Huge List of Resources, How to Get on a Podcast
March 2024 Meeting Notes + Invite to April Meeting
Hello everyone!
Thanks for another great meeting!
Here is the link to the April Authors of Nonfiction Books in Progress meeting, and the details are below:
Authors of Nonfiction Meeting
Thursday, April 25 · 5:00 PM PST, 6 Mountain, 7 Central, 8 EST
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/yvt-ugax-oma
First paid subscriber!
Thanks to Lynne for being the first person to financially support Authors of Nonfiction Books in Progress! Of course, you are all welcome and encouraged to do so, with this:
(And of course, the “no pledge” option is there for you if you don’t want to!)
If you would like to donate to a 501(c)3 charity instead, might I suggest a $10 donation to Small Town Community Cats (where I got my beloved Bijou) or Wyoming Arts Alliance, which has been generous to me. I’d love it if you could mention me/ANBIP in the note of a donation, just because I’m curious to see if and how much this may result in.
Don’t forget to apply for the Whiting Grant!
Due April 23, 2024, click here. Like I mentioned in the meeting, if you miss this deadline, you probably won’t qualify for the next one, as there’s only once a year. I missed my chance because I didn’t know it existed last year, so please learn from my tragic failures and get yo’ money.
Discussion:
Higher advances = often a better experience even outside of the money!
Someone pointed out that the publisher who offered DOUBLE the advance was also the publisher who seemed like a better, more organized publisher. If you work enough freelance you may notice that the clients who pay the best are also the best clients outside of that.
I’m also told (and I believe it, logically) that higher advances result in more interest from reviewers, booksellers, etc. Furthermore, the higher the advance, in many cases, the higher the marketing budget, and the more experience the publisher has. For that reason, books with higher advances may actually be more likely to earn out! I’m sure there are exceptions.
Getting on a podcast to talk about your book:
Wendy suggested this book: How to Get On Podcasts: Cultivate Your Following, Strengthen Your Message, and Grow as a Thought Leader Through Podcast Guesting
When applying for a grant, ask to see the applications of previous winners
You can see mine below! Maybe one day I’ll put together a set of past Sloan grant winners, so no one has to email around any more.
List of Resources (Mostly ones I’ve shared before)
Here are various resources I’ve put together (or just grabbed) targeted at people writing nonfiction non-memoir books like you! Or whoever.
Get paid to write a pitch!
I learned too late that you can get paid $80,000 to write one at a journalism fellowship! People do that at the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship, The Scripps Fellowship at the Center for Environmental Journalism, and probably the other Knight Journalism fellowships that I haven't looked into. I think there’s one for reporting for the west, and one for politics somewhere? So, keep your ears open for fellowships if you're thinking of starting a nonfiction book proposal.Results from my agent search
Note: most people suggest Publisher's Marketplace, so, even though I didn't like my results from looking there, there is surely a reason everyone else does.My Book Proposal & how I contacted the agent
Result: contract with MIT Press to write a book about dead animals and $50,000 advance.My Proposal for the Sloan Grant
Result: I got $56,053 for the book Carcass. Also, at least two other people in my group got the grant, and one mentioned that she never would have known about it if it weren't for ANBIP, nor would she have applied!List of suggested grants to apply to
Note: most of these book grants—and most legit ones in the world—require a traditional contract. I find a lot of "prizes" for people without trad contracts are not grants at all, but an effort to get you to think you "won" what is, in effect, a contract. That's fine if the contract is fine, but don't let them stroke your ego with the words "you won" if you think you could get a better contract elsewhere. A grant is more like free money on top of your contract.
The author of the newsletter Funds for Writers explained in this post:
"A week doesn’t go by without someone asking me for money to self-publish their book. Nine times out of ten, they are beginning authors.
There are no grants for this. And there are lots of reasons why.” (continue reading)
I also got some money from this state program. Sometimes it’s hard to recommend funding sources as they’re all specific to you, the individual.
So, here are some non-curated resources generally for creatives on getting cash money:
My…mentor person who Wyoming pays to talk to me? Sharon Louden has a newsletter (a few times a year) that includes opportunities for creatives. And her website is FULL of resources for creatives.
Creative Writing News Opportunities
Gotham Writers Courses on Professional Development
How I found Science Advisors & how I described their task
Note: I really just made this up, as with the contract with the fact-checker. I'm just some person and I'm only giving these to you because I couldn't find anyone else's that may have been done better! Make a copy, read through it carefully, and make all the changes you need to yours. Or if you already have a better one to look to, send it to me and LMK if I can send it to my colleagues at ANBIP!Spreadsheet National Park Artists in Residences Applications
Note: I have never got any of these, and most don't pay or work well for writers, TBH. But I know a science writer who did get one. Also, I only included the ones I liked in this spreadsheet and left out the historic parks. Here's a map of more and the National Park Arts Foundation. I only apply to free ones because I noticed that one residency said they got 800 applications and the fee was $120, which, mathematically, is like paying $96,000 to do it (and that one paid $4,000 to the winner.) Also: state parks and BLM land have Artist in Residence programs!Copy of #PublishingPaidMe spreadsheet (I didn't make this, and I don't recommend making graphics or pivot tables from this as some of the numbers are def wrong)
Thanks for reading! Hope to see you in a month!
