Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction--and Get it Published (Hardcover)

by Susan Rabiner (Author), Alfred Fortunato (Author) "Every game is a numbers game..." (more)
Key Phrases: serious nonfiction book, submission package, flap copy, Supreme Court, New York Times, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Two years ago, Betsy Lerner's The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers offered an editor's-eye guide to aspiring writers of nonfiction. Now come Rabiner, former Basic Books editorial director turned agent, and her husband, Fortunato, a freelance book editor and writer, covering some of the same territory, but also breaking new ground. Wannabe authors might be shocked to hear that a fine writing style usually plays only a tiny role in whether a proposal becomes a book. Instead, according to the authors, the freshness of ideas and the size of the potential audience drive the process the first three rules of book publishing, as stated here, are "audience, audience, audience." In part one, on submissions, the authors discuss how to put together a book proposal and, without sounding self-serving, whether to work through an agent or go solo. In part two, they move to the writing process. Especially welcome here is their discussion of research undergirding all writing: authors and publishers, they note, sometimes become too lax about accuracy in nonfiction. Part three discusses how authors and editors (both in-house and freelance) can work together well. They offer a necessary tonic in advice about the importance of establishing a good relationship with the editor from day one that includes an author understanding that the editor's world doesn't revolve around one book. A sample proposal accompanied by a sample chapter round out the book nicely. Hopeful writers will be the primary audience for this title, and they will find useful advice on every page, but a secondary audience could include avid consumers of nonfiction who want to understand why some ideas reach book form while others do not.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Rabiner, a former editorial director at Basic Books, and freelance editor Fortunato are now partners in the Susan Rabiner Literary Agency. Their book (like their agency) targets those who write serious or scholarly nonfiction but hope to reach a wide audience. They begin with the usual fantasy sequence, leading readers through a discussion about which publisher they should select for their work university press or other. The book then explains in detail why authors must do research and present balanced arguments in their writing and why they must also have tangible credibility but write with a sense of narrative to appeal to a wider audience. These are basics, stress the authors, that must be mastered before an aspiring writer can hope to start speculating about how to spend the advance. The authors advise writers to approach editors first and give tips on how to do so; agents, they explain, are readily acquired in the wake of success. Better than average, this title mostly avoids feeding fantasies in favor of detailing necessities. Robert Moore, Parexel Intl., Waltham, MA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393038920
• ISBN-13: 978-0393038927
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #774,677 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

154 of 166 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to give this 5 stars, I really did., May 16, 2002

By	just_another_reader (USA) - See all my reviews

I have a very specific reason why I can't give this book five out of five stars.

First, why it DESERVED five stars:
This is clearly the best, most inspiring, book I have ever read that's specifically targeted at serious nonfiction writers and the challenges they face getting their work published successfully. I just got the book today in the mail, and wasn't able to put it down (except to jot down notes!). Every page has good ideas. Every page. Now I don't have to attend some cheesy ...seminar to get an insider's view of What Works and What Doesn't. This book explains it and does so brilliantly.

Now why it DOESN'T deserve 5 stars:
I cannot give this book five stars because, honestly, this is the worst book I have ever read --- from the standpoint of copyediting and typesetting!!! I am simply **appalled**! Guys -- I know you're going to read this, Susan, Alfred, and Ed Barber --- didn't anyone copy edit it before it went to the printer? Didn't anyone check the galleys?!? I have never seen so many problems with a book before. Glaring typos -- here are but three I'll mention offhand: in the middle of page 249 ("Way was Beecher so important to his times?" Um, I think you meant "Why") or the middle of page 23 ("you prefer not to factor in them in" -- huh? one too many "in"s, yes?) or on page 30 ("because they wanted something beyond money as settlement for their terrible loses." Um, isn't it "losses"?) Aaaauugggh!! And then, throughout the book, something else: first I thought it was a single occurrence, the second I opened the book up for the first time, randomly, to page 73 and noticed the typesetting error on line 9. But then I noticed this problem occurs THROUGHOUT THE BOOK! Sentences end with a period, followed IMMEDIATELY by the capitalized letter of the first word of the following sentence -- no space! And then the weird word break at the very bottom of page 22: the word "message" is broken in half with no hyphen. The last three letters of page 22 are "mes" and the first four letters of page 23 are "sage" but there's no hyphen!!! What's up with that?

It's just bizarre --- for a book called "Think Like An Editor" one would THINK someone would have caught this stuff in the galleys. Oh, ok, so maybe I have to wait for the sequel: "Think Like a Copy Editor"??? :-)

Note to W.W.Norton: Guys. Please. Stop the presses. Fix the errors. You do your readers and your esteemed authors a great disservice. Reprint the book. Make the world a safer place for readers. They will thank you. I will thank you.

Bottom line (more on why this book is GREAT) --
I will forgive the typographical errors however distracting and embarrassing they are. Because the book is such an INCREDIBLE breath of fresh air. No disrespect Jeff Herman, but your books just never helped me, even though they were about nonfiction proposals. I am inspired, I am encouraged, my confidence is at a new peak because of this new book. Thank you Susan and Albert. My own book proposal will be incredibly stronger because of what I've learned from your book, and because of issues in my own proposal that I already was aware of but didn't want to deal with -- until you explained succinctly why I have to deal with them if I want my book to be successful. Thank you.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comparing five books about writing book proposals, April 7, 2007

By	Thomas D. Kehoe (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction--and Get It Published (Paperback)

I bought five books to help me write a book proposal:

"How to Write a Book Proposal, 3rd edition," by Michael Larsen

"78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published & 14 Reasons Why It Just Might," by Pat Walsh

"The Forest for the Trees," by Betsy Lerner

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published, 4th edition," by Sheree Bykofsky and Jennifer Basye Sander

"Think Like Your Editor," by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunado

The worst was "How to Write a Book Proposal." This book felt like a bad date, like I wanted to wash my hair after reading it. The intent is to teach you to be an "Authorpreneur (r)." Yes, Larsen has registered this word. You'll learn such gems as everyone has 250 friends, and each of them has 250 friends, so you can "spread the word" about your book to more than 62,000 people by e-mail. I think there's a word for that -- spam. Larsen also says to include your promotion plan in the book proposal, including pushing "the paperback edition as hard as you can" when it's published a year after the hardcover edition. I'm not an agent or editor, but I'd think that an agent would giggle quietly to themselves if you were so presumptuous as to include a marketing plan for the paperback edition. (To the author's credit, he doesn't say you should suggest which actor should play the main character in the movie version of your book.) Then there's the chapter about including illustrations and cover art. Excuse me, I thought the editor and art director develop the cover art? I can't imagine creating the book cover to include in the proposal. And the author recommends including a "surprise," such as a baby shoe with a note saying "Now that I have a foot in the door." The book has one good piece of advice: pick a good title. For example, "How to Write a Book Proposal" is a title that will make 100,000 aspiring writers buy your book, regardless of how awful the book is.

"78 Reasons" was good. Some sections are wrong, such as #38 and #39, which correctly advises against paying for a vanity press to publish your book but confuses this with self-publishing. I've successfully self-published two books, and unsuccessfully self-published one book. The correct answer is that if you have a niche book in a niche market you know well, self-publish. Self-publishing mass market books is a recipe for disaster. Some of the advice is excellent, such as #16, about "killing your little darlings" (a scene you think is brilliant, that you build the rest of the book around). While most of this book is sound advice to a novice writer, as an experienced writer I didn't learn anything new.

"The Complete Idiot's Guide" covers the entire process from thinking of an idea through book proposals, book contracts, publicity tours, etc. It's a good overview but each chapter is too short. You'll need to buy another book about book proposals, etc. I'm keeping my copy as a reference to turn to occasionally but it's not the last word.

"The Forest for the Trees" starts with six essays about writing, with topics such as alcoholism, self-promoting poets (starting with Walt Whitman), the childhood of famous writers, writers who are too successful too young, etc. These are interesting reading. The second half of the book is essays about publishing, starting with literary agents. One paragraph describes the plethora of surprise gifts writers include with their query letters. She's received baby shoes, presumably from readers of Larsen's book. She says: "Please resist the temptation to do any of these outlandish things...a simple, dignified letter with a clear statement of your intent and credentials will win more affirmative responses than any gimmick or hype." If you read Larsen's book, read Lerner's book as the antidote. The next essays are about dealing with rejection, the life of editors, what writers want from editors, how book covers are designed, book titles selected, etc. This book is descriptive, not proscriptive, so you'll learn how the world of books operates, if not be told how to write a book and get it published. I enjoyed the author's "voice" and I recommend this book.

The best book is "Thinking Like Your Editor." The first half of the book is about preparing your book proposal. Unlike the other four books, reading this book made me completely rewrite my book proposal. The author begins by emphasizing the three most important things about a book: audience, audience, and audience. Who is going to buy your book? Not who might be sort of interested in your book, but who will feel that he or she must read your book. I'd thought about this before, but reading Rabiner's book made me think lucidly about this. She then walks you through the elements that must be in a book proposal, such as your thesis, or what makes your message unique and new and challenging; why is now the time to publish this book; and why are you the person most qualified to write it. The second half of the book is about writing your book, including the importance of narrative tension in non-fiction writing, and of presenting a balanced "argument" to make your views more convincing. The other four books made me say, "uh-huh, uh-huh" and not do anything. Rabiner's book made me spend several days working on my proposal. (My 2003 paperback copy has the typos corrected.)

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely helpful, November 16, 2004

By	Robert Adler "science writer & author" (Santa Rosa, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction--and Get It Published (Paperback)

As a published author, I picked up _Thinking Like Your Editor_ hoping to find a few ideas I could use for my next book proposal.

Instead, I found a whole new level of understanding about what goes into a first-rate and marketable book, what editors want and need, and how to craft a proposal that is as cogent, well-written and persuasive as the book it represents.

Rabiner and Fortunato have distilled their deep expertise into an extremely helpful and useful book.

I recommend it strongly to anyone contemplating writing a book or book proposal. Read it before you write another word.

Robert Adler, author of _Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome (Wiley, 2004); and _Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley, 2002).