Is Your Idea a Book or a Magazine Article?
Not every good idea is a book-length idea. This can be a challenge for any writer to accept.
A nonfiction book requires breadth, depth, and durability. It must sustain a reader’s attention over 40,000 to 60,000 words (or more) without thinning out or repeating itself. Many proposals begin with a compelling premise; but when examined closely, they contain only a single strong chapter—or worse, a single strong paragraph.
The question is not whether your idea is interesting. The question is whether it can be sustained and therefore carry enough substance.
A helpful test is expansion. Can your concept be broken into eight to ten distinct, necessary chapters, each building on the last? Do those chapters develop the idea, or do they circle it? If you find yourself restating the same insight in slightly different language, you may not have a book. You have an article trying to stretch beyond its natural length.
Another test is thought-changing consequence. Does your idea change the reader in stages? A book should move a reader somewhere. Can you take a reader from inquiry to understanding, from doubt to action, from assumptions to apprehension? If the entire argument can be grasped in a single sitting, it may not need a full-length (tens of thousands of words) treatment.
In some ways, this is a principle of all persuasive speech.
How often have you listened to a speaker who brought you to a tremendous conclusion, only to keep talking for another 15 minutes? How often have you started to read a book, only to abandon it because you “got the idea already”?
Writers sometimes mistake intensity for depth. A powerful insight feels expansive, but it may not be. Publishers are wary of ideas that peak too early and have nowhere to go.
Let me be clear, this does not minimize your idea. It simply suggests that every writer consider what the best form is for conveying the idea. (If it isn’t read, it lies undiscovered like an ancient manuscript buried in the desert.) Some of the most effective writing is brief, focused, and timely. An article, a series, or even a short-form project may better serve the idea than a book.
A wise proposal shows, in its presentation, that the author understands the difference between a nice idea for a post or an article versus what is best communicated in long-form.
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5 Questions Your Proposal Must Answer Series:
Question 1. Is Your Audience/Platform Big Enough?
Question 2. Is Your Idea a Book or a Magazine Article?
Question 3. How Is Your Book Different (And Is It Different Enough)?
Question 4. Will Enough People Pay for Your Book?
Question 5. Why Should You Write It? Why Not Someone Else?