Non-Fiction - The Hungry Market

Getting Published Now!
Coronado Adult Education
Spring 2015
Non-Fiction: The Hungry Market
January 27, 2015

“Being a comparatively successful writer is a good life.
You don’t have to work at it all the time and you carry
your office around in your head. And you are far more
aware of the world around you. Writing makes you
more alive to your surroundings and, since the main
ingredient of living, though you might not think so to
look at most human beings, is to be alive, this is quite a
worthwhile by-product, even if you only write thrillers.”
Ian Fleming
How to Write a Thriller

Recap of What
We Covered Last Week

First - and Essential - Steps
• Creating content and placing it to win:
– Content-hungry media
– Recycling and building content
– Building relationships with editors – a win-win for both
parties (An Example!!)
– Solo or with a wingman? The pros and cons of
collaboration
• Ensuring what you produce is embraced & accepted:
– Avoiding the slush pile – tilting the board in your favor
– Getting paid and getting invitations to reduce speculation

This Week:
Non-Fiction - The Hungry Market

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to
write. Let them think you were born that way.”
Ernest Hemingway

Non-Fiction - The Hungry Market
• Being - or becoming - the expert?
• Pursuing a subject - or letting life happen?
• Scratching itches - or entertaining?
• How much to tell and what’s next?

These two quotes might make your head
explode…so let’s deconstruct them….

“Now, if you’re getting all fired up and ready to pound the
keys, I might inject a word of caution. Actually, this word
comes from my wife. For most of us, writing is not a team
sport. An article for a trade journal or a short story is no big
deal, but if you find yourself writing a long piece or a book,
you probably ought to have a chat with your spouse. For
most of us, writing means closing off the other people in
your life for several hours a day and it’s something you
may want to talk about before you begin.”
Dick Couch
(Fifteen books – and counting)
Shipmate, April 1993

“If you have other things in your life—family, friends,
good productive day work—these can interact with
your writing and the sum will be all the richer.”
David Brin

Why Non-Fiction?
• It is a hungry market
• Relatively easy to enter
• Lower risk – sell then write
• Can be steady money
• Can query without an agent more easily
• Vastly more nonfiction published than fiction

“It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.”
Jack Kerouac

Being – Or Becoming - the Expert
• Some essential “first order” questions:
– Is this something you’re passionate about?
– Do you have enough “street creds” that you’re an expert?
– If not, is there a way you can acquire those street creds?
– Do you really want to spend several years doing this?
• If the answer is yes, then it’s all about the packaging:
– First stop – solo or with a collaborator?
– Next stop – the library and the internet – due diligence
– Is it a book – or an article?
– If it’s a book – packaging – query letters and proposals

So What Should You Write About?
• Whatever you are passionate about
• Recall our “You’re in a bar with your friends” story
• What my first agent always asked:
– What are you really passionate about?
– What do I wish I had more time for?
– How would I spend year as a “professional dilettante?”
– What do I think about when I’m alone?
– What do I worry about and what issues concern me most?
– What have I done that people seem curious about?
– Is there a topic where friend turn to me for advice?

Pursuing a Subject-or Letting Life Happen?
• Beyond the Law of the Sea
• Leave No Man Behind
• The Kissing Sailor
• A Doolittle Raiders book

Scratching Itches-Or entertaining?
• Beyond the Law of the Sea:
– We had a mission
– We had a message
– We wanted people to do something
– It gave us a platform
• The Kissing Sailor
– We had a mission
– We were on a “Mission from God”
– In some ways, the day the book was published–we’re done
– And…the book “percolated” into downstream goodness
• Leave No Man Behind – “the blend”

“Creating a book takes more than a good idea and solid
writing. Beyond the preparation of the text, the book
must be produced, then promoted.”
Gordon Burgett
Before You Write Your First Book

How Much to Tell and What’s Next?
• Getting past: “It’s an article, not a book”
• Recall last week: Article to book ratio
• One book – or a series
• Above all else – the purpose of the book (LNMB)
• At the end of the day – you decide, not the editor
• If you didn’t write articles – now you should!

You’re in the Starting Blocks!
• You know what you’re going to write about
• You know why you’re going to write about it
• You know who is going to write it (solo….or….)
• You know roughly when you’ll write
• You already have the where figured out:
– Solo
– With collaborator (the “how” question)
• Now all you have to do is get someone interested in
publishing the book!

Due Diligence – With a Vengeance!
• Once you get past the “It’s an article, not a book”
roadblock, the next one is…
• “It’s already been done before”
• You have to convince yourself it hasn’t and then you
have to convince an agent or editor
• So how to you do that? (Your “Mission from God”)

Due Diligence – With a Vengeance!
• Meet Your Two Best Friends:
– The library
– The internet
• The library
– Books
– Journals and magazines
• The internet
– Subject searches
– Writer searches
• Other friends
– Your colleagues and fellow travelers
– Bookstores – large and small

So What the End Game – What Are You
Looking For?
• Publishers who publish this kind of “stuff”
• Agents who agent this kind of “stuff”
• Once you know that, it’s all about the query
• Persistence on steroids!

“The toughest hurdle you must scale is getting a
publisher to agree to handle your book. You are a new
name, a new risk to them. They will judge you on what
you send, the thought behind it, the obvious
professionalism, how it reaches them, sometimes your
expertise or previous writing output, and always on
how your book will increase their profit line.”
Gordon Burgett
Before You Write Your First Book

The Query Letter
• There is a cottage industry of courses on how to write a
query letter
• There is a cottage industry of books on how to write a
query letter
• There is a cottage industry of experts on how to write a
query letter
• There is a massive amount of information on the internet
on how to write a query letter
• One source:
– Google: http://www.agentquery.com/writer_hq.aspx
– But this is only one, there is a universe of them out there

The Query Letter
The “Bell Shaped Curve” For Most
• The hook
• Mini synopsis
• Your bio
• Your closing – “where’s the beef?”
– High Concept
– Outline
– Table of Contents
– Sample Chapters
• “Bound the problem” for how much time you’re
going to spend on getting an “A” in query letters

…Yes, I’d be interested in reading it

How long will the editor have to
wait to see your proposal?…

“Interest” has a half life….

Before You Write the Proposal
• Come up with a “purpose statement” for your book
and write it down in one sentence
• Then put this into a working question: This book is
the answer to….
• Two sources (there are a multitude of them in print):
– John Boswell – The Awful Truth About Publishing
– Jeff Herman – Write the Perfect Book Proposal

The Proposal – The 100,000-Foot View
• Who would read your book?
• Why would they buy it?
• Where would they use it?
• What else is available like your book?
• How does your book differ?
Think about your competition today – not just books,
but the internet? Is your book better than Wikipedia?

“A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how
hard it is to be God.”
Sidney Sheldon

The Proposal
• This is not the time for humility
• Think back to when you wrote your first resume
• Advice from John Boswell: The Awful Truth About
Publishing
– Define the book’s audience
– Describe the book generally and specifically
– Show that your book fills a need for your audience
– Show that you are uniquely qualified to write this book

Today – You Are the Publisher’s
Marketing Department
• Part of your proposal must include how you are
going to do their work for them!
• What is your platform?
– Media of all kinds (talks, interviews, print, et al)
– Internet presence
• Facebook
• Twitter
• And more….

So let’s look at two examples….

Leave No Man Behind
• The “Hook” – Rescue Story (Clyde Lassen – MOH)
• About the book
• Table of Contents
• Chapter Summaries
• The Market
• The Authors
• Promotion
• Length and Delivery

The Kissing Sailor
• Cover
• Quote
• Table of Contents
• Concept (Why this book?)
• Competition (Surely this story has been told before?)
• Timing (Why are we doing this book at this time?)
• Methodology (How are we going to pull this off?)
• About the authors
• Chapter summary
• The Market
• Promotion
• Length and Delivery

“I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I
try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.”
Tom Clancy

Slides Posted:
http://www.georgegaldorisi.com/
E-mail address:
george@georgegaldorisi.com

“The Great American Novel”
• Great or not-so-great? What you need to know
getting started
• Mainstream or genre? Which way should you go?
• Defining your audience and picking a “voice” and
point of view
• Getting the sale

Non-Fiction - The Hungry Market

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