So you wanna write a book?

It’s something I hear all the time – and while everyone seems to have the “Great American Novel” in them somewhere, when most people say this they mean that they have a non-fiction book that they’re ready to write. Some of these people are consultants who want a book to support their practice. Others are academics ready to turn their work into ‘popular’ science/history/management. Still more are avid amateurs with a particular expertise in an intriguing subject such as the War of 1812 or gluten-free desserts or AAA baseball. And finally are the political junkies. Not that there are any here…just thought I’d toss that out. 

When I look at the shelves of writing books at my local bookstore, I see dozens of tomes on writing fiction, a handful on poetry, several on magazines, and a sliver of books on term papers and essays. Few and far between are the books on how to write non-fiction. They are out there – from the classic On Writing Well by William Knowlton Zinsser to Laura Robb’s Non-Fiction Writing from the Inside Out, and my personal favorite, Fact and Artifact by Lynn Z. Bloom – but like any subject matter expert, I am undaunted and thus want to add my two cents. What I find is that those books are comprehensive, or very in-depth, which is great if you have the time to read them or want to learn more specifics about, say, science writing. But they are hundreds of pages long, and most people I know don’t have that kind of time. What I am offering is the Cliff’s notes version – the starter kit, if you will. Some ideas to get you going, from an editor and publisher’s perspective, on what goes into a good non-fiction book, some of the traps to avoid out of the gate, and some of your options for publishing and promoting your book once it’s written.

My street cred: I am a publisher and editor – I run a small independent company called Mélange Press, and our growing catalog includes a variety of fiction and non-fiction books. I have spent much of my career prior to the formation of this company as a writer and editor of technical and business manuals, have written theatre criticism, and have taught English composition and grammar.

This series will explore the practical side of writing non-fiction books. Over the course of the next 18 weeks, I’ll be covering the following topics:

So You Wanna Write A Book?
Some practical considerations for deciding whether you really have a book in you

Finding, Beating, and Using the Competition
Doing market research; making sure your book differs; using others’ expertise effectively and legally

Genre: Procedural
How to “how to”

Genre: Informational
Explaining stuff to a lay audience

Genre: Analytical/Critical
Dissecting and dissing

Genre: Blog to Book
New media in analog form

Genre: Misfits
Humor, religion and spirituality, memoir

From PowerPoint to Page
Traversing the difference between teaching/training and book writing

Stylistics
Thoughts about style, voice, and persona

Translating Jargon to English
How to avoid pitfalls of techspeak, jargon, and the alphabet soup of industry terminology

Illustrate This
Charts, graphs, and photographs (with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back describing each one)

Editors are a Writer’s Best Friend
What good editors will and should do for you

Front Matters
Tables of contents, forewords, introductions, prefaces

Back Matters
Appendices, indices, timelines, afterwords

Legal Eagles
Also known as the ‘covering your ass’ diary

Note: This series will NOT discuss fiction, poetry, or playwriting. It will not discuss grammar. It won’t tell you how to find an agent or write a query letter. There are many blogs, books, and websites that cover these topics.

Also note: This series is being cross-posted at Daily Kos. Join us there for more conversation.