Nonfiction Ink

Whether a book is traditionally published or self-published, part of the author’s responsibility is marketing and promotion. Some writers choose to hire professionals to assist with their marketing efforts. It is important to carefully consider and identify what outside support (if any) will benefit your book sales and grow your platform.

PUBLICISTS
A publicist will research appropriate media to contact, write press releases and other promotional material, prepare press kits and submit pitches to radio, television, and print. If your book has serious media potential, a freelance publicist may be a good investment Keep in mind, however, that media exposure is never guaranteed. A print and broadcast campaign may cost between $10,000 and $25,000. The LMP (Literary Market Place) guide, available at most libraries, lists qualified literary publicists.

RADIO & TV SATELLITE TOURS
Companies that specialize in booking radio and/or television satellite tours can help you plan an effective campaign. Radio “tours” are usually conducted by telephone from your home or office. They may be scheduled over a period of time or all on the same day. Live interviews for TV satellite tours are recorded all in one day at a local television studio by connecting you to stations and their affiliates across the country. A twenty-market radio tour may cost between $3,000 to $5,000, while a television satellite tour averages around $15,000 (ten-market tours may be negotiated for around $10,000.)

The good thing is, unlike a publicist’s services, radio and television satellite tour companies guarantee placement. The most well-known operators are: On The Scene Productions, Planned Television Arts, and Newman Communications.

LECTURE AGENTS
A lecture agent will work on your behalf to obtain paid speaking engagements at universities, organizations, and conferences. The cost for these services is usually 25% to 30% of your speaker’s fee. The Lecture Bureau specializes in working with author-speakers.

BLOG TOURS
Blog tours are virtual “appearances” on blogs that are synergistic with the book you are promoting. Blog tours may include interviews, book reviews, giveaways, or guest author articles. Fees for blog tours run from $200 to $4,000. Contact WOW Women on Writing and check out AuthorBuzz for blog tour services.

Writing a book requires planning and efficient action. Here are five steps to take to help keep you on track to completing your book!

1. Set aside time to write
Create an area in your home that is conducive for writing and set aside time each week to write. Schedule it on your calendar and keep that appointment with yourself.

2. Set a specific writing goal
Whether you commit to writing one page per day or 1,000 words per day, research shows that when you set a clearly defined goal you are more likely to accomplish it.

3. Use an outline
Writing from a detailed table of contents or an outline provides a framework for each writing session. It keeps you focused and eliminates the stress of staring a blank sheet of paper.

4. Dictate your manuscript
Many nonfiction authors feel more comfortable speaking than writing. If you fall into that camp, consider dictating your manuscript using speech recognition software, such as Dragon Naturally Speaking.

5. Delegate work
Writing a book consists of much more than just the writing element. Consider delegating non-writing tasks such as research and line-editing (if you are dictating your manuscript this service would be especially helpful.) To find freelance editors visit The Freelancer’s Union. Virtual Author’s Assistants lists individuals who provide research, administrative, and other services for writers.

In the previous three posts we looked at how to select which opening works best for your book or specific chapters and reviewed eight effective leads: the Anecdote / Case Study, the Quotation opening, the Descriptive or Narrative lead, the One-Line Hook, beginning with Statistical Information, launching with a Theme, the Question lead, and the Comparison method. In this final installment, we look at four more opening techniques.

9. DIRECTLY ADDRESSING THE READER
Direct address uses the second-person “you” to directly connect with the reader and is often combined with another type of lead.

We have some ideas about you, and we were curious to see whether they’re correct. If you’re reading this book, you’re most likely a business professional, perhaps a small business owner, or maybe someone in marketing, public relations, or some other communications world. Or perhaps you’re a technologist, such as Web designer or a software engineer. (“Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith)

10. JOURNALISTIC LEAD
The journalistic lead contains all the necessary information in the opening: who, what, where, when, and why.

November 26, 2008 – Mumbai Rocked By Shooting. The first news headlines and photos of the devastating terror attack in India shocked the world as more than 300 people lost their lives and countless more were injured. We banded together as civilized people and poured out our compassion and aid for those affected by this senseless tragedy. What was equally amazing was the medium in which those first headlines and photos were delivered. It wasn’t CNN. It wasn’t National Public Radio. And it wasn’t “The New York Times”. (“Twitter Power” by Joel Comm)

11. FACTUAL OPENING
Factual leads contain facts that may be specific or general. They are often used to generate anticipation and interest in the information that will be developed further later in the chapter or book.

It took New Orleans 300 years to etch its image on the public consciousness – a city known around the world for food and music, pageantry and debauchery, and an irreverent, laissez-faire culture more attuned to the Caribbean than the Heartland. But it took one great storm a matter of hours to sear a new picture. (“Remembering Katrina”)

12. SUMMARY
Summary openings provide a preview of what is forthcoming in the book or particular chapter. It is a round-up and overview of all the information that you will be presenting.

Madrid is a rich amalgam of differing worlds. Narrow-laned old quarters and handsome plazas filled with regal statues are bordered by wide avenues and modern skyscrapers. World-class art galleries and museums vie for attention with secretive convents and tiny 17^th-century churches. The Plaza Mayor is filled with strolling families, tourists, lively cafes and souvenir shops. Madrid has more bars and cafes than most cities. Madrilenos love to eat well – be it a favorite neighborhood tasca or a fabled culinary mecca. And the city’s shoppers have their pick from ultrachic stores and boutiques selling the latest in international fashion to street markets where an elusive antique can be found. You name it, Madrid has got it. (Frommer’s Madrid)

YOUR TURN: Do you have any other techniques you use to launch your book or chapters?

In the previous two posts we looked at how to select which opening works best for your book or specific chapters and reviewed three effective leads: the Anecdote / CaseStudy, the Quotation opening, and the Descriptive or Narrative lead. In this post we analyze five additional opening techniques.

4. ONE-LINE HOOK
The one line hook captures your entire thesis, theory, or belief in one sentence (or two short sentences). It is a powerful statement that immediately tells the reader what to expect.

Other cities have histories. Los Angeles has legends. (“L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City” by John Buntin)

5. STATISTICAL INFORMATION
Leads that contain statistical information are not reserved for purely academic books. When used effectively, they can draw the reader into the topic, especially when they reveal the unexpected.

You have a burning desire to write a nonfiction book. Join the crowd. You might be surprised to learn how many people are writing a book. According to a survey from the Jenkins Group, Inc., a Michigan publishing service firm, 81 percent of Americans feel they should write a book. They estimate that more than 6 million Americans have actually written a manuscript – just over 2 percent of the population. Publisher’s Weekly recently reported that more than 1,000 books were published each week in 2003. (“Book Proposals That Sell” by W. Terry Whalin)

6. THEMATIC LEAD
Thematic leads begin with a statement expressing the theme of your book. They engage readers through sharing a universal quality of the human experience. Or they may provide a wrap-up of your thesis. They can work well for books based on research as well as personal stories, such as travelogues, adventures, and memoir.

To go beyond the anthropological and social symbolism of wolves we must rely on the fieldwork of the researcher, for it is the researcher who confronts the questions in the minds and on the lips of the public, and who tries to sort out, in a systematic way, the factors that induce the wolf to behave as it does. (“Following the Pack: The World of Wolf Research” by Mike Link and Kate Crowley)

7. QUESTION
An effective and well-constructed question can evoke careful thought and consideration, causing a desire in the reader to continue reading. But a poorly written, rhetorical question often leads to a reader feeling annoyed, manipulated, and bored (“Do you want to make a lot of money?”)

Does your brand ace the “Worth-It Test” in the minds of buyers? In side-by-side comparisons to key competitors, does your brand prevail? If your firm is like most, very little time gets spent on probing these fundamental questions. Yet, ironically, your customers are surely asking them. Using the Internet search engines, your customers are relentlessly comparing… (“Taming the Search and Switch Customer” by Jill Griffin)

8. COMPARISON
Comparing two items, ideas, people, or places and contrasting their differences or affirming their similarities can create an intriguing lead. Comparisons or analogies can be literal, metaphorical, or symbolic. (“A good book is like a best friend…”)

The publishing world is changing. If you’re reading this book, you probably already know that. Most traditional publishers – those who front all the costs associated with publishing – are no longer risking dollars on new authors the way they did five years ago. Luckily, thanks to advances in digital printing and the Internet, new authors are realizing that they don’t really need traditional publishers. They can self-publish. (“The Fine Print Of Self-Publishing” by Mark Levine

STAY-TUNED: the final installment of How To Begin Your Nonfiction Book will explore 4 more lead techniques.

In the last post we explored how to select which opening works best for your book or specific chapters. In this post, we will look at three effective leads: the Anecdote / Case Study, the Quotation opening, and the Descriptive or Narrative lead.

1. ANECDOTE OR CASE STUDY
Anecdotes and case histories create an immediate connection with the reader and engage him or her in the human experience. Effective stories reflect the demographic of the reader and may be based on real or fictionalized people.

Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. Papa came back swinging with, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” some say he called it his best work. Others dismiss the anecdote as folktale. Either way, the six-word story was born, and it’s been popping around the writing world for years. (“Six-Word Memoirs” edited by Smith Magazine)

2. QUOTATION
If you begin the first chapter with a quotation, it should speak directly to the topic and style of your book.

Andy Warhol, the successful American painter, said “In the future, everyone will get their 15 minutes of fame.” In truth, we Americans love our celebrities, and we are always creating new ones. This is becoming even more prevalent in our rapidly increasing ‘reality’ culture of blockbuster television shows like ‘American Idol’ and ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ If you can become a celebrity, the world is yours, albeit hopefully for more than 15 minutes. (“Celebrity Branding You” by J.W. Dicks and Nick Nanton)

3. DESCRIPTIVE OR NARRATIVE LEAD
These openings tell a narrative or descriptive story. Unlike an anecdote or case history, a descriptive or narrative lead does not focus on a case study or personal problem. They may highlight description, places, people, events or an inciting incident. They are most often used for narrative nonfiction: memoir, historical, current events, travelogues, true crime and biography.

In a tourist town on the white-sun Spanish coast, an old man was passing his last years an American grandfather with a snowy white crewcut and a glint in his turquoise eyes. At seventy he was still lean and alert, with high, slanting cheekbones, a sharp chin, and those clear-frame eyeglasses that made him look like a minor-league academic. He spent much of his time holed up in his cluttered garage apartment, watching the BBC on a flickering black-and-white television, surrpunded by bottles of Jack Daniel’s and pills and his memories. If you met him down on the beach, he came across as a gentle soul with a soft laugh. Almost certainly he was the most pleasant murderer you’d ever want to meet. (“Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-1934” by Bryan Burrough)

STAY-TUNED: the next post will explore 5 more effective opening techniques.

Beginning the actual writing process of your first book can be intimidating. But with an understanding of the most common techniques and a few options to choose from, you should have the confidence to begin. Once you have your research completed and your outline drafted, it’s time to start writing.

The length of your beginning, the style, and the tone will depend on your specific subject. For nonfiction books the opening section is often the entire first chapter and may launch with one of the following:

1. Anecdote or Case Study
2. Quotation
3. Descriptive or Narrative Lead
4. One-Line Hook
5. Statistical Information
6. Theme
7. Question
8. Comparison
9. Directly Addressing the Reader
10. Journalistic Lead
11. Factual
12. Summary

Each of these techniques can be used to open a book or subsequent chapters.

How Do You Select The Opening That Is Right For Your Book (or Book Chapters)?
One technique for crafting an effective opening is to analyze the needs, expectations, and intent of the lead. Here are questions you can ask to determine the best opening for your subject.

• Who is your reader? Is your reader over 50 years old and retired, a twenty-something, recent graduate looking to launch a tech start-up, or a single 30 year-old mom, trying to balance career and family?
• What is the purpose of the opening? Is it to inform, entertain, educate, instruct, motivate, inspire, persuade, enrage, provoke, or connect?
• What is the promise you want to deliver? Is it how to obtain wealth, fitness, love, knowledge, understanding, appreciate, explore, travel, learn, etc.?
• What is the emotional reaction you want to evoke in the reader? Is it to capture their attention, create intrigue, make them laugh, arouse curiosity, deliver motivation, etc?
• Evaluate how well your opening lead achieves your goals. Does it speak to your reader, serve its purpose, deliver what’s promised, and evoke the intended emotion?

STAY-TUNED: the next three posts will examine and provide an example of each type of opening technique.

I am launching a new series “Book Reviews and Author Interviews” to be hosted each Friday beginning next month. This is an open call for:
1. Authors who write nonfiction books who wish to be interviewed on my blog about their writing process and publishing experience and/or
2. Authors and publishers who would like me to review their practical or inspirational writing books (reviewed books must be related to writing nonfiction)

If you are interested, please drop me a note at Laura@ScenarioWritingStudio.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

There will be no additional post this week — as some of you may be aware my book “The Complete Guide To Hiring a Literary Agent: Everything You Need To Know To Become Successfully Published” will be released by Atlantic Publishing in January and I am in the final throes of editing and have been forced to eliminate sleep entirely — but True Story Ink will kick back into high gear next week. Happy writing!

Many authors want to see their books adapted into films. And with more than 70% of films each year adapted from books and other source material, many authors will have their books optioned for films. A frequent lament among readers (and some authors) is that the screenplay doesn’t adhere to the book. But books and films are different mediums. The goal of the screenwriter in adapting a book into a script is to capture the essence of the story and turn it into a visual experience (not a narrative experience, such as a book). And the screenwriter must do all this within 120 pages or less. Not an easy feat!

This post looks at the recent film “Public Enemies” (adapted from the nonfiction book by Bryan Burroughs) in an attempt to explain why straying from the book and sometimes making radical revisions are necessary for the screenwriter to create a better experience for movie-goers.

Bryan Burrough’s gripping crime history, Public Enemies, follows the exploits of some of the most notorious outlaws of the 1930’s. Writer-director Michael Mann along with screenwriters Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman, have extrapolated the story of John Dillinger and created a poignant and visually captivating film.

Burrough’s extensively researched 550-page book devotes a great deal of space to Dillinger and his bank robbing cohorts – providing the screenwriters with more than enough vignettes from Dillinger’s real life to create each scene in the script, without having to rely on inventing characters or scenarios to tell the story.

The challenge in adapting Public Enemies for the screen does not come from a lack of exciting tales to tell, but the fact that Dillinger’s story is devoid of any real character development and easily becomes episodic – moving from one bank robbery, shootout, and chase, to the next.

The screenwriters confront this issue by:
1. Focusing on theme (instead of a character arc), and
2. Manipulating the truth to create greater emotional impact

EMPHASIZING THEME
Mann, Bennett, and Biderman focus on dual themes:
* The demise of the lone, individualistic criminal, and
* The rise of the FBI as a national police force

America’s greatest crime wave of 1933 and 1934, which saw the likes of Dillinger, The Barker Gang, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, and Baby Face Nelson all operating at the same time, was not actually the beginning of a crime wave, it was the end of one. The golden age of bank robberies ran from 1925 to 1932. By 1933 and 1934, the lone ‘Robin Hood” bank robber and his gang were on the way out and organized crime was moving in.

The writers effectively portray this oncoming extinction, contrasting the modern, sophisticated mob against Dillinger’s rag-tag crew, in a scene in which Dillinger stands in a room filled with people ‘working’ the mobster’s telephones. He is delivered the fateful statement: “Your $74,000 – we make that every morning with our operation here.” The message is clear. Dillinger’s way of life is over.

Hoover’s rise to power was not slow and methodical. It erupted in 1933 among an atmosphere of fear and propaganda and the idea of the heroic “G-man”, which Hoover used to promote his ambitious project – the creation of a national police force: the FBI. The screenwriters deftly weave this thread throughout the script and lay the framework in an early scene depicting Hoover’s attempt to boost his organization (using the crime wave as a means to build his power) at a hearing in front of a congressional subcommittee. In another early scene, Hoover is shown maneuvering to position himself at a press conference, where he introduces Melvin Purvis as the new top dog.

MANIPULATING TRUTH FOR GREATER IMPACT
The writers do an excellent job of closely sticking to historical facts and presenting a realistic portrayal of Dillinger (though they maintain an aloof distance from the main character, perhaps this is due to Mann’s stylistic preferences) – demonstrating his turbulent lifestyle, his well-documented charm and wit, his rise to depression-era anti-hero celebrity status, and his acceptance of the fatal inevitability of his path.

Let’s look at a few key areas where the screenwriters manipulated truth to create a better experience for the audience.

The Opening Sequence
The film opens with a powerful series of scenes depicting Dillinger leading a prison-break. It has all the great elements necessary for an opening scene, and is a wise choice for starting the story. But if the writers had stuck to historical accuracy, the main character would have been absent from the scene. In real life, Dillinger planned the jailbreak while he was out on parole – but a few weeks before the break was to go down, he was re-arrested and incarcerated at a different prison. You can’t have an opening scene without the protagonist, so the writers twisted the facts to allow Dillinger to be present and play a key role in the opening sequence.

Rearranging Chronology
The screenwriters significantly shift the chronology of events throughout the film. Pretty Boy Floyd is shown being chased through a field and shot down by Melvin Purvis less than 20 minutes into the story. Several of Dillinger’s gang and associates, and even Baby Face Nelson are depicted as being killed prior to Dillinger’s demise. In reality, Dillinger went down before most of his gang was killed and both Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd outlived Dillinger.

So why do the writers shift the events to depict so many outlaws being killed prior to Dillinger’s death? Because it raises the stakes. If the audience doesn’t witness any real consequences associated with Dillinger’s lifestyle then they lose interest in the journey. The deaths of his associates foreshadow the inevitable and keep the audience engaged with the dramatic premise.

Maintaining a Love Story
Public Enemies is both a gritty and romantic film. Dillinger’s real life relationship with Billie Frechette may have indeed been a true love story. They were dedicated to one another; he only straying after her arrest, and she never divulging any details about Dillinger until after his death and her release from prison (at which time she toured the country speaking on the topic of Dillinger and the ills of crime – in exchange for a paycheck.)

Still, a good story requires the love relationship to be maintained throughout – or for at least as long as possible. To that end, the screenwriters keep Frechette in the narrative longer than her stay in real life. In actuality, Billie was arrested prior to several bank robberies and the tragic events that unfolded at Little Bohemia. In the script, Frechette is present at Little Bohemia and the couple ultimately reconnects in a dangerous rendezvous (again upping the stakes for Dillinger.)

Another tool the writers use to deepen the impact of the love story and connect the audience are the fabricated final words Dillinger speaks to Agent Winstead: “Tell Billie for me… bye bye blackbird…” This final scene closes the film on a poignantly sad note. The viewer is left with a feeling of loss and regret (as are the characters). In truth, Dillinger never spoke these words. He never spoke any words after he was shot outside the Biograph Theater.

All protagonists need key relationships with other characters for the audience to root for. We need to see the main character care for others and others care for him (especially in the case where the protagonist is a ‘bad guy’). This manufactured scene is necessary to tie the love relationship back into the story and create meaning and emotional impact.

Creating a Consistent and Strong Antagonist
Every protagonist needs a strong and consistent opponent. In reality, even though Dillinger was always pursued by law enforcement, Hoover and the FBI did not become fully engaged in ‘getting their man’ until after the Crown Point murder (in which Dillinger shot and killed a police officer) – fairly late in his criminal career. Melvin Purvis was an utterly incompetent foe, committing one embarrassing and deadly blunder after another throughout Dillinger’s crime spree.

Purvis was eventually demoted by Hoover and replaced in June 1934 by a man named Sam Cowley. Cowley was actually the man in charge of arranging and overseeing the events on the night Dillinger was killed. Of course, none of us has ever heard of Sam Cowley. Melvin Purvis is known as the man that took Dillinger down, and ultimately the screenwriters are forced to turn Purvis into something his was not in real life.

It serves the story to create a clearly identified opponent who consistently and relentlessly pursues Dillinger. Positioning Melvin Purvis as the determined heroic G-man from the beginning of the story through the end raises the stakes and provides the conflict necessary for a compelling story. As Dillinger’s nemesis, Purvis is an opponent who is clearly identified (he has a name, he is not simply a law agency), consistent (he remains the single main opponent throughout the story), and relentless (he is a worthy opponent who is always just one step behind.)

Adaptation is not alliteration. The art of adapting source material into a script requires understanding what is best for the story and carefully selecting those elements to serve the narrative throughline. The revisions the writers made to the true events surrounding Dillinger’s life ultimately worked to create a better screenplay.