Developmental Editing
I have a lot of content about developmental editing and revision for novel, but today I want to talk about developmental editing as it applies to nonfiction and memoirs specifically. So, with nonfiction, I would say that the number one thing that I'm looking for when I'm developmentally editing a project in those categories is this sense of what's in it for me. Readers who buy nonfiction books—whether it's about parenting, travel, finance, business, self-help, self-improvement, whatever, dieting, cooking—they're coming to that book with a specific need. You need to sell them on your thesis. You need to sell them that they have that need.
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transcript for developmental editing
Hi, my name is Mary Kole with Good Story Company. And today, I want to talk about developmental editing as it applies to nonfiction and memoirs specifically. I have a lot of videos, a lot of content about developmental editing and revision for novel. Fiction is my home base. It's my cornerstone. But, that being said, we can also talk about revision, developmental editing, and what I do with nonfiction clients and memoir clients because it's a little bit different.
So, with nonfiction, I would say that the number one thing that I'm looking for when I'm developmentally editing a project in those categories is this sense of what's in it for me. That's what the reader is gonna be thinking. You have to think of your audience when they show up to the nonfiction shelf. They buy nonfiction books whether it's about parenting, travel, finance, business, self-help, self-improvement, whatever, dieting, cooking. They're coming to that book with a specific need. They want to hear about a specific thing. They want to hear about it from an expert. They want to pick up a book and be better off when they finish the book than when they started. There's also, like, an inspirational, aspirational component to a lot of nonfiction like "I'm gonna be a great investor once I read this investing book. I'm gonna be a better parent, more patient." So, I'm always thinking about how the information is presented through that lens of what's in it for the reader.
So, when I see you mounting an argument, kind of getting to your thesis, "This is a book about X. This is how X is usually treated. This is my new sort of proposal in the world of X, and this is how it's gonna change your life. And this is the new framework that I'm bringing to the topic of parenting, of finances, of business, or whatever, leadership." So, you need to sort of convince the reader that your way is the way to do it. Your insights are gonna be amazing and they've never heard anything like this before. And then you actually need to deliver on that.
Well, some of the things that I'm looking for as you launch into that is the clarity of your argument, how you build up to that. Do you open with an anecdote of somebody whose life was changed by using your blah, blah, blah system for memorizing or whatever the case may be that you're writing about? Or is it, like, have you expressed the desperate need for the system and why most investors are getting it wrong because they do blah, blah, blah. They buy mutual funds but, actually, the way to do it is XYZ, right?
So, you have to kind of build the case. You have to reward the reader for showing up to your book and you have to make them believe that they are gonna get what they are here to get. You're the person for the job and their life is gonna be changed. That is kind of in the opening chapters of your nonfiction. That is kind of the salesman job that you're doing. They already have the book, but everybody is gonna be thinking, you know, "Do I need to devote the next five hours of my life reading this book? Will I really get a lot out of it?"
You need to sell them on your thesis. You need to sell them that they have that need. You need to sell them on this idea that their problem has a solution and then you need to start laying out the solution.
So, what I'm looking for there is your thesis statement and then how you roll out actual points. Every chapter needs to have a takeaway that's gonna benefit the reader. Otherwise, you're gonna lose them in the middle. And ideally, those points build up to a final revelation.
One of the big, big pieces of critique that a lot of agents will say or a lot of publishers will say when they get a nonfiction proposal is "Is this an article or is this a book," meaning is there enough actionable advice, is there enough substance in there to make it a book of 200, 250 pages, rather than an article of 12 bullet points, right? This is where a lot of nonfiction book proposals fall flat. And so, you really want to make sure that you have enough substance and you're always kind of proving your case. You're going back to your thesis statement and you're saying, "Okay. This is how this fits into the statement. This is how it's gonna change your life. This is what you need to do. And this is how your life is better." And ideally, you build your actionable bullet points toward kind of your grand revelation at the end, which opens those loops, keeps those hooks in your readers, keeps them going until they get through the book, they get kind of the piece of advice that wraps everything together, and then they feel fully kind of armed to go ahead and tackle whatever their problem is, go out into their life, change the world, that sort of thing.
So, when I'm editing nonfiction, this is exactly what I'm looking for. And I'm looking for how you are sort of substantiating any claims that you make, whether you cite surveys, whether you bring in secondary sources, resources, anything to sort of bolster yourself, or whether you're just like, "Yeah, this is the way to do it. I know because I know." You know, I see a lot of nonfiction books where it's like, "I'm the expert. Like, why do you need me to substantiate this? I'm gonna make some bold generalizations." Those tend to be a lot less compelling. So, everything that you say, I'm looking to see how you substantiate it. I'm looking to see what evidence you're including. I'm looking to see how it relates back to that thesis and, also, how it builds toward the climax. So that is kind of my approach for nonfiction how-to, self-help, all of that.
I'm gonna continue this conversation over in Good Story Learning. It's our membership...a lot of one-on-one discussions like this where I go deep, deep into topics that matter to writers of all categories and ability levels. My name is Mary Kole. I hope to see you over there. I'm with Good Story Company and here is to a good story.
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