Just finished reading Telling the Story by Peter Rubie. The book is a guide to writing and selling narrative nonfiction. Fiction is my first love, though ninety percent of books sold are nonfiction ( perhaps that amour needs rethinking ) and I enjoy biographies and historical pieces. The Power Broker by Robert Caro is an excellent example of nonfiction narrative.

Peter offers two excellent quotes:

“Unless you have been published, you are not the best judge of your work.”

“Beginning writers seem to fall in love with description in their early drafts and forget that description, like adjectives, should be sprinkled on like salt, not butter.”

I’ll second both of these.

The book covers drafting nonfiction proposals, the value of literary agents in placing manuscripts ( Peter Rubie admits his bias here, he is one ), why projects get rejected and what to look for in a good agent. Included are several nonfiction book proposals for reference. As a bonus, it’s very well written.

Eight hundred plus words today, every last one a battle.