Blogger: Wendy Lawton
Location: Central California Office of Books and Such Literary Agency
Weather: Rainy and Cool
Before I begin to pontificate about the “perfect” nonfiction package let me just say for the record:
- For every rule there is an exception. The exceptions are thoroughly delightful because they make those of us who try to make sense of this publishing game look like complete mouth-breathers and they make the unwitting recipient look like a genius. They keep us forever humble and grateful.
- We’re talking mostly prescriptive nonfiction here, not memoir, not cookbooks, not travel, etc.
- We’re taking the quality of the writing out of the equation here. I know, I know—it’s really all about the writing, but we need to remove that variable to look at these three elements.
So, we’re going to talk about the perfect package for a nonfiction project. In trying to come up with a way to describe it, I’d say it’s topic + author + platform. The perfect project would be a book on a compelling topic to which the author has devoted his life, possesses the necessary credentials and already has a following for that particular topic. It’s “perfect plus” if the author is the one the media would call if they needed an interview on that topic.
Simple, right?
It sounds cold-blooded and calculating and we freely admit that the perfect package rarely comes along but I think by recognizing the elements it helps us explore the subjects for which we may be a perfect match.
For instance, let’s say you are a board certified cardiologist who has specialized in nutrition for heart health and weight loss. You developed a diet and all your patients began to have unusual success. The buzz started and even the media began to beat a path to your door. The set-up for the perfect package? Absolutely. It’s called the South Beach Diet.
Or how about this scenario? You’ve spent a lifetime as a productivity guru and your seminars are popular all across the country. What if you synthesize your philosophy down into Seven Habits and promise success? It worked for Stephen Covey.
Admittedly, those are the uber-successes but in examining the elements we can apply it to our own projects. Your project needs to be a combination of your passion + you + the people who are already following you. That’s the perfect package.
Can you come up with more examples of the perfect package? How about some of those glorious exceptions?
Debbie Macomber is a sweet fiction romance author who has a huge following and web site followers. She wrote a nonfiction book about knitting and spiritual lessons in life–and it was great. It all dove-tailed great for her because much of the same audience who read her novels, already was a part of her community and the things she had to say in her nonfiction book.
I don’t know how Ree Drummond did it, but I sure would like to know. She’s a city girl who married a cowboy (rancher) and started a blog (Pioneer Woman) about her life, the food she fixed. While her book is technically a cookbook, it is a fantastic “story” within with beautiful pictures she took and the story behind the food. As far as I know, she blogged about it first.
I guess you just know it when you see it, huh? 🙂
This is really nice information about nonfiction package let me just say for the record and a little difficult for me to understand due to the language barrier but if you could fix it then I can take dissertation help service from this post. Thanks a lot.
Thanks for the information! The site is developing, which is very good! The idea of allowing students to buy essays on Edusharky helps build a community of smart students. And the language and the ability to communicate with native speakers is above and beyond praise. I would really like to praise the situation with the current subscription display on the site.