Niche project not getting picked up?
+ Way early May Meeting today!
🔔Today! May Meeting🔔
Sunday, May 11 · 5 PM PST, 6 PM MST, 7 PM CST, 8 PM EST
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/ibf-sgtg-pct
📅June Meeting Invite📅
Authors Meeting
Wednesday, June 25 · 5 PM PST, 6 PM MST, 7 PM CST, 8 PM EST
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/dfh-yqah-ggu
🦴Request - Manuscript Trade🦴
I’ll read your manuscript if you read mine!
Would anyone who has experience reviewing, writing, or even just reading enough nonfiction books like to read and review a draft of Carcass? I’ll do it for yours in return! (Bonus points if they have something to do with nature and/or animals, or at least science! But anything nonfiction, preferably under 100k words, is fine.)
My publisher says more feedback would be good, but she’s not looking for more formal (paid) reviewers at this time.
Let me know if you’d like to switch!
Also, this is like the 7th draft of Carcass, so it should be pretty good by now. But it can be gross at times.
I’ll take up to 3 people if there’s interest! And I’ll try to get at least one done within the next month, during which I’ll mostly be at the residency.
If you don’t know my email, it’s FirstnameLastname@gmail.com, or you can comment on any of my posts, and I’ll get an alert.
🧰Resources🧰
Hoping to market your book with virality?
🎥Video: “Sorry, nobody cares about your small business.”
I was alerted to this good video about pity marketing, focusing on books, using this graphic I made, and summarizing a lot of similar points to this post of mine:
💼In the early stages of nonfiction book-writing?
Classes from an experienced science writer
📅 Various dates | 💵 $75 USD (for one of the classes) | 📍Online via Zoom
🧠Need more book advice?
Authors Guild Events/Webinars
The Authors Guild has events and webinars, including recordings of their past events, many of which are free regardless of membership.
Recently, they had an event called “Nonfiction Proposals: What Agents & Editors Want,” although I don’t see a recording.
took notes, though (emphasis and formatting added):Highlights I thought were relevant to professional science writers from the meeting:
The top three things nonfiction editors and agents are looking for are:
1) expertise
2) an enticing, resonant, and unique idea and
3) sparkling writing."If you can't put the book or the proposal down after page 1, that is what we're all here for."
Expertise is not only more important than platform, it functionally IS your platform, until you become an established author, at which point you can write whatever the hell you want. This was very interesting to me: some authors with huge social medial followings don't actually sell that many books. So editors have learned that expertise and connections to communities connected to your book's topic are more important. A Substack with 500 engaged followers is better than a social media presence with a hundred thousand followers.
Main difference between academic and trade publishers is peer review. Trade publishers don't do it. Other differences are authors are mostly academics and written for an audience who already has a background in the subject. Trade is the opposite.
I was shocked to hear they consider a proposal overview to be no more than a page, or even paragraph! Mine was much longer than that.
Pet peeves: no sample chapter included, authors whose writing style doesn't match their intended audience, repetition or little original research, not enough material to support a book.
Best comps: My book sounds and feels like or is in the style of Book X, but it's about a different topic.
Worst comps: ones chosen simply because they sold a lot of books and are vaguely connected to subject.
You need to have an argument about how your book will stand out.
Finally,
did a video on Why Nonfiction Book Proposals Fail recently. It's freely available and good.
Kristin’s notes:
I was mostly glad to hear confirmation of things I already suspected. One quote was something like, “Agents want to know: Why are you the best person in the world to write this book?” I get a lot of people telling me they want to write a book too (is this a universal experience among authors?), and that’s the first question I ask them.
Maybe 1% of the time (outside of certain writing communities), the answer is good enough to pique interest in an agent or publisher. My neighbor, for example, says she wants to write a book about gardening; I asked to see her writing, and she said, “I don’t write,” like it’s some sort of food she’s developed an allergy to. I’d ask to see her gardening skills, which, if spectacular, or at least better than almost anyone else in her niche, might be enough to gain her fame and a book deal—but I can see her yard from my window. There is no garden. Just a lawn.
I also ask “how many articles or essays have you written on that topic?” and the answer is, outside of some of the good communities I’m in like Binders groups and science writing groups, always, something like “what do you mean, ‘articles?’ Why would I write an ‘essay?’" or something else meaning “zero.” Or worse—getting angry at the very concept of practicing writing, like they’re too special for it. I try to be nice, but I just think about how much a person must hate writing a genre/topic/subject if they’ve never written for it!
Sometimes I ask a few years later, “How’s your book project coming?” And 100% of the time—ONE. HUNDRED. PERCENT.—people who want to be authors but who don’t have writing practices have made no progress at all towards their so-called “dream.”
💀Kristin’s Updates💀
I’m going off to the Jentel Artist Residency soon! So, that means I might not be super-present for chatting. But—who am I kidding—I’ll probably check my email fairly frequently anyway.
I’m planning on using this time to focus on my next project idea, which is either the photo book I’ve been working on or perhaps a workbook for bone-hunting. Unfortunately, I can’t pitch either until my first book comes out, so I’ll just…start building them in the hopes they can get book deals later? And maybe when I formally pitch them to my agent, they will be closer to complete.
Speaking of writing projects that aren’t formally backed or funded:
⭐FEATURE: Pros and Cons of Independent Projects v. Company Clout⭐
Even though I’ve said several times that I’m very happy with my choice to traditionally publish and would do it again over and over, the following explores some benefits of independent or semi-independent projects, such as self-publishing. I’m OK with that! I contain multiple complex beliefs at a time!
Now, I generally trust experienced publishers, agents, and editors—I’ve worked with them on Carcass, and their feedback has been very useful at best, understandable at medium, and something to discuss or possibly just ignore at worst. Never was I annoyed, nor did I feel anything was ruined or worsened or disrespected just because other people were involved in my project. I like feedback. If science book experts all or mostly said my book idea was terrible, I would believe their expertise and not pursue the project. I don’t wanna waste my own time on something that seems like a losing game, either.
However.
A project could have a lot more potential than a publisher or media outlet might see. They’re only human after all. And sometimes it’s worth pursuing without them.
I find great writing in unexpected places
I'm surprised that there's such good writing on Substack, a place where anyone can write anything without, generally, editorial oversight. Lots of articles are just as good as, or better than, what I read in legacy media. (Was I the last person to figure this out?)
How this relates to books: writing a book is primarily the project, vision, and baby of the author. In that way, writing a book is more like having a Substack than a corporate writing job. The writer is in charge.
As an example of great journalism here on Substack, I recently read some great insight on journalist
’s fashion blog . I came across her, I think on TikTok, searching something like “fur sustainability,” for a video I was making on the bias of fur sustainability reports. (My video, Odell’s video). Then I read a number of her fur-related posts on Substack, such as this one titled “How the Fur Issue Got So Confused.” She cites several mainstream media articles that claim “fur is back,” and she expertly takes down that notion with more experience in fashion and better logic.These Substack posts about fur by Odell are better than the articles in places like the New York Times.
What?! In the past, you wouldn't trust a blog! Anyone can make one with no oversight! (Well…actually, there have always been good, trustworthy blogs out there. Did you ever read Scienceblogs? Still. Legacy outlets feel more reliable and probably usually are, on average.)
But here we are with the best new journalism I could find on this topic being on Substack. And it’s not the first time—in fact, there are some niche topics I can only find being written about with journalistic integrity and good insights here and on other newsletters.
Further Reading:
Why would an independent writing project be better than an official, professional, traditional one?
I think back to my time as a science reporter at National Geographic, PBS Newshour, and the bowels of hell Newsweek, and I think about the reasons we were able to get better or worse coverage over independent projects.
Pros of being aligned with a household-name brand:
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