to connect and with the intent to communicate as a secondary goal.

You’ll need to establish these links of trust through:

  1. Your authenticity: always be yourself in your writing
  2. Your compassion: make your readers know that you’re on their side and aren’t there to pass judgement on them
  3. Your selflessness: you’re writing your book as an act of service and you don’t expect anything in return

Then weave your knowledge and your message through this connective tissue. For instance, you could teach new concepts using storytelling techniques or anecdotes from clients that readers can easily relate to.

Do #5: Have Your Manuscript Professionally Edited

Professionally Edited

Finally, when you complete your manuscript, make sure you hire a competent nonfiction editor to polish it and make it market-ready.

Follow the example shown by accomplished nonfiction authors who still hire editors even after years in the book publishing business.

The thing is, you’re an expert in problem-solving while editors are experts in written communications. These are two very different skill sets.

When you ally yourself with a professional nonfiction editor, you’ll get the best of both worlds: great content and great delivery. And in the competitive nonfiction market this collaboration is critical for success.

As a nonfiction author, you’re expected to be an expert in your field. Therefore, you’ll be measured against a high bar for quality. If you self-edit your book or farm out the job to an English major you risk being perceived as amateurish.

Even if they do a “good” job in your eyes, when compared to the work of expert editors with years in the book business it’ll come across as sub-standard.

Editing is not just about fixing typos and grammatical errors; it’s also about:

  • Knowing what works and what doesn’t with nonfiction audiences
  • Creating an optimal flow of ideas
  • Understanding your readers’ psychology
  • Knowing what makes readers engage and disengage
  • Knowing how to connect effectively with them

Only experienced professional editors are trained to fulfill all of the above requirements.

Don’t #1: Begin Writing Your Book Before Researching Your Target Audience

Once you decide to write a nonfiction book, it’s very easy to get carried away by the excitement and begin writing as soon as you’re capable of (e.g. once you have a completed book outline).

You have a great idea and you’re certain what you want to write about, so what’s stopping you? The advice from every major nonfiction author!

Never invest time on a book-writing project before you take the time to fully understand your market. Specifically, you need to understand your audience and their needs. Otherwise, you’ll be shooting darts while blindfolded and spun around.

If you’re extremely lucky you may land one dart on the board, but it’ll be a totally random and unrepeatable shot.

Before you put pen to paper, you must first understand:

  • Your audience’s likes and dislikes
  • Their hopes, dreams, challenges and fears
  • What keeps them up at night

Once you get to know your target audience intimately you’ll be able to identify the most pressing problem that your book can help them solve. You’ll also know what to say and what not to say to keep them engaged.

Don’t #2: Write Without a Book Outline

We’ve already stated the importance of creating a book outline before you start writing your manuscript. But this takes a fair amount of effort to achieve and it might be tempting to start writing your book without one.

While you might feel motivated to start writing right away, you’ll find a number of significant roadblocks with this approach.

Some days, you’ll know exactly what you want to write about, while others you’ll come up empty. But writing a book requires consistency day in and day out and it’s hard to write when you’re not inspired.

When ideas simply refuse to come up, you’ll either try to force yourself to write something, which will likely not be your best work, or you’ll end up frustrated and give up for the day, chalking it to writer’s block.

The reason you’ll hit regular “dry spells” is that even though you know that all the information for your book is somewhere in your brain, by using the blank-page approach you’re going about accessing this information the wrong way.

Your brain doesn’t store information sequentially but rather by association, and the most efficient way to retrieve it is by mapping it out on paper using rules of association.

By using the mind-mapping approach, you’ll be able to create a book outline that’ll contain the entire structure of your book.

Once your book outline is completed, you’ll have all the writing prompts that you need to create your entire book without ever experiencing writer’s block.

Don’t #3: Be Inauthentic – Try to Be Someone You’re Not

If you’re a first time author, you may find it challenging to find your voice right away. Unlike working in your business, where you deal with clients face-to-face, writing a book provides you with a shield of anonymity.

At first you’ll be tempted to try to be someone you’re not simply because you don’t yet know how your “written” voice is supposed to sound – this isn’t your default mode of communication.

While this is normal, it’s not conducive to creating a strong connection with your audience. The information in your book may be 100% correct, but your delivery will feel too technical and uninspiring.

What’s the solution? Be willing to become vulnerable in your writing as a pathway to your authenticity. Your audience craves connection because they’re in a vulnerable place, and they need an author who’s willing to be vulnerable as well.

Write from the heart, not the mind, and your message will truly connect with your audience.

Don’t #4: Self-Edit As You Write

For your writing to be fresh and exciting, you need to allow yourself to write from a stream of consciousness. The goal with this approach is to generate as much text as you’re inspired to write, without judging it.

While this style of writing will generate lots of ideas, it’ll be a bit messy as well. But this is a fine trade-off because you want to edit from a position of abundance and not lack. The more information you can produce, the better the final edited product will be.

Having said that, what you don’t want to do is to self-edit as you write (i.e. write a sentence then edit it immediately), because this is highly disruptive to the way your creativity flows.

Creative writing is mostly ruled by the right side of your brain and it requires continuity without interference from your critical left side.

My best advice is to complete an entire section of a chapter before you do any self-editing.

Don’t #5: Write in Isolation

The process of book writing is solitary by nature – it’s just you, your thoughts and your laptop or your notebook. Therefore, it can be tempting to want to write and then rewrite your entire manuscript before showing it to anyone else.

Sometimes this may be motivated by perfectionism – you don’t want to show your writing until you feel it’s ready, other times it may be motivated by self-consciousness – you’ve never written a book before and you don’t feel that your writing is good enough to show to others.

In either case this is a mistake, and the reason for it doesn’t have anything to do with the way you feel about your writing.

If you don’t involve your target audience in your writing from an early stage – even if your writing isn’t your best – you run the risk of creating an entire manuscript that, although on point in terms of content, completely misses the point in terms of audience alignment.

If your audience doesn’t connect with and resonate with your text in its entirety, your book will have a very short life in the market.

The best way to ensure that your book is ideally written for your target audience is to use your network to recruit an advance reader group of people made up of its members.

Every time you finish a book chapter you’ll email them a pdf copy and ask for feedback.

This way you can make the necessary changes in your manuscript to keep your audience engaged as your book develops, without having to backtrack and do major multi-chapter rewrites later on.

Next Steps

Now that you know the dos and don’ts of nonfiction book writing, you’re ready to embark on the exiting world of book publishing To make this ride more enjoyable, I’ve written a companion article that shows you the roadmap you need to follow to go from book idea to printed books: “How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors.”

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 Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

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

The 10 Must-Have Writing Skills for Nonfiction Authors

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

Learn 10 Powerful Writing Habits to Fast Track Your Nonfiction Book

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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 Best Book Writing Advice for Nonfiction Authors

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Book Writing Advice

In this article, you’ll learn the best book writing advice available for new nonfiction authors. You’ll learn how to develop consistent motivation, how to ensure quality writing throughout your book project and how to get to the finish line with a product to be proud of.

1- Set a Firm Publishing Deadline

When it comes to writing nonfiction books, one of the hardest things for authors to do is to achieve a consistent level of motivation throughout the project.

While time always seems to fly at the beginning, driven by the excitement of writing a new book, things can become more complicated as the writing drags on and you reach the dreaded “middle” of the book.

This is the place where most authors lose steam and become demotivated. In fact, it’s estimated that 97% of people who start books don’t publish them, with many giving up halfway through.

So, how can you keep yourself out of this conundrum? By learning from the pros.

Let me explain: traditionally published authors are required to sign a publishing agreement, part of which sets a clear timeline to deliver a manuscript.

Since they’re legally bound to a deadline, they don’t have much of a choice when it comes to finding motivation when they don’t feel like writing, because there are clear negative consequences to their inaction.

This is what you have to emulate in your own book project. By self-publishing, you won’t be subject to a deadline, unless you impose one yourself. How? By scheduling an event with a firm date a year from now where you’ll be unveiling your book.

Examples of Firm Deadlines

Here are some examples of events you can arrange for your book:

  • A public-speaking engagement with a professional or trade association
  • A seasonal event in your industry
  • A trade show panel or workshop
  • A conference
  • A professional gathering

In some of the above cases you’ll have to sign an agreement, especially if there are speaking fees involved, so you’ll be in the same boat as professional authors.

And even if you’re not required to sign a formal agreement, now you have a public commitment to fulfill with a third party. That’ll become the driver for your motivation to complete your project within the right time frame.

2- Write Every Day

Book writing, like any other creative endeavor, requires practice in order to get good at it.

In the same way that sustained practice with a musical instrument allows you to develop the muscle memory necessary to play it with mastery, sustained writing practice allows you to develop the writing muscle required to produce quality content at speed.

If you want to succeed as a nonfiction writer, then you need to train like the pros train. Even when they’ve been around for decades, professional writers still schedule time to write every day.

Why? Because, like any other muscle, the writing muscle needs to be exercised continuously to remain conditioned. This involves a period of exercise (a daily writing block of time) balanced by a period of rest and recovery.

Writing sporadically won’t allow your writing muscle to develop and, at the other end of the spectrum, going on writing marathons will lead to creative exhaustion.

The best balance is to find a length of time every day that’s sufficient for exercising your writing muscle but that also takes into account your other responsibilities in work and life.

The ideal daily block of time for a new nonfiction author is two hours, 6 days a week.

How Long Will It Take You to Write a Book?

At this rate, and making sure you don’t have any distractions, you’ll be able to produce between 400 and 500 words per hour of raw (unedited) text, or between 800 and 1,000 words per day.

If you write six days per week, you’ll be producing between 4,800 and 6,000 words per week.

If you’re aiming for a 50,000 book (approximately 200-pages long if you include images and other graphical elements), then you’ll require between 8.5 and 10.5 weeks to do all your raw writing.

Then you should double this amount to take care of self-editing and rewrites plus time to allow for holidays, illness, etc., and you’ll be now in the 17-21 week range, or approximately 4-5 months.

Beyond this range, you’ll need to allocate time for a professional edit and book production (typically another 4-5 months).

3- Protect Your Writing Time

Protect Your Writing Time

The creative writing process requires a quiet environment. If you get regularly interrupted by either people or electronic devices, you’ll never be able to achieve cruising speed.

For thoughts to become ideas and for ideas to flow from your mind to the page, you need a continuous stretch of peace and quiet. Once you choose your 2-hour daily writing block, you’re going to have to take measures to protect it.

First off, you’ll need to enlist those around you to support your project by not interrupting you during your two-hour writing block, save for an emergency.

Any phone calls need to go to voice mail or be handled by someone else. You also have to refrain from checking, reading or answering any email, text messages, or any other type of direct communications.

For this purpose, you’ll need to mute all your electronic devices for the duration of your writing block so that you’re not disturbed by the sounds of notifications. Also, you’ll have to refrain from going online during this time.

Your writing time is strictly for writing, not for researching. Any type of online activity must be conducted outside of these hours. If you do need to check up on something that you’re writing about, make a note to do it later.

Why? Because the unending character of Internet searches makes it a rabbit hole, and it doesn’t take much for a five-minute search to extend to twenty minutes, or worse yet an hour, and all of a sudden half of your writing block is wasted.

Ideal Places to Write Your Book

Now let’s talk about your writing place. You may prefer the intimacy of a private location or perhaps you get more inspiration from a public space. Either is good, just make sure that whatever place you choose brings you an underlying sense of joy.

You want to use a space that’s conducive to creativity. For instance, having a nice view out of the window helps, or perhaps you have a favorite spot in the house you enjoy spending time in.

For those who like the outdoors, some people enjoy writing from a park bench or from the botanical gardens or other type of public gardens if there’s one near where you live. Some other people enjoy writing at their favorite coffee shop.

Once again, any place is good, provided that it brings you a sense of joy.

4- Assemble an Advance Reader Group

This is one of the best pieces of advice for nonfiction book writers: don’t write in isolation. Remember that you’re not writing a book for yourself but for your target audience, therefore it’s wise to enlist their help to give you feedback as you write your manuscript.

How? By assembling an advance reader group before you start writing. You’ll need to tap into your network to recruit these members from your target audience.

You don’t want to include your own family members or close friends in this group, but family and friends of your friends is okay. You’ll want between 5 and 10 people that are preferably at arms-length from you, but people that you can trust will commit to your book project.

You should thank them by giving them a signed copy of your printed book as soon as it comes out, and mention their name with some kind words in your acknowledgments.

The advance reading process is quite simple. Just email your readers a pdf of each chapter in your manuscript as soon as you finish it and ask them to give you feedback.

Then you need to take their feedback and implement the best ideas. Sometimes you’ll get a great comment from an individual and sometimes you’ll see a consensus pointing out the same issue. Use your best judgment – you’ll learn as you go.

Why not wait until your manuscript is finished before soliciting feedback? Because you want to ensure that every chapter resonates with your target audience.

You don’t want to finish all your writing only to find out then that in the middle of chapter 3 people started tuning out, forcing you to rewrite three quarters of your book in order to bring it back into alignment with your audience.

Your advance reading group may take some time to assemble, but it’ll be one of the best things you can do for your book.

5- Have Your Manuscript Professionally Edited

The final piece of book writing advice is to have your manuscript professionally edited. Every professional nonfiction author has an editor and so should you.

An expert nonfiction editor will help you not only gain perspective on your writing by bringing in a fresh pair of eyes, but they’ll also know the best practices for communicating effectively with nonfiction audiences.

They’ll know from experience what works for them and what doesn’t, helping you reshape your flow of ideas to pack more punch for your audience.

They’ll do all of the above in addition to making sure that your grammar and syntax is correct and that your text doesn’t contain typos.

Now, nonfiction editing is composed of a number of stages. Some editors may be able to perform all stages, but more often than not you may be required to hire different specialists.

The 4 Stages of Nonfiction Editing

Below, you’ll learn about the four stages of nonfiction editing, beginning at the highest structural level and ending with a final word-by-word quality check:

  • Developmental Editing: This editing pass looks at the overall structure of your book. Its goal is to ensure that your message is being successfully delivered to your target audience.
  • Content Editing: This editing pass has more to do with readability than structure. It ensures that paragraphs and sentences in your manuscript are well-constructed and that the flow of your ideas is clear.
  • Copyediting: This editing pass is required to make certain that you’re using accurate language in your manuscript with no spelling, punctuation, capitalization, syntax or grammatical errors.
  • Proofreading: This editing pass is the fine-tooth comb check that catches any typos that were missed in all prior stages to ensure your book is error-free before going to print.

Next Steps

Nonfiction book publishing is a very rewarding endeavor if done right, but it can become very frustrating if you don’t follow the best practices. The above advice will set you on the right path and make sure that you build a strong foundation.

To build further on that foundation, I’ve written a number of companion articles that’ll guide you through the publishing process and help you avoid costly mistakes:

Best of luck on this exciting 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 posts I highly recommend:

How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book

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

How to Become a Great Book Writer in Business Nonfiction

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

Learn 10 Powerful Writing Habits to Fast Track Your Nonfiction Book

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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 5 Cardinal Book Writing Rules for Nonfiction Authors

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Book Writing Rules

If you’re looking for a set of book writing rules to improve your nonfiction skills, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, you’ll learn the five cardinal rules, or best practices, for nonfiction authors to ensure that your book has a solid foundation for market success.

Rule 1: Don’t Write Until You Know Your Target Audience Inside and Out

There’s an age-old saying in the marketing world: “Market to everyone and sell to no one.” Interestingly, this expression couldn’t be more apt in the nonfiction genre.

If you write a nonfiction book for a general audience, unless you’re already a famous author with a large built-in following, you’ll find it nearly impossible to find success.

For example, if you write a book with strategies for weight loss and market it to those in the general public who want to lose weight (hundreds of millions of people), you’ll encounter the following problems:

  • What you’re writing about has been written about before by authors with much more credibility and name recognition than you
  • It’s extremely expensive to market to a large and highly fragmented market with multiple and differing needs
  • You’ll be out-competed by deep-pocketed behemoths in a $212 billion global market. For example, Weight Watchers alone spent nearly $200 million in advertising worldwide in 2018.

For new nonfiction books to find success, they must be written exclusively to help a specific “niche” audience. The more specific this audience and the more targeted your solution, the higher your chances for finding success in the market.

Thoroughly Research Your Target Audience

Once you find the right audience that could benefit from your expertise, your next job is to get to know them intimately.

Before you can define what your book will be about, you need to find out what’s the most painful problem for your target audience which is aligned with your area of expertise.

Your goal then is to create a unique solution for this problem.

But this isn’t enough to find success.

Once you’ve nailed down your target audience, their pressing problem and your unique solution, you need to be able to build a bond so they can trust you. And the only way you can gain their trust is by getting to know them at a deep level.

Once you learn what keeps them up at night, what they worry about and what they fear the most, you’ll be able to craft a message that truly resonates with them.

If you don’t take the time to do this preliminary research, you’ll have at best a 50/50 chance of connecting with your audience.

Where Do You Find This Information?

Start by interviewing your own clients. Tell them that you’re writing a book and what your subject is, and also tell them that their answers will be anonymous and only used for statistical purposes.

Another way to obtain this information is through online forums (if available in your niche). Forums often have an introductory thread for new members to relate their experiences, their key problems and their aspirations.

These threads can be a treasure trove of target-audience information. Many times you’ll find important demographic details, such as age, gender, profession, number of children, etc.

This aggregated profile information will be used in the following step.

Create Your Target Audience’s Avatar

Avatar

Now it’s time to merge the above information into a single profile (or two if your target audience has members of both genders). This profile will represent your “ideal” client and you should complete it as follows:

  • Make up a name
  • Get a headshot from a free stock-photo site
  • Pick the average age and most prevalent marital status
  • Use the most common profession and income level if available
  • Average number of children, their status and their living arrangements (single, married, working, studying, living at home, living away)
  • Home ownership
  • Any pets? Hobbies?
  • Are there any common health or other issues?
  • Is there anything they worry about?
  • List their hopes, dreams, fears and challenges
  • If available, list their main aspirations

This “avatar” of your ideal client will be whom your book is addressed to.

Rule 2: Don’t Write Until You Have Gathered Solid Social Proof

There’s an expectation from the market that all nonfiction authors are subject-matter experts. In fact, you’ll be granted this status the minute your book is published. However, you’ll also be expected to demonstrate your expertise.

Before you present your unique solution to your target audience, you have to make sure that you’ve thoroughly tested it with clients first. Unless you can show clear evidence of your results, your readers will dismiss your findings as unsubstantiated.

In preparation for writing your book, you’ll need to accumulate a significant number of testimonials from clients that you can then weave into your text as case studies, anecdotes and stories.

Not only will your audience need to see your social proof so you’ll be considered a credible expert, but also you want them to identify with your clients. If they can see themselves in your clients’ stories, they’ll be willing to believe in your solution.

Rule 3: Always Write for an Audience of One

Audience of One

Nonfiction readers get attracted to the genre because they’re seeking help. They’re afflicted by a painful problem and are actively searching for a solution.

Now, personal problems demand a personal solution. Therefore, when a member of your target audience picks up your title, they’ll expect that you’re addressing your entire book to them.

For example, when you read an excellent nonfiction book in an area of need or interest, you’ll invariably feel that the author is engaging with you directly. You’ll feel a direct connection with the author, almost as if they knew you.

The reason you feel this deep connection is twofold. First, it’s an indication that they really know their target audience (you) intimately. Second, it’s an indication that they’ve written their book for an audience of one (for your eyes only).

When you write your book, make sure that you don’t address it to an anonymous group of people by using words such as “we, our, us” but instead addressing your audience of one in the second person: “you, your.”

Rule 4: Use the Power of Story to Connect with Your Readers

Given the personal nature of problem-solving, nonfiction books require a high level of connection with readers. One of the most powerful devices for connecting with an audience is storytelling.

Our brains seem to be pre-wired to be susceptible to storytelling. When a story is well-constructed, it’s nearly impossible to not suspend our disbelief and become engrossed in it.

This human tendency has been the fuel that’s driven the tremendous blockbuster success of the fiction genre. For example, the stories told by its two most successful authors, William Shakespeare and Agatha Christie, have resulted in the sale of over 4 billion books!

In order to create a deep level of connection with your target audience, you’ll be taking a page from the world of fiction.

By using the power of storytelling to deliver your message, you’ll reach much deeper levels of connection than by using informational techniques.

The works well because storytelling allows you to connect with audiences at an emotional level, whereas the acquisition of information relies exclusively on the intellect which is much more filtered and constrained.

Rule 5: Be 100% Authentic

Authenticity

Finally, in order to enhance your connection with readers, you need to allow yourself to be vulnerable in your writing, because vulnerability is founded on authenticity, and authenticity is a magnet for human connection.

It’s nearly impossible to develop trust with an audience when you’re not being yourself. Inauthenticity is paper-thin – readers will see through it and be turned off by it. On the other hand, the most successful nonfiction authors have a level of authenticity that pervades their writing.

Authenticity will also bring out your authentic voice. When you use your own voice, instead of trying to sound like someone you’re not, you won’t be afraid to be yourself and your reading experience will feel like a breath of fresh air.

For example, if you weren’t authentic with your business clients you wouldn’t be in business in the first place. Your writing career should be no different.

Next Steps

By learning and applying these rules, you’ll be off to a good start in your nonfiction book project. Your next step is to complement the above rules with the writing skills nonfiction pros use to create great books.

My companion article “The 10 Must-Have Writing Skills for Entrepreneurial Authors” will teach you the skills you need to develop to become a top-notch nonfiction writer.

All the best!

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 Nonfiction Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Business Owners

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

The 10 Must-Have Writing Skills for Entrepreneurial Authors

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

Learn 10 Powerful Writing Habits to Fast Track Your Nonfiction Book

How to Come Up With Great Book Ideas For Business Owners

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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.

5 Steps to Develop Compelling Nonfiction Book Writing Ideas

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Book Writing Ideas

Coming up with great nonfiction book writing ideas is, fortunately, more science that art. Once you master the best practices shown in this article, you’ll be able to research and develop powerful and compelling ideas for your upcoming nonfiction book.

What’s a Compelling Nonfiction Book Writing Idea?

A compelling idea causes readers to have an emotional response or, better yet, an emotional connection with your book.

Nonfiction books are in the perfect position to create this type connection because their readers typically look at them as a vehicle for finding solutions to their problems.

Once you uncover your compelling book writing idea and then place your book in front of the right audience, you’ll have a success in your hands.

The 5 Steps to Creating Compelling Book Writing Ideas

Follow the five clear steps below to develop a compelling book writing idea that your readers will find irresistible.

Step 1: Clearly Identify Your Target Audience

You want to write a nonfiction book to take your business and your career to the next level and you have many great ideas swimming around in your head. They all have potential and you already have a short list with your favorites, so you’re ready to pick the winner.

Here’s my advice: stop! It’s not really your job to choose your book’s idea.

Now you say, what? This is my book and I have every right to choose my own idea!

Here’s the problem with that line of reasoning. Yes, it is your book and your content we’re talking about – nobody will ever take that away from you. But, your own book writing ideas aren’t really relevant to your publishing success.

The reason is that for your book to succeed, 1) it must be targeted to a specific audience, 2) it must address a specific problem that they want to solve and 3) the problem must be causing your target audience a great deal of pain.

Unless you get this trifecta nailed down, your chances of success will be minimal at best.

In short, the writing idea that you choose for your book must address a problem that your readers currently suffer from with a high degree of pain, not an idea in isolation that you think would be great for them.

Remember, you’re not writing your book for yourself, not even tangentially. You’re writing it exclusively for your audience.

Start with Your Clients

Start With Your Clients

Now the question is, how do you identify your target audience? The answer: begin by looking at your past and present clients. You’ll need to find the answer to the following questions:

  • What keeps them up at night?
  • What do they fear the most?
  • What are their aspirations?
  • What are their daily challenges?
  • What are their hopes and dreams?
  • What issues do they have to contend with?

Tell clients that you feel would be open to helping you that you’re writing a book and that you need their input.

Then sit down with them to have a discussion and make sure that you lead it with open questions. Tell them that all their responses will be anonymized and that you’ll only need to associate age and gender with their answers with no other identifying characteristics.

Next, begin to build a profile of your target audience using this initial information.

Do Online Research

Then, go online and look for forums that cater to your audience and the problem that you’re seeking to help them solve. Read through the threads and see if you can use that information to enhance your profile.

Often times, forums will have an introductory thread where people who joined will tell other members about themselves (this information is typically anonymized).

Depending on the subject matter of the forum, members may disclose their age, gender, profession, whether they have kids or not, their main worries, what they’re battling, what keeps them up at night, their aspirations, and so on.

Depending on your subject, you may find a treasure trove of highly valuable information about your target audience in these public forums.

Public Facebook groups can be another valuable source of research, although they tend to be less valuable since the information isn’t typically anonymous.

Next, Create an Avatar

Avatar

Once you’ve obtained as much profile information as possible about your target audience from all available sources, it’s time to create your target audience “avatar.”

This is a simple text document that shows the following information about an “ideal” member of your target audience:

  • Their name (you’ll make this up)
  • A headshot (pick an appropriate close-up photo from a free stockphoto site and paste in the document)
  • Age and marital status
  • Profession and income level (annual family income)
  • Children if any, their status and their living arrangements (single, married, working, studying, living at home, living away)
  • Homeowner? What’s the value of the home? Renter? How much do they pay in rent?
  • Any pets? Hobbies?
  • Any health or other issues?
  • What keeps them up at night?
  • List their hopes, dreams, fears and challenges
  • What are their main aspirations?

This avatar will be the audience for your book – you’ll be thinking about them whenever you write. You’ll be addressing your book to this individual and this individual only.

Your avatar will be your audience of one, the composite of your entire target audience into a single person (you’ll need two avatars if your book is targeting both genders).

Step 2: Identify the Main Problem for Your Target Audience

As stated above, the key to the success of your book writing idea is to identify the right problem to solve for your audience.

This problem must meet the following two criteria:

  1. It must be a problem that keeps your audience up at night
  2. It must cause them a high level of pain

Let’s go over the above criteria in detail:

1. The Problem Must Keep Your Audience Up at Night

The problem that your nonfiction book tackles must be something that’s somehow existential for your audience. In other words, it must be something that’s constantly interfering with their enjoyment of life.

Little problems are never big motivators and few people will seek solutions for them that they’re willing to pay for. Big hairy problems, on the other hand, are a different story altogether.

Consider this: while it’ll take you approximately the same amount of effort to write a book for either kind of problem, only one will result in sales and the other one will be ignored.

2. Your Audience’s Problem Must Cause Them a High Level of Pain

Now, what if your audience has a number of problems that they want to solve. Which one will they take the most action for? The answer is: the one that inflicts the most pain.

While humans are wired to go away from pain and toward pleasure, pain is a much more powerful motivator.

So here’s what you have to do. Sort the problems you want to solve for your audience from a scale of 1-10 (10 representing the highest level of pain), then pick a level 9 or 10 problem to solve.

Step 3: Identify Your Solution

Solution

Once you find what your audience’s most pressing problem is, then you’ll have to formulate a solution that takes advantage of your knowledge and experience.

Make Your Solution Unique

For your solution to get traction and rise above the noise of the competition in your niche, you’ll have to come up with a fresh approach that’s different than your competition’s.

This doesn’t mean that you’ll have to make a new scientific discovery in order to be successful; it means that you may have to combine two or more known strategies to create a new one.

For example, one known approach to weight loss is to follow a balanced diet (a mix of protein, carbs and good fats), another one is portion control (naturally shrinking the size of the stomach), and another one is meditation (using the mind to control the body’s hunger signals).

Your new approach could be to incorporate all three into one. Now you’ll have something that’s not out there yet (assuming this is the case) and thus you’ll enjoy a first mover advantage.

You Must Be Able to Prove You Can Solve the Problem

Now, it’s time to gather proof that you’re well-qualified to solve this problem so that you’re credible in your niche.

The best way to show evidence that your solution works is through social proof from existing and past clients.

You’ll need to pepper your book with testimonials, case studies and anecdotes from clients who’ve overcome the audience’s problem using your unique solution.

Step 4: Turn Your Solution Into a Compelling Idea

Compelling Idea

Great, you’re almost there!

Let’s recap: you’ve clearly identified who your target audience is, you’ve clearly identified their most painful problem that you’re qualified to solve, and you’ve come up with a solution that introduces a new approach.

Now it’s time to turn your solution into a compelling book idea.

Phrase Your Idea So that It Reflects the Aspirations of Your Target Audience

The most compelling book idea is one which best reflects the aspirations of your target audience. This idea will be verbalized in the title of your book.

When searching for a book, readers are going to feel consumed by their problem and therefore won’t be interested in what your solution is or how it works. But they’ll be definitely tuned into what your solution will do for them.

They’ll be more interested at first in the outcome of your solution, not the solution itself (that’ll come later). In other words, the main driver behind nonfiction book purchasing decisions is self-interest.

I’m not implying that you should try to manipulate people’s egos to make a sale, but that their motivation is driven by their deep desire to put an end to their pain.

For your book idea to be really compelling to your audience, it has to clearly reflect the aspirations of your target audience.

Interestingly, their first impulse to get your book will be driven by this aspiration and not by the solution itself. The job of your book title, then, is to catch their attention at an emotional level.

Once they’re hooked on your title and want to learn more about your book, their intellect will engage and they’ll then seek to learn more about your solution.

Now, your solution will have to be something they’ve never heard of before. Otherwise, they’ll dismiss your book with a “been there, done that” reaction.

Here’s an Example of a Great Book Idea

Tim Ferriss is the author of “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich,” a book based on how he was able to quit the proverbial rat race and generate sufficient income to cover his lifestyle while enjoying a lot more free time.

Notice how his unique solution isn’t mentioned in his title. In fact, all he wanted to achieve at this stage was to reflect the aspirations of his target audience, which he managed to do exceedingly well given his sales.

How did he do it? By using an aspirational title (who wouldn’t want to work only 4 hours a week while getting all their bills paid?) plus adding imagery in the background showing the outline of a person lying on a hammock between two palm trees with the sun setting in the background.

His book cover clearly reflects the aspirations of people who are fed up with the stress and the intensity of the rat race and who are desperate to find a way out.

This is your goal. You want your book cover and title to connect with the emotional needs of your readers, to compel them to pick up a copy and check it out.

Once they do, it’s the job of your table of contents and your book introduction to close the deal by demonstrating why your book (i.e. your solution) is different than anything else they’ve tried before.

Step 5: Create a Subtitle That Expands on Your Main Idea

In the past, before online bookstores became ubiquitous, a book’s title was sufficient to carry its entire message (e.g. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” or “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”).

The role of sub-titles was merely symbolic, e.g. “How to Win Friends: The Only Book You Need to Lead You to Success” or “The 7 Habits: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change,” and weren’t really needed to add context to the title.

In this day and age of online bookstores and online book searches, though, book cover images have been reduced to thumbnails, therefore long titles (6 or more words) have become nearly illegible when looking at the search results.

To solve this problem, publishers have been trending towards short titles (less than 5 words, often even a single word).

While this change has made titles legible within thumbnails, they’ve become more cryptic due to their short size, so the sub-title has become more necessary than ever before.

Nowadays, sub-titles are used to expand or even explain the full meaning of titles. Here are some examples:

  • Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley
  • The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win
  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking

Now that You Know How to Create a Title and a Subtitle, it’s Time to Test Them

Title Subtitle

While you’ll be settling on a single book idea, you shouldn’t settle on a single title. In fact, you should try to express your book idea through multiple titles.

The reason is that you’ll never know which title will connect the most with your target audience until you test them.

For example, “The 4-Hour Workweek” wasn’t Tim Ferriss’ only title. It wasn’t even his favorite. He tested a number of versions with his target audience and let the resulting test data make the decision for him.

You should follow this best practice as well. Never pick a final title because you like it the most – remember, your book is not about or for you but about and for your target audience – so let them decide.

Select a group of members from your target audience by using your network and run a number of titles by them to choose the winner. To make the selection process easier, only show each candidate two titles at a time and make them choose the best.

Then keep the partial winner and add a third choice and go through this selection process again and again until you run out of titles. The title that’s left standing will be the winner.

Next Steps

Once you’ve settled on your book writing idea, it’s time to write a great nonfiction book that will be of great service to your audience for years to come.

In order to do that, you’ll need to follow a clear roadmap. The world of book publishing can be quite complicated and without one you can quickly feel lost.

To help you get started in the right direction, I’ve created a companion article that shows you how to go step by step from main idea to printed books:

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

Best of luck!

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 Come Up With Killer Book Titles for Your Nonfiction Book

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

The 10 Must-Have Writing Skills for Nonfiction Authors

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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.

10 Book Editing Tips for Nonfiction Writers

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Book Editing Tips

If you do an online search for book-editing tips, you’ll find that most advice is targeted to fiction writers, since the vast majority of self-published books falls under this popular category.

The problem is that if you’re writing a nonfiction book, much of the fiction editing advice that’s offered online won’t apply to you. In fact, in certain cases the guidelines for fiction can be the exact opposite of what you need.

In this article, you’ll learn ten editing tips that are exclusively targeted to nonfiction writers like you.

Nonfiction vs. Fiction Editing

In the world of fiction, the goal for writers is to engage readers by inviting them to suspend their disbelief and embrace the emotional journey of the book’s characters.

The main mission for these writers is to entertain readers through fictitious adventures, helping them take a temporary break from the “real” world.

The goal of nonfiction writers, on the other hand, is to help readers deal head-on with actual problems in the real world. Their mission is to be of service.

As a result of this contrast, the editing requirements for both genres are very different.

Nonfiction Book Editing Tips

Here are ten editing tips that will help your nonfiction book stand out from the crowd:

Tip 1: Write First to Connect, then to Inform

The success of a nonfiction title isn’t measured in its ability to inform (although this is something that’s certainly important) but by its ability to connect with a target audience.

If your editing is just focused on content at the expense of connection, you may have a hard time retaining readers. Connection leads to engagement and engagement leads to interest.

When you edit your nonfiction book, you have to ensure that your language is embedded with “connective tissue,” such as making prominent use of the second person, relaying information through stories that your readers can identify with, and being authentic and vulnerable in your writing.

Tip 2: Minimize the Use of the Passive Voice

Media Appearances

In order to create a strong connection with your readers, you’ll need to minimize the use of the passive voice and use active verbs as much as possible. For example, you should write: “I decided to…” Instead of “It was decided to…”

The active voice is direct and is perceived by readers to be more honest. Using the passive voice, on the other hand, makes you sound like you’re trying to hide behind your words, adding an unnecessary layer of anonymity to your message.

The use of the active voice is also better aligned with your authenticity as a writer. Being in charge of your statements instead of hiding behind them requires that you become vulnerable in front of your readers.

This vulnerability shows them that you’re not afraid to be who you are and that you’re confident owning up to your expertise in the subject. These are all necessary traits to build trust with your audience.

Tip 3: Avoid Run-On Sentences and Long Paragraphs

The ability to connect with an audience must by nature rely on clarity. Authenticity is certainly a starting point, but if your writing doesn’t allow for frequent pauses to allow readers to process the information, you’ll quickly begin to lose them.

Although writing with authenticity builds trust, poor writing technique erodes it very quickly. Readers aren’t just trusting you with their connection but also with their time.

You need to be mindful of this and create sentences and paragraphs of a length that allows your content to be read, processed and understood clearly.

Your information must be broken into blocks of text that are long enough to be meaningful but short enough to be easily digested by your readers.

How short? It depends on your target audience and their level of sophistication. Remember that you’re not writing your book for yourself or for your colleagues, but for your readers.

Research your target audience well and meet them where they are. Help them solve their problems using language that resonates with them.

Tip 4: Always Use Clean Language – Don’t Embellish

Climax of the Story

When you take your readers down the path from problem to solution, you don’t want to pepper it with debris. Your choice of words will make the difference between a smooth surface and speed bumps on the road.

Don’t embellish your words to make them sound more “important” than they are. This is a practice that usually backfires because it makes your writing sound pretentious and therefore inauthentic.

While it’s clear that writing requires a different skill-set than talking, you want your writing to “sound” conversational in people’s heads when they read it. If it feels too formal your connection may suffer.

For example, instead of writing “This is a seemingly insurmountable problem that’s faced by the vast majority of people,” write “This is a difficult problem that afflicts countless people.”

Tip 5: Avoid Using Adjectives in Excess

The same goes for the excessive use of adjectives in your sentences. Adjectives should only be used to qualify a noun when doing so adds value to your message.

The best test to verify the need for adjectives in a sentence is to take them out and see if the meaning changes. If there’s no meaningful change, then it’s a sign that they need to be removed.

Unnecessary adjectives become speed bumps for readers because not only do they not add value to your sentences, but they also dilute the value that’s already there.

For example, instead of writing “He didn’t have any meaningful prior experience running companies,” write “He didn’t have any experience running companies.”

Tip 6: Avoid Using Adverbs in Excess

The excessive use of adverbs is another area that can muddy the clarity and impact of your message. In the same way that adjectives are used to qualify nouns, adverbs are used to quality verbs.

Although they can help paint a more defined and nuanced picture in fiction writing (if used well), this is seldom the case for nonfiction writing. Most times, your sentences will read better when you take adverbs out.

Here’s an example: instead of writing, “We assume that if something absolutely makes sense to us then it must undoubtedly make sense to everybody else,” write, “We assume that if something makes sense to us then it must make sense to everybody else.”

Tip 7: Don’t Write to Fill Space

While it’s a good writing practice to set a word-count target every time you sit down to write, shooting for a daily word-count isn’t a license to write for the sake of writing.

Clarity is a hallmark of good nonfiction. Filler words or filler phrases that don’t add value to your message break your flow of ideas, waste your reader’s time and lead to reader attrition.

Whenever you put something down on paper, make sure it has a clear purpose and that it adds value to your message. Now, it’s easy to write just to fill a page and it’s much harder to write with meaning all the time.

Fortunately, there’s a straightforward formula you can use to keep you from writing filler content: focus on writing with simplicity.

Now, this doesn’t mean using the “lowest common denominator” approach to language. Instead, it means using an economy of words so that each one has a clear purpose.

The best-written nonfiction books are also the most highlighted by readers. They’re chock-full of meaning and valuable information with no “filler” language.

These are books that tend to linger for a long time on people’s bedside tables for quick reference. To enter your book into this exclusive club, make sure that every word and sentence that you use has a reason for being there.

Tip 8: Use Conversational Language

Part of creating a strong connection with your readers is the choice of language that you use when communicating with them.

You now understand that your message has to always be clear, devoid of “flowery” language or unnecessary words that act as speed bumps to your reader’s comprehension.

But it must also be delivered in a conversational way. If your writing is too formal or too academic it might not resonate with readers, even if it conveys your message adequately.

When people read your book, they’re trying to process your information and they don’t appreciate also having to interpret your language.

Although writing is a completely different skill than talking, when people read a nonfiction book their minds interpret the book as a conversation with the author.

The lack of simple and direct language creates a disconnect in people’s minds that may hinder how they process information. For this reason, you need to write your book in a conversational tone.

You want your book’s message to be absorbed by your readers with as little “mental translation” as possible. The use of conversational language will create the most direct pathway to their comprehension.

Tip 9: Take the Time to Learn the Rules of Grammar

6 Rules for Writing

Before you sit down to write, take the time to learn the basic rules of grammar. There’s nothing more distracting than writing language that’s awkward to read and then having to stop frequently to fix it.

You want to set the conditions so that you can write from a stream of consciousness – that’s how inspiration works best – so it’ll really pay dividends to make the basic rules of grammar second nature to you so that you can write with more freedom.

These rules aren’t that difficult to master. In fact, you’ll likely be familiar with many of them already.

Now, there are lots of free resources on the Internet you can use to expand on this knowledge. Here’s a popular one to get you started:

https://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp

Tip 10: Don’t be Afraid to Slash and Burn

Finally, nonfiction writing is like shooting a film; you want to have a lot of scenes to choose from when you get into the editing room.

Always write from a stream of consciousness to create a direct pathway from your brain down to the page. Don’t censor your writing when it wants to freely come out.

If your raw (unedited) original text is twice the word count you were planning for your book, you’re doing great!

A lot of that content will likely not make it to the final product, but you don’t know yet which part will get there and which part will end up on the cutting-room floor.

In the end, the more material you have to work with the better your book will be. For example, you may write an entire section in your first chapter that ends up not working out in chapter one but fits chapter seven like a glove.

If you limit the amount of content that you produce at the source, then you’ll be forced to constantly write new content to make up for this deficit, which over time will feel like the yardstick is constantly moving.

But if you have a lot of material to work with, you’ll have the creative freedom to trim it and shape it down to the perfect size. This “slash and burn” approach is conducive to a much better end-product.

What to Do After the Editing is Completed?

Once your self-editing and rewrite phase is completed, it’s time to hire a professional nonfiction editor to do the final polish. Your personal editing isn’t sufficient to go to print with because as the author you’re just too close to the text.

You need a fresh pair of eyes, especially one that’s fully trained in the rules of grammar and style that are applicable to nonfiction, in order to turn your book into a product that can effectively compete in the marketplace.

Publishing a nonfiction book has a lot of upside for authors, but only if it’s professionally edited.

In fact, even the most experienced and celebrated nonfiction authors have an editor behind them. They know that, not unlike you, they’re too close to their text to be an objective arbiter.

What Are the Best Channels to Self-Publish Nonfiction?

Amazon

By far the most powerful distribution channel for self-published nonfiction is Amazon. Their global reach and low barriers to entry will allow your book to be available to a worldwide audience for a minimal distribution cost.

Not only that, they’ve set up a global network of on-demand printing facilities that can print your book in near-real time after an order is received and then ship it domestically to the buyer.

This technology is offered free of charge to all self-publishers and affords them global reach for not only eBooks but also printed books, which is a game-changer in the industry.

The second most powerful distribution channel is IngramSpark, which is the perfect complement for Amazon. This company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ingram, the largest book distributor to brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries in the world.

If you self-publish your nonfiction book concurrently on both platforms, you’ll gain the best of both worlds – distribution through the largest online bookstore on Earth as well as worldwide distribution to physical bookstores and libraries.

Incidentally, IngramSpark also operates a global network of on-demand printing facilities that can print to order and ship books to customers for low domestic prices.

How About Book Promotion?

Although you might not be thinking about book promotion at this early stage, it’s a good idea to give it at least some thought now because the most effective book promotion strategies require a long lead time to come to fruition.

Without getting into the details here, I recommend that you read my companion article “Learn How to Market a Nonfiction Book to Get Solid Results” to begin formulating your thoughts now so that you aren’t faced with an unpleasant surprise later on when you’re unable to turn back the clock.

Next Steps

Once your professional editing pass is complete, it’s time to look for professional book designers to create the inside layout as well as your book cover.

For the same reason you need an expert editor you need expert designers, because your book will have to compete head-to-head with traditionally published nonfiction books in your niche.

Back in the day, brick-and-mortar bookstore buyers decided what books would make it onto the shelf and what books wouldn’t, and self-published books hardly ever managed to make it through this gate-keeping filter.

Today, the shelf has moved online, it’s virtually unlimited in size, and the gatekeeper has become a software algorithm. The great news for you is that you can become as proficient as traditional publishers in getting favorable treatment by this electronic gatekeeper – the rules are exactly the same for every publisher who’s savvy enough to learn them.

But this means that if you play your game right and you end up displayed side by side with more established books on an Amazon search, you’ll have to look as good as they do. Since they all use professionals book designers, you’ll have to hire one as well in order to compete.

The upside is that even though your publishing expenses will increase as a result, the return on your investment will be much higher as more and more book buyers compare you favorably with your competitors.

I wish you the best on your publishing 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 posts I highly recommend:

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

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

The 10 Must-Have Writing Skills for Nonfiction Authors

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

Learn 10 Powerful Writing Habits to Fast Track Your Nonfiction Book

How to Come Up With Great Book Ideas For Business Owners

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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.

Looking for a Good Nonfiction Writing Skills Article? Follow These Guidelines

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Writing Skills Article

If you’re looking for a good writing skills article to help you develop as a nonfiction writer, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article you’ll learn a number of powerful guidelines to help you develop into a nonfiction author who knows how to connect with your audience and who knows how to communicate effectively with them to help them bring positive change to their lives.

Guidelines to Develop Good Nonfiction Writing Skills

Developing good nonfiction writing skills is something that you can learn with practice. Good nonfiction authors are not born; they are made. The following guidelines will help you develop these skills methodically over time.

They’ll help you become a better communicator and a more grounded writer. Follow these guidelines with focus and intention and soon you’ll producing quality nonfiction content that you’ll be proud of and that will truly connect with your audience.

The 7 Key Questions

Most nonfiction books are centered on helping an audience solve a problem, so I’ll assume that this is your goal as well. This first guideline will help you fine-tune your writing to your target audience to ensure that your message comes across clearly.

Before you sit down to write a new book section, and also right after you finish it, ask yourself the following 7 questions:

  1. Who is the ideal member of my target audience? Describe this person in as much detail as possible. Do research to discover their fears, challenges, desires, hopes and dreams.
  2. What do I want my target audience to learn from this section?
  3. Am I communicating my thoughts clearly? Am I writing concisely and using an economy of words?
  4. Is my message as eloquent as it could be?
  5. Am I using “You” instead of “We,” “Us,” “They” or “I”?
  6. Did I present my ideas in a logical way?
  7. Did my writing flow naturally throughout the section?

Focus on Good Writing Technique

This guideline will show you a set of basic rules that you need to follow in order to develop good writing technique:

  • Avoid never-ending paragraphs. Break down your thoughts into bite-sized pieces that are easy for readers to consume. We live in an area of short attention spans. Long paragraphs will cause your readers to lose interest in your book fast.
  • Your writing needs to be clean and stay on point. Avoid embellishing your sentences with extra words that don’t add anything useful to your message. Writing that sounds pretentious will break the connection with your readers.
  • Minimize the use of adverbs unless they’re necessary to add context (e.g. write “That was difficult to learn” instead of “That was quite difficult to learn”).
  • Minimize the use of adjectives unless they’re necessary (e.g. write “That was really good” instead of “That was really, really good”)
  • Learn and follow proper rules of grammar, punctuation and capitalization. Here’s a good article that you can use as a starting point:

https://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp

Divide and Conquer

When it comes to the process of writing your manuscript from your book outline you may feel overwhelmed by the sheer size of the task ahead.

You’re planning to write a 200-page, 50,000-word book and now you’re staring at a blank page. Fear sets in…

But you may not know that you have a secret weapon in your writing arsenal. A weapon that will jump-start your writing journey and will be there at your beck and call throughout your entire book.

This weapon is your brain. Now you might say, but wait a minute; everybody has one! Sure, but not everybody is an expert in a specific subject like you are, with years of practice, skill development and satisfied clients.

For example, the difference between a fiction writer and you is that they have to dream up a new fantasy every time they sit down to write a new book. You, on the other hand, don’t need the muses in hope that a good idea will come to your rescue.

You need no rescue. All you need is a good book outline. This is a structured summary of information that’s already sitting in your brain, ready to come out on command.

What’s the command? The title of each section on your outline. The beauty of a nonfiction book is that it doesn’t have to be written in a linear fashion. In fact, it’s much more efficient to divide the job in order to conquer it.

All you have to do is to pick any one section from your book that stimulates your thoughts, that inspires you at that precise moment to start writing.

When you finish that section, your inspiration may shift to the following section or perhaps you’ll need to skip a couple of chapters to find another section that inspires you at that time.

If you follow this approach every time you sit down to write, you’ll never feel overwhelmed and you’ll never experience writer’s block.

Use Concise Language

When you write a nonfiction book, you’re creating a bridge of knowledge between your mind and the mind of your readers. In order for this transfer of thoughts to be fluid, you’ll need to use concise language.

In other words, don’t be tempted to use jargon or complex wording. They’ll just act as speed bumps.

Always try to use as few words as necessary to convey your message. Don’t fear that you’re going to be too simplistic. You won’t, what you’ll be doing is simplifying your message.

Simplistic means eliminating not just words but context as well. Simplifying means making your message clear; it means removing the fat without cutting out the muscle.

Keep in mind that your words are packets of information that need to be deciphered in the minds of your readers. If this process is complicated, your message flow will slow down or stop altogether, breaking your connection with the reader.

If there’s a phrase that you’re very proud of writing, but that doesn’t add value to your message, then you should set your ego aside and cut it out. You might be a bit sad but your readers will appreciate it.

Write Every Day as if You Were Being Paid

As If You Were Being Paid

The hallmark of a professional nonfiction author is the discipline to sit down to write every day, rain or shine. Whether they’re feeling great or lousy that day, they still put in the time and make every effort to always give it their best.

As in all other creative endeavors, there’s no substitute for “rubber to the road.” There are no shortcuts here, so in order to succeed you’ll have to develop professional writing habits.

Writing with frequency and discipline is the only road to the completion of a nonfiction book that you’ll be proud of, and also a book that’ll truly move the needle for your business and your career.

And this is the part where you need to write as if you’re being paid to do so, because even though you’re not being paid right now, you will be soon enough.

Once your nonfiction book is published, you’ll be immediately deemed to be an expert. With this “title” come many financial benefits. For example, you’ll be able to secure paid speaking fees for talks and keynotes, and you’ll begin to attract media who will want to interview you for your expert opinion.

You’ll also develop a competitive advantage when you bid for contracts, because most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t publish books. You’ll be deemed an expert through your book and that added credibility will often sway granting decisions in your favor.

Finally, you’ll increase your pipeline of leads significantly for your business as word about your book spreads through the international channels developed by Amazon, opening up new markets for your services around the world.

Make Your Writing Audience-Friendly

Audience Friendly

When you write nonfiction, you may be tempted to become “professorial” in your language. You’ve been practicing in your specialty for many years, maybe you’re even teaching about it. Resist this temptation.

Instead, you need to maintain a personable and conversational language. For example, if you refrain from using contractions, your writing will sound too staid. Wherever applicable, use contractions and common abbreviations because that’s what your readers expect.

Your goal is to communicate with your readers in a way that makes it easy for them to acquire your knowledge. You need to write for them and not to them.

For your book to succeed you need your readers to be able to relate to your writing, to your style, and to the stories that you share with them. Talk to them through your writing in the way they like to be talked to – as a peer communicating at their level, not as a scholar standing at the lectern.

For example, use active verbs, don’t embellish your text with complex-sounding words, don’t use adjectives or adverbs excessively and write in a way that creates bridges not chasms.

Be Yourself

Finally, be yourself in your writing. Don’t try to be someone you’re not, because your audience will see through it. Authenticity sells, insincerity turns people off. This is no different from when you work face-to-face with clients in your business.

If this is your first book, say so in your writing; don’t imply that you’ve been doing this for a while. Your goal is to get readers to know you, like you and trust you and you can only achieve it by being authentic.

Always strive to use your voice when you write, don’t use language that could be perceived as condescending or pretentious. Find the common humanity with your target audience and build your relationship from that foundation.

You audience will really appreciate what you’re doing for them if you meet them where they are. You want to help them, not to lecture them. So, be honest, compassionate and clear in your writing, and before you know it you’ll be developing lifelong fans.

Next Steps

If you’re ready to set sail with your nonfiction book, let me share with you a number of articles to get you going in the right direction:

Best of luck!

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

The 10 Must-Have Writing Skills for Nonfiction Authors

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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.

How to Improve Your Writing Skills: 9 Steps for Nonfiction Authors

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How to Improve Writing Skills

To learn how to improve your nonfiction writing skills, you need look no further than the best practices of the successful authors who have preceded you.

I’ve written this article to condense this knowledge into nine easy steps that you can follow, to develop into a compelling nonfiction author in your own right.

Step 1: Study the Masters

If you want to become a good nonfiction writer, you’ll need to read a lot of books. Take the time to read the top nonfiction books in your niche to learn from the masters in the trade.

These are writers who over the years have developed a deep understanding of who their audiences are and how to connect with them effectively.

They know the best ways to use nonfiction devices to draw their readers in and take them on a journey of discovery and learning. By reading their books and dissecting their writing you’ll discover how they use:

  • Metaphors, to explain a complex subject in a way that stimulates a reader’s imagination.
  • Questions, to hook readers in and to create anticipation.
  • Analogies, to teach readers new concepts by drawing similarities with concepts that they’re already familiar with.
  • Stories, to take readers on a journey that engages their emotions instead of their intellect.
  • Social proof, to establish credibility by weaving testimonials and client stories throughout the book.
  • The second person, to make readers feel like they’re being addressing in a personal and direct way.

Step 2: Learn the Basic Rules of Grammar, Punctuation and Capitalization

Knowledge of the basic rules of grammar, punctuation and capitalization are essential for good nonfiction writing. You want to be able to write freely, without being distracted by awkward sentence construction and improper use of language.

You want to develop enough knowledge to write confidently without second guessing yourself every few words. Your goal in this step is not to become an expert – later in the process you’ll be hiring a professional nonfiction editor who is.

Instead, you want to develop sufficient language proficiency to create the best manuscript you possibly can, so that your editor doesn’t have to spend valuable time fixing basic errors and unnecessarily increasing your cost.

There are many free resources available on the Internet to gain a basic understanding of language rules; here’s a resource that you can use as a starting point:

https://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp

Step 3: Use all 4 Nonfiction Writing Styles

There are four nonfiction writing styles that are instrumental in delivering your message effectively to your audience. They are:

  • The expository writing style. This style is used to establish your credibility as an expert. You’ll make use of this style in order to provide your audience with the necessary background information required to support your solution. Some techniques used in this writing style are the use of facts, data, evidence, research, charts and tables.
  • The descriptive writing style. This style is used to engage your audience’s five senses and also their emotions. You’ll use this writing style to paint a vivid picture of your unique solution and how it will manifest in their lives.
  • The narrative writing style. This style is used to create a deep emotional connection with readers through the use of storytelling. You’ll narrate stories relating the experiences of characters that your audience can identify with to show them how they were able to transition out of their problem and into your solution. These characters could be you, your clients or a fictional one that’s a combination of both.
  • The persuasive writing style. This style is used to persuade your audience to take the required action or actions to implement your solution. This style works by appealing to your readers on an emotional level and takes advantage of your connection to convince them to align their goals with yours.

Step 4: Take Advantage of the 3 Paragraph Writing Strategies That Pros Follow

The following three strategies from professional nonfiction authors will help you take your paragraph writing skills to the next level:

  1. Tip #1: Use a Single Idea Per Paragraph. Try to stay away from developing more than one idea per paragraph. Multiple ideas will end up confusing readers, since they won’t know where you’re taking them. Nonfiction readers need to follow a clear path from problem to solution. Any obstacles on this path will cause them to stumble and begin to lose interest in your book.
  2. Tip #2: Don’t Write Statements – Paint a Picture. Instead of describing your solution in an academic or scientific way, try instead to weave your teachings through a narrative, using descriptive language to paint a picture of the results that you want your readers to experience in their lives. This is much more effective than just describing an outcome in clinical terms. Readers will connect with your writing if it makes them “feel” the results that they aspire to achieve.
  3. Tip #3: Write for Your Readers, Not for Yourself or for Your Peers. Finally never write your book for yourself or for your colleagues. You need to clearly establish ahead of time who your target audience is, and then you must address your book to them. If your target audience demands a much lower level of abstraction than what you’re used to when communicating with peers, then you must bring yourself down to their level in order to truly connect with them.

Step 5: Create a Strong Book Outline with Clear Writing Prompts

Create a mind map for your book so that you can generate a strong outline. A mind map will allow you to download the contents of your book from your brain to paper and format it as a content tree.

This tree will contain the structure of your book’s sections, its sub-sections, sub-sub-sections, etc. Once you’ve laid out this structure into a proper outline you can then use the subject of each section as an idea generator for its initial sentence, or prompt.

For example, if your section explains “how thoughts become beliefs” (i.e. your section name), then your writing prompt could start with something like: “On any given day there are hundreds of thoughts crossing your mind…”

This sentence will be the writing “starter” that will light the flames of your inspiration for this particular section. Your job then is to create a unique prompt for each section and sub-section contained in your book outline.

By using this powerful technique, you’ll be able to jump-start your writing at any time and never have to face the dreaded “writer’s block.”

Step 6: Write for an Audience of One

The best-written nonfiction books are laser focused on their target audience. Furthermore, they’re focused on a single member of this audience – each reader.

Whenever you fall in love with a nonfiction book, the kind of book that you highlight heavily and go back to often, you’ll notice that it’s written purposely to an audience of one: you.

You’ll almost feel like the author knows you (because they know their target audience intimately) and you’ll also feel like they’re talking directly to you, almost as if they were a friend who wants to help you live a better life (because they know how to connect with their readers).

This is your goal as a nonfiction author. You have to write most of your book in the second person, and your mission over the course of your book is to get readers to know you, like you and trust you.

If you address your book to a group of people instead (e.g. by using “our,” “we,” “us”, etc.) your bond will be diluted into the anonymity of the group and your readers will feel disconnected from your writing.

Step 7: Write Every Day

Like with any other creative endeavor, practice makes better. The more often and regularly you write, the better that you’ll get at it.

In fact, having the discipline to write for a few hours every day will do miracles for the development of your writing muscle.

So, make sure to carve out a two-hour writing block every day (six days a week minimum) beginning and ending at the same time every day. Then take measures to protect this creative time by eliminating internal and external distractions.

Internal distractions are the sounds of notifications from your electronic devices, or the temptation to answer emails or browse the Internet during your writing time.

External distractions are people trying to reach to you electronically or in person (outside of an emergency situation, of course), thus interrupting your creative flow.

The creative writing process requires peace and quiet, and also single mindedness, in order to flourish. While multi-tasking can do wonders for certain mechanical tasks, it causes havoc for your inspiration.

You’ll need to enlist the help of those around you when you’re writing to make sure that they don’t disturb you for any reason other than force majeure. Then, find a place to write that brings you joy.

This place could be found at home or in the office, or perhaps at your favorite coffee shop of even on a park bench. Choose a venue that appeals to your senses and to your sensitivities. The right place will open you up to your best writing.

Step 8: Make Every Sentence Count

Part of connecting with your target audience is to keep them engaged throughout your book.

There’s nothing that disengages readers more than writing that doesn’t add value to them, text that’s there to “fill” space to achieve a certain word-count target.

Every sentence that you write must have a purpose and must be meaningful to the reader in the context of your subject. If you have a sentence that expresses a thought in fifteen words but you can achieve that same result with ten words, then do so.

For example, don’t write “There’s no doubt in my mind, or for that matter in the minds of most other people, that…” when you could be writing instead “It’s obvious to most people that…”) to convey exactly the same thought.

Going down to the word level, if you mean to say “…proximity…” don’t write “…close proximity…” or if you mean to say “…surprise…” don’t write “…unexpected surprise…”

All successful nonfiction books use an economy of words that’s intended to keep the reader’s attention at all times. Doing so will not only make your writing more crisp, it’ll also help you get more clear on your ideas by distilling them down to their essence.

Step 9: Rewrite Until You Get It Right

When you initially sit down to write the first pass of your manuscript, you shouldn’t censor your writing in any way and instead write from a stream of consciousness.

Your goal in this initial pass is to “download” thoughts and ideas from your brain to the computer screen or notepad. You want this process to be as unfiltered as possible – your main focus is to get content out of you and into the page, not to “massage” it in any way.

At this stage you don’t need to overly concern yourself with economy of words, rules of grammar, choice or words, etc.

You actually want to produce a lot of content, because that’ll give you much more flexibility later when you get to the self-editing and rewriting stages.

This is not unlike to the way movies are shot. Multiple takes are often done not necessarily because something is wrong but to have more choice when they get into the editing room.

It’s not uncommon for a director’s favorite scene to end up on the cutting floor when a movie is being assembled, and to end up splicing secondary scenes that they originally thought wouldn’t work.

Similarly, the real magic in nonfiction book writing happens in the rewriting stage – this is your editing room. Ideally, you want to complete and then rewrite one chapter at a time before you start working on a new one.

Your chapters make up your overall idea thread and often a significant change in direction in one chapter will influence the chapter that follows it.

So, when a chapter is ready to be reworked, put on your “editor” hat, get a cup of your favorite beverage, settle down and begin the creative process of shaping and re-shaping your writing until you get it just “right.”

How do you know when you achieve this milestone? You’ll just know it: something will click and you’ll feel that you’ve achieved what you set out to accomplish in that chapter.

Now your language doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect at this stage – you’ll hire a professional editor when your manuscript is completed – but it has to be purposeful and clear to your target audience.

Next Steps

Now it’s time for the proverbial rubber to hit the road!

For this purpose, I’ve created a companion article to show you the roadmap from original idea to published book so that you can navigate the waters of nonfiction publishing without having to spin your wheels in frustration:

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

I wish you the best of luck on your nonfiction book-writing 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 posts I highly recommend:

Learn 10 Powerful Writing Habits to Fast Track Your Nonfiction Book

The Most Effective Writing Exercises for Busy Business People

The 10 Must-Have Writing Skills for Nonfiction Authors

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

The 7 Most Effective Writing Strategies for Entrepreneurial Authors

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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 Ultimate Book Writing Checklist for Nonfiction Authors

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Book Writing Checklist

By using a proven nonfiction book-writing checklist, you’ll be able to focus only on the aspects of book publishing that’ll increase your chances of success while saving you countless days, weeks and months spinning your wheels on strategies that don’t work.

In this article, I’ve compiled a checklist of specific questions that you need to answer in order to create a nonfiction book that gets traction in the marketplace.

Why Nonfiction Authors Need a Clear Checklist

Professional nonfiction authors succeed because they follow a clear formula developed and refined over the years. These seasoned authors have developed a clear understanding of the power of nonfiction to affect change in people’s lives.

In fact, they’ve proven over time that this process is repeatable. Once you learn the basics of what makes nonfiction so effective as a change agent, you’ll be able to replicate these strategies for the benefit of your book and your business.

Book Writing Checklist

The following checklist will help ensure that you produce a nonfiction book that has what it takes to succeed in this exciting and transformational genre.

Have You Thoroughly Researched Top Nonfiction Titles in Your Niche?

The power of nonfiction books hinges on their ability to connect with readers. The most successful nonfiction titles use best practices to achieve this key outcome.

They make use of “hooks” to engage the reader’s attention and keep them engaged. They make use of the “power of story-telling” to draw readers in and take them through an emotional journey of discovery and learning.

Above all, these authors are very good at addressing their books to an audience of one. Whenever you read a good nonfiction book, you almost feel as if the author was talking directly to you.

These are the types of best practices that you must learn from the pros by reading their books. But you have to read them twice, first as a reader and then as an author.

As a reader, you want to note on the margins whenever a section really draws you in, whenever you feel an emotional pull, whenever you experience sadness, joy, excitement, anger, etc.

As an author, use color-coded highlighters to identify the use of effective nonfiction techniques. For example, you could use a different color to highlight hooks, metaphors, analogies, anecdotes, rhetorical questions, etc.

Have You Thoroughly Researched Your Target Audience?

For a nonfiction book to succeed, it must be able to truly connect with its target audience, and in order to do so you’ll have to develop a deep understanding of their state of mind.

You’ll need to research what makes your audience stay up at night, what challenges they face and what their fears are, but also what their dreams and aspirations are.

This information is critical to understanding how the problem that you’ll help them solve with your book affects their lives and what level of pain it triggers in them.

Also, your unique solution must be something that resonates with your audience – it has to make sense based on their viewpoint.

If your solution is effective but doesn’t jive with your audience, they’ll simply dismiss it. This is why you need to know your audience intimately.

For example, using meditation techniques for weight control (by learning how to use your mind to ignore the hunger signals sent to your brain) won’t work on a demographic that doesn’t believe in or practice meditation.

Have You Clearly Identified the Problem You’re Going to Solve?

People’s problems have varying degrees of urgency, and this urgency is linked to the level of pain they experience as a result.

A problem with a pain level of 9 or 10 will demand immediate action and the expenditure of more resources than say a problem that registers with a pain level of 3 or 4.

If you want your nonfiction book to succeed in the marketplace, you’ll need to focus on solving a problem that triggers a high pain level in your audience.

If your book addresses a low to mid-level pain, your audience’s motivation to find it and then buy it will be much more subdued.

A weight loss book premised on how to lose weight to fit into last year’s clothes will never carry the same gravitas of a book premised on losing weight to help reduce mounting health risks for diabetes sufferers.

So always make sure to use your expertise to solve the problem with the highest level of pain for the audience in your niche.

Have You Established a Hard Publication Deadline?

Publication Deadline

Now that you know your audience intimately, identified the most important problem that your book can solve and researched the nonfiction books in your niche, it’s time to write your book!

But first, you’ll have to overcome the statistic showing that 97% of writers who start a book don’t finish it, or they finish it but never get around to publishing it.

In order to do so, and therefore become part of the remaining 3% who do publish their books, you’ll have to set a hard publication deadline.

Traditionally published authors negotiate a publication deadline with their publishers and then formalize it through the signing or a publishing agreement.

Self-published authors like yourself don’t have a publishing agreement to fall back on, so you’ll have to create this urgency by making a public commitment that’s firm and immovable.

For example, you can get yourself scheduled to speak at an industry event, a convention or a professional association keynote a year from now, when you’ll be unveiling your new book to colleagues.

It is by having a hard publication deadline that you’ll find the necessary motivation to soldier on when the going gets tough, which is bound to happen from time to time when life gets in the way.

Have you Created a Solid Book Outline?

Once you have your audience and message dialed in, you’ll need to begin the writing process in earnest.

Now, one option is to start with a blank page on your computer screen waiting to inspiration to strike. Most times this approach will lead to failure because you can’t just will yourself to be inspired on command.

A much more effective approach, which is in fact the approach used by professional nonfiction authors, is to create a thorough outline of your book.

How do you do this? By considering the premise that your book is really inside of your mind already. Its contents are informed by years of professional practice and skill development. They’re also informed by your professional as well as your personal experience, and by your experiences with clients, prospects and business associates.

In short, you’ll have to figure out a way to extract all this information from your brain and put it on a piece of paper so that you can shape it into a book.

One of the most effective techniques for achieving this goal is Mind Mapping. This technique emulates the way that our brains store and retrieve information to create a “mind map” of your book.

This mind map is a pictorial representation of the content tree of your book, which can then be easily shaped into an outline.

Once you have a solid book outline, showing all the main ideas to be covered in your chapters and sub-chapters, then you’ll have planted the seeds of your book.

Armed with your outline, you’ll now be able to pick any section that inspires you and begin writing about it immediately.

Triggered by the section’s headline, your brain will simply fill in the blanks by flooding your mind with recollections and ideas that will get your fingertips busy for pages on end.

To help you expedite this process, the articles below will show you how to create a mind map and an outline for your nonfiction book:

Have You Set Up an Advance Reader Group?

Advance Reader Group

Before you begin writing your book, you’ll need to enlist the help of people you trust who also happen to be members of your target audience to act as your Advance Reader Group.

As soon as you finish writing and revising each chapter, you’ll need to email them a pdf version of it so that they can read it and give you feedback before you get too deep into your book.

This powerful team will help you hone your message so that it continuously resonates with your audience. If something is off in a given chapter, they’ll let you know well before you start going down a rabbit hole.

Your book might be a compendium of your expertise, but it must written for your readers. If they can’t connect with your message, no matter how well-developed it might be in your eyes, your book is bound to fail.

The worst case scenario is that you finish writing your manuscript and then circulate it with a group of test readers, only two find out that you went off course in the middle of chapter 2 and that the only way to fix your manuscript is to do a complete do-over.

This is not only inefficient because you’ll almost be writing an entire new book as a result, but also very demoralizing. It may take you extra effort to set up an advance reader group, but it’ll be worth its weight in gold.

Have You Hired a Professional Nonfiction Editor?

Once your manuscript is completed, you’ll need to do what every seasoned nonfiction author does – hire a professional editor to polish it.

While you’re the content expert in your subject matter, you editor is the wordsmith who knows not only how words go together but also how certain combinations of words can affect your readers.

They’re part word artists, part marketing specialists and part students of human psychology, focused on understanding how readers interpret the written word.

This set of skills is very complementary with your subject-matter expertise, because while you may know your content inside and out, you may not know how to make your content compelling to your readers.

That’s where professional nonfiction editors come into the picture. They’ll help you shape your message to ensure that it really connects with your target audience. They’ll tell you what works and what doesn’t.

Then, they’ll make recommendations so that you can make the necessary fixes to make your manuscript shine.

Here’s another consideration. By the mere act of publishing a nonfiction book, you’ll be assumed to be an expert in the eyes of your readers. Therefore, your book will be expected to meet a high bar for content quality and execution excellence. There will be simply too much on the line for you to risk doing a low-quality editing job.

But this expectation will also work in the other direction: if you make an extra effort to produce a premium product, your cachet will increase.

For example, you’ll be able to attract media attention, you’ll be able to attract higher paid speaking gigs, you’ll be able to convert more prospects into clients and you’ll be able to take your business to a new level.

Next Steps

If you’re now itching to get started, here are additional articles that’ll help you develop good nonfiction writing habits:

Good luck!

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

How to Become a Great Book Writer in Business Nonfiction

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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 7-Step Nonfiction Book Writing Blueprint

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Book Writing Blueprint

A solid book writing blueprint is essential for authors of nonfiction books, because this genre demands a high degree of execution. After all, nonfiction books are deemed to be written by experts, which means that they need to be produced using the best practices available.

In this article, you’ll learn a seven-step book writing process specifically developed for nonfiction authors.

The 7-Step Book Writing Blueprint

The blueprint below will help you navigate the steps you’ll need, to go from a blank page to a completed nonfiction manuscript that’s ready to be produced and published.

More specifically, this book writing blueprint will help you come up with your book’s main idea to turn it onto a completed manuscript, it’ll help you develop a writing routine that works for you and it’ll help you stay motivated through it all.

Step 1: Set a Hard Deadline

When it comes to the book writing process, traditionally published authors are paid an advance to write their books and are contractually bound to deliver results through the signing of a publishing agreement.

Since self-publishing authors like yourself aren’t subject to a formal deadline that carries with it consequences for noncompliance, you’ll need to create one for yourself.

One of the best ways for you to create a hard publishing deadline is to schedule a public speaking engagement, say a year from now, with a professional association in your field or other organizations that cater to audiences composed of colleagues, clients or prospects.

A 12-month period will allow you sufficient time to write and produce your nonfiction book (between 8-10 months) plus a couple more months to work on book promotion ahead of the event.

Here are some other practical approaches that’ll result in a hard deadline:

  • Industry events
  • Seasonal deadlines in your market
  • Trade shows
  • Conferences
  • Annual professional gatherings
  • Festivals
  • Courses, seminars or workshops

Step 2: Carve Out Your Writing Time

Now that you’ve set a clear deadline, you’ll need to create a writing schedule to make sure that you produce content with consistency. The best practice for creating a nonfiction book is to write for a set amount of time every day.

This is the practice followed by professional authors and it ensures that their writing muscle is constantly being trained.

How much time do you need to set aside each day? You’re looking for a 2-hour time block of dedicated, uninterrupted writing. Less time won’t be sufficient to get you going, and more time may impinge on your day’s responsibilities.

The key is consistency. Even if you have more time available, what you don’t want to do is to write for 2 hours one day, then 5 hours the next, then skip a day and go back to 2 hours the next day.

To become proficient, you need to work your writing muscle for a set amount of time every day and then let it “rest” until the next day. It’s also important that you begin and end your writing blocks at the same time.

Finally, creative writing requires intense focus, so you’ll have to enlist the help of those around you to make sure that you’re not disturbed during your writing time. Also, you’ll need to mute your electronic devices to eliminate distractions.

Step 3: Define Your Book’s Main Idea

Define Your Main Idea

Now you’re ready to begin the writing process. Your first task is to define what your book’s main idea is going to be. This is the main thesis of your book and it needs to revolve around solving a problem for your target audience.

In order to arrive at your main idea, you’ll need to develop a deep understanding of your audience.

You’ll need to learn what keeps them up at night. You need to understand what their hopes, dreams, challenges and fears are.

The closer you get to knowing your target audience, the deeper you’ll understand how their problems affect them.

The aim of your book’s main idea is to address a key audience problem that your expertise will help them solve.

For example, the bestseller “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich” by Tim Ferriss addresses a key problem for its target audience: their deep frustration with living in a rat race.

Note that the book title doesn’t mention what the specific solution is. Instead, it focuses on how to overcome a deep frustration by conveying an aspirational outcome for its target audience.

This book’s main idea is then to help people escape the rate race by developing an alternative lifestyle that still achieves their financial goals.

Step 4: Create Your Book Outline

Your goal now is to take your main idea and develop a book around it. Although this may sound overwhelming at first, as you’ll technically be starting from scratch, the reality is quite different.

The solution that underpins your main idea is grounded on your expertise. When you think about it, all the strategies and tactics that your readers will have to implement in order to overcome their problem already exist in your mind.

You could even argue that the contents of your entire book are already stored in your brain, or in other words: your book is inside you.

All you need to do now is figure out how to extract this information from your mind and then structure it as a nonfiction book.

The best process to achieve this goal is to use a technique called Mind Mapping to download the contents of your book from your brain onto the page, and then to turn your mind map into a book outline.

Your book’s mind map will start with the main idea at its center and then it’ll break it down into its main components, sub-components, sub-sub-components, etc.

Your book outline will be the precursor of your table of contents and it’ll provide you with the structure and the writing prompts that are necessary to begin writing your book.

Here are two articles to help get you started in the right direction:

Step 5: Write a Set Daily Word Count

Daily Word Count

You should begin every writing block with a specific goal in mind: to accomplish a minimum word count. If you don’t set a writing goal, it’ll become very difficult to assess your progress over time.

This writing goal has to be achievable for a first-time author, so I recommend that you set an initial target of between 400-500 words per hour. This is for raw text, without any self-edits or rewriting.

If you make sure you have no distractions and are therefore able to focus for two hours solid, you should comfortably be able to achieve this hourly word-count.

Remember that as a nonfiction author you’re not starting from a blank page. You’ll be working off the writing prompts contained in your fully developed book outline.

Once you set off those triggers your brain will do the rest and you’ll notice how the text will begin to flow effortlessly to your fingertips.

Over time you’ll get faster as you gain more practice, and towards the end of your first book you’ll likely be able to write between 500-700 words per hour (as a point of reference, seasoned professional authors are able to consistently write in the 1,000 words per hour range).

Now, let’s do a back of the envelope calculation to figure out how long it’ll approximately take you to write an average-sized nonfiction book. Say you’re aiming for a 200-page book (250 words per page, including images).

If you write between 400-500 words per hour, and assuming that you’re writing a minimum of 6 days per week, you’ll then be writing between 4,800-6,000 words per week.

At this rate, you’ll be able to complete your manuscript in raw text form between 8.3 and 10.4 weeks.

Now double this range to factor in self-edits, rewrites and time off for illness, holidays, etc. and you’ll should able to complete the first draft of your manuscript between 17 and 21 weeks, or approximately 4-5 months.

Step 6: Staying Motivated

The beginning of your writing process will be very motivating. There’s nothing more exciting than having a detailed mind map of your book and a thorough book outline with writing prompts created for each section.

However, once you get to the dreaded “middle” of the book, with 100 pages done and another 100 pages to go, you may find yourself in need of motivation. After all, your hard deadline is still far, far away.

Your best antidote to a potential writing slowdown is twofold. First, you need to tell everyone in your close circle of family, friends, colleagues and clients that you’re writing a book that you’ll unveil at the event you scheduled earlier.

This psychological peer pressure will be sufficient to keep you grounded so that you soldier on through thick and thin. Second, there’s a practical way to keep you motivated that nicely aligns with the writing process itself.

Once your book outline is completed and before you begin writing your book, assemble an advance reading group.

This group is made up of between 5 and 10 people whom you know and trust and who also happen to be members of your target audience. Every time you complete a full chapter, you’ll email them a pdf version of it so that they can provide you with timely feedback.

Why not wait until your manuscript is completed to get their feedback? Because if you do you run the risk of having missed the boat when it comes to audience connection and engagement.

If the plurality of your advance reading group tells you that a given chapter or a section doesn’t resonate with them soon after they read it, you can then alter your course right away.

But if you implement a flow of ideas throughout your book that turns out to be sub-optimal for your audience, and you only find out about it at the end, then you’ll have to contend with a massive rewrite that’ll set you back significantly.

In short, by having both peer pressure and on-going feedback from an advance reading group, you’ll never suffer from a lack of motivation.

Step 7: Find A Professional Nonfiction Editor

Finally, make sure that you find a good professional editor for your manuscript. Your nonfiction book will become an extension of your professionalism and your credibility as a subject matter expert.

If your book is self-edited or if you farm out the editing to an English student, a friend who’s a teacher or a family member, you’ll be producing a sub-standard book in the eyes of the book trade.

Every single traditionally published work of nonfiction is professionally edited and so should yours be. Since you’ll be automatically deemed to be an expert as soon as you publish your book, you’re expected to create a premium product.

The risk of cutting corners in this key area of the publishing process is just too great and never worth the savings.

Next Steps

Once your manuscript is completed and professionally edited, you’ll be entering the next publishing stage: book production. In short, your book will now need to be laid out by an expert and a professional book cover will need to be created.

When your book comes up on an online search, it’ll often appear side by side with traditionally published titles in your niche, and unless you can match their production quality you risk being labelled as “amateurish,” even if your content is better.

It’s really worth it to hire book-design professionals, and not just for the above reason. By creating a premium product, you’ll also be putting out a book that’ll generate new leads, new clients and new business opportunities for years to come.

I wish you the best in your book-publishing 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 posts I highly recommend:

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

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

The 10 Must-Have Writing Skills for Entrepreneurial Authors

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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.

How to Nail the Edit of a Nonfiction Book Cover

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Edit Book Cover

When you edit a book cover, you have to consider that this is the one part of your book that must achieve nothing short of perfection, especially for nonfiction books.

The main expectation in the nonfiction genre is that titles are written by experts, therefore a single typo on your book cover would immediately reflect negatively on its entire contents.

In other words, there’s zero market tolerance for typos on nonfiction book covers and you must be methodical in how your approach your cover editing job.

I’ve written this article to help you make sure that you produce a 100% accurate cover before your book goes to print.

Paperback Cover Editing

Paperback covers are composed of a front cover, a spine and a back cover. Let’s discuss each section below:

Front Cover Editing

The front cover contains the main textual and graphic elements of your entire book cover. Needless to say, it’s the most visible area of your book and therefore it must be executed flawlessly.

Here are its textual components:

Title, Subtitle, Author Name

The largest font types in your book are reserved for your front cover’s title, subtitle and author name. Therefore, you have to triple-check that your spelling on those is 100% correct.

Now, this is easy to get right because you’re only dealing with a handful of words. Not so for the next component below.

Testimonials

Typically, you want your most powerful testimonial to be reserved for the top of your front cover. By powerful I not only mean its content by also its author. This premium location is always reserved for a celebrity testimonial.

Now, the fact that someone with a lot of name recognition has given you a testimonial doesn’t mean that it’ll be written in a grammatically correct way. In fact, many times this isn’t the case.

So, it’s perfectly acceptable for authors to adjust the text of their testimonials to ensure they follow proper rules of grammar, punctuation, capitalization, syntax, etc., provided that you don’t end up changing their meaning.

Graphic Elements

Graphic elements, such as images, illustrations, photographs, etc., sometimes contain text in them, so make sure that this text is free of typos.

In addition to typos, any graphic elements you use on your cover must also be free of cropping errors, cropping marks, pixelation due to low resolution, unintended blurriness, sizing issues and poor color contrast with the overlaid text.

Back Cover Editing

The back cover of paperbacks carries a lot more text than the front cover. Here are its different components:

Marketing Blurb and Author’s Bio

The main textual blocks on a paperback’s back cover are the marketing blurb and the author’s bio.

The blurb is composed of marketing copy whose main job is to sell your book, or at least to intrigue readers so much that they feel compelled to open it and browse its contents.

Your bio reaffirms your expertise by listing key accomplishments to cement your credibility, plus a short personal statement.

While your bio needs to be edited for typos and grammatical errors, the text in your marketing blurb must be thoroughly edited at the same level of depth as the text inside your book.

To this end, you’ll have to make use of the full arsenal of nonfiction editing techniques:

  • Developmental Editing: This editing pass will look at the overall structure of your blurb. Is it successful delivering your message to your target audience? Is it well-written to convert book browsers into buyers?
  • Content Editing: This editing pass has more to do with readability than structure. Are the paragraphs and sentences in the blurb built correctly? Is the flow of your ideas clear?
  • Copyediting: This editing pass will make certain that you’re using accurate language with no spelling, punctuation, capitalization, syntax or grammar errors.
  • Proofreading: This editing pass is the fine-tooth comb check that’ll catch any typos that were missed in all prior stages to ensure 100% accuracy.

Additional Testimonials

You back cover will also contain additional testimonials from less influential sources than the one you selected for your front cover, to further strengthen your social proof.

As with any testimonial, expect the text on some of these to also require grammatical corrections.

Barcode, Book Pricing and Publisher Data

Finally, your back cover will contain your book’s ISBN encoded in your Barcode, book pricing information and publisher information (typically their name and logo).

Although your ISBN will be included as part of your barcode image, corroborate that the number on top of the barcode matches your purchase records.

Finally, if your book shows book-pricing information on your back cover, make sure that it’s written correctly (e.g. $14.95 not $14,95).

Spine Editing

Your book cover spine will typically contain your title, your name and the publisher’s logo (i.e. in your case, your self-publishing logo). Depending on the total number of characters, it may also be able to fit your sub-title using a small font-size.

Like you do for your front cover, you want to triple-check that the spelling of all this information is 100% correct.

Hardcover Cover Editing

Hardcover books share many of the same cover elements with paperback books. For example, in the vast majority of cases the front cover and the spine will be identical. The only two exceptions are shown below.

Cover Flaps

The covers of hardcover books have two additional pieces of real estate: the left and right cover flaps.

Typically, the flap that extends from the front cover will display the book’s marketing blurb and the flap that extends from the back cover will display the author’s bio.

These two sections will contain exactly the same text that what you’ll find on the back cover of your paperback format (refer to the Back Cover Editing section above for editing instructions).

Back Cover

The back cover of a hardcover book is typically filled with testimonials taking over the space where the marketing blurb and author’s bio would’ve been found in the paperback edition.

As explained in the Testimonials section above, edit them to take care of grammatical errors and typos without altering their meaning.

In Conclusion

While it could be said that all books are judged by their covers, this is of particular importance for nonfiction titles, because they’re considered to be a reflection of the experts who wrote them.

Therefore, both your paperback and hardcover book covers will require extreme attention to detail to check that they’re 100% accurate before they go to print.

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 10 Must-Have Writing Skills for Nonfiction Authors

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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 12-Step Nonfiction Book Writing Process

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Book Writing Process

Using a solid nonfiction book writing process will make the difference between creating a compelling product for your readers using clear best practices, and spinning your wheels with many frustrating false starts.

This article will show you a writing process that’s used by seasoned nonfiction writers to produce great book after great book.

The 12-Step Nonfiction Book Writing Process

This writing process will guide you through the 12 steps that you need to follow in order to produce a top-notch nonfiction book that you’ll be very proud of and that’ll help you take your business and your career to the next level.

Step 1: Read the Top Books in Your Niche

Most nonfiction books are written to provide readers with the solution to a problem that they (or their businesses) are experiencing.

The most popular problem-solving nonfiction titles are written by authors who are very skillful at creating a deep bond with their readers.

They achieve that by:

  • Using language and stories that are relatable
  • Making use of hooks in the right places to keep readers highly engaged
  • Sharing their knowledge without pontificating or sounding condescending
  • Using persuasion techniques to entice readers to take action
  • Taking readers through an emotional journey, not an intellectual discourse

For all of the above reasons, it really pays for you to read their books cover to cover, armed with a highlighter. Why reinvent the wheel when the best practices are out there in the open ready for you to discover them?

Read the top 4 or 5 books in your niche and whenever you catch yourself getting hooked into the writing, stop, go back in the text and analyze the techniques the author used to hook you in.

Then make copious notes, because you’ll need to emulate the same techniques in your own book. Here are some examples of the type of devices you’ll discover:

Using Chapter-Opening Hooks

Seasoned authors use these devices to grab the reader’s attention at the beginning of each chapter.

Here Are Some Examples

  • Using questions to address a challenge readers are experiencing – e.g. “How you ever noticed how working twice as hard doesn’t usually double your results?”
  • Using facts that are unexpected – e.g. “Did you know that you could be consuming over 40 teaspoons of sugar every day without even knowing it?”

Using Advertising Copy Techniques

Authors use these techniques mainly to create their chapter headlines.

Here Are Some Examples

  • Starting a headline with “How to”
  • Making a controversial statement – e.g. “The wrong workout can make you gain weight”
  • Using a controversial question – e.g. “What if meaning well is not good enough?”
  • Using a comparison – e.g. “Improve your strengths not your weaknesses”

Using Effective Writing Techniques

Here Are Some Examples

  • Using the power of story-telling to draw readers in
  • Using heart-felt language to take readers through an emotional journey
  • Using the element of surprise

Step 2: Always Write to an Audience of One

Audience of One

For nonfiction books to be effective, they must be addressed to an audience of one. Whenever a reader picks up a book to solve a problem they have, they’ll only be thinking about themselves.

They won’t care about the author or even others who like them are in the same predicament. They are in pain, so all they care about is how to make it go away. Also, problems are a very personal matter; for this reason, readers expect to be engaged at a personal level.

So, make use of the 2nd person throughout your book and avoid using language like “We,” “Our,” “They,” etc. Make sure that you use words that make each reader feel like they’re your only audience; almost as if your book were just written for them.

Before you begin writing your book you need to do thorough research on your target audience to learn about their hopes, dreams, challenges and fears.

When your writing is grounded in this knowledge, your readers will feel a deep connection with you (they’ll think to themselves: “I feel this author really knows me”).

Step 3: Write from a Stream of Consciousness

As a nonfiction writer, you have to consider that your book is already lying dormant inside of you. Its content is stored in your brain and made up of the sum total of your knowledge.

This includes your professional experience, the interactions with your clients, the skills you’ve developed over the years, and your personal experience.

Whenever you sit down to write, and provided that you’re armed with a good book outline to guide you, open yourself up so that you can write from a stream of consciousness. Don’t pre-judge or over-analyze what you’re going to say next.

Just let your fingers do the typing and write down the flow of thoughts that comes into your mind at that moment. You already know your stuff so you don’t need to censor yourself with thoughts such as “I don’t think this sounds good” or “this doesn’t flow well,” etc.

Writing is not a judgmental process, it’s a creative one: your aim is not to block your flow of ideas but to allow them free reign so they can come to the page. Just focus on writing as a vessel to download information from your brain.

You don’t need to worry about giving it any shape yet – that’ll come at a later stage. For now, allow your tap of thoughts to be fully open so that you can engage the creative right side of your brain while holding back the critical left side.

When you’re writing from a stream of consciousness, focus on quantity not quality. Only after you’ve completed an entire section should you bring the critical thinking left side of your brain into the picture so that you can begin to give shape to your message.

Step 4: Protect Your Writing Time

Protect Your Writing Time

The creative writing process requires peace and quiet to sustain itself. Any type of break into this flow, from the disruption of a social media notification to someone coming into the room and starting to talk to you, will break your creative flow.

Creativity requires a certain inertia in order to achieve “cruising speed.” If you allow external circumstances to force you into a stop-and-go situation, you’ll never be able to get up to speed and your writing will suffer.

It’s for this reason that you must set aside daily writing blocks that are well-protected from interruptions. You must enlist the help of those around you to support you by eliminating any type of disturbance when you’re writing your book.

Unless there’s an emergency, your family, friends, or business associates must ensure that you’re not bothered when you sit down to write. Also, this level of “protection” involves not just external but also internal disruptions.

For example, you must refrain from reading or sending emails during this time, going on the Internet for any reason or engaging in any other type of communications. In short, outside of your writing app, you should really go “off the grid.”

When you do manage to achieve this level of peace and quiet, you’ll notice how your writing, as well as your time, flies by. After your two hours pass, you’ll be surprised to find that you’ve written upwards of 1,000 words of original text.

On the other hand, if you allow yourself to be interrupted you’ll find that, at most, you’ll be able to write a third of that amount and it won’t even flow that well.

Step 5: Choose the Right Writing Tool

Depending on the publishing stage of your book, technology can play an important role as a productivity booster. For example, the process of laying out your book would be intensely laborious without desktop publishing software (like it used to be back in the day).

But there’s one area where the use of technology can actually become a hindrance if used in excess: writing.

When you’re going through the creative process of drafting your manuscript, anything beyond the most basic of word processor features will slow you down.

The reason is that for this process to be effective, it requires a path of least resistance to be established between your brain and the written page.

Any other technology or features other than a keyboard and the most basic word-processing functions will become stones on your path.

Here’s an example of advanced word-processing features may slow you down:

Book templates

It’s rather pointless to pre-format a book in your word-processor so that it takes shape as you write it, because this job must be done by a professional layout artist after your manuscript is fully edited and proofread.

Outlining Features

Some software programs have sophisticated outlining tools that allow you to set up your book structure in advance.

While this can be perceived as useful in principle, the reality is that they aren’t the easiest to set up and some have steep learning curves.

Besides, any initial outline that you do set up may become irrelevant after your manuscript goes through the hands of an editor, forcing you to re-do a lot of the work.

Distracting Features

An overabundance of features may temp you to spend time playing with fonts sizes, kerning, line spacing, fiddling with the look of chapter headings and subheadings, and so on.

All of these activities are unnecessary distractions at the manuscript level. All that’s required is text in a single font and minimal formatting.

The best scenario you want to achieve is to just type what comes to your mind without having to play with any of the menus in your word processor. Exceptions would be to create a page break whenever you start a new chapter, plus some bolding and italics, but that’s about it.

Now, some writers will disagree with me and claim that using outlining features are necessary so that you can rearrange chapters easily should you need to at a later stage.

But I’ll argue that this will become more of a distraction because you first need to spend time learning how the software app works and then take even more time setting the features up, which will come in the way of your writing.

Now, I’m not a Luddite. I’ll grant you that a word processor is miles ahead of an old typewriter. But what I’m suggesting is that it’s very inefficient to spend time figuring out complex feature sets that will add very little value to your manuscript.

In the end, the only thing that adds true value to your manuscript is your words, your thoughts, your ideas, your conclusions, your analysis, your stories and so on – none of which can be enhanced by the use of software features.

Just let your creativity and your inspiration take over and make it as easy as possible for them to run the show.

Step 6: Choose the Right Writing Place

When you sit down to write your book, make sure that you choose a place that’ll enhance your creative flow. Whether this place is indoors or outdoors, private or public, it needs to bring a feeling of comfort.

You have to find a writing place that has the right energy, a place that “fills your bucket.” The true act of creation inspires an inner state of joy, so you want to find a place that reflects that.

Some writers have a favorite spot in their house, some have a favorite coffee shop and some others feel inspired when surrounded by nature, so they’ll write from a bench at the city’s botanical gardens.

Just make sure that whatever place you choose is devoid of interruptions. In fact, if you’re using an offline word processor to write your manuscript, you don’t even need a place with a Wi-Fi signal.

Step 7: Choose the Right Writing Time

Different people get their creative juices flowing at different times. You may be an early bird, or perhaps a night owl. What’s important is that you sit down to write at the same time every day.

When it comes to writing a book, consistency is a key for success. If you always write at the same time, you’re conditioning your writing muscle to perform and then recover for 24 hours.

If you write in the evening one day and then in the morning the next, then you skip a day and you write two mornings in a row, you’re giving your mind confusing signals that aren’t conducive to creating good writing habits.

This is no different that developing your muscles. An uneven physical workout routine similar to the one mentioned above would result little if any progress – assuming you don’t give up first.

Your writing muscle requires consistency and a clear cycle – it’s also counter-productive to write for two hours one day and then for five hours the next, even if your starting time is the same.

So, to be productive and creative on your book-writing journey, choose a daily writing block no longer than two hours and make sure you begin and end writing at the same time.

Step 8: Choose the Right Daily Word Count

Word Count

If you’re writing from a stream of consciousness and without any distractions during your writing block, you’ll be able to average between 400 and 500 words per hour for a maximum of 1,000 per day.

Now this doesn’t include any rewriting or self-editing.

So, say you’re aiming for a final word-count of 50,000 for your book (approximately 200 pages, depending on trim size, graphic elements, etc.) and you’re writing 6 days a week, then you’re looking at between 50 and 60 days of raw writing.

Next, double this time to allow for rewrites and for stoppages due to illness, holidays, etc. and you’re looking at a maximum of 120 days, or about 5 months, in order to produce the first draft of your manuscript.

Step 9: Don’t Self-Edit Prematurely

Once your book writing is on a roll, you want to keep it going by writing as much content as you can using the guidelines from Step 3.

The more writing you produce in this fashion, the more material that you’ll have to work with when you begin to edit and polish your manuscript. If you self-edit too soon you may end up sending content to the cutting floor prematurely.

For example, if you leave the edits towards the end, you may find that some sentences or even entire paragraphs that you feel need to depart from Chapter 2 may be a perfect fit for Chapter 11.

But if you cut too soon, before you even write Chapter 11, then you might delete that text forever before you discover that it’s valuable somewhere else.

Step 10: Write Like You’re Being Paid

When it comes to writing, quality requires practice, and practice requires discipline. Like in all creative fields, there’s no workaround to accelerate time spent developing your craft.

Now, this task is more motivating for professional authors because they get paid an advance in order to write their books. But this advantage is only temporary since eventually you’ll receive payment too.

The mere act of publishing a nonfiction book will turn you into an expert overnight. This will happen the moment a prospect, a client, a potential strategic partner, a committee that selects bids on contracts, and so on, gets a copy of your book.

Eventually, you’ll be able to leverage this new status into new revenue for your business. The end result of landing new clients, signing off on a new strategic partnership that will drive new leads into your funnel, getting a lucrative contract, etc. will be as real as getting an advance on royalties.

So, you have every motivation to write as if you’re being paid because instead of receiving cash in advance of your writing, your writing will become an advance on your ability to generate future revenues.

Step 11: Never Write to Fill Space

Now, for your nonfiction book to be successful, it has to be chock full of value for your target audience. Don’t make it a goal to write an “X” number of words for your book (say 50,000).

Once you have a book outline that shows all the topics that you need to cover in order to deliver your solution to your target audience in a clear and effective way, don’t take this number and divide it by your number of chapters to arrive at a chapter word-count.

Write to fulfill a need, not to fill up empty space. If there’s anything that turns off readers, it’s the subconscious feeling that they’re wasting their time. This could happen if you’re using 10-15 words to say something that could be said more elegantly in 6-8 words.

Make this your writing mission: keep it simple. Now, you may not achieve this goal during your initial pass since simplicity is not your main focus the first time around – stream of consciousness is.

However, when you get into the rewrite phase, make it your mission to use an economy of words in everything that you edit. When you re-write, focus on delivering value not volume.

Each paragraph must be able to stand on its own and be as short as necessary to deliver its message in a clear and effective way.

Step 12: Hire an Editor When You’re Done

Last but not least, as a self-published nonfiction author, you’ll be competing head-to-head with traditionally published books in your niche.

The good news is, the often insurmountable gatekeeping role played in the past by bookstore buyers has been replaced by Amazon’s product-ranking algorithm, which offers both traditional and self-publishers the same search optimization tools.

If you fine tune your title’s setup on Amazon in the right way, you’ll have a very good chance of ranking side by side on user searches with popular books in your niche, and you can rest assured they they’ll all be using the services of experienced editors.

This is an area where you can’t afford to cut corners, especially because your nonfiction book will act as a proxy for your professional reputation. A sub-standard editing job will reflect poorly not only on you as an author but also as an expert.

Therefore, you’ll need to hire a professional editor with experience in your nonfiction niche so that you can deliver Amazon with the absolute best book you can possibly produce.

Next Steps

Now it’s time to put “pen to paper” and embark on your book-writing journey.

Below I’ve compiled a list of articles that you’ll find quite useful as you navigate these waters.

I wish you all the best!

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

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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.

12 Critical Steps to Writing a Nonfiction Book

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Steps to Writing a Book

The number of steps to writing a book varies greatly with each genre.

Writing steps for fiction books, for example, need to aid the writer in the development of the central story and the characters in it. This process tends to be more art than science.

Most nonfiction books, on the other hand, require steps that allow the writer to create an intimate connection with readers in order to deliver a solution to a problem.

Luckily for writers, the process for nonfiction books tends to be more science than art, which is much easier to encode into a specific set of steps.

The 12-Step Writing Process for Nonfiction Authors

For this article, I’ll assume that you operate a business or run a professional practice to help clients solve specific problems, and that you’re writing your book to become recognized as an expert and then leverage this status to grow your business.

Now, it’s important to understand that the book project you’re embarking on isn’t and shouldn’t be about you or your business (although it’ll clearly help both). Your nonfiction book must always begin and end with your target audience in mind.

For example, your book title and cover design must reflect the aspirations of your readers to overcome the specific problem that your book addresses, and the body of your book must deliver the precise solution that’ll relieve them from that problem.

With this in mind, let’s begin with the first step to writing a nonfiction book that can find success in the marketplace.

Step 1: Get to Know Your Audience Intimately

For nonfiction books to work, they must achieve two things:

  1. They must establish a deep connection with their target audience
  2. They must be addressed to an audience of one

I’ll explain both points below.

Problem-solving nonfiction books are by nature very personal, because people’s problems are personal. Before you can truly help readers, you’ll need to learn about their hopes, dreams, challenges and fears.

You’ll need to learn how they feel about their problem and how it affects them. The more you understand your audience’s psyche, the closer you’ll be able to bond with them.

Also, when dealing with subjects of a personal nature, you need to address each reader individually. In other words, you need to target your book to an audience of one.

How do you do this? You begin by looking into your current and past clients and then expanding your research online until you have enough information to develop an “avatar” of your ideal reader.

This avatar is a written profile that acts as a composite of all the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your target audience rolled into a single audience member (or two if your book caters to both genders).

This composite of an ideal client will become your audience of one. So when you write your nonfiction book, you’ll address it to your avatar.

What kind of information should be contained in this profile? Here’s a comprehensive list:

  • First you need to make up a first name
  • Then find a headshot with the appropriate age and gender from a free stock photo site and paste to your avatar profile (a Word document or equivalent will do)
  • Add the avatar’s age and marital status
  • Add their profession and income level (annual family income)
  • Include their number of children if any, their status and their living arrangements (single, married, working, studying, living at home, living away)
  • Is your avatar a homeowner? What’s the value of the home?
  • Any pets? Hobbies?
  • Any health or other issues?
  • Finally, list their hopes, dreams, fears and challenges

Step 2: Identify the Problem You Want to Solve for Them

Problem to Solve

Now it’s time to identify the specific problem that you’re setting out to solve for your target audience. This has to be a problem that registers at a high personal level of pain and, naturally, a problem that you’re fully qualified to solve.

In fact, this problem should really jump out of your avatar research; a painful issue that’s shared by all members of your target audience.

For example, it could be related to health, their lifestyle, money, debt, psychology, employment, and countless other personal issues.

Or, in the case of a business, it could be related to retention issues, diversity issues, time management issues, efficiency issues, and so on.

Step 3: Identify Your Unique Solution

This will be the main idea of your book, the solution that you propose including strategies and tactics that address your audience’s problem head on.

Now, the word “unique” doesn’t imply that you must have discovered some miracle breakthrough the likes of which have never been seen before. It could mean creating a new combination of strategies out of existing ones.

In other words, an invention developed by interconnecting a group of known inventions in a new way is still an invention.

What’s important is that you had success implementing your new approach and you also have the social proof that’s necessary to prove to your audience that your solution produces the results they’re seeking.

The more evidence you can collect about your results, the more credible they’ll be to your audience. This is where client case studies and testimonials come in handy.

Your own personal story in overcoming the same problem can also make a compelling argument. In short, the more stories you share, the more credible your solution will be in the eyes of your target audience.

The more they can relate to them, the more they’ll buy into your solution.

Step 4: Mind Map Your Book

Mind Map Your Book

Now that you have a handle on the problem that you’re setting out to solve and your unique solution, it’s time to begin laying down the elements of your book on paper.

Being the subject expert, you’ll find that all this information is already floating in your brain. When you offer your professional services to clients, you can always recall what’s necessary to perform those services with precision.

But when it comes to putting all this information down on paper, you can’t just sit down with a pen and a notebook and expect that words will start to flow out of you effortlessly. That’s not how our brains are wired.

Luckily, there’s a technique called “mind mapping” that does just that. If was popularized by British author Tony Buzan decades ago and it emulates the way our brains store and retrieve information to access the content you need for your book.

Here’s how it works. You begin by writing in the center of a large piece or paper (a whiteboard is ideal) the main idea of your book. Then you draw branches radiating out of the center.

Next, you break down your main idea into its components and write down each one at the end of a branch. Then, you break down each component into sub-components and expand radially out of the main component using sub-branches.

You’ll repeat this process as many times as necessary until you feel you’ve captured all the required topics for your book.

Mind maps work so well because they access information in a “brain-friendly” fashion and then organize it in a way that’s conducive to creating a thorough outline for your nonfiction book.

Step 5: Create Your Book Outline

Turning your mind map into your book outline now becomes a natural process. At its core, a book outline is a numbered list.

To create it, start a new Word file or equivalent, and then type the categories from your mind map’s main branches on the first level of the list (e.g. 1, 2, 3, etc.). Then, tab to the next level for each category and begin listing its sub-categories (1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c, etc.).

Continue this process until you exhaust all branches in your mind map.

When you’re done, clean up your sub-categories if necessary. For example if a main category has 20 sub-categories, you may want to combine some of them to create a more manageable number.

Once you have a de-cluttered outline, think about what the best roadmap for your audience would be. Perhaps you’ll need to reorder some of the main categories until you achieve a flow of ideas that makes the best sense.

Step 6: Create Your Chapter Prompts

Chapter Prompts

Each outline topic, sub-topic, etc. will identify a specific chapter or sub-chapter in your book and it’ll also act as the trigger or writing prompt for that section.

Since the content related to each book section is already stored in your brain, you’ll find that all you need to begin writing is a short phrase to “prompt” you brain into a state of recall.

So, use each outline topic and sub-topic as a seed to write the beginning of each section – just a short sentence will do. These initial sentences are going to be your chapter prompts that will be instrumental for downloading your book content from your brain onto the written page.

When you’re done creating a prompt for each section and sub-section, not only will you be ready to begin the writing process, but you’ll also discover that you’ll never experience “writer’s block.” The prompts will make your ideas begin to flow like a torrent.

Step 7: Set a Publishing Deadline

Now it’s time to get dead serious about your book project. By that I mean it’s time to set a hard deadline for publication so that you can beat that dreaded statistic that everybody talks about: “97% of new authors never finish or publish their books.”

The only way to be excluded from this statistic is to create an immovable deadline to motivate you to publish your book.

For example, this could be achieved by booking yourself into a public speaking engagement with your professional association a year from now in order to officially launch your book.

Here are some other ideas:

  • Have your book ready to launch at a seasonal industry event
  • Introduce your book on a panel or a workshop at a trade show
  • Present your book at a conference you’ll be attending
  • Present it at an annual professional gathering
  • Launch your book at a festival
  • Schedule a course or seminar based on your book’s content for prospects, clients or colleagues

Step 8: Create a Publishing Plan

With your book outline ready and a deadline set in stone, work backwards from your publication date to create a publishing plan that brings you back into the present.

In this plan, you’ll need to incorporate all of the different facets in the book publishing process, including:

Step 9: Set a Writing Schedule

Set a Writing Schedule

In order to make sure you actually find the time to write your book in spite of your daily pressures, you’ll have to set aside a well-guarded block of time on a daily basis (or at the very least six days a week).

Your goal is to set up a 2-hour book-writing window at the same time every day and away from all your other responsibilities. Some people prefer to write early in the morning when everyone is sleeping in the house, or late in the evening.

Although lunchtime is a possibility, it’s quite challenging to set aside a chunk of time in the middle of the day without expecting distractions. You don’t want to sit down to write when you should be attending to your business.

The book writing creative process can’t be multi-tasked. It requires consistency, linearity and above all peace and quiet.

Make sure you tell those around you that you’re not to be disturbed during your writing time, short of an emergency that only you are equipped to take care of.

When you write, put all your electronic devices on mute to prevent being disturbed by notifications.

Also, avoid going down the rabbit hole of the Internet during your writing blocks or the time will disappear before you even notice it. If you want to look something up to incorporate into your writing, then add it to a to-do list for later.

Here’s another important piece of advice: don’t write for more than two hours at a time. If you feel like you’re on a roll and you write for five hours, you’ll end up creatively spent and you’ll pay the price the next day.

If your ideas keep flowing after your writing block has ended, then make notes and go back to them the next day.

Finally, keep in mind that nonfiction books don’t need to be written in sequence. Just choose any random section on your outline that inspires you that day and work on it independent of the others.

Eventually, when everything comes together at the end you’ll have plenty of time to work on chapter transitions and other matters of content flow.

Step 10: Establish a Daily Word Count

If you’re a first-time writer and follow the above steps, armed with a solid book outline and good prompts, you’ll be able to write between 400 and 500 words per hour.

Now, keep in mind that this throughput can only be achieved without disruptions to your flow, which is why it’s so important to mute all devices, including your laptop. When you get into the “flow” of writing you’ll notice that two hours will fly by.

At this rate, and writing a minimum of 6 days a week, you’ll be able to generate a 50,000-word manuscript (approximately a 200-page book) in about 50-60 days, or approximately 10 weeks.

Now, this is just the initial draft. Then the real work of rewrites and self-editing begins, which can easily double this time. Expect that it’ll take you between 5-6 months before you’re ready to hand out your manuscript to an editor.

Step 11: Tell Everyone You’re Writing a Book!

Tell Everyone Writing a Book

To ensure that you can sustain your motivation throughout your writing project, tell everyone you care about that you’re writing a book with the view to launch it at the “xyz” event on such and such a date.

Tell all your relatives, friends and business associates about it. You’ll never want to let them (or yourself) down and that feeling will carry you through the entire project.

Step 12: Assemble an Advance Reading Group

This step is key for your success. Before you start writing your book, assemble an advance reading group made out of people you know who are already members of your target audience.

These people could be present or past clients, friends of friends, friends or family and other acquaintances. The more arms-length the relationship the better.

Then, as soon as you finish each chapter, email them a pdf file with it so that they can read it and give you feedback. This is very valuable information that you’ll be using in your rewrites to make sure that your book resonates with readers at all times.

There’s nothing worse than writing an entire manuscript only to find out at the end that it missed the mark with your target audience. Remember, you’re writing your book for them, not for you.

What to Do After You Finished Your Manuscript

Great, now your manuscript is finally done! What comes next? The Following 7 steps:

Next Step #1: Hire a Professional Editor

Your book will cement your status as an expert in your field and experts are expected to have excellence in everything they do, including book editing.

Since your book will be a reflection of your professional reputation, it must be edited by an expert – this is not an option.

Also, this isn’t an area where you can afford to cut corners by editing your book yourself or by hiring a relative or a friend. For your book to succeed in the marketplace you’ll need to budget for a professional nonfiction editor.

Next Step #2: Hire a Book Layout Designer

By extension, you’ll also have to budget for a nonfiction book layout artist.

The nonfiction book trade has a high bar for production quality, hence the need to hire a book design professional with experience in the genre.

Also, when your book goes on sale, you’ll find yourself competing head-to-head with traditionally published nonfiction books in your niche. Those books will be professionally laid out, therefore so must yours.

Next Step #3: Hire a Cover Designer

When your book appears side by side with traditionally published titles on an Amazon search, it’ll be apparent very quickly if your book cover hasn’t been professionally designed because your book will look amateurish.

You’ll need to budget for a professional book cover designer because, fair or not, if your cover looks sub-standard, readers will assume that your book content will be sub-standard as well.

Next Step #4: Create an Account on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

Once your professionally produced print-ready files are completed, it’s time to set up a self-publishing account on Amazon’s KDP so that your book can be listed for sale on Amazon.

To help you with the account setup, I’ve written a companion article that shows you all the necessary steps: “How to Self Publish Nonfiction with Kindle Direct Publishing.”

Next Step #5: Create an Account on IngramSpark

Another book distributor that you’ll need to set up an account with is IngramSpark. They’re the self-publishing subsidiary of Ingram, the largest book distributor in the world for brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries.

For more details, read my companion article: “7 Time-Saving Steps to Publish a Book For Your Business.”

Next Step #6: Hire a Book Marketing Professional

Setting up books on Amazon correctly requires specialized marketing knowledge.

You’ll have to choose the right keywords to rank high on user searches, you’ll need a compelling book description that closes sales and you’ll have to be very strategic on how you choose book categories and subcategories in order to qualify for one of the highly coveted Amazon bestseller lists.

If you do all of the above work on your own, you’ll risk being out-competed by authors who hire book-marketing professionals to stack the deck in their favor.

Making this investment now will pay off later in hard book sales. Here’s an article I recommend you read: “How to Find the Best Book Marketing Services for Nonfiction.”

Next Step #7: Assemble a Book Review Team

Aside from choosing the best keywords for user searches, creating a compelling book description and placing your book in the right categories and subcategories, a key signal used by Amazon’s product-ranking algorithm is the number and quality of user book reviews.

To this end, you’ll need to assemble an advance book review team to strategically leave book reviews on Amazon in order to boost your ranking and, by extension, your book sales.

To learn how put together this important team while complying with Amazon’s strict book review rules, read this article: “How to Get Reviews on Amazon for Your Nonfiction Book.”

Next Steps

Self-publishing has many moving pieces and this article gives you a rundown of all the steps that you’ll need to follow to first produce a manuscript and then turn it into a high-quality nonfiction book that can compete in the marketplace.

Now it’s time to take the first step and get going on this exciting journey. Remember, you’ll end up with a legacy that you’ll be very proud of while you make an investment that’ll pay reputational and financial dividends for years to come.

Best of luck!

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

The 10 Must-Have Writing Skills for Nonfiction Authors

The 7 Key Rules for Writers of Outstanding Nonfiction Books

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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.

How to Prepare for a Nonfiction Book Launch Event

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Book Launch Event

A well-executed nonfiction book launch event is a powerful way to kick-start your book sales, provided you plan it correctly.

Since there are many moving parts that need to be coordinated to be ready for your event, you have to make sure that you allocate sufficient time to prepare for them.

This article will teach you the book launch basics so that you can set a solid foundation for your event. To expand on this foundation, I’ve written a companion article that I recommend you read as a follow up: “10 Great Book Launch Ideas for Entrepreneurial Authors.”

Set the Date and Choose Your Venue

When it comes to a venue for your book launch, there are many good options to choose from depending on whether you want to have food catering available or not.

The best venues for where food catering is an option are:

  • Your own home. Here you don’t have to ask anyone for permission to serve food nor is there a venue rental cost, but some authors fear that instead of being the guest of honor they’ll become a party host.
  • A rented hall or room. This is the most flexible option since you can choose the right-size space based on the number of guests you expect to have, but it does come at a cost. Now, some venues will waive the cost of the room provided you hire them for the catering as well.
  • A large coffee shop. Many indie coffee shops like to encourage book launches and other public speaking events since they bring foot traffic into their stores. In exchange they’ll likely require that you hire them for the catering. They’ll promote your event in-store and some may do so even on their website.
  • A restaurant. Some restaurants offer to rent their space in the off hours for private functions, or they may have a special room set aside for these types of events. Naturally, they’ll provide the catering in exchange for the space.

The best venues for where food catering isn’t an option are:

  • Large independent bookstores and bookstore chains love to bring in authors for signings, readings, workshops and book launches. Although they don’t typically allow food to be served, most will have a significant promotion budget. They’ll all do in-store and website promotion of your event and some will even place large ads in local newspapers showcasing their upcoming line up of events at no cost to you.
  • Public libraries also love to bring in authors to speak and to hold book launches. Food is not typically allowed during the event, but they’ll gladly promote your event on their website and within the library system.
  • Trade, professional and other non-profit organizations. These organizations bring in speakers regularly to add value to their membership. They can become a valuable venue for your book launch, provided that you find the organization with the right fit whose members are a perfect match to your book’s target audience.

When it comes to setting the date for your book launch, keep in mind that the vast majority of the venues listed above require several months of advance booking – anywhere between three to six months or even more, so make sure you plan ahead.

Create a Launch Calendar and Work Backwards from Your Event Date

Once you book your venue, the planning process begins. Starting with the date of the event, work backwards to set dates for all the tasks on your critical path that you’ll need to fulfill to be ready for your book launch.

These tasks may include:

  • Setting up a book launch team to generate buzz by orchestrating a flood of Amazon book reviews right after your book launch takes place
  • Attracting the attention of your local media to promote your event
  • Making sure that copies of your printed book are available to hand out of local media as part of your pitch package and to have copies on hand for sale at the event
  • Creating a blogging schedule to build anticipation for your book launch by turning excepts of your book into blog articles
  • Pitching your book to book reviewers and other influencers in your niche

Build Your Launch Team

Book Launch Team

Over the last decade or so, Amazon managed to change the behavior of book buyers in a significant way – in other words, gone are the days of browsing bookstore aisles to discover new titles.

In fact, since late 2018, Amazon for the first time surpassed Google as the primary search engine for product searches, including books.

Today, Amazon operates the largest dedicated book search engine in the world, with over 300 million customers and millions more searching its database looking for nonfiction books that address their needs.

In order to bring up relevant results in their searches, Amazon has developed a ranking algorithm that hinges on the quantity and quality of book reviews left by users in order to rank book titles.

So, to ensure that your book comes up on Amazon searches, you’ll need to garner a large number of positive book reviews shortly after you upload your book into their database.

To do so, you need to recruit a group of advance readers who’ll get copies of your book pre-publication so they can read it and leave you an honest review when instructed to do so. Naturally, you’ll want to coordinate this activity with the date of your book launch.

Set Up Your Book Review Team

To set up you team, you’ll need to enlist a large number of people who have an arms-length relationship with you in the eyes of Amazon.

For example, people who live in the same household are disqualified from leaving reviews. So are people who share the same credit card on their Amazon accounts. They even claim to detect who your business associates are.

So, tap into your network to identify people who are ideally members of your book’s target audience by enlisting your friends, relatives and business associates to ask their own friends, relatives and business associates for help.

In exchange for their participation, you’ll be gifting a print copy of your book plus any other cost-free content of value to them – perhaps a pdf with coursework related to your book, a checklist that relates to your solution, etc.

To make sure you comply with Amazon’s review rules, read this article: “How to Get Reviews on Amazon for Your Nonfiction Book.”

Place Your Book Order

Now it’s time to make sure that you have all your ducks in a row when it comes to having printed copies of your nonfiction book ready for your launch team, the media and your book launch event.

Assuming that your book is fully edited, you’ll need to work into your schedule the time that it takes your book designer to lay out your book and the time it takes to execute your cover design.

Keep in mind that the cover designer will need to know the trim size of your book and its final page count before they can complete their job. Then, once all files are ready to be uploaded to your printer, you’ll need to determine their turnaround time plus the shipping time.

Order Any Other Marketing Collateral

While you’re working on your book order you’ll also need to plan out the design and ordering of any marketing collateral, such as business cards, postcards and bookmarks that depict your book cover.

Your cover designer will gladly design these items for a small additional fee and produce the necessary print ready files with the correct specifications. But first, you’ll need to shop around for a printer.

You can look for reputable local print shops in your area, or use online services that specialize in these types of marketing materials, such as vistaprint.com.

In Conclusion

Book launches are very exciting events, but they require a lot of advance planning and coordination among multiple parties.

To minimize unnecessary stress, allow for more planning time than you think you’ll need because when there are that many people involved, something is always bound to go sideways and you’ll be working toward a hard deadline.

Good luck!

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

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

Bennett R. Coles is the 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.

How to Find Book Cover Artists for Your Nonfiction Book

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Book Cover Artists

Finding the best nonfiction book cover artists for your book project is essential for your success, because as book discovery has migrated to the world of search engines you’ll need to be competitive with established titles produced by traditional publishers.

When your book shows up side by side on a search with a bestselling title in your niche, the contrast between both covers will be immediately apparent. So it’s imperative that you aren’t tempted by low cost operators and hire instead an experienced nonfiction cover artist.

You Don’t Need Just a Good Cover Artist, You Need the Right One

If you do a Google search for book cover designers you’ll find pages upon pages of potential candidates showcasing many beautiful covers. However, you’ll also find that 99% of the covers you see are for fiction books.

The reason is that the vast majority of the millions of books that are self-published every year are fiction titles.

As a nonfiction writer, you need to find a specialist in your genre because the skills of a nonfiction book cover artist are diametrically opposite to those of fiction cover artists.

A fiction designer’s goal is to capture the essence of the story in the cover imagery. In other words, to create a visually appealing representation of the book’s characters and their journey. 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. Their goal 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.

While a fiction cover focuses on the character or characters in the book, a nonfiction cover focuses on the reader and their deep desires.

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

Don’t Look for Cover Artists as a Commodity

In the age of the gig economy, exemplified by websites where you can find cover artists that’ll work for under $20, it’s easy to treat book cover designers as a low-cost commodity.

While this approach may prove valuable for fiction books, where you might want to keep your overall costs down in order to  test the book in the market before you commit more resources, it could prove disastrous for nonfiction.

The reason for that is that nonfiction titles are expected to be written by subject matter experts and as such your book will become a projection of your professional reputation.

Therefore, you can’t afford to cut corners and hire anyone but the most experienced nonfiction book cover artist that you can budget for.

Ask to See Lots of Nonfiction Cover Samples

Once you find the right candidate, ask to see as many nonfiction cover samples as possible – this will be proof of their length of service in the trade.

Then compare these covers with the book covers of bestselling nonfiction books in your niche to see how they measure up.

Ask How Many Sample Covers They’ll Make Available for You to Choose From

Another important question to ask is how many different covers they’ll include in their fee in order to give you greater freedom of choice.

Typically, you want to have at least three different covers to choose from, and by different I mean unique concepts, not the same cover with some twists.

Ask How Many Revisions Are Allowed Before Extra Charges Are Triggered

Once you decide on the main theme of your cover, you’ll want to be able to make tweaks to get it right where you want it to be.

So you need to ask the designer how many revisions their standard fees will allow before extra charges kick in.

Ask to See Their Contract, Fees and Terms of Payment

Always work with an artist who has a clear contract that details the services that they’ll provide, the fees, the terms of payment and, more importantly, how they’ll handle and charge for change requests.

The world of design is highly subjective and experienced book cover artists will not offer unlimited changes (beware of those who do).

What you’re looking for is a fair amount of changes to be covered by their standard fee and then reasonable charges for additional changes beyond that number.

Ask for Their Expected Timeline Based on Their Current Workload

Something else that must be stipulated in your contract is the expected length of time required to produce your cover design.

This must include the initial timeline from capture of your requirements to production of the initial set of covers plus the time between a change request and its execution.

These times will vary based on the designer’s workload, so you must ensure that their time frames fit the schedule of your self-publishing project plan.

Ask to Provide You With 2 or 3 References

Although having access to book covers produced by the artist in the past is a necessary first step, you’ll also want to talk with their clients so that you can learn details about the working relationship.

To this end, ask for two or three references. Any reluctance to provide you with references is a sign of inexperience (i.e. lots of sample covers but few actual clients).

Check for a Good Rapport

Finally, make sure that there’s a strong rapport in your interactions with the designer during the interview stage.

Creative endeavors require that professionals that you hire be good listeners and empathetic to your needs. After all, they may work with you for a few weeks, but you might have spent years on your book project.

If you feel you have to walk on eggshells when you communicate with your designer no matter how talented they may be, then that’s a sign to take a pass and go down the list.

Creative relationships demand openness and vulnerability and you must ensure that you can always work with your book cover artist on a basis of mutual respect and understanding.

In Conclusion

Nonfiction book covers are a critical element in your book’s potential success in the market and require a deep understanding of the needs of your target audience.

Therefore, you must hire a book cover artist who’s not only skilled in the visual arts but who also understands the psychology of readers in your niche so that they can tailor your book cover to their aspirations.

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

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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.

How to Make a Nonfiction Book Cover in 5 Steps

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Book Cover How to Make

This article will show you the best practices to make a book cover for your nonfiction title in five simple steps.

The Importance of Nonfiction Covers

The cover of a nonfiction book is absolutely critical for its success. If you’re writing a nonfiction book, changes are that you’re doing so to solve a problem for your target audience.

Your unique solution needs to be reflected on your cover in a way that’s clear and unambiguous. Since problems have a strong emotional component, your solution and the imagery of your book cover must clearly reflect this fact.

Your best approach is for your cover to pictorially reflect the outcome of your solution, which is the most desired state that your target audience seeks to achieve.

For example, the book “The 4-Hour Workweek” provides strategies to escape the rat race and gain personal and financial freedom. Now, the title doesn’t explain how this is achieved and neither does the cover – clearly, you must read the book to find out.

However, what both the title and the cover do is to show the outcome of having put this yet unknown solution into practice. Specifically, this book’s cover depicts the outline of a person lying on a hammock between two palm trees with a sunset in the background.

This cover achieves a direct emotional connection with the source of its audience’s problem (living in a financial rat race) while offering an aspirational outcome that symbolizes personal and financial freedom.

Why It’s Key to Hire a Professional

When it comes to nonfiction, your self-published book will be competing head to head with traditionally published titles.

When your book comes up on a user search, it’ll be flanked by other books in your niche that have professionally produced covers. Anything less will look amateurish by comparison.

This is the reason why you can’t afford to farm out this important task to family or friends, or even do it yourself (unless you all make a living as professional cover designers).

Don’t cut corners in the most important aspect of visual marketing for your book. Also, keep in mind that your nonfiction book will establish you as an expert in your field and as such it’ll become an extension of your professional reputation. Any sign of amateur design will poorly reflect on your professionalism.

Now, even when you hire a book cover artist, it’s important for you to be familiar with the basics of cover design so that you can both have an intelligent discussion.

To this end, here are five steps to making a nonfiction book cover that can move the needle:

Step 1: Research Covers in Your Niche for Ideas

The first step is something that I recommend you do before you hire a professional.

Do a Google search for the most popular and critically acclaimed nonfiction books in your niche and create a list of titles and authors.

Then search Amazon for those books and copy and paste the covers in a document on your computer – you can use PowerPoint or similar so that you can easily manipulate the images.

Place three covers side by side per page, then print them and make notes on the margins about the features that you find appealing, or that you would like your designer to emulate.

Then take pictures of each page with your phone and email them to your cover designer so they can read your handwritten comments. They’ll use this research to inform their design choices.

Step 2: Choose the Right Trim Size

The next step is to choose your trim size. Now this is a decision that will be made jointly by your layout artist and your book designer and it’ll take into consideration the following two criteria:

  • Using the trim size that is most favored in your nonfiction niche – the goal is to match the expectations of your target audience. For example, a financial investment guide printed in a small 5×8 trim size may give the appearance of a lack of gravitas as many mass-market novels are printed using this size.
  • The number of words in your book. The larger the trim size the larger the number of words that can be fitted onto each page and the fewer the number of pages that will be required. Now, a book that’s too thin might give the perception that it’s not thorough enough for specific niches. Again your designers will arrive at the best compromise.

Paperback Format

For your paperback format, your cover will consist of a front cover, the spine and a back cover. Your front cover will include the main graphic elements, your title, sub-title, your name and if available a key testimonial from a highly trusted source.

Your spine will include your title, sometimes your subtitle in small print (but not always) and your name, and your back cover will include a sales blurb for your book, your bio and additional testimonials.

Hardcover Format

Your hardcover’s book cover will be slightly different. The information in your front cover and spine will be identical as your paperback edition, but your back cover will be different, plus the hardcover format introduces a new element: cover flaps.

Your back cover will now only show testimonials and no book blurb. This information will be shown instead on the front-cover side flap. The back-cover flap will contain your bio.

Step 3: Choose the Right Fonts

The next step for your book cover designer will be to choose the cover fonts. This is a critical choice since there are thousands of font families to choose from.

Here are some of the guidelines that your designer will use:

Font Selection “Do’s”

Use Fonts That Look Good When Enlarged

Cover fonts tend to be narrower than body fonts due to the natural limitations of book covers.

Since standard size book covers have a portrait orientation, fonts must be narrow in order to fit your title without having to use too many lines of text.

Use Fonts that Match The Expectations of Your Niche

Some nonfiction niches may call for more “artistic” fonts, while some may call for more “formal” font designs. Your book cover professional will be able to advice you on this important choice.

Your Title Must Always Be Bigger Than Your Name

This is always the case unless you’re a well-known author.

Also your font title must be large enough to be easily legible in a small thumbnail image of your book, since this is what will appear on search results.

Font Selection “Don’ts”

Never Use Gimmicky Fonts for Your Book Cover

This will distract from your overall theme and message and will also make your cover design look amateurish.

Don’t Use a Lot of Graphic Elements

Stick to a single main image if at all possible. You designer will likely produce multiple cover samples with different images for you to choose from. Multiple images in a cover can become distracting and confuse the reader.

Don’t Use Too Many Colors

The goal of a cover is to convey the main theme of your book while relating to your readers aspirations. The use of too many colors will be distracting, may look garish and may be perceived as amateurish.

Don’t Use Too Many Font Types

Consistency is key. Once you agree on the main font family for your front cover with the help of your designer, you should stick with it.

It’s okay to use a different font family for your front and back covers (e.g. a sans-serif font for your front cover and a serif font for the text-heavy back cover) but try to stick with a single font family on the front cover.

Step 4: Choose the Right Images

Photographs

If you’re using a photograph, stay away from stock photos because they tend to be overused. You want your book to be unique and not to reuse photographs that may appear on people’s blogs, or worse yet, on another book cover.

The solution is to use a professional photographer that you hire for the occasion. This will guarantee your uniqueness and also ensure high production quality.

Make sure that your contract stipulates that the copyright transfers to you on payment of the photographer fee without any limitations.

Images or Drawings

You’ll also have to hire a graphic artist for your cover image. Don’t use stock images for the same reason as stated above.

Your book and the solution that you’re offering to your target audience are unique and so must be your main image.

Also, make sure that the copyright to the image transfers to you on full payment as well.

Step 5: Choose the Right Colors

Nonfiction books demand very specific color palettes, and they are driven by the expectations of your target audience in your niche. For example, cookbooks require colors that people will identify with based on the food theme of your recipes.

If you use colors that don’t reflect your theme, it’ll be confusing to your audience, and perhaps even unappetizing. Colors trigger an emotional response so you must ensure that they are in line with your subject matter.

This is another area where your cover designer will be able to advise you. They’ll know from experience the colors that work well in your niche and what colors you need to stay away from.

In Conclusion

By following the above five steps, your professional designer will produce a great cover in consultation with you that you’ll be very proud of, and also a cover that’ll compete effectively with traditionally-published nonfiction books in your niche.

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

 

Bennett R. Coles
Bennett R. Coles

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.