by George Galdorisi

1. Breaking Into the Nonfiction Market:
Step-by-Step
George Galdorisi
San Diego State University
Writer’s Conference
January 20-22, 2017

2. A Few Preliminaries….
• Three promises:
– This will be a fast-paced session
– We’ll learn something…and we’ll have fun
– You’ll have access to these resources…take notes…or not….
• Three assumptions:
– You all are interested in the non-fiction market
– That includes articles of all kinds as well as books
– You didn’t wake up last Tuesday morning with this notion
• A word about Power Point…

3. ….by way of background….

4. Let’s talk about writing….

5. ….and isn’t this
the oldest profession?

6. “History is what the historians and writers say it is.”
Norman Polmar
(Forty books – and counting)

7. Breaking Into the Nonfiction Market:
Step-by-Step
• Some preliminaries - and non-fiction in general
• Being - or becoming - the expert
• Pursuing a subject - or letting life happen
• Scratching itches - or entertaining
• Getting a publisher to buy your book
• Examples and resources

8. Some Preliminaries:
Non-Fiction in General

9. ….the dark…and light…
side of writing….

10. “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

11. “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

12. I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
Rudyard Kipling
The Elephant’s Child

13. Some Things to Consider Before You Write
• Who are you writing for?
• What are you going to write?
• Where are you going to write?
• When are you going to write?
• Why are you going to write?
• How are you going to write?

14. So Many Non-Fiction Outlets
• A wide array of online media
• Newsletters
• Alumni magazines
• Professional journals
• Popular magazines
• Newspapers
• Portions of non-fiction books
• Non-fiction books

15. Why Non-Fiction Books?
• 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 non-fiction published than fiction

16. Being – or Becoming – the Expert

17. “There are authors and artists and then again
there are writers and painters.”
Ian Fleming
How to Writer a Thriller

18. 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

19. What Should You Write About?
• Whatever you are passionate about
• “You’re in a bar with your friends”
• 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?

20. Pursuing a Subject:
Or Letting Life Happen

21. “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

22. Pursuing a Subject-or Letting Life Happen?
• Beyond the Law of the Sea
• Leave No Man Behind
• The Kissing Sailor
• Other examples
• And this leads us to a question….

23. Are You Scratching Itches:
or Entertaining?

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

25. Scratching Itches-Or Entertaining?
• Scratching Itches: 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
• Entertaining: The Kissing Sailor
– We had a mission
– We were on a “Mission from God”
– In some ways, the day the book was published – we were done
– And…the book “percolated” into downstream goodness
• Leave No Man Behind – Both goals

26. How Much to Tell and What’s Next?
• Getting past: “It’s an article, not a book”
• A comfort zone and an “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 haven’t written articles – now you should!

27. 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!

28. Getting a Publisher
to Buy Your Book

29. “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

30. “It’s already
been done, or
it’s on Wikipedia”
“It’s an article,
not a book”
“You don’t have
a platform”You must
overcome
all three!

31. Once You’ve Overcome That,
You Must Do This:
Decide What Your Non-Fiction Book Is

32. What Is Your Non-Fiction Book?
• Narrative Non-Fiction:
– A book that tells a true story, often using the techniques of
fiction: biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs
• Prescriptive Non-Fiction
– A book offering information and advice, this includes
helping readers improve their lives or learn a new skill

33. Narrative Non-Fiction
• Most narrative non-fiction is produced by someone
who has some experience as a writer
• Most good narrative non-fiction entertains through
storytelling as much as it informs
• Biographies typically require an enormous amount of
research and need to “hook” if the subject is familiar
• Many aspiring non-fiction writers focus on memoirs –
the “art” is finding something new to say
• At the end of the day, narrative non-fiction will
succeed or fail based on the author’s writing skill

34. Prescriptive Non-Fiction
• Prescriptive non-fiction requires decent writing, but
the bar isn’t as high as for narrative non-fiction
• However, this kind of book is sold on the basis of the
author’s platform or visibility
• Readers don’t want to be entertained, they want to
learn from the wisdom of your experience or insights
• Most popular categories of prescriptive non-fiction:
– Religion
– Business
– Self-help: Diet, health, fitness, self-improvement etc.

35. Getting a Publisher
to Buy Your Book
• Due diligence – with a vengeance!
• Finding the right agent or publisher
• The query letter – address those three circles
• Your book proposal – and some examples

36. 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 or enough
information on the subject is on Wikipedia”
• You have to convince yourself it hasn’t been done
and then you have to convince an agent or editor
• How to you do that? (Your “Mission from God”)

37. 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

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

39. The Query Letter
• There is a cottage industry of courses on how to write a
query letter
• There are a number of books on how to write a query
letter
• There is a cottage industry of experts on how to write a
query letter – and some of them are here!
• There is a massive amount of information on the internet
on how to write a query letter
• Two sources:
– The Great Courses: How to Publish your Book
– Google: http://www.agentquery.com/writer_hq.aspx
– But these are only two, there are many, many more

40. 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

41. One Example of a Good Query Letter
“In a January interview on the Writer’s Digest blog, you
praised The Thirteenth Tale and indicated an interest in
literary fiction with a genre plot. My paranormal
romance, Moonlight Dancer, blends a literary style with
the romance tradition.”

42. The Magic Words….

43. …Yes, I’d be interested in reading it

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

45. “Interest” has a half life….

46. 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

47. 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 from others?
• When did you decide it’s better than Wikipedia?
Think about your competition today – not just books,
but the internet? Is your book better than Wikipedia?

48. Your Book 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

49. 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….
– How you are going to make promoting our book a
constant drumbeat

50. Let’s look at two examples….

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

52. Leave No Man Behind
“An important and comprehensive work on that most
American of military imperatives--going in harm's
way to get one of our own.” Dick Couch (NYT
bestselling author)
“Leave No Man Behind is a solid piece of history. Well
written, well told, well done!” Darrel Whitcomb
Author of The Rescue of Bat 21
“This story has never been told before! Leave No
Man Behind offers a unique blend of operational
experience and technical description.” Dr. Norman
Friedman – author of over 30 books.
“George Galdorisi and Tom Phillips have provided a
comprehensive, and well-written history of the
development of combat rescue up to the present,
including dramatic accounts of rescues, among them
many never before revealed.” Norman Polmar –
author of over 40 naval books.

53. 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

54. The Kissing Sailor
“What a wonderful detective story
about a kissing sailor and a beautiful
nurse – the most famous couple
celebrating the end of WWII. Famous
but anonymous - until now. I loved it.”
Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest
Generation
“The Kissing Sailor is a whodunit that
provides once and for all the
identification of the world’s best-
known smoochers…You have to read
this book!” David Hume Kennerly,
Pulitzer Prize winning photographer

55. Some Iconic Non-Fiction Writers
and Helpful Resources

56. Some Iconic Non-Fiction Writers
and Helpful Resources
• David McCullough
• Walter Isaacson
• Malcolm Gladwell
• Laura Hillenbrand
• Writers on Writing (I)
• Writers on Writing (II)
• NYT Book Review
• NYT Book Review – Last Page
• The Great Courses: “How to Publish Your Book”

57. “There comes a time when you realize that everything
is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing
have any possibility of being real.”
James Salter
“All That Is”
NYT Magazine
December 27, 2015

58. A Summing Up of What We’ve Covered:
Whew – is it Worth It?
Breaking Into the Nonfiction Market:
Step-by-Step
• Some preliminaries - and non-fiction in general
• Being - or becoming - the expert
• Pursuing a subject - or letting life happen
• Scratching itches - or entertaining
• Getting a publisher to buy your book
• Examples and resources

59. “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

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

61. Slides and Resources:
http://www.georgegaldorisi.com/
For 2017 SDSU Writer’s Conference Attendees
only. Contact me via this website for:
Book proposal for: Leave No Man Behind
Book proposal for: The Kissing Sailor