You Can Be a Sage, Sherpa or Fellow Struggler No, you don’t need to be an expert to write a book. You need to be honest about which kind of author you are. Successful nonfiction is written from three positions: the Sage, the Sherpa and the Fellow Struggler. Only one of them requires expert credentials. The other two require something … Read More
Why Most Christian Nonfiction Books Don’t Sell
Readers Want Solutions, Not Sermons Many Christian books struggle because they read more like sermons than solutions. They offer broad spiritual encouragement the reader may have heard many times before, without making it immediately clear what will be different in her life after she reads the book. If your book could just as easily be preached on Sunday morning, you … Read More
How to Title a Christian Nonfiction Book: Clear, Not Clever
A winning nonfiction title is clear, not clever. It gives a stranger enough information to understand what kind of book she’s looking at and why she might care. That sounds simple. It isn’t. You have three seconds Most people will only ever see your book as a tiny thumbnail on Amazon. Usually on a phone. Usually while scrolling past dozens … Read More
How Long Should a Nonfiction Book Be? Shorter Than You Think
A focused nonfiction book that solves one problem for one group of people can be around 25,000 words — about 110 printed pages. That’s long enough to deliver a real result. It’s short enough for a busy woman to finish. For the kind of focused practical nonfiction I recommend to most first-time authors, you don’t need 65,000 words. The … Read More
Writing a Christian Book After 50: Your Experience Is a Starting Point
You’re not too late. You’re finally qualified. A book after fifty starts with the same decisions every nonfiction author has to make: who it’s for, what it promises, and how you’ll finish the manuscript. The difference is you’ve got decades of material to draw on — and the judgment to know which parts matter. You don’t have to squeeze everything … Read More