How to Select the Best Topic for Historical Nonfiction—and How to Pitch It
When considering the best topic for a work of historical nonfiction, you must consider your reasearch, your target audience, and what you seek to accomplish. Author Cory Taylor discusses what goes into this process, and how to pitch the work once it's complete.
Sitting Up With Tom Wolfe — A 1974 Interview
This extensive interview with author and journalist Tom Wolfe, who passed away on May 14, 2018, appeared in Writer's Digest in 1974, shortly before the publication of Wolfe's iconic book The Right Stuff.
Shifting Gears: Publishing a Book Outside Your Usual Genre
No matter how varied we try to make a career, how much we try to think outside the box, the marketplace will seek to pigeonhole us. Here, Tim Wendel offers tips for publishing outside your usual genre.
Marrying Fiction and Nonfiction in Business Books
Blending fact and fiction isn’t a new idea in business books and management literature, but here Chris McGoff offers a multifaceted approach to story-telling, graphic illustration, and practical advice.
The 10 Real Secrets of Nonfiction Publicity
Here are ten real secrets of nonfiction publicity that many people ignore. They are essential ingredients towards creating a real bestselling nonfiction title.
5 Tips for Writing a Self-Help Book Backed by Strong Research
When you're writing a self-help book, make sure to do your research. Here are five tips to help ensure that your nonfiction work holds up against a critical eye.
Based On A True Story: 4 Advantages to Fictionalizing the Truth
Should you write a memoir, or write a novel "based on a true story"? Here, Joan Jackson offers four advantages to fictionlizing the truth.
Research Tips for Writing Nonfiction
I recently moved into a new house and office, and was faced with carting along decades of writing research in the process. Books, albums, boxes of photos, cassettes—that was the easy part. Assembling the stacks of files, the collapsed cartons of photocopies, insect-infested pamphlets and newspaper clippings, the 10,000 pages of...
Avoiding Writer’s Block: Flash-Write a Portion of Your Book
Feeling blocked? Often writer’s block just means you don’t know where to start. Use the procrastination-busting tips in this chapter to create a work environment that helps your creativity flow. This guest post is by Jody Rein and Michael Larsen. Jody Rein, former executive editor with divisions of HarperCollins Publishers and...
10 Key Elements to Writing a Winning Nonfiction Book Proposal
Writing a proposal for a work of nonfiction may be intimidating and sometimes frustrating, especially if you’re unsure about the information you should include and how to structure the proposal. Authors often spin their wheels and look at multiple sources for guidance on this task. They look for multiple resources to...
Meet the Agent: Paul Lucas, Janklow & Nesbit Associates
Paul Lucas came to Janklow & Nesbit in 2007 not as an agent, but as a paralegal who’d been working in the corporate division of a large law firm. A longtime book lover, he soon gave up legal texts for queried manuscripts, officially donning the agent hat at Janklow in 2011....
Meet the Agent: Helen Adams, Zimmermann Literary
Helen Adams (formerly Zimmermann) got her start in publishing more than 20 years ago: first at Random House—where she became Director of Advertising and Promotion—then as Author Events Director for an independent bookseller, where aspiring writers would often ask her how to get published. “I would always say, ‘You need to...
New Literary Agent Alert: Rachel Crawford of Wolf Literary Services
She is Seeking: Rachel is looking for literary and commercial fiction and YA. She’s interested in stories that defy genre conventions and play with reader expectations, and particularly enjoys dystopian, eco-fiction, and apocalyptic narratives, as well as anything with a scientist protagonist. She’s also looking for international fiction, political fiction...
A High Performance Approach to a 30-Day Writing Challenge
A 30-day writing challenge requires productivity on demand! Let’s look at the five pillars of high performance and how applying its strategies can help you meet your November writing challenge.
New Literary Agent Alert: Vanessa Robins of Corvisiero Literary
She is Seeking: NA—all, especially humor; YA—gritty plots with diverse characters; Fiction—thought out thrillers, romance with strong female leads, heavily based science sci-fi, and sports-centric plots; Nonfiction—memoirs including coming of age, cultural/ethnic/sexuality, survivor, and humor themed. Bonus points for Medical Narratives (characters with medical illnesses and chronic diseases, or MS told...
New Literary Agent Alert: Tracy Marchini of BookEnds
Tracy Marchini is looking for picture book, middle grade and young adult manuscripts across most genres, including contemporary, mysteries, thrillers, magical realism, historical fiction, and non-fiction
New Literary Agent Alert: Katie Zanecchia of Ross Yoon Literary Agency
Katie is interested in adult narrative non-fiction that catalyzes social change, challenges the status quo, gives voice to the underrepresented, and inspires improvement of all kinds.
How I Got My Literary Agent: Janet Fisher
Janet Fisher, author of THE SHIFTING WINDS (March 2016, Globe Pequot Press/TwoDot), shares her journey to representation and publication.
How I Got My Literary Agent: Beth Buelow
Beth Buelow, author of THE INTROVERT ENTREPRENEUR (Nov. 2015, Perigee Books) shares the stream of events that lead to signing an agent and publication.
When It Comes to Your Writing, It’s NEVER Too Late!
Let’s get one thing out of the way: The idea of feeling like it might be “too late” to do something doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with age. I remember vividly the first time I was overcome with the unsettling sensation that certain ships had sailed. I was a new...
What We Can Learn From Multi-Genre Authors
One of my favorite parts of my job as editor of Writer’s Digest is overseeing our WD Interview cover stories in every issue—deciding who to feature, making sure we’re hosting a conversation that covers ground our readers won’t find elsewhere, and quite often even conducting the interviews and crafting the profiles myself....
Go There: Lessons In Writing From Dear Old Dad
BY ANDREW MARANISS People assume that when your father is a Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author, he must have helped you a lot with your first book. For a while, I thought he might, too. I’d email first drafts of my chapters for “Strong Inside” to my mom and dad, and I...
How Applying For Writing Grants (Even If You Don’t Get Them) Can Help You Be A Better Writer
BY CRISTIN O’KEEFE APTOWICZ In the summer of 2010, I gave up what were the defining elements of my life for over a decade—my New York City apartment, my arts-related job in Soho and my role as host of a popular Lower East Side reading series—all to pursue my dream of...
Create an e-Anthology to Show Off Your Body of Work
BY DAVID WOLMAN Bad news first. That page on your website so lovingly curated and carefully updated with links to your published work? No one reads it. OK, maybe your Mom and an editor who wants to see samples of previous work, but no one else. That doesn’t mean you aren’t...