Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction and Get It Published

by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato

Book Overview

Over 50,000 books are published in America each year, the vast majority nonfiction. Even so, many writers are stymied in getting their books published, never mind gaining significant attention for their ideas--and substantial sales. This is the book editors have been recommending to would-be authors. Filled with trade secrets, Thinking Like Your Editor explains:

- why every proposal should ask and answer five key questions;

- how to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393324613
• ISBN13: 9780393324617
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Comparing five books about writing book proposals

I bought five books to help me write a book proposal: "How to Write a Book Proposal, 3rd edition," by Michael Larsen "78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published & 14 Reasons Why It Just Might," by Pat Walsh "The Forest for the Trees," by Betsy Lerner "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published, 4th edition," by Sheree Bykofsky and Jennifer Basye Sander "Think Like Your Editor," by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunado The worst was "How to Write a Book Proposal." This book felt like a bad date, like I wanted to wash my hair after reading it. The intent is to teach you to be an "Authorpreneur (r)." Yes, Larsen has registered this word. You'll learn such gems as everyone has 250 friends, and each of them has 250 friends, so you can "spread the word" about your book to more than 62,000 people by e-mail. I think there's a word for that -- spam. Larsen also says to include your promotion plan in the book proposal, including pushing "the paperback edition as hard as you can" when it's published a year after the hardcover edition. I'm not an agent or editor, but I'd think that an agent would giggle quietly to themselves if you were so presumptuous as to include a marketing plan for the paperback edition. (To the author's credit, he doesn't say you should suggest which actor should play the main character in the movie version of your book.) Then there's the chapter about including illustrations and cover art. Excuse me, I thought the editor and art director develop the cover art? I can't imagine creating the book cover to include in the proposal. And the author recommends including a "surprise," such as a baby shoe with a note saying "Now that I have a foot in the door." The book has one good piece of advice: pick a good title. For example, "How to Write a Book Proposal" is a title that will make 100,000 aspiring writers buy your book, regardless of how awful the book is. "78 Reasons" was good. Some sections are wrong, such as #38 and #39, which correctly advises against paying for a vanity press to publish your book but confuses this with self-publishing. I've successfully self-published two books, and unsuccessfully self-published one book. The correct answer is that if you have a niche book in a niche market you know well, self-publish. Self-publishing mass market books is a recipe for disaster. Some of the advice is excellent, such as #16, about "killing your little darlings" (a scene you think is brilliant, that you build the rest of the book around). While most of this book is sound advice to a novice writer, as an experienced writer I didn't learn anything new. "The Complete Idiot's Guide" covers the entire process from thinking of an idea through book proposals, book contracts, publicity tours, etc. It's a good overview but each chapter is too short. You'll need to buy another book about book proposals, etc. I'm keeping my copy as a reference to turn to occasionally but it's not the last word. "The Forest for the Trees" starts w

If You're Serious about Getting Traditionally Published, Get this Book

In my quest to learn more about the book proposal process, my literary agent recommended Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction--and Get It Published. If you're interested in writing serious (or not so serious) nonfiction, this is a MUST READ! The Authors don't just go through a step-by-step process of writing a book proposal, but instead get into the "editor" psychology behind why book proposals succeed or don't. The book is presented in a comfortable format that goes through the big picture process in a narrative format that reminds me of a good lecture. The voice of the author's comes through in a very straight forward, personable way. It's like sitting across the table from your agent or editor, cup of coffee in hand, listening to them tell you how the business works. I don't think this is the only book you'll ever need on book proposals. If I hadn't read a few other books that discussed proposals from a step-by-step basis first I wouldn't have understood all that the authors say in this one. No, this is more of a next step type of book. Learn how the actual writing process goes first and come to Thinking Like Your Editor with a little knowledge. This title will add an extra and excellent layer on to the information that you already have in your head.

Great guide for first-time nonfiction writers

If you plan to write a nonfiction book, you should first read this guide by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato. It is useful because it talks you through the process of submitting a book proposal to a publishing house and tells you what to expect during the writing and publication process. The authors disabused me of some mistaken notions that I had about how books are published. This is why this book is most useful before you begin to do anything with your project. The book's key point is to pin down exactly who your audience is and to then write for that audience. It sounds simple enough, but it actually turns out to be a much more profound idea. Without a clear audience that can be captured, you won't get a book published. It also teaches you to determine what question your book is answering and to then write a story that answers the question. Again, this seems like common sense, but we have all encountered books that are bad because their point is unclear or because their is no narrative. For first-time nonfiction authors, this quick read is full of good advice. It is very honest about what you can expect, and helpful in reaching your goals.

Extremely helpful

As a published author, I picked up _Thinking Like Your Editor_ hoping to find a few ideas I could use for my next book proposal. Instead, I found a whole new level of understanding about what goes into a first-rate and marketable book, what editors want and need, and how to craft a proposal that is as cogent, well-written and persuasive as the book it represents. Rabiner and Fortunato have distilled their deep expertise into an extremely helpful and useful book. I recommend it strongly to anyone contemplating writing a book or book proposal. Read it before you write another word. Robert Adler, author of _Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome (Wiley, 2004); and _Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley, 2002).

Best book out there on audience and structure

I've read or skimmed several of these books, which have been highly uneven, and typically covering the same turf so I wasn't expecting to find much new here. But I'm embarking on my third book proposal (having failed once and sold the second to a major house) and I thought I'd see what was out there. I was intrigued to see the PW review said this one broke new ground, and compared it to Betsy Lerner's book which I loved, so I gave it a try.It greatly exceeded my expectations, particularly in two areas: 1. The lengthy chapter 1, "Thinking Like an Editor" really drove me to focus my book. She uses a variety of approaches to focus you on who the audience will be for this book--and why they will want to read it--but also why you want to write it. It really forced me to step back and think about what I wanted to get out of my book, and re-evaluate its central narrative structure. Page after page of her book helped me re-evaluate mine. At one point, I actually decided not to proceed, but I kept reading and drew new inspiration about the central question driving my book. 2. Chapter 7: "From Introduction to Epilogue: Writing Your Book Chapter by Chapter ..." really takes you through the nitty gritty of honing down your structure. (The previous chapter, "Using Narrative Tension" was also great in introducing key ideas, but this one takes you through step by step, hitting one problem after another, and challenging to keep considering alternative structures (with lots of anecdotes and examples) until you find the best one for your book. The real test of this book was that it had me writing madly. I kept putting it down every several pages and scribbling new copy, marking up my proposal intro and my outline. I also read the user reviews before checking out the book, and they make a few good points. This book is full of embarassing typos, which is a sad commentary on the copy editors at Norton. And opening/closing the anecdotes in the intro and conclusion are fairly weak. But those seem like trivial reasons to disregard a real treasure of a book.A real find.