5 Mistakes Nonfiction Authors Make
I work every day to help non-fiction authors craft powerful self-help and instruction books for their audiences. I love doing this work—I love reading people’s stories and learning from their years of experience. I love seeing their passion for making the world a better place. I see that they have valuable insights to share that could truly make a difference in a reader’s life. And yet, I also see mistakes that obscure their message—mistakes that could have been avoided earlier in the writing. By the time the book gets to me, it’s often like trying to look at a beautiful landscape through a foggy window. I know the beauty is there, if I could just help the author create a clearer image.
These are the most common mistakes I see authors making with non-fiction books; the things I spend most of my time trying to fix once I get the draft. If you’re working on any kind of instructional or self-help book—where you are offering advice to your reader—think about these things before you start writing. It’ll save you and your editor so much time in the long run!
1. They want to serve too many audiences.
I get it. When you have something important to say, you often want everyone to hear you, especially if you think you can help them. But the reality is, not everyone is going to want to hear what you have to say. Even if they could benefit from it, not everyone will see your book as a priority. Before starting to write, ask yourself, “Who will want this message? Who is going to come looking for help with this?” Write for that person—the person who wants what you have to share. That person will be so thrilled that you’ve written this book that perfectly addresses all of their needs, and they’ll share it with their friend, and another friend, and another friend.
Here’s an example: If you’re writing a book on bicycle maintenance, don’t try to write it for both the experienced mechanic and the college kid who decided to take a bike to school. Choose one of those readers, and write your book for that person. They will thank you for it!
2. They don’t have a plan.
Your Table of Contents (TOC) is one of the most important pieces of your book. Most authors don’t realize this, but your TOC is valuable marketing material. It’s where you make promises to your reader about what’s to come. It’s where you show them that you’re going to be able to deliver whatever you’ve promised them in the title of the book. Like a roadmap, your TOC shows your reader exactly how to get to their destination, and what the necessary stops are along the way.
Having a solid plan helps you put boundaries around the book; it helps you define the content that should be in your book, and the content that shouldn’t. It doesn’t mean that you can’t make tweaks, and you can’t realize later that you need to change those boundaries—but you do need to have boundaries. If you don’t have them, you’ll end up making mistake #3.
3. They write too broadly for their audience.
Even if authors have a well-defined audience and know exactly who their reader is, they often write too broadly, trying to solve every problem that reader will ever face. As they’re writing, an opportunity arises to sneak in a piece of advice on a topic completely unrelated to the topic of this book, and they give in, taking us on a little detour. They abandon the roadmap, indulging in the role of tour guide, wanting to take the reader on the scenic route to their destination. The scenic route might work sometimes in real life, but your reader wants to get there as quickly as possible. Your reader’s time is valuable—don’t take them on detours!
4. They don’t get early feedback.
I generally work with two types of authors: those who sign the contract and I don’t see any part of their work until the first draft due date, and those who send me chapters one at a time for feedback. I used to be flexible and go along with whatever approach an author preferred, but over the years, my preference has solidified towards the latter. I now strongly encourage my authors to send me chapters and early drafts so that I can head off structural issues within the chapters before they get too far down the road. Often when I get a full draft, I can tell you within the first few chapters what my overall feedback will be on the book, and I wish I could have intervened earlier before the author had spent so much time writing 50,000 words.
I highly recommend working with an experienced non-fiction editor when you have a Table of Contents so that they can help you think through the structure—how that roadmap is going to play out. It might cost you a bit up front, but it’ll save you from having to pay that author to overhaul a confused manuscript later on.
5. They assume that what they mean is obvious and they don’t need to explain.
Many of my coaching clients have heard me say they need to be more explicit. When you’re writing self-help or instructional books, you’re often building an argument over several pages—sometimes over the course of an entire chapter, or even the whole book! Don’t take shortcuts in explaining what you mean. In fact, as an editor, I’d rather that you over-explain and let me help scale it back, than under-explain and all I can do is leave questions for you in the margins, hoping you’ll fill in the gaps. Often I have a conversation with authors, and I find that they explain to me perfectly what they meant. I usually stop them right there, and say, “That! Write that down for your reader!” Be explicit. Don’t keep secrets from your reader. Explain what you’re doing, just as you would to someone who’s right there in front of you.
Writing a book can be incredibly overwhelming. You feel like you have so much to say, and then as you’re writing, you discover even more that you forgot about when you made your plan. That’s ok. When those moments come up, keep asking yourself, “Does my reader need this to get to our destination?” If you keep your reader and your goal in mind, you’ll be fine.
