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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.

I’ve always loved memoirs. I’m interested in the personal, how and why people do things, and so a memoir provides me an opportunity to examine the writer’s life through his or her eyes. I even wrote a spiritual memoir several years ago and felt honored when one of my readers said, “I really appreciate how you just tell the story and let me draw my own conclusions.”

Testimonies have been a mainstay of Christian witnessing and publishing. Perhaps the most famous early book was Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, first published in 1563, which detailed the lives and deaths of the early Christians. More modern Christians made Elisabeth Elliot’s Through Gates of Splendor, the story of her husband’s martyrdom with four others in Ecuador, a best-seller in 1957.

A memoir allows the writer to recount events through his or her own understanding. While you can argue with the author about what his or her life meant, you really can’t argue with what happened to that person. In his 90 Minutes in Heaven, author and survivor Don Piper doesn’t even bother trying to explain why he had no vital signs for an hour and a half. He believes he went to heaven, and while it doesn’t make logical sense, since we weren’t there, how can we argue with him?

Memoirs are of perennial interest to publishers, though their popularity can wax and wane with the public. The secret is the quality of the writing. Memoirs aren’t the same as an inspirational story of narrative nonfiction that recounts the events in someone’s life. Memoirs are more about the writer’s interior terrain rather than about the events that occured. What changed in the person from the start of the memoir to its conclusion is the question the book answers.

Some of the best memoirs pull no punches in exposing the author’s life. I enjoyed Lauren Winner’s Girl Meets God, and many have commented about the strength of Mary DeMuth’s Thin Places. The author’s ability to express the near-unthinkable makes these works of special interest and value to a reader trying to make sense out of life. (My favorite memoir of all is not from the Christian canon, but it reflects Christian truth: Carlos Eire’s Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy.)

Long ago my honors English teacher said, “I don’t know why you kids bother to read fiction. You should read nonfiction. Not only is it even more amazing than fiction, but it’s also true.”

Reading memoirs, particularly spiritual ones, enables me to catch a glimpse of the unusual way God works in the lives of his followers. It encourages me, gives me ideas about how God might be working in my life, and shows me that each individual relates to life in a different, and often entertaining, way. Difficult circumstances remind me of people’s resilience and how I can trust God with my life, too.

And they’re frequently really great reads.

What memoirs have you enjoyed? Why?

What made you chose them in the first place?

What do you look for in a spiritual memoir?

Are you drawn to a famous person’s book more than an unknown with a fascinating, true story to tell?

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?

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Weather:  Still hot

At a recent writers conference, I was surprised to see that two of popular tween author Nancy Rue’s books in the Lily Series are set outside the U.S.—one in Paris and one in Rome. I bought the one about Lily in Paris and noted the text contained easy-to-understand words and phrases like mademoiselle and gendarme, tres magnifique and petite dejeuner in this fast-paced story for middle-grade girls. Along with the mention of famous French sites and French character names, these words did a lot to maintain the feel of the story without being a distraction.

Whether you’re writing for kids or adults, I’d like to know how much play you give to a different language when it’s appropriate. Here are some questions for evaluation:

1. Have you ever set a book in a foreign country? What opportunities and what obstacles did it present?
2. Has an editor or reader ever questioned your use of a non-English word in a manuscript?
3. Have you ever tried reading a portion of your manuscript to an ESL American citizen?
4. In writing fiction, do you tend to see your characters act rather than hear the tone and timbre of their voices in dialog?
5. What non-English ancestors do you have, and how many generations back were they? Are there still family practices you can trace to that heritage?

We are truly a melting pot—and the richer for it I think. At least our characters can be.

Location: Books & Such, Nashville Office

Weather: Hot

Nowhere is the mashup in our language more obvious than in computer land. Sitting right in front of my screen or laptop I can find a vast array of foreign words and phrases that are apparently now au courant in English. Some are being used for novelty and freshness, some because English lacks the exact meaning desired, and some for a sort of secret code. Some like espirit d’escalier, which means failure to deliver a timely response, may fit in any of those categories

I can hear readers reminding me that we’ve had books of these words and phrases around for quite a time. Very true, and they keep coming. Foreignisms: A Dictionary of Foreign Expressions Commonly (and Not So Commonly) Used in English by Tad Tuleja is a recent one. But using that book means a trip to the library or bookstore, while Google will immediately throw up a list of richly rewarding sources such as Luke Mastin’s “Foreign Phrases Commonly Used In English.”  A quick search of the 25 German phrases listed at his site revealed such words as angst, gesundheit, kitsch, verboten, and zeitgeist. A few of those words sprinkled in a historical novel about German settlers will really help characterization.

Even broader and perhaps more useful is the site at www.omniglot.com. I could spend hours exploring this site’s “Writing Systems and Languages of the World,” and its many categories from “Greetings” and “Small Talk” to “Idioms.” If we invent a French character who is prone to brag about some accomplishment, our first inclination might be to have him (I’m sure it’s a him!) say, “It’s as easy as falling off a log.” But that has a decidedly American feel with a twinge of pioneer flavor. According to omniglot, a more characteristic French equivalent would be, “It’s as easy as sticking your fingers in your nose.”  Those French are expressive!

All this to say our readers are more educated, more accustomed to hearing and reading about cultures other than their own, and more eager for richly inventive writing. I think many publishers are looking for the same kind of stuff. Boot up and enjoy. It only takes une moment pour le mot.

Location: Books & Such, Nashville Office

Weather: Hot and Humid

Going around town, I notice more and more businesses and ads use two languages–English and Spanish–to say the same thing. A nearby neighborhood grocery now has a Spanish and a Korean section. In bookstores, I see more books in foreign languages, although most have an English subtitle. (What are the poor translators doing for work these days?) A local government official on television was recently discussing U.S. health care issues and said it was much more difficult to devise a system in our country because we are such a “melting pot,” with new nationalities and languages constantly being added. Watching the Tony Awards, I hear words that are either new jargon or lifted from another lexicon–they’re Greek to me.

The kind of foreign words that authors and editors have to be most careful about are words that may cause a reader to stumble or wake from the fictional dream in an effort to understand the meaning. This problem is complicated even more by the passage of time. If you are writing a novel that takes place thirty years ago and your character is eating quesadillas, the setting had better be the Southwest. Now quesadillas are common fare all over the country. If you write, “She chose the blue pongee for the evening,” would the meaning of “Chinese raw silk fabric” be obvious to readers today or perhaps only to a seamstress?

Two recent books that have been and are still mega-sellers point up what may indicate the reading public’s openness to new words: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert in which the author describes her year of living in Rome, in India and in Indonesia. It seemed to me that Gilbert did a good job of both using foreign terms in an English work and making them clear to English readers, as on page 144 where she describes the Indian Yogic divine secret called kundalini shakti. She either explains or uses terms several times to help readers to feel comfortable with foreign words. The other book is Steig Larsson’s blockbuster, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Although I thought the translation was very good, not to mention the plot, this Tennessee girl still didn’t grasp some words immediately.

Digging deeply into a work means going for just the right amount of detail, and that may call for courageous use of another language.

What have you read lately that used foreign words? Was the author successful in conveying those words meanings?

Have you struggled with how to use foreign words in your writing? Tell us about it.

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 and Such Nashville Office

Weather: Hot and rainy

I’ve danced around this topic of series for the past few days from the age-level perspective, but there are certainly other things to think about regarding what constitutes a series. My Books & Such buddy Michelle added to the definition discussion on Monday in her queries about saga(s). Below are some questions still in the middle of the muddle, and I’d like to hear your answers.

1. How many books does it take to make a series? Is three the minimum? Can anyone name a two-book series that was not just one book split into two parts?

2. What’s the longest series you can think of? Make that a series written after 1800 and not simply the disparate works of one author compiled into similar bindings.

3. Should an adult fiction series be numbered in the order the publisher issues individual books? Is that helpful to readers, or should they rely more on the series look and the author’s name?

4. Should all  children’s series be numbered, given how much young readers like the feeling of accomplishing the reading of a series?

4. How closely should books in a series look alike? Example: If the first two books in a series have a woman’s full face as the focal point, should the third book also?

5. How similar should the titles be? Can they be too similar? Example: At what point do we start saying “one of those books in the first series by Alexander McCall Smith” rather than the individual title? (I’m getting confused now by all the “girls with the various tattoos.”)

6. What do you think is the optimum time between issuing titles in a series?

7. What’s your all-time favorite series and why?