Writing for the Non Fiction Market
The range of non-fiction books is almost limitless. If you have any kind of specialist knowledge, think about putting it to use in print. The following are just a few of the areas you might look at.
Educational Writing
You don't have to be a teacher to write educational material. Teaching experience helps, certainly, in preparing course material or textbooks, but the most important requirement is skill in communication.
English Language Teaching
The English language is taught all over the world, not only to children but to people of all ages. Most of this teaching is done with storybooks, not textbooks. Some of these are original stories, but many are adapted from modern novels and from the life stories of famous people.
Reference Books
These can be a good publishing proposition because they're steady sellers. There are reference books on every imaginable subject, from wild flowers to monastery sewerage systems.
The Religious Press
Book publishers and magazines catering for all religious denominations need inspirational and educational material. Most of the religious publications in the UK are related to the Christian faith in its various denominations. You'll find publishers of religious material listed in the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook and The Writer's Handbook.
Travel Books
Successful travel writing involves much more than descriptions of journeys and exotic locations, or quoting from brochures and guide books. A travel article or book should:
- Provide insight into people's lives and culture.
- Create a sense of atmosphere.
- Bring a place to vivid life through details rather than generalities.
- Get the facts right, but treat them imaginatively.
- Be descriptive without being overloaded with superlatives, cliché and flowery adjectives.
Copywriting
Copywriting for business can be very lucrative. The main areas are advertising and direct mail. To get a feel for what's needed, stop skipping the adverts and binning your 'junk' mail. Somebody has been paid to write all that material, and paid very well. Maybe you could do it, too, and develop a useful sideline or even a new career writing copy designed to sell products and services.
Technical Writing
To be a successful technical writer, you need many of the qualities and skills of an investigative journalist. You need to know how to sift essential information from masses of data, then present that information in terms that are easily understood by the people who need it.
