If you’re a novelist, there are mountains of advice online about how to get your book published. How to get your first agent, how to outline your plot, how to create characters out of nothing. 

But if you’re a nonfiction author, your characters are real people. Your plot points are real-life events. And though there’s no such thing as a book that’s easy to write, the kind of work that goes into nonfiction writing is a different kind of beast. You might need to do investigative work, travel, you’ll definitely do a lot of research, and you’ll also interview real people and do extensive fact-checking. 

All that aside, the process of pitching a nonfiction book to editors and agents looks different from the pitching process for fiction. 

What’s Your Platform?

There’s a lot of chatter going around writing circles that only people with big followings on social media platforms can get a book deal these days. And when prospective nonfiction authors are questioned about their “platforms,” it’s normal to get defensive. 

But really what that means is why are you a person of authority on the subject of your book? If you’re writing a memoir, you are an authority on your own life. But if you want to write a book about the psychology of Silicon Valley CEOs, well, are you a psychologist? Are you entrenched in the world of Silicon Valley? If you’re writing a true crime story, in what ways are you a credible source? Are you the local journalist who worked on the story when it first hit the news? 

Nonfiction, by its very nature, requires that you, as the author, have some level of credibility to be writing the book. So platform doesn’t necessarily mean having a big social media following—though if you’re a memoirist, having an audience who is interested in your life is a pretty compelling selling point—but it does mean that you are the right person to have your name on the book’s cover. 

Book Proposals

There is a lot in common between selling a novel and selling a nonfiction book, but the process for first-time authors differs in some very important ways. 

For one thing, if you’re a first-time author looking to sign with an agent, while a novelist will have to have a completed and perfected manuscript, a nonfiction author is better off preparing a few sample chapters and a book proposal instead. 

A nonfiction book proposal entails a lot of the same things a query letter for a novel does: You’ll need to demonstrate how your book fits in the existing marketplace, and, as discussed above, pitch yourself as the right person for the project. Talk about your imagined audience and what kinds of other books are similar to yours but also why your book is an important addition to the shelf. 

Then you’ll need to give an extremely detailed, full outline for the book. Structure it out the same way a fiction writer would structure out their novel, and remember, you have to think of prospective agents as your audience. What is going to keep them interested chapter to chapter? What are they going to learn? How will each chapter move to the next, and why? 

Just because you don’t have to sit and hammer out every single word doesn't mean you can get away without knowing exactly what your plan is. And depending on what editors think, you’ll still need to be open to collaboration and making changes.

Fact-Check. Again. And Again. 

There are some notorious cases of high-profile books coming out only to be scrapped because of the author either outright lying or misunderstanding what they were looking at—problems that would have been solved if the publisher had a fact-checking department ready to triple-check all the claims. But that’s not how publishing works. 

So unless you’re a scammer trying to sell a book based on lies, it probably matters to you that you don’t get caught making an embarrassing mistake once your book is out in the world. That means you have to fact-check. Everything. 

Go over your work with a fine-tooth comb. If an interview subject tells you they saw John Doe at a Little League game on the day of the murder, check the Little League’s calendar and the local newspapers to make sure they have the time and date right. Even if you’re writing a memoir, you should be fact-checking; if your mom told you that your teachers always loved having you in class, you should ask your old teachers, too. 

You should fact-check after every round of serious edits, and if you can, you should hire professional fact-checkers, as well, to go over your work. 

The Work Is Worth It

If you’re writing nonfiction, you probably think the subject matter is important enough for the rest of the world to know about. Whether you want to share the insider secrets of the rich and famous from your experience as a personal assistant or tell the truth about what happened to your hometown after a big employer sent its production overseas, people need to know what you have to tell them. So it’s worth getting the pitch and proposal just right, and getting your project off to the best possible start. 

Chelsea Ennen is a writer living in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog. When not writing or reading, she is a fiber and textile artist who sews, knits, crochets, weaves, and spins.