I’ve been plunged back into the world of acquisitions. It feels like finding an old piece of clothing you used to love in the back of your closet and deciding to wear it again—all the time. It’s a bit different from what you remembered. It’s worn in ways you didn’t expect. It lands a little differently on your body. But you put it on and look at yourself in the mirror and go, “Ah—that’s why I loved this.”
Finding new books to publish is an absolute delight. I love the conversations. I love the brainstorming. I love envisioning the books that could be.
And, of course, at the same time—I have to be incredibly discerning. Acquisitions editors get hundreds of proposals every year, and they can only offer somewhere around 10-20 contracts. That’s it! And those proposals are coming at you all the time, so you have to always be weighing the choice of: If I say yes to this proposal now, what might I have to say no to later?
There are so many factors to consider and timing plays a critical role.
So what can an author do to stand out? As I’ve been arranging meetings with agents and letting my key industry contacts know what I’m looking for, I wanted to share how I’ve been thinking about the kinds of books that I want to acquire. It comes back to principles that Liz and I have spoken about many times on the Hungry Authors podcast.
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As you probably know if you listen to the Hungry Authors podcast, I often become hyper-fixated on the great books I read. I’ll read a book (almost always nonfiction), be completed transfixed by the story or how the author so thoroughly and uniquely addressed a topic, and I can’t help talking about it for weeks afterwards.
Several years ago, it was The Radium Girls and Seabiscuit. Then, a few years later it was Beneath a Scarlet Sky. A couple years ago was The Book of Boundaries by Melissa Urban and The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell. Last year it was How to Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key. And this year it’s been Good Inside by Becky Kennedy and Grayson by Lynne Cox.
I’ve thought a lot about what makes me not just love these books, but want to gush about them to everyone who will listen (as well as the captive audience on my podcast!). And it boils down to two things:
Make me care about something I’ve never cared about before (The Radium Girls, Seabiscuit, The Bomber Mafia, Grayson). And teach me something new about something/someone I already care about (Beneath a Scarlet Sky, The Book of Boundaries, How to Stay Married, Good Inside).
Let’s take that first one first. It’s the much harder one to accomplish. How do you make someone care about something they’ve probably never cared about before?
The Bomber Mafia is about a philosophical and literal war that set the United States Air Force on the path to using and developing better precision targeting techniques. Are you asleep yet? My husband was in the Navy, but otherwise I have no ties to the U.S. military and have never been particularly interested in anything relating to the mechanical aspects of modern warfare. So why have I raved for two years now about a book about the development of the Norden bombsight??
It comes down to a few reasons:
The storytelling is so compelling. It’s written with all of the emotional verve of Band of Brothers. And the first time I read it, I listened on audio, which is an incredible experience, with interviews, sound effects, and music in all the right places. You hear actual footage of WWII bombings and news reports! But the compelling audio and emotional experience is only a secondary factor. Something else had to convince me to read the book in the first place.
The primary reason I picked up this book is because the author is Malcolm Gladwell, one of my favorite storytellers and podcast hosts. I know from lots of past experience that he could read a grocery list and find ways to make it interesting. (Side note: that’s a good exercise for writers!) So the lesson here is that the author matters. And if the author is unknown - such as Lauren Hillenbrand was to me the first time I read Seabiscuit and as Kate Moore was to me the first time I read The Radium Girls - then reviews and word of mouth matter to convince me to take a chance.
Like reason #1, what gets me so excited about these books is the way that they make a totally unique and even crazy story feel completely relevant to my life. They illuminate the universal ideas and conflicts that I deal with, to a much lesser extent, in my life. The Radium Girls is about a fight for justice against a corrupt bureaucracy. Seabiscuit is the ultimate underdog story. The Bomber Mafia is about people who really believe in what they’re doing, and who fight like hell to make it happen. It’s about fighting for what’s right over what’s expedient, set in a time and place where the stakes are about as extreme as you could ever possibly make them. Literally, thousands of people’s lives were on the line. Now are you more interested? I certainly am.
Again, making someone care about something they’ve never cared about before is a feat. It usually hinges on the strength of the author’s or subject’s platform and/or the absolute wow factor of the story itself.
But don’t we all love to be hooked by something totally unexpected? This is how I felt when I read Grayson by Lynne Cox. Here’s the thing: I don’t do the ocean. Just ask my husband. I don’t like salt in my eyes, and I had a bad experience getting pummeled by waves at the beach when I was a kid. And I am deathly afraid of sharks and aquatic creatures that could kill me, either by accident or just for fun. I like looking at the ocean; I don’t like being in it.
But what made me interested in this book was that it’s an almost unbelievable story—a baby blue whale got separated from its mother and followed a teenager while she was swimming off the coast of California? Really?? (Also, that is my worst nightmare.) I read it out of pure curiosity, and what made me an absolute fan of this book was the breathtaking descriptions of the oceans and sea life. This book made me want to want to get in the ocean. It made me understand how and why some people love being in the ocean.
And I love being hooked by something I didn’t expect.
Teach Me Something New About Something/Someone I Already Care About
This is the much easier one to accomplish—although it’s still not easy. You’d be surprised at how many proposals I’ve received in my life from authors who think they’re saying something totally groundbreaking about a popular topic, but who are actually saying the exact same thing as everyone else out there on that topic.
That’s why, when something comes along that actually says something new, it feels surprising and refreshing. Even, maybe, a bit prickly. It makes the reader go—wait, what?
For example, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the story of a brave Italian boy who helps lots of Jews get through the Alps to Switzerland. Then, he is forced to serve the Nazis, and he uses his position to continue helping the Jews. From an editor’s position, I already know that some people will read this book, because World War II sells. But what has really made this book a hit is the fact that a good guy had to work for the bad guys—and he still managed to be good.
Prescriptive nonfiction books can do this, too. There are lots of books about boundaries, but Melissa Urban’s The Book of Boundaries solves a problem that most of those other books don’t. She shows readers how to set progressively firmer boundaries, depending on the circ*mstances. Where most books offer a black and white perspective on boundaries (“This is a boundary, that is not”), she helps us navigate the social situations where the lines are more blurred, and shows us how to react when our boundaries get crossed. For people who are already interested in boundaries, this book is going to solve the problem that other books don’t—no wonder they love it!
This is your job: If you want to write about a popular topic, take a good hard look at what’s already out there. Ask yourself, “What aren’t they saying?” “What assumptions are they making?” Find the gaps. See where you can surprise the reader. Even an assumption as supposedly obvious as “Nazis are evil” can be tested: But what if someone good was forced to work for them?
In the comments, I’d love to know what books made you care about something you never cared about before - and which ones taught you something new about something/someone you already cared about. Let me know!
I meet people ALL the time who say they want to write a book.
But the reality is, most of them will never do it.
The reasons they use to talk themselves out of it sound like:
I’m not a real writer
What if nobody ever reads it?
I don’t know anything about publishing
I don’t have the time to write a book
My idea isn’t very good (someone else already did this better)
If you’ve ever thought I should write a book, I want to share something special with you:
My good friend Ally Fallon has created an incredible program called A Book in Six Months.
A Book in Six Months is the step-by-step plan to turn your story into the book you’ve always wanted to write. In just 6 months!
Registration is open NOW and closes on July 9, 2024 at 11:59 pm CST. (Doors only open every six months!)
This isn’t just any writing program.
Ally’s transformative process will help you unlock your creativity, build your confidence, and share your unique story with the world.
When you join A Book in Six Months, you will…
Hold Your Manuscript in Six Months: You’ll get a manageable, step-by-step process to actually execute on writing your manuscript. (If you follow the steps Ally gives you, you will have a finished manuscript at the end of six months.)
Get Group Coaching + Accountability: You’ll be a part of exclusive group coaching calls every 2 weeks to keep you on track. Plus, ask Ally any questions you have and watch as she coaches group members one-on-one live.
Join a Supportive Community: Join other like-minded people who know what it’s like to have a message that’s trying to come through you. You won’t feel alone—because everyone is doing this together! Get the feedback, encouragement, and tough love you need to keep you going.
And for the first time ever, Ally is offering special tiers that include Late Night Office Hours and Private Coaching Calls for those who want more personalized support and VIP coaching on their manuscript.
Ally is not just a brilliant coach. She's also a dear friend who has helped thousands of people finally write the book they’ve always dreamed of.
Plus, I know Ally charges thousands of dollars for one-on-one coaching. This pricing is a HUGE opportunity to get expert eyes on your work for a fraction of the cost.
Imagine this:
In just 6 months, you could be holding your finished manuscript and have a plan to publish your book.
If you have a book idea spinning around in your head, but have no idea how to start the writing or publishing process…
…A Book in Six Months might be for you.
Get Better at Small Talk
I know, we all love to hate on small talk. I actually love it; small talk feels like an emotional force field of protection around me. And it’s a quite useful skill to have for navigating new and potentially awkward social situations. So I was excited to find The Art of Small Talk by Casey Wilson and Jessica St. Clair at Pushkin. They’ve got SO many great tips for keeping it light and chatty—plus some hilarious and disarming scenarios. I highly recommend listening to this! (hot tip: It’s included in Spotify Premium, so you don’t have to pay extra!)
Time + Consistency = Results
Besides just a generally good rule for life, this maxim from longtime book publicist Carina Sammartino is my mantra as Liz and I keep pitching, pitching, pitching ourselves for the Hungry Authors book launch. Here’s what Carina has to say about selling your work as an author.
Be Generous. Give Credit.
Look, writers often hang out (whether they realize it or not) in spaces where the same ideas go around and around. It’s human nature. It’s comfortable. And it has its plus sides. But the drawbacks are that it can start to become competitive, with everyone wanting to seem to be an original thinker in their own right. I used to see all the time that authors in education sometimes hesitated to give others credit for the ideas—and that’s bad karma, as Jeannine Ouellette writes in this excellent piece on writer ethics and literary citizenship.
Read Our Book for FREE!
Don’t forget that you can read Hungry Authors before it publishes (and for FREE!) in exchange for a review through NetGalley. Here are what some of the other early readers have said:
“This was a helpful and insightful book. It shows through examples, tips and tricks how to write and get published a variety of nonfiction material. The advice is not complicated. Great book for any nonfiction writer.”
“A very helpful book! The book presented the information in a way that I found enjoyable. I have written a book and am hungry to do more, so this was an excellent resource.”
“This is a solid book for people interested in writing nonfiction for the trade market. It's especially good for people who haven't done much craft study specific to nonfiction. The authors pitch was, ‘The Story Grid for nonfiction writers’ which won't make a whole lot of sense to some readers who haven't read The Story Grid, but basically it is the information needed as you develop your book to develop something that is compelling and marketable. Atomic Habits and Eat, Pray, Love are used several times as examples, along with several other books.”
“Hungry Authors is a non-fiction book about writing, overcoming writer’s block, planning your book, publishing and how to be a professional writer.
It exceeded my expectations - the topic is close to me, but mainly for another medium, and I was not expecting to find such new, vast and useful information in a book about publishing. The tone is encouraging, positive but never delusional.
This is a wonderful book for hungry authors, wordsmiths, originators who wish to learn about writing and publishing from scratch, and those who are informed to a degree but want to amplify their strengths.”
My husband and I have been watching This Is Us in the evenings before bed. The family theme of adoption and each character’s struggles have me in tears with pretty much every episode. I love it so much!
It’s also been hot as blazes in Tennessee, but we’re starting to consistently get cucumbers, summer squash, potatoes, and peas from our garden. The lettuce and tomatoes are growing more slowly, but they’ll be ready soon!
Have a lovely weekend,
Ariel
Notes from the Editor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
