Sure, I get it.  Everyone wants to be a novelist.  A famous novelist.  A great novelist.  I did when I started writing thirty forty ten or twelve years ago.   But then I learned something.  And it changed my life--as well as my future as a successful freelance writer.

I learned that far more nonfiction books are published each year than fiction. 

Better, still, it's far easier for a writer--even a first-time author--to sell a nonfiction book than a novel.  Here's why.

Novels, especially novels from first-time authors, virtually always have to be completed before an acquisitions editor will request a look at it--and he may not do so even then if you're not represented by a top literary agent.  That means you're going to have to write all 80,000, 100,000, or 150,000 words or more, try to convince an agent, even though you've never made a nickel from your writing, to take a chance on you, and hope that someone somewhere will want to publish your book.

Nonfiction, however, is most often sold on the basis of a proposal consisting of an outline, a synopsis (a short, snappy pitch of the book's story line), an author's platform, and little else.  No agent required.  No completed book.  Only 10 or 20 or 30 pages of a proposal and a sample chapter or two to show the editor your writing style.

Do you get my drift?  If not, let me elaborate. 

I've sold fiction, and I've sold nonfiction.  I love writing fiction, but I don't mind writing nonfiction, if it's something I can dig my teeth into.  My nonfiction books outnumber my novels by about 10 to 1.  Total book sales for nonfiction vs. fiction?  Probably 20 to 1.  Total income for nonfiction vs. fiction?  Probably $50 to every buck made from fiction.

Why would I--or why would anyone, for that matter--keep pounding his head against the wall trying to sell fiction when the deck is so heavily stacked against him?  It's the allure of being a great, famous, successful, sexy, in-demand, glib, cocktail-swilling novelist that draws most writers to fiction, I guess.  I call it The Great Gatsby Effect.  If you can get past that hackneyed image, and if you're ready to start earning a living from your writing while getting that first book into print, think nonfiction.

You'll dramatically increase your odds of succeeding in one of the most competitive and difficult fields in the world.  And you can always think back years later and say, "You know, that Herda guy knew what he was talking about!"

Until then...

Smoke if you got 'em.

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