Resources: $100,000 award to Write a Book on Data + More
+ Dev Editor Recommendation, November Invite Reminder
These posts are getting so long, I need to separate them into mid-month notes.
Reminder for this month’s meeting:
Google Event Invite
Authors of Nonfiction Nov Meeting (NOTE DATE CHANGE)
Sunday, November 24 · 5pm PST, 6 MST, 7 CST, 8 EST
Video call link
Resources
I have this spreadsheet of awards and resources that I think are particularly useful for us nonfiction nonmemoir book writers, but here are some new ones:
Here are some new ones:
💵 Award/Funding:
Nine Dots Prize
From the site: “Entrants are asked to respond to a question in 3,000 words, with the winner receiving US$100,000 to write a short book expanding on their ideas.” This year’s question is: “Is data failing us?”
Note: As previously stated, I’m usually skeptical of book publication contests where the “prize” is functionally a book deal with an advance that may or may not be the best you can do. However, this one is offering $100,000!? That’s worth looking at! (If it seems to fit you and your skills.)
💵Funding:
Funds for NGOs: Some of these are fellowships for journalism-related projects. Some of them *may* allow book proposals.
Nieman Fellowship at Harvard: For a project to advance journalism. Boston. International apps due Dec 1, USA apps due Jan 31, 2025.
Knight Wallace Fellowships at U Michigan: Focusing on the Great Lakes area, social science, and art journalism. International apps due Dec 1, USA apps due Feb 1.
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network for “Professional journalists and tech researchers, both individuals and teams, from media outlets from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey”
💼Professional recommendation:
Jaime Green
In the last post, I shared some writing exercise questions from my developmental editor, but I didn’t link to her work! (In the original email, but I edited the post after.) I’m working with her now, and she’s great. She does:
Developmental Editing
Editorial Assessment
Proposals & Query Letters
Copyediting and proofreading
If Green isn’t available/isn’t the right fit for you, I have some other developmental editor recommendations.
🏆Award:
One of the reasons I chose Green as my dev editor is that she edits the Best American Science and Nature Writing, so she really knows her science writing. This is a great book series, and if you have some great science and nature writing from the last year, you can get your work recognized in it, too.
You can apply to have your work included, and it’s a big honor. Submissions are open through December 20, 2024.
✍️Writing/Research Resource
The Craft of Science Writing
A new edition of The Open Notebook’s book on science writing by
Half the time, when someone online asks me a question about being a science journalist, I just send them to The Open Notebook.
✍️Writing/Research Resource
Risk Journalism: a guide to clear reporting on any topic
I know I don’t share as many resources regarding the actual craft of writing/reporting, but accurately reporting risk is very important and sometimes done poorly. So, this is a critical resource.
If you want more resources on science writing like the above, I saw it on
!
See you soon!
May I invite another writer to this group? She is writing a textbook and a nature guide and a memoir.