How Will You Know If Your Book Succeeds?
Knowing why you want to write a nonfiction book is an important starting point. But how will you know if you've achieved that purpose? Identifying your desired outcomes can help you set realistic expectations, make strategic decisions, and chart a path toward the success you've defined for yourself.
Is Your Nonfiction Book Idea Worth Pursuing?
Before you ask whether your nonfiction book idea is worth pursuing, ask yourself why you want to write a book in the first place. This five-step exercise will help you identify your motivations, clarify your purpose, and consider whether the book you're imagining is the book you actually want to write.
The Case for Practicing in Public
Writing for a general audience asks experts to put their ideas in contact with readers before those ideas are fully formed. That can feel vulnerable. It can also change the work, the writer, and eventually, the book. For the better.
Before the Book Proposal
Most experts assume the book proposal is where a trade nonfiction book begins. I think it begins much earlier. Long before you fill out a proposal template, you can start testing your ideas in public—through articles, talks, podcasts, newsletters, and conversations with readers. Those interactions become a form of research, helping you discover what resonates, what needs refining, and what your book is really about. By the time you write the proposal, you're no longer guessing. You're writing from evidence.
When Experts Write for General Readers
Writing for general readers isn't about simplifying your expertise. It's about helping readers engage with it. This essay explores my reader-centered approach to developmental editing and the three questions that guide every editorial decision I make.