How to write a non-fiction book

I make some money writing non-fiction (three examples). This page answers questions I'm asked, starting with this one...

Why write NON-fiction?

1. Because the market is there

Rivers of non-fiction run into the book market, yet the market is not full. For example, how many books does the world need about Abraham Lincoln? Would you believe 10,000+ different books? Enough Lincoln authors to start their own civil war.

Give ten competent writers the same background material and you'll get ten different books -- each from a shifted or even radical angle, and in different styles. Readers will be there for these books, especially readers who already own or have absorbed Lincoln books. More, more! In any case, libraries always buy copies. Just count up the number of libraries!

This never-full market means you can sanely expect to receive some money for non-fiction writing. Royalties come in like delayed but comfortable wages, maybe for years -- even your whole life. Now and then Fortuna smiles and a startled non-fiction author flies up to the best-seller list. Rare, but it happens.

2. You'll be heard

Your stuff will get out there, with the prestige that rides on a book. A book always carries some prestige, because a publisher had to detect merit in it, then risk money by printing and promoting the book.

It has to be admitted that book publishers vary. The scale runs from world champs down to seedy, near-bankrupt operations. But at least someone liked your book and backed it -- and readers aren't usually that discerning about who published it.

In fact, even if you publish and market the book yourself, prestige still shines on you. Because you wrote a book and there it is. Boldness has its own genius.

And it doesn't even matter if a pack of citizens bark at your book and try to bite it-- that's publicity! You've spoken and been attacked! The media run to you with microphones and cameras, and ask you all about it.

3. It can be therapy

Some people want to write a book to get something off their chest. They've suffered or transgressed, then overcome, and want to talk about it. They may feel that their true story could also help others.

4. It can be a frolic to write it

If you're in the grip of a passion -- fish genetics, microwave cooking, Babylonian water channels, rose gardening, analysis of conspiracy theories, piano tuning, commodity trading, bird psychology, Abraham Lincoln, debt collection, bamboo furniture, criminal slang -- and you're happiest when you're learning more or telling people about it... sure, write a book! Why not? You'll have a fulfilling, rollicking time. (This happy work may also boost your immune system and make you healthier, according to medical happiness experts.)

Let's say the book is in your head, but you can't get it out

Here's one infallible way to get started: ask a friend (or ghostwriter) to show up with a tape recorder and prompt you with questions. Make sure it's someone you're at ease with, so they can keep you talking.

The tapes can be sent to audio typists for transcription, if you can't type (or don't want to). They'll transcribe your eloquent story (or patchy mess) into word-processing files.

Don't be disturbed if the typescript that comes back seems chaotic. "That can't be how I talk!" (Remember: our whole splendid universe descended from chaos.) So a typed mess can be re-arranged, made orderly, filled in, fixed up. Once you get something on paper (or a computer screen), you'll end up with a book -- if you stick with it and get help when you need it. But if you don't get anything written, nothing will happen. Nothing can be made out of nothing.

Almost anyone can at least talk about their passion. Some talk eloquently, almost writing the text in the air. Some advance jerkily, branching and lurching all over the territory, with the story coming out as a patchwork.

Lots of non-fiction books are written where the 'author' (the person whose name later stands on the cover) did nothing but talk to a writer (a ghostwriter), then review the ghostwriter's drafts. Celebrities often 'write' books this way. The ghostwriter also researches things for these busy people ("... what's the name of that Chinese restaurant across from the Langley building?")

The author and ghostwriter also agree on a writing style, the tone of the thing. The author may hand the ghostwriter some favourite book and say that's how it should read -- "like that".

For example, that's the process I used to ghostwrite Dead Fish and Fat Cats.

If you've written part of the book yourself, but got stuck...

By typing in raw material yourself, or an entire first draft, you save steps (talking to a tape, the transcription, then organising it). You also save money. Don't grow melancholy if your first text is tangled. Unconnected episodes, data, quotes, factoids, with writing as rough as a high-school essay -- doesn't matter! Something has been written, so you can begin to sort it. If you stare at a printout long enough, even 500 shambolic pages, certain parts will seem to belong together and certain parts demand to come before other parts. It will start to settle into order, like crystals forming out of a solution, or the birth of the universe.

Even if you can't organise the mess yourself, you can get someone to do that for you. An outsider may be better at it, in cases of grave chaos, because an outsider isn't so close to the topic.

Once the text is organised

Let's jump to the pleasant period when the text has been worked on until it's well-organised. It flows with natural and compelling force. But say the writing is still rough. It doesn't "read well." Someone can fix that too! It may need sentence-by-sentence revision, to lift it to publishable quality. Or your text may only need light editing -- a dab here, a dab there. Either way, you're almost there. Keep going!

This may help: How to write things people will read -- professional writing tricks. Ways to get people to read and remember your memo, manual, letter, resume, brochure, report, thesis, or anything else. A PDF, with a few cartoons.

To sum up...

You may need help from one or more of the following:

Someone to talk to while you chat about your topic. Meanwhile a tape recorder runs.
An audio typist to transcribe the tapes into word-processing files.
A ghostwriter to organise rough material into a book outline, or write the text for you, or maybe both.
A practical and thoughtful critic, in case you wrote the whole book yourself but need to know if anything is missing, how well it reads to an outsider, and what else should be done to make it OK to send to a publisher.

Jim Heath
Australia
Jan 2006