Nonfiction Study Materials

Back to Nonfiction Online Resources Learn nonfiction writing from Malcolm Gladwell — from Masterclass.com Books to Read We’ll start with some general books for writing nonfiction, then list some of the best for some notable subgenres. The subgenres are too numerous and divergent to cover them all here, but we also list them within their subgenre, either in the Subgenre section of the main guide, or the study materials section of their own guide for the bigger subgenres like history or memoir. Instructional: How to Write a Factual Book — Lauren Bingham I enjoyed this book’s conversational tone far more...

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Nonfiction Blueprint

Back to Nonfiction These are broken down into the main categories of informational and instructional, plus a few more of the subcategories that differ in some particular. Instructional Blueprint Typical instructional books: self-help, crafts, cookbooks, how-to Intro Introduce yourself with an eye toward establishing your expertise in the subject. Be authoritative but brief; people came to learn how to do a thing, not how you got to be an expert. For instance, do you skip the three pages of blog before the recipe you looked up online? You’re not alone. Don’t bother writing all that if people are only coming...

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Cover Design Basics

Everyone knows that people judge a book by its cover. Why wouldn’t they? It’s the very first thing they see of your book. And it may be the last if you don’t understand these basic cover concepts and draw the potential buyer in. In the video below, Chris covers the basics of cover design. Combining these general skills with good knowledge of the covers in your genre (covered in the genre guides) along with a good blurb, should net you high conversion rates on your titles. Chris Wallace on Cover Design...

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Some Random Writing Tips

Not everything deserves an entire article. Here are a few things I’ve learned from my time in the trade that have helped me. Develop Your Own “Manual of Style” — When writing, you are faced with a lot of choices. From the big choices of plot, setting, and voice, all the way down to whether to put a comma in or not. It can be daunting to face down these questions in every sentence you write. That’s why I made some choices early on to winnow down the list of questions I have to answer. For instance: Save Early, Save...

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Self-Published Authors Make More Money

It’s true, self published authors make more money. We’ve known this for a few years now, with self-published authors earning more total money than their traditionally published counterparts since at least 2020. But a new study shows that self-published authors earn much more on average than their counterparts.  The study, from the Alliance of Independent Authors, surveyed authors on both sides and compiled the results to reveal that the average self-published author earns $86,000 a year. While nearly a quarter of the self-published authors surveyed earned very little, the majority made real money. The median income for self-published authors was …

Help! I Need a New Computer

The days of pen and paper are long gone. Don’t even think about it. You might draft a few things with a quill pen to look cool at the coffee shop, but if you’re going to churn out enough words to survive as an independent author, you need a computer. Whether your old computer is just, well, old, or it has died and you need a new one right away so you can get back to that masterpiece you were working on about space zombies invading Kansas, we’re here to help with our guide to buying a word processing machine...

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Genre Guides and Essentials

Here is where Written Well sets itself apart from the competition. Our Genre Guides are complete guides to how to succeed in every genre being written. How to write it, how to publish it, how to market it—we’ve got it all covered. Whether you’re writing thrillers or cookbooks, litRPG or reverse harem romance, we’ve got a guide for you. And that’s not all. In the Essentials section, we teach you the skills you need to succeed in any genre. Advertising, marketing, grammar, and a whole lot more. And it’s not just sitting there. We constantly monitor our information compared to …

Thriller Guide Preview

Thrillers are about tension and movement, long odds and fighting to overcome them, and a hero so brilliant and determined that they win anyway. They may have to make a big sacrifice, but in the end the hero saves the world.  Thrillers are usually written in third person, specifically, in third person limited. It’s a visceral genre, so first person is good, too, but thrillers often feature complex and/or convoluted plots that need several viewpoint characters to work. For first person, make sure your plot is on the simpler side, the twist demands the reader not know anything that the …