Many people read best sellers and think, “I can write better than this.” Does that mean that they have a profitable career ahead of them as a professional writer?
For someone who thinks that such a career is a possibility, please consider the four lessons that all successful nonfiction authors follow. By looking at those four lessons, you can determine if you have what it takes to be a professional writer.
As the author or coauthor of seven nonfiction books about making performance breakthroughs who also has three more books nearing completion, I’m often asked for advice concerning how to develop a writing career. I can well remember asking similar questions when I first began writing, yet I find it to be difficult to describe what I’ve learned in just a few words. Here’s what I used to say:
I always began by pointing out that I don’t write fiction so I cannot help at all in that area.
Next, I would explain that writing about “how-to” subjects (my area of expertise) is different from writing mainstream nonfiction or text books (two areas where I have no experience as a writer).
At that point, the conversation usually began to shift to the stock market, something I know a lot about and can talk about much more easily.
Looking back recently over my teaching career at Rushmore University, I realized that several of my students have become successful authors of well-respected how-to, mainstream nonfiction, and university-level text books. Perhaps I do have some useful advice to offer to you by drawing on their experiences.
The newest success is Mr. Daniel T. Cecchini II, a recent master’s degree in history graduate, who is under contract to write three books and whose agent is now presenting his thesis as the basis for a mainstream nonfiction work about the Korean War and its aftermath.
I summarize my advice for you in the rest of the article and make the lessons more concrete by interweaving some of Mr. Cecchini’s observations about how he made the jump from being an English teacher at a Korean university to becoming a writer who is in demand for text books and mainstream nonfiction.
1. Determine whether you like to write.
More people are in love with the idea of being a respected writer than are in love with writing. The only way to find out is to do a lot of writing. My advice is to write at least 200,000 words that present your ideas in ways that make you proud of your writing.
In the course of deciding whether to earn a master’s degree in history, Mr. Cecchini’s wife challenged him about his motivation. Here’s what happened:
“When I was thinking about going back to school, I wanted to do it on my terms, and in my own way. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about going back to school.
“My wife would ask me why I wanted to do it.
“My response would be, ‘I can make more money.’ I didn’t really have a plan or a goal in mind.
“On the hundredth time or so we were discussing it my wife was getting frustrated with me. She looked me in the eyes and rephrased her question. ‘What would you do with it once you got it?’ she asked.
“I honestly didn’t know.
“Your whole life you’re programmed to think that a higher education will make life better, easier and more prosperous. I learned early on that that was a lie. It’s having a plan and a goal that makes your life better. Education helps, but it’s not the solution. There are plenty of educated people living in poverty.
“Then my wife asked a second question. ‘What do you really want to do?’
“That one was easy. There has always been something in me. No matter what job I had, or what business I started, it didn’t matter what new scheme I was cooking up to make money; it was always there. It always nagged me. It sat in the back of my mind and whispered in my ear. Sometimes quietly, sometimes not, but it was always there.
“‘I want to write.’ I answered.
“‘Good,’ she said. ‘Now find a school that helps you do that.’”
I asked Mr. Cecchini how he feels about writing now that he is doing a lot of it:
“My wife has told me that I always seem to have a permanent grin on my face now, and I’m happiest when I’m banging on my keyboard at all hours of the day and night.”
2. Learn how to write.
There are people who can produce near-magical prose on the first or second try, but merely mortal writers (most of us) have to learn instead to write and rewrite . . . and rewrite again. And again. And again . . . until we can no longer remember, nor care, how many rewrites we have done . . . but the words succeed in telling the truth.
Such endless rewrites are needed to make the words flow better and to make the content clearer.
Writing is a monologue. As a consequence, your readers don’t have a chance to interrupt you to ask a question. So what you write had better be a pretty good monologue or the reader will drift away to talk about the stock market or do something else rather than read what you’ve written.
Peter Drucker, the famous management guru, once told me that research he had seen showed that less than ten percent of books about business were ever opened by their owners. In total, one percent of business books were read from cover to cover. If you have looked at the writing in many business books, you’ll sympathize with the readers.
When you write well, readers cannot put your books down. They are pulled into a new and better world where a new way of thinking and doing forever change them.
What’s most important in learning to write? You have to learn to edit yourself. To get to that point, you need someone to point out your mistakes while encouraging you to do better. Mr. Cecchini calls this process: “Dig deeper and write it again.” I think that’s an apt description.
Here’s what he had to say about learning to write:
“You, Professor Mitchell, improved my writing to the point where it could be accepted by a publisher. If I hadn’t been studying with you, my writing would have taken a lot longer to improve and it may have never been published. You constantly told me what I lacked and demanded more.
“At times it really made me angry, but you were right. My writing wasn’t good enough and my research had holes in it.
“Ms. Barley, my editor, was also great. The edits were top notch and were a huge help.”
3. Keep writing until you enthrall people who admire good writing.
One day, something you write will strike the fancy of someone who knows good writing. That person will immediately want to read more, in the same way that you can’t wait for the next book to be completed by an author whose writing you admire.
At that point, you can make the transition from being someone who writes for her- or himself into being someone whose writing is mostly for the benefit of others.
A good place to begin developing such a discerning audience is by finding an agent. Literary representatives love good writing and need to earn a living by selling what others write. If they will represent you, you’ve proven that your writing has made the grade.
Here is what Mr. Cecchini had to say about this process:
“It was nerve-racking. I have had minor stuff published before, like company training material that I wrote and some technical stuff, but I had never tried to publish ‘mainstream’ before.
“It’s very scary to send your work off to strangers who will only judge your writing on if it will make money. It’s the ultimate test.
“Considering I jumped in blind without a clue it went surprisingly smoothly.
“I’m in the process now of rewriting and adding to my thesis theme, and I’m also working on three other writing projects for a different publisher here in South Korea (a novel and two textbooks). It gave me tremendous satisfaction to receive a message from someone in the publishing industry that said, ‘Your stuff is good. We can sell it. Please give us more.’”
4. Find something to write about that makes rewriting seem painless.
Writing isn’t ultimately about the words; it’s about the message. When you feel that you are sharing something that people need to know and will benefit from, rewriting seems pleasant and joyful.
With such inspiration, you’ll write and rewrite a lot. By the time you’ve produced at least a million published words, you’ll be a very fine writer, you’ll have an audience, and you’ll have a writing career that brings you much joy.
What have you written (and rewritten) today?
Donald W. Mitchell is a professor at Rushmore University, an online school, where he assists many graduate students to prepare dissertations and theses that are later published and receive acclaim. For more information about ways to engage in fruitful lifelong learning at Rushmore to increase your effectiveness and improve your career, visit
http://www.rushmore.edu