In this member-first Q&A on the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, ALLi nonfiction adviser Anna Featherstone walks authors through how to write, publish, and promote nonfiction that sells—covering how to test market demand, what makes a book stand out, and the most common pricing and production mistakes. She shares practical, low-cost marketing tactics, from direct outreach and library events to writing ready-made stories that overstretched newsrooms welcome.
Listen to the Podcast: How to Write, Publish, and Promote Nonfiction That Sells
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Read the Transcript
Howard Lovy: Hello everybody, and welcome to our member Q&A webinar with Anna Featherstone, ALLi's nonfiction advisor. She's going to talk today about how to write, publish, and promote nonfiction. I'm going to take careful notes, because I'm in the middle of a nonfiction project myself and want to learn more about what I'm doing. Without further ado, take it away, Anna.
Anna Featherstone: Welcome, everyone. I'm a huge lover of nonfiction, so I'm ready for your questions. I know there's so much talk about fiction doing great guns with romantasy and everything, and that nonfiction sales are a little up and down — but that's not what I'm finding when nonfiction is done well and marketed well. I'd love if people want to pop in the chat what they're writing. Business books? Memoir? How-to? Each area of nonfiction has its own approach to production and marketing, and its own opportunities.
Inspirational self-help — love that, Linda. It is through that kind of book that people can move forward with their lives. That's the power of nonfiction: it's real, it's helpful, it's sharing your knowledge. It's exciting that you're choosing to write this when there are other things you could be writing. Mason, working on a gardening book — so close to my heart. Tell us a bit more: is it focusing on one specific aspect of gardening — backyard gardening, container gardening, fruit trees? Personal narrative — beautiful. I've been reading some incredible personal narratives and they are the most beautiful books, able to be very niche or to cross over. Randy, myth versus reality of Orthodox Jews — certainly a specific audience you can reach. Economics and the state of the world — yes. And Pauline Wilson from Australia — memoir and writing about self-publishing, perfect thing to explore. And Howard — memoir and how-to on fighting antisemitism. Really interesting to combine those two. When you can do that in a book, that mix of memoir and how-to in one, it actually broadens your audience in a lot of ways and makes your book more useful.
I'm thinking of a book written about shyness and introversion — the author wrote it as memoir but also interviewed psychologists and university professors throughout, and it made it so rich because it wasn't just her saying things. There were facts, and she was able to relate them back to her life. That kind of mix can be great. Kelly, biography for the children's market — discouraged because a librarian said those books don't get checked out too often. Your mission then is to make it super cool, fabulous cover, a great biography. Do your research with kids: what do they want in that kind of book? Are you doing it on local characters from history? Edward, a blog about teaching online and the impact of AI — that book is going to be super in the moment because AI is changing things so quickly. How do you get it out quickly and keep it able to be updated? Who is your audience — teachers, worried parents, government? Gail Dallaston doing great work in climate change and suburban verge gardening — yes, when there is no obvious demand you do need to create demand, and that can be a fun niche. It's hard being that pioneer, but it also means you'll be out front when other people come into the space.
Mason has come back with his apple gardening — a state-of-the-art spindle technique better than espalier. That kind of specificity is where you get an audience. Not everyone wants to grow apples, but those who do are going to buy every book on apples. And that kind of book is great for the backyard gardener as well as people on smaller lots. Very cool, and you'd be able to do so much fun promotion for it.
Evaluating Your Book Idea: Is There Market Demand?
One of the early questions was: how can authors evaluate their book idea and whether there's market demand for it? That's a great question, but I want to take one step back. If it's the book you have to write and really want to write, maybe you should write it anyway even if market demand is uncertain. I've written books for a super-niche audience because I knew I could do it well and wanted to help in that space, and it can lead to the most amazing things. But if you want to write in a niche primarily for commercial reasons — to make money, to make this your main project — then look at what's already selling well. Go into Amazon, search the categories, look at the bestseller ranks, use a tool like Publisher Rocket. If you can't find any books on your topic, that could mean there's no demand, which is worrying. Or it might mean no one's done it yet — but more often than not, it's the former. Be careful about that.
What Makes a Nonfiction Book Stand Out?
What makes a nonfiction book stand out? The first thing is it doesn't have to stand out for everyone — it just needs to stand out for your particular audience. Then it's specificity — a word that's very hard to say — a strong author voice, great writing, and professional production quality in your cover, editing, and interior design.
An example: you could write a book called ‘My Twenty Years as a Consultant' or ‘Tips After Twenty Years as a Consultant.' Very broad. We don't get a strong sense of anything except that it'll be about business and there'll be tips. I recently interviewed an author called Andrew Griffiths — that interview will be on the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast next month, depending when you're listening. He called one of his books for consultants Someone Has to Be the Most Expensive, Why Not Make It You? That title alone targets people with a very specific challenge — selling themselves and making enough money doing what they love. His author voice, just in that title, is very strong. It promises something on the cover. He then backed it up by producing a book that looked expensive: bright red cover, very different from other business books. He followed through with the whole concept. That kind of thinking — naming your reader's problem and then fixing it — is what makes a book stand out. It works for memoir too: in memoir, we want to be entertained, to feel, to explore themes of love or loss.
Most Common Publishing and Marketing Mistakes
The most common publishing and marketing mistakes? I know the answer because I've made them all. Underproducing the book — not spending enough on editing or your cover. Underpricing your book. Not listening to experts who tell you something isn't a good idea. But on the other hand, sometimes listening to experts who send you down the wrong path. Each book is different and you need to find your own path. But if librarians, booksellers, or publishing professionals say your title could be better or your subtitle isn't as strong as it could be, really listen — as authors we get so caught up in our vision that it's hard to see the book from the reader's perspective, or from the metadata perspective that sits behind your book.
Some people would love to have on their cover a beautiful family image their granddaughter drew or an artwork their cousin painted. Maybe that works for them — but how do we improve that concept so it works for a range of readers? Another mistake is not understanding the actual value your book gives readers. A book might have a cover price of $12 or $38, but I know the value of my books is probably at least $2,500 in saving time, saving money, giving knowledge. It's about understanding your value as an author — that you're accelerating a reader's knowledge or emotional growth. Another is over-investing: be careful about what you spend your money on. There are areas you don't want to skimp on, but there are also ways to do things yourself, like interior formatting. And be careful about advertising — not wasting too much money there, but do spend enough to produce a product you're confident standing behind.
Another mistake is thinking your first book is going to knock everyone's socks off and that's all you have to do. It takes years, really, and multiple books to build your brand, build your audience, and build your confidence. The first book is tougher. For those of you on your first book, it's such a journey, and you're going to try a lot and do a lot. Don't be hard on yourself. Know that it takes time and what you've done is important. Just be kind to yourself.
Running Excerpts Before Publication: Does It Spoil Too Much?
Howard Lovy: For nonfiction, does it help to run excerpts in a newsletter ahead of time, or does that spoil too much?
Anna Featherstone: Two schools of thought. You don't want to wait until the book is out to start publicity and spreading the word. My question is: how big are the excerpts and to what audience? If people feel they've read the book, they're not going to buy it. Rather than full excerpts, maybe pull out some fabulous quotes and talk around them, and include a few short excerpts. That's what I'd recommend for an author without a big following.
However — there's an Australian author called Sarah Wilson who, as she was drafting, put every chapter on Substack over a number of months, building a huge audience who could interact as she wrote. People were asked for their comments on each chapter as she went. By the end, yes, we had all read the whole book — but it was the first draft. She then engaged the community more broadly, did live sessions, and the book was shaped by editors afterward. She got the book deal anyway because she'd already grown a big audience. So you can either spoil too much, or it can become a juggernaut that works. I think it depends on your book and your audience. I like to keep some things back so there's more demand for it.
This also relates to publicity. When a big outlet does a two-page feature or a podcast goes through everything in the book, often people feel they've read it already and don't buy it. Sometimes smaller coverage is better than having someone interview you for an hour. Give people tasters rather than everything.
Howard Lovy: I have close to 2,000 subscribers on Substack, and a lot of what I write about is discussion. I'm thinking some of it might be good advance publicity for the book — they might eventually buy it based on the discussions going on or some selective excerpts. It's more like a ‘here's my work in progress, what do you think?'
Anna Featherstone: Yes. And some of those subscribers might not buy the book because they feel they're already part of the conversation — but then they might be talking to other people about it. It's still visibility, which is what we all need in a world with so many books being generated, so much noise, and so many other mediums vying for attention. Working out what balance is right for you and finding innovative ways to do it — that's the key.
Building Authority as a Nonfiction Author
Howard Lovy: With nonfiction especially, you have to establish yourself as some kind of expert in whatever you're writing about — and that comes even before you write the book.
Anna Featherstone: That's right. However, writing the book can also make you the expert, because you've interviewed and talked to all the experts. Often people on this call might wonder: who am I to say this? The way around that is to go and speak to other people and interview them. By doing that, by the end of the book you actually are the expert — you've absorbed all that knowledge, turned it over in your mind, pulled out the best kernels. You become one of the experts.
Howard Lovy: I'm finding myself promoting myself, promoting the book, and promoting the discussion all at the same time — wearing so many different hats.
Anna Featherstone: That can make for a very rich book and a great audience who appreciates all those interconnecting things you do. That's the whole thing about nonfiction, isn't it? Writing it changes us. It forces us to try new things and really think about what we believe, and to curate everything down into 50,000 or 80,000 words — or 100,000 if you go too far, like me.
‘My Topic Has Been Covered Already' — What Do You Do?
Someone asked: ‘I feel like my topic has been covered a lot already. How can I offer something different while sticking to what I know?' Nearly everything in the history of the world has been covered, often really well. The question is: what is your version of it? What do you bring that's slightly different? Is it how you see things? Is it that you've experimented with things others haven't? Is it that before now it's been written in a very academic tone, but you're making it understandable for a sixth grader? What are you bringing that is different?
There might be 5,000 books about crochet. So what is the unique thing you bring? I still remember there was a book called Crafting with Cat Hair. So niche and out there — but also not, because there are people with lots of fluffy cats who wonder what to do with all that hair. Such a funny, quirky take on a topic. I wrote a book about small farming, and there are so many books about different types of farming, but there wasn't one that covered small farms in Australia — the whole business behind it, the whole lifestyle, agritourism. So it wasn't about breeding cattle or growing nuts, it was more lifestyle and agritourism. What do you bring that can be different? People, with so many books out there, need to understand what's going to set your book apart, what's going to light them up.
I was at a writers' festival and literary agents were saying that now because of AI, the manuscripts they're reading — you get to page whatever and you think, ‘This is competent, this is competent,' fifteen pages in, ‘This is competent — is this written by AI?' You don't want to be competent. There has to be personality in your book. There has to be something that saves people time, makes them feel, teaches them something new, comes at it from a different angle. Maybe it's contrarian.
Howard Lovy: Something counterintuitive, something that sparks something. ‘Oh, wait, I didn't know that,' or ‘That's counter to what I previously thought.'
Anna Featherstone: Exactly. I judge the Australian Business Book Awards and the Travel Writers Awards as well, and just reading those books — you can be like, ‘I've read this before. I've not read that exact book before, but I've read this already.' And then another book and you're like, ‘Oh, this has pep. This has something different. This has the author's voice.' I feel like people listening to this Q&A are here because you really feel deeply. You're not writing a book because you think you have to or because a competitor wrote a book. You're here because you can't not write. That's the kind of author who produces great books.
Howard Lovy: That's what I tell my editing clients too. I can tell the AI-written slop from the real unique voice. I would rather have somebody write something ungrammatical than produce perfect AI drivel, because something uneven with personality and humor is something that's actually readable. That's what I want to read.
Anna Featherstone: Yes. I wrote a memoir about living life on a small farm — quite hilarious and also tragic. I got fantastic reviews, but one person wrote, ‘I can't believe someone would talk like this.' And I thought: ‘Oh, actually, that's how I think. That's how I talk.' That's what made the book different — it wasn't ‘the sheep came over the hill,' it was crazy stuff. Make your book alive. Be alive in it. Sometimes we hold back in nonfiction because we want to be seen as professional. But we can get professional anywhere — we can search AI, read a business magazine. That's actually not what readers want. They want you.
Howard Lovy: We want to trust you. It's not just about the information — it's your unique voice and how you present it, and your unique experiences. That's something AI can't duplicate.
Anna Featherstone: And even if you're interviewing experts, it's the questions you ask from your way of thinking that elicit a different response from that expert to include in your book. And including quotes we've already read a hundred times from every business guru out there — repeating those in your book just takes the energy out of it. We think we're elevating ourselves by tying ourselves to Simon Sinek quotes and every other guru out there, and we're not. We're just saying we can't think for ourselves.
Howard Lovy: Have confidence in your own voice, not something Mark Twain said 100 years ago.
Marketing Strategies for Nonfiction Books
Linda McDonald asked about promoting her nonfiction book — specifically whether a company offering $2,500 for six months and twelve reels for BookTok, Facebook, and Instagram is worth it. Let me give some broader marketing strategies first, and then we'll come back to Linda's specific situation.
Firstly: write a great book that others can't help but recommend. No fluff, no waffle, no tangents. Think about what you're doing for that reader. Writing a great book is the best marketing strategy of all. Direct emails — rather than an advertising campaign, send emails directly to people who might be interested. Using the apple gardening example: email nurseries that sell apples about your book, offer to do a workshop at those nurseries, take a stand at a farmers' market known for apples. It takes a bit of research time, but it's a fun weekend project: how can I reach these people?
Time is a great marketing tool — things take time. Writing more books builds a backlist. Within those books you can cross-promote your other titles, picking up readers as you go. Bulk sales: does your book lend itself to being sold into conferences or associations? Companies giving books as gifts to different teams — the HR team, the sales team, if it's about confidence. Bulk sales at workshops, including the book in the purchase price of the workshop ticket. Strategic gifting: who can you give your book to that will help spread the word? I don't love giving books away because there is such value in them, but to the right person, gifting a book brings value back. Is it worth the twelve dollars plus the extra value of your book to give a copy to this person? Sometimes yes.
Library events are a fabulous way to market because you piggyback on the library's existing audience — they're already marketing it to their community. If you're going to regional areas, you can back up that library marketing with some very hyperlocally targeted Facebook ads to bring in more people.
Media stories you can pitch, and podcasts. Often media stories don't move book sales much — however, they build your brand, give you confidence, sit on your website building credibility, and generate leads. You start making connections in the media, which can lead to additional stories. Radio interviews can be good because there's only so much you can cover on radio — it might pique someone's interest, and they'll mention it to a friend who then looks up the book. Radio can work better than print in that way. And podcasts can be fabulous too — maybe they won't move loads of books immediately, but your network spreads out more and more, and that builds confidence and legitimacy.
Howard Lovy: It's a little disappointing to hear they don't move books that much.
Anna Featherstone: They can — but the authors I work with, and myself as well, might have a 20-minute interview on the top drive-time show and look at the sales chart and it's just the tiniest blip. You think ‘Oh my gosh, I made morning television!' and then… it's all the other things combined that make the difference.
Howard Lovy: How much effort should we put into positioning ourselves as a local expert and pitching for media?
Anna Featherstone: Oh, I think it's absolutely worth it because you've already got the content, so it's very easy to reach out. And I don't actually write media releases because they're so bland and boring. I just send details in an email — ‘Dear so-and-so,' some bullet points, a couple of quotes. For local media especially, I actually write the story. I don't do a media release — I write the story, include a photo, everything they need, and just say, ‘Hey, just some background for you. Feel free to use or change — call me.' I know that's appreciated. Newsrooms are running on empty with so many job losses. A ready-made, human-written story is a gift to them.
Howard Lovy: I spent the first half of my career in the media — a ready-made story written by an actual human, not AI, by somebody local, is great.
Anna Featherstone: Exactly. And if you want to go further afield, you can actually make money selling that article. Change it slightly to fit the style of the magazine — Organic Gardening magazine, or a teaching association publication, or whatever — pitch the editor that you're the expert, you can write this story, and get paid $300 or $600 with a byline. That's how I like to market: being paid to market my own book and brand.
A Specific Case: Linda McDonald's Inspirational Book
Now to Linda McDonald's specific situation. Her second book is inspirational, appeals to a Christian audience, covers betrayal and abandonment, trauma, grief, abuse, and recovery. Her first book sold 142,000 copies. She's a retired therapist and not looking to do more consulting.
You have a really defined audience, which is brilliant. Is that audience on BookTok? I don't think so — betrayed and abandoned spouses probably skew over 35, maybe over 50. Facebook more than Instagram. The question is: is that $2,500 going to generate that back in book sales? Are you also trying to become a consultant or therapist for those people, in which case the follow-on contact matters too? Can you write articles? Why can't you write an article for The Guardian? There are groups everywhere — minister groups, church groups. Might the book be interesting for book clubs? So many things you could do with that kind of topic. You can definitely spend that kind of money if it's no problem and you want to trial it. But if you want to be more economical: write articles for different outlets, talk directly to ministers, speak at relevant events. That's a hot topic happening all too much — there's definitely a market there, as you obviously found with your first book. And speaking engagements, in this disconnected world with AI, the more live events you can do the better. Not networking — I hate that word — more like hanging out with people who are interested in the same things as you, and finding where they are.
Should You Turn Your Nonfiction Book into a Course?
Someone asked: should I turn my nonfiction book into a course, and if so, what platform? The answer is: only if your readers need guided implementation, not just information. With a course, can you also offer accountability, structure, and community? If it's like the Apple book, maybe you'd want to show people how to do that technique. Does it have to be a full-blown course? Maybe not — maybe you can just charge for access to a video or two. There are multiple platforms out there — do your research. I found one I love that's more economical, but they all do different things. But don't over-invest in courses, because with AI people are increasingly getting answers directly and don't need the whole course unless it's very visual or has a strong community component.
Closing
Howard Lovy: Thank you, Anna. Any last-minute questions from the chat?
Anna Featherstone: I don't see any others coming in. I wish you all the best with your writing and finding your audience. Nonfiction is a gift to other humans — and creatures, if you're writing about the environment. It's a remarkable thing to be able to share knowledge and the human experience. Just do it well. Make it worth it.
Howard Lovy: I like the way you open all your podcasts by talking about the wonderful world we all share. Nonfiction is a great way to share your knowledge about it. And as our fearless leader Orna Ross would say: happy writing and happy publishing, everybody.
Anna Featherstone: Have a wonderful day.
