This page is for kids who have heard my author talk on how to be a non-fiction writer and get published.
KIDS, I would love it if you asked any questions you may have about writing books and publishing. For the sake of your privacy, please do not use your real name when you comment – use something like your middle name, the name of your favourite soft toy, or your first pet. I look forward to your questions!
Here’s the complete talk notes to refresh your memory.
A bit about me
I have always loved reading. I am the sort of person who reads the breakfast cereal box if there is nothing else to read. I always read my school English novel on the day it was issued to me. I read fast, and I read a lot. However, at school for my Grade 12 exams I chose the lowest level of English on offer. I loved reading, but I just wasn’t interested in studying it. My teachers tried to convince me to do a higher level of study, but I was not to be pursuaded. In the end, I came second at my school in that subject, behind my twin sister, so I didn’t do too badly.
At university I studied graphic design, taking courses in photography, illustration, design computing, marketing, problem solving, and creative writing amongst others. Somewhere along the way I decided I wanted to be a book designer. I still loved books, but this was a different way that I could be involved with them.
After graduation, I worked for several years as a book designer for a major international publisher, and thoroughly enjoyed it. When my first daughter was born, the opportunity came to write my first book. I had won an international competition, and the offer was made to me to write a book about the subject. I jumped at the chance!
I never set out to be a writer, but now that it is what I do, I love it. I have now written four non-fiction books, and have started on the fifth. I also have ideas for three more. I also regularly write for magazines in my field, and to say that the list of articles I have written is as long as my arm, would not be an exaggeration.
I do not write fiction. It is not something that I have a burning desire to do or any idea how to do! I like highly technical writing that explains how to do something, broken down into steps. I write in the “How To” style.
Since starting to write seriously, I have now found that it is the way I do my best thinking. It has become such a part of me, that if I need to mentally process something, I write about it. It is surprising the way some things turn out!
Now, I know that some of you are aspiring writers, so I would like to take you through the steps of writing non-fiction books. If you have any questions, write them down, and I’ll be very happy to answer questions at the end.
Brainstorming subject matter
All books start with an idea. If you have no “idea”, but want to write a book, brainstorm about what you already know. If a subject interests you, you may want to learn more and eventually become an expert in it. If a subject does not interest you, I advise you to leave it alone (no matter how well you think it would sell) because working on it will always be a drag.
What could go into the book?
If your topic is apples, what can you write about apples?
- How do you grow apples?
- What are the different varieties of apples?
- Funny stories about people and apples
- the life cycle of an apple
- nutrition and recipes with apples
What other books are there on your subject? You need to know your competition, as that will help you make your book unique and therefore make it saleable. How will your book be different?
Think about how your book will improve the lives of the people who buy it – these are known as benefits. Everyone wants to improve something about their lives, so how will your book help?
- this book will improve your health – a book on nutrition and apple recipes
- laugh yourself silly – a book with funny stories about apples
- grow apples faster, better and easier – a book on apple growing
- learn how to quickly and easily choose the best apple for you – a book on apple varieties
Research
Once you’ve decided on your topic, you will need to research it. That could be by reading everything else already written on the subject, or by doing the activity and getting better and better at it so that you can tell others the best way to do something, or by talking with other experts about their knowledge or methods, or a mixture of all of them.
You need to know your subject inside out and back to front. If you don’t, your book will not be the best book it can be.
Publishing
Early on in the process you need to think about publishing. DON’T write your book first and then think about publishing. According to some research 90% of non-fiction books are published on the basis of a book proposal only, NOT the finished manuscript. A manuscript is all the written words that make up a book. A book proposal is a document that basically sells an as-yet unwritten book to a publisher. It covers what the book is going to be about, who it is written for (the market), other books that are already written about it (the competition) and how this book will differ from them, who the author is and why they are so well suited to write about it, a detailed breakdown of the contents of the book, and a sample chapter or two.
Would you rather just write a book proposal of several pages, and submit that to a publisher, or would you rather write the whole book and risk it (and all that time and effort) being rejected?
I know what I’d prefer!! My books that were published by a traditional publisher were sold on the basis of book proposals only. Another publisher wanted to see the whole book before they would evaluate it. I said goodbye to them. That wasn’t a good investment of my time, if they chose to reject it.
Only some publishers will be suitable for your book. Publishers tend to specialise in different areas (often known as genres), such as children’s non-fiction, poetry, art books, romance, fiction, law books, textbooks, picture books, science fiction, cookbooks, health etc. If you choose the wrong publisher to submit your proposal to, of course you will get a rejection! You need to find a publisher who already publishes similar books.
When you submit your proposal, you should first check if the publisher has any guidelines that need to be followed. If they do and you don’t follow their guidelines, you’ll have just failed your first test, and they’ll never even read your proposal. Submit your proposal and wait. Most authors have received a rejection notice from a publisher. It doesn’t necessarily mean your book idea is bad, it just may not fit with what they’re looking to publish, or maybe it is just terrible!
The reason why people want to find publishers is that publishers take care of many aspects of book production and selling, meaning that authors can mostly just write. Its an attractive proposition!
BUT, there is another option: self-publishing.
Self-publishing
All of my four books have also now been self-published. The two that were originally published by a traditional publisher have now been fully revised and republished by me, when I got the rights back from the original publisher.
Self-publishing means that you, as the author, take the responsibility and financial risk of having the book produced and printed, and then you also have to sell it. If it does not sell, you lose your money. But if it does sell, the financial rewards can be much greater than using a traditional publisher, because most or all of the money goes to you, rather than the publisher keeping most of it, and giving you a tiny bit.
It also means that you have much more freedom to do what you want as you are answerable to no-one. However, the bottom line is still the same – you still have to write and create a book that will sell. There’s no point in having a load of expensive books going mouldy or dusty in your garage.
As a self-publisher, you can do everything yourself (such as writing, editing, illustrating, book design, cover design, marketing, distribution, printing etc) or you can choose to do the bits you want, and outsource the rest. I do most of it myself, but outsource the printing and most of the distribution.
Once you’ve made your decision about publishing and you either have chosen to self publish, or have a publishing contract from a traditional publisher, now you can get back to the real fun bit: the writing and creation of the book!
Words
At some point you’ll actually have to start writing. If you have chosen a topic that you know really well, and are passionate about, then that should be no problem.
If you have a linear topic, then it probably makes sense to start writing at the beginning and work through to the end. If you have a non-linear topic, then you can start with the part that appeals to you most or that you know most about, and then move on to the other bits after that.
If you get stuck, JUST KEEP WRITING! Bad writing is still a starting point, and can always be rewritten later. Even if you know it is rubbish, just keep writing until you get a new idea of how to do it better. Often when I am writing an article for a magazine, I’ll write it once, and not like it. So then I’ll start again, taking a new angle, and rewrite it. Sometimes I can reuse bits from the first version, altered slightly, and other times it is just all fresh.
Consider the style of your writing. Is flowery prose appropriate for your subject matter? If you are writing a travel book, highly descriptive and emotive text might be completely appropriate. However, if you are writing a technical description of how to do something, you want the text to be as concise and unambiguous as possible. You may find that using a conversational style brings life to otherwise dry text, or it may make a serious subject seem frivolous and glib.
Write everything. Then if you’ve written in chunks, organise it. If you prefer to organise as you go along, fine, do it that way, but don’t let the organisation take over from the writing!
Once you’ve written it all, read it. Make changes. Self edit. Expand where you need to. Delete where you need to. Rewrite. Read it again. Change it again, Read it again. Change it again. Read it again… I think you get the idea. A good point to make is that no writing is ever perfect as soon as it gets onto the page for the very first time. All writers, especially the best ones, edit their own work, and have others edit it for them as well.
Practise writing. I write a blog as writing practise. This allows me to write on similar subjects regularly. It forces me to come up with new ideas regularly. Because people can comment, they sometimes give me ideas on what to write about by asking questions. I can also use my readers to test ideas and do market research on. For my most recent book, I told people what I was writing about, and asked them what THEY wanted to be in it. And then I wrote the book that they wanted, meaning that they were so much more likely to purchase it!
Who is the audience?
Something you will need to consider as you write, is who is your audience? Whenever people market any product – and a book is a product which needs to sell – they need to know that there are people out there who will want to buy it. They usually make the product to meet those people’s needs. The same should be for books.
At this point I will mention niche markets. These are small segments of larger markets. As an example, we could talk about children as being a market. A smaller segment of this market is children between the ages of 8 and 10. A smaller segment of THAT market is children aged between 8 and 10 who like reading science fiction, and an even smaller section of that would be girls between the ages of 8 and 10 who read science fiction. This is a niche market.
Writing for niche markets is much easier than writing for an entire market. Writing a book for children – ALL children – and having it appeal to all of them is beyond impossible. But if you narrow down your market to girls between the ages of 8 and 10 who read science fiction, you have a much better idea of who you’re dealing with. I suspect that most of you probably even know a real person who fits in that category. So then you can write for those sorts of people in mind.
What do you know about your market? List everything you know, because some of those things will impact on how you need to write your book, and what you need to put in it. If they like reading science fiction, you will probably want to deal with non-fiction subjects related to that. If they are between the ages of 8 and 10, you need to write with words that they will know and understand.
One of the embroidery magazines I write for, the editor has said that it must be written so that a twelve year old can understand it. No big, fancy words or concepts. If a technique is difficult, it must be broken into small steps that make it achievable. This is because she never finished her education. She feels that if there are other people out there who are like her, they should not be denied the pleasure of learning embroidery simply because of their lack of education, so all of her writers have to keep that in mind when writing for her magazine.
Pictures
Most non-fiction books have some sort of illustration or pictures. They can look a bit boring without. So chances are, you will need something to make your book look pretty too.
If you are working with a publisher, you may not have to bother about this at all, as their designer may handle it all for you. However, sometimes you have specific photos or diagrams that need to be included. It may suffice for you to just describe what you need a photo of, or draw the rough diagram. Your publisher may have illustrators or photographers that you can use. They may also have access to photo libraries that stock photos can be chosen from. Or maybe you will be required to do it all yourself. If you do your own, you MUST be good. If your illustrations, diagrams or photos are anything less than fabulous, they will let you down! If you are not that good, get someone else to do it for you.
I do my own photos and illustrations only because I did both photography and illustration as part of my degree at university and got distinctions in both subjects. Otherwise I would not consider myself good enough to do my own.
Book layout
A book doesn’t go from a manuscript (pages and pages of words and more words) into a book without some effort. The book needs to be laid out onto pages, colour scheme decided, typefaces chosen, pictures and illustrations put in position, the size of the book chosen, the paper chosen, and the cover designed. Usually a book designer does this. An author is not required to. The publisher organises that.
If you self-publish, unless you have experience in preparing things for printers, and designing books, I recommend that you should outsource this part of the process. Good book designers can help you deal with printers too, and as printers talk a different language, this is very worthwhile! Good book designers will also help sell your book, as a beautifully presented book, which makes the text accessible, will attract readers and buyers.
Editing and proofreading
Editing can be a heart-breaking process. All that work, and someone tells you everything that is wrong with it, and that needs to be fixed. Have a thick skin. Remember that everything they suggest is in the hope that it will improve the book. They are not attacking you personally. I remember when I wrote my second book, it came back from the editor with lots of changes, and seemed to be nothing positive. I remember asking the person who I dealt with at my publishers whether the editor had even liked the book! It certainly didn’t seem so! But that wasn’t the point. They wanted to help me improve it, and if making all those changes improved it, then they were worth doing.
If there is something that they want changed that you feel very strongly should not be changed, negotiate with your editor. Ask them why they think it needs changing, then venture your opinion on why you think it should not. Try to find some middle ground, and if you can’t someone is going to have to give in. Just remember that the purpose is to improve the book – and let that be your guide.
Sometimes the book is edited before design, sometimes after, and sometimes both. Depending on how the process works, you will probably see the book after editing, with queries from the editor of things that need to change or are suggested to be changed. Then the book will go to the proofreader who will do a final read-through and check.
If an index needs to be made it will probably be done after editing and before proofreading. Indexing is a fairly specialised task and is often left to a professional indexer.
Printing
If you are having a traditional publisher, you will not see the book again until after it is printed. If you are self-publishing, the book will be sent to the printer, however, either you or the designer if you are using one, will have been in negotiation with the printer for quite some time.
Selling the book
Once the book is back from the printer, firstly, take a long look at your book and have a party!
Now though, they all need to be sold. If you are using a traditional publisher, they will take care of sale and distribution (sending it out to wholesalers and shops) for you. If you are doing it yourself, you will need to do this, either by somehow convincing distributors to take on your book, by directly selling to shops and libraries or by selling direct to the public through mail order and a website.
Promoting your book
Whether you are self-published or using a publisher, you should take every opportunity possible to promote your book, even while you are writing it. Let your target market know that the book is coming, and when it is available. Free advertising (such as book reviews and stories about you in local or wider media) is the best sort of advertising, not only because it costs nothing, but because people trust it more than they trust paid advertising.
Another useful thing to do is to send out review copies, which are free copies of the book that go to book reviewers. But not to just anyone! I realised a long time ago that because I write very niche books, I will never get coverage in the national media. It would not be worthwhile me sending a review copy to the New York Times or Guardian newspapers.
However, because I have good relationships with the magazines in my field (I write for them and know the editors well), I can often get excellent coverage in these magazines, which are the ones that my target market are already reading. I also find that offering giveaway copies (usually 2-5 per magazine) is a great way to get nearly free publicity. Often in return for the free books, the magazine advertises them to their readers so that the readers will want to take part in the giveaway. For the cost of sending a few copies of the book, I often get a free half-page advertisement.
I have also offered and sent review copies to influential bloggers, who have big followings of readers in my niche market. A review by someone as influential as that can bring big results. One morning I couldn’t figure out why my email inbox was suddenly flooded with orders until one of the people ordering mentioned the blogger who had glowingly reviewed my book that morning.
On the other hand, I have placed paid advertising in magazines to find that it brings no discernible results at all. So most of the time I simply don’t bother.
If you are using a publisher, get them to do all they can possible to promote your books. But be under no illusions about the fact that you WILL need to promote it yourself as well. If you have invested all the time in writing the book, you also owe it to yourself to help sell it. After all, who better than the person who is most passionate about it?
To sum up
If you are an aspiring writer, write. Write well. If you want to be published, read all you can about book publishing and promotion. Learn your writing craft, but also remember that you will have to be a salesperson as well. If this doesn’t come naturally to you, then you’re just going to have to work at it.
I find that with every book I write, I learn something new about better promotion. I come up with new ideas. So even if you don’t get it completely right with your first one, there’s always the next book. And every subsequent book you write will help sell the ones that came before it.
Probably one of the best things to remember is that if you are going to be a successful author, it will take a lot of HARD work. However, if it is what you want to do, the hard work will be worth it.
Good luck!
Yvette Stanton. March 2010
