9 Things to Know Before Writing Nonfiction Books

• Sales advantages of writing nonfiction books
If only from a sales perspective, nonfiction books tend to garner more sales than novels. According to a recent Gallup poll, 46 percent of Americans have nonfiction book on their nightstands; in contrast, only 35 percent of Americans have fiction at their bedside.

• Ask how your nonfiction book helps readers 
There are myriad types of nonfiction books – biographies and autobiographies, creative nonfiction and handbooks, scientific papers and pictures books, just to name a few. Rather than think about what peg hole your manuscript fits into, though, you may want to approach the subject by answering the question, “How does my book help readers?”

• What if your book topic already has been done?
What if your nonfiction book idea is on a topic that’s already been written extensively about? Don’t tell yourself that writing such a book is pointless. After all, if a lot of people have penned books on the topic, that probably means there is money to be made from the topic!

• Thinking up a title that sells your nonfiction book
With nonfiction books, you’ll want to select a title that helps rather than hinders sales. A good title ensures that your book will be easy to find as it pops up in search engine queries; a bad title ensures other books will appear in such searches even though yours is better written.

• Seek endorsements for your nonfiction book 
One way to generate interest in your book is to obtain an endorsement of it from an expert, especially if writing nonfiction.

• Write articles to promote your nonfiction book
If you’ve researched your book, you almost certainly read magazine, newspaper or journal articles on interesting topics only tangentially related to your title and that merited maybe only a sentence or two in your manuscript. These topics can be the kernel of articles that you later write to promote your book.