Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

It used to be that, for first-time writers, the best way to break into the publishing world was through writing nonfiction. Yet without a platform, today it’s difficult for writers to find traction in the market, and without a recognizable name, their personal stories, even if wonderful, are less likely to be purchased.

Let’s do an informal survey on nonfiction books.

• What are you interested in reading in the nonfiction realm?
• What have you liked in the past and why?
• What would you like to see published?
• What holes are out there, and what types of writers should fill them?
• How helpful has nonfiction been to your personal life?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

When I was in high school, I attended the local Lutheran church to play volleyball on Friday nights. Soon they invited me to Bible study, presented the gospel and encouraged me to read about Christianity. One of the kids recommended I start with Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth. Midway through, I prayed the prayer of salvation. I didn’t buy it all, but I sure didn’t want to be left behind if everyone was raptured and armed conflict broke out in the Middle East.

The pastor later recommended Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, and I took a copy of that green paperback  to Europe my second summer in college. From Bonhoeffer I learned what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and my life hasn’t been the same since.

Quite an extreme choice of books to read–and therein is the breadth of theological interest in the book-buying public. Guess which book has sold more copies?

I’ve come a long way in 40 years of mostly light-theological reading. While I appreciate the rigor a good book about God requires, my brain is not philosophical–I need more simple and concrete concepts–and theology is not my preferred reading material. Still, I’ve managed to keep up with classics like J. I. Packer’s Knowing God and C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, almost always because some Christian I admire recommended them.

Which brings me to my major problem. How do you find quality theology books today for the simpler reader?

Christianity Today magazine regularly publishes a list of the best books published each year. This year I didn’t recognize a single title in the nonfiction category.

Publishing theology, with the possible exception of apologetics, is a small field in the Christian marketplace. While many theology readers exist, outside of seminaries and classes, it’s not a big mass market unless the author has a significant platform or publishes at a timely moment. What else would explain the success of Lindsey’s book which came out during an oil embargo in the Middle East?

If you are not a professional, how often do you read theology?

What elements draw you to a particular book?

Do you only read within your denomination?

Can you call it a pleasure read, or are you reading differently–for information?

And if you could write any sort of book with a theological theme–remember, theology means the study of God–what would you write about?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Most Christian nonfiction is about Christian living–self-help books, advice on a myriad of subjects, or a manuscript on how to apply the Bible to life. A cursory glance at Christianbooks.com’s website today shows ten of the twenty-five top sellers as nonfiction projects.

What makes a project attractive to the nonfiction reader? One that identifies a “felt need” and provides advice on how to live with that need. This can range over the gamut from Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World–how to live a more spiritually-focused life within the context of our frenzied society– to No More Christian Nice Guy–a clarion call for men to stick up for themselves even at church.  While many of us would agree our lives are too busy and we really would prefer to be more like Mary who chose “what is better,” in Jesus’ words, Paul Coughlin’s title, No More Christian Nice Guy, probably piqued the curiosity of some of you.

And that’s the key to Christian living–either plainly declaring the subject (Where Have All the Good Men Gone?) or using a catchy title to draw the reader to a concept (How to Keep Your Inner Mess from Trashing Your Outer World). It can include humor (Getting Old Ain’t for Wimps), how to’s (Prayer Walk), and general reflections on life (Horse Tales from Heaven).

It also was the key to my early walk as a Christian. Growing up in an academic, non-church-attending family, I didn’t have a clue about how to diaper a baby, much less how to raise one in the Christian faith. I started with Dr. James Dobson’s The Strong-Willed Child, and from there became a regular reader of Focus on the Family materials. I could not have successfully raised my children without those important Christian living books.

These days my child-rearing is behind me, and my radio-listening is done in short spurts. While I used to learn about Christian nonfiction books that could help my life from friends and the radio, these days the avenues are not as broad. With so many Christian magazines truncating their content and book reviews, it’s harder than ever to find books that might pique my interest or fill a felt need. Which brings me to my questions:

Where do you find nonfiction book suggestions?

What types of Christian living books appeal to you and why?

What books have you recommended over and over again?

And what Christian living-type book made a difference in your life?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Among the things our agents noted while at the International Christian Retail Show last month (and shared with me–so now I’m sharing with you) was some editors continue to struggle with what will sell in the Christian nonfiction market. I find that ironic since long ago Christian fiction was anathema; only polemical works and staid commentaries were ready sales to the churchgoing public.

About 50 years ago the Christian reading market, which was almost exclusively nonfiction, began to expand significantly. The pastor of our home church, Larry Christianson, was one of the first big sellers with his The Christian Family. For our wedding, Pastor Larry and his wife Nordis gave my husband and me an autographed copy of their then-latest best-seller: The Christian Marriage. It worked; my husband and I are still happily married 32 years later!  :-)

Both these books would fall into the Marriage and Family category, along with a crucial book we took on our honeymoon: The Act of Marriage. (That one worked, too.)

Because I mainly read books from the public library, I didn’t see a lot of Christian-themed material again until we attended the military chapel at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The Baptist chaplain understood the necessity of extra-source material and kept a box of books beside the Bible study door, free for the sharing. I read them all over the 15 months we were stationed at the sub base.

I clearly remember the one thing they had in common: They were all published by Chosen Books. Titles included The Hiding Place, The Cross and the Switchblade, and Chuck Colson’s Born Again. Astronaut Jim Irwin also wrote an unusual book for them: More Than an Ark on Ararat: Spiritual Lessons Learned While Searching for Noah’s Ark.

All of them were testimonies of some sort. The writing quality was uneven, but I took away encouragement and spiritual insight from reading about the practical way God worked in others’ lives. Isn’t that what good Christian nonfiction should be?

What type of Christian nonfiction do you like? Are you a hunter–specifically tracking down the answer to a question? Or a browser–randomly picking up whatever looks interesting?

Have you seen changes in what you read, or what you want to read?

Did any one nonfiction book change your life?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Friday!

We made it!

I like to use my Fridays as reading days. I enjoy reading and look forward to it, so it’s a nice, end-of-the-week treat. I read manuscripts and proposals by authors that I’m considering representing, but I also read proposals and manuscripts by my current clients. Some agents don’t bother to put in the time to read over a proposal before it’s submitted, but my reputation is on the line. I like to be sure that everything is in place so the project has the best chance of selling.

While I read, I’m looking for a clean manuscript with tight writing. For fiction, I also want a smooth, believable plot that interests me and is likely to have broad appeal in the market. A proposal must have a clear statement of what the hook of the book is and a detailed author bio (including details about why this writer is qualified to write the project).

In nonfiction proposals, I also like to see a marketing section and a market comparison section. The marketing section shows how the author plans to help to distribute the book. The market comparison section is a compare/contrast with other books that are on the same topic. It’s important to show how a nonfiction book is unique.

In novel proposals, I look for a synopsis that covers the beginning, middle and end of the story. Yes, I want to know how the story ends.

Happy Friday, everyone! Take some time this weekend to read, too!

Location: Books & Such Nashville Office

Weather:  mid-80s

While it’s tempting to talk about the excess rain and devastating floods here in Nashville, I’m turning to things more bookish–due in part to several proposals I’ve seen lately. Authors often present their project as having potential to be a series. Aside from the quality of the writing, several considerations shape my response.

For nonfiction, it’s important to ask:

Does the topic lend itself to further exploration? If an author has a nonfiction manuscript that covers a decisive moment in a person’s life, the chances are good that it’s a one-book treatment. On the other hand, if that moment was the first of several that impacted later generations, there’s opportunity for a series.

Is the author an authority on the topic or have lengthy experience that could reasonable be extended to a series? Churchill’s four-volume set History of the English Speaking Peoples comes to mind, but there are countless others, especially political and war accounts. However, note that David McCullough wrote the single 1776 and did not extend it to a series–or hasn’t yet. The Ansel Adams’ three-book series, The Camera, The Negative, The Print, is a perfect example of an authority writing three detailed books on a subject that perhaps no other person had the public’s respect or the fame to write in the early 1980s.

Is the topic one that would interest contemporary readers? This may be the hardest to gauge. I wonder how many people would have guessed that a book about marriage relationships like Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages would be so popular and so needed as to spawn three more books. In this case, it’s not hard to guess that love and marriage are interesting topics, but the approach and the analysis were new, and the author had sufficient credentials to back up his content.

But making the decision about the aptness of creating a series is the combination of reading tea leaves and praying that makes publishing the fun enterprise it is!

Tomorrow, we’ll look at fiction series. Stay tuned.

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

I was reading a non-work-related novel over the weekend and found that I was slowly being driven crazy by the continuous mention of CHILDREN! I love kids, don’t get me wrong, but this author allowed the main character to talk about her children nonstop. The plot was significantly hindered by the amount of time I had to spend reading about kids. This was not a parenting book! The author had unintentionally created a rut.

As I was discussing this book with my colleagues here at Books & Such, Michelle brought up another example of a rut. She’d read a book recently where the main character cooked chicken for dinner every night. This marked the passing of time, but did the reader really need to read about dinner prep more than once? Or was it even necessary to include dinner at all? And why chicken?

Janet read a book where eyes were the main focus. Emotions were described using eyes and an entire section of the novel listed in detail what each character’s eyes looked like at that moment. This might be a cool idea, but if it becomes the only descriptor for all the characters, it’s a writing rut.

Our attention was pulled away from the main points and plots of the books by an overused writing device.

I’ve also encountered authors who use the same words over and over again. One author I’ve read refers to young people as “youths” in nearly every book she’s written.  Another author refers to character complexions as “sugar and spice.” I’m not even sure what that means in reference to a complexion.

Writing ruts can occur in nonfiction as well as fiction. An engaging metaphor can be used as the foundation of the manuscript, but if the chapter titles, subheads, and illustrations all tie into that metaphor, the word picture becomes overused and pulled beyond its ability to stretch. The reader grows bored with the idea.

What writing ruts have you noticed in books you’ve read? No need to mention book or author, just describe the distracting element.

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

I’ve spouted a number of opinions about how a writer can break out from the pack this week. I could have added so much more, including:

–the importance of knowing what’s happening in publishing. Not just in your genre, but also in the broader industry. Read professional blogs and publications that give industry trends. It helps you to know what the current climate is in publishing, and that will inherently inform your writing.

–pay attention to authors who suddenly break out. Study what they and/or their publisher did that made a difference.

–know who the leading authors are in your genre. Read them. Even if you think their writing isn’t as good as yours, set that aside and ask yourself why they’ve succeeded. Is it some marketing angle? Is it some type of appeal to readers?

–don’t assume that you are the first one to come up with your latest idea. There’s nothing new under the sun. From the get-go, think about how to go deep with your topic, go in a surprise direction with your characters (if you write fiction). And really study places like Amazon to see what’s already published so you can steer in a different direction.

What one thing can you do differently that will help you to break out?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Recently I was a guest interviewee on the popular blog, Seekerville.  I love the blog’s sassy attitude, and interacting with the blog’s commenters was stimulating and fun since topics ranged from scone recipes, to dogs, to writing, to publishing.

One question I was asked that I keep going back to in my mind is whether I see the same ol’ story ideas in queries.

Indeed I do.

What, the person asked, as a followup question, can a writer do to be sure the idea he or she is passionate about is fresh and not a rehash of what keeps cropping up in my query garden?

A recent production I saw on PBS’s “Masterpiece Classic” is instructive. Entitled “Small Island,” the drama recounted the lives of Jamaicans who were sent to Great Britain during WWII and then chose to return to London at the end of the war despite the prejudice they encountered because of their skin color. Jamaican Michael had a brief affair with Londoner Queenie during the war, and she became pregnant. He was missing in action after the war. What will she do when her starched-collar husband returns from the war and Queenie delivers a black baby? Several Jamaicans are boarding at Queenie’s house, including Hortense, who loved Michael but married Gilbert because Gilbert would take her to London with him from Jamaica. The two had just met the afternoon Hortense offered to pay his passage to London on the condition he marry her. All this occurs in the first of two episodes.

What do you think happens in episode two? I had envisioned that Michael, who seemed always to stir up trouble, would return to London, discover Queenie had had his baby but that Hortense, now married but not in love with her steadfast Gilbert, was a boarder at Queenie’s house. Sparks would fly!

But the writer took the story in a different direction. Michael may have set much in motion in episode one, but the significant mover of the story turns out to be Queenie and how she responds to her husband, her boarders, and her clearly black baby. The author took the road less traveled and delivered a fresh story as a result. (If you’d like to watch “Small Island,” it’s available in streaming video here. (Some sexually suggestive scenes are in the video.)

What does that have to do with your writing? If you want to break out of the pack, it’s instructive to think about the logical, reasonable, expected direction for your fiction or nonfiction to take–and then take the reader elsewhere. Rather than having the character who is so afraid of going to war turn into a quivering mass at the bottom of a foxhole, have him discover he revels in killing. Rather than structuring your nonfiction book in a linear way; organize it in a way that surprises yet delights your reader.

Now, tell us about a book that delightfully surprised you. Or tell how you found a fresh direction for your current work.

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

A few weekends ago, I joined my book club on a Dashiell Hammett tour of San Francisco. We ate at John’s Grill (which appears in The Maltese Falcon, the book our club read in preparation for the tour). The guide has been leading Dashiell Hammett tours for 30 years and was a fount of knowledge about not only Hammett but also Lillian Hellman (who was Hammett’s long-term lover), the history of mystery writing, and the current state of publishing. Despite the physical challenge of taking a walking tour in San Francisco, the time was enthralling.

One of the comments Don, our guide, made was regarding the importance of icons in a novel. He used the figure of the Maltese falcon as an example. That started my mind going on other icons that were introduced in literature and have become a part of our culture. Dorothy’s red shoes and Scarlett O’Hara’s Tara belong on that list.

What do I mean by icon? The traditional meaning is a religious symbol; some of these symbols are believed to be imbued with spiritual power, others not. The cross is an icon.The Silver Chalice (which was a novel and then a film in the 1950s centered on the cup Jesus used at the Last Supper) is an icon.

A more contemporary understanding of icon is a symbol that communicates a certain meaning. The Maltese falcon symbolizes the lust for riches; Dorothy’s shoes symbolize an adventure to another land while longing to return home. The films of both of these books were instrumental in making the bird and the shoes iconic. Nowadays we speak of “icons” as computer symbols that we click on to get to Twitter or Microsoft Office.

But what does an icon have to do with your writing?

Once a person is published, he or she soon realizes that merely being published isn’t enough to keep a career alive. The next step is to figure out how to break out from the pack; how to develop momentum and build on a strong foundation.

One of the ways to purpose to break out–or to break into publishing–is to write a manuscript centered on a powerful image. The book’s readers are the ones who make the image into an icon, but without the image, there is no icon.

Such imagery is important in nonfiction as well as fiction, especially today, when story is an elemental part of successful nonfiction. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings conveys, even in its title, a powerful image.

I just checked the New York Times best-seller list to see which book titles contain an evocative image. In nonfiction we have Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin and Oprah by Kitty Kelley, which reminded me that a person as well as an object can be an icon. In fiction, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo conveys the iconic importance of tattoos in current culture. And The Aloha Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini, who has built a successful series on quilts called the Elm Creek Quilts Novels.

What books can you think of that have center on a powerful image? And the much bigger question, do you have a powerful image at the core of your work in progress?