Thinking like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction and Get It Published
Author: Susan Rabiner
Distilled wisdom from two publishing pros for every serious nonfiction author in search of big commercial success. Over 50,000 books are published in America each year, the vast majority nonfiction. Even so, many writers are stymied in getting their books published, never mind gaining significant attention for their ideas—and substantial sales. Here at last is a book devoted solely to the needs of these authors. Filled with trade secrets, Thinking Like Your Editor explains:
• how to tailor academic writing to a general reader, without losing ideas or dumbing down your work;
• how to write a proposal that editors cannot ignore;
• why the most important chapter is your introduction;
• why "simple structure, complex ideas" is the mantra for creating serious nonfiction;
• why smart nonfiction editors regularly reject great writing but find new arguments irresistible.
Whatever the topic, from history to busi ness, science to philosophy, law, or gender studies, this book is vital to every serious nonfiction writer.
Author Biography: Susan Rabiner, former editorial director of Basic Books, edited such bestsellers as The Rape of Nanking and The Physics of Star Trek. Alfred Fortunato, her husband, is a freelance editor and writer.
[A]n excellent book, one of the best I've ever read on the art of serious nonfiction.
Iris Chang
[A]n excellent book, one of the best I've ever read on the art of serious nonfiction.
Hugh Van Dusen
In 45 years in publishing I have never read better advice than this book offers. Bravo!
Herbert P. Bix
[W]ill be the standard text for non-fiction authors.
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. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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 suc cess. 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.
What People Are Saying
Dale Maharidge
Rabiner and Fortunato take you through the corporate Oz of the publishing world, behind the smoke and mirrors, yet leave you with your creative heart intact-Dale Maharidge, Stanford School of Journalism, author of And Their Children After Them, winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction
Iris Chang
Thinking Like Your Editor is one of the best I've ever read on the art of serious nonfiction, and Susan Rabiner is a modern-day Maxwell Perkins who deserves her place in the pantheon of great American nonfiction editors. Rabiner and Fortunato blend practical and intellectual advice with true Renaissance spirit- an idealistic urge to elevate books to the highest standards of literature, without sacrificing any integrity of scholarship-Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking
John Paulos
The path from good idea to great book i s anything but a straight line, and Rabiner and Fortunato know every precipice and crevice along the way. By following the cairns laid out in Thinking Like Your Editor the non-fiction author is much more likely to arrive at his destination than by picking his own way over the rocks.-John Paulos, Professor of Mathematics at Temple Univesity, author of A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper and Innumeracy
George L. Gibson
Susan Rabiner was one of the finest editors in publishing and is now one of the finest agents. This guide to succeeding with nonfiction is every bit as good as her submission letters: the best in the business-George L. Gibson, President and Publisher, Walker & Company
Laura N. Brown
Thinking Like Your Editor should be required reading for any writer of serious nonfiction. This insider's look at how publishing decisions are really made is unerringly accurate. The step-by-step advice on how to write a great proposal (and the book that follows) is invaluable. And the wisdom distilled from twenty years of helping serious writers to think more clearly and write more accessibly is evident on every page. Any scholar hoping to reach a wider audience of readers should spend an afternoon with Rabiner and Fortunato-Laura N. Brown, President, Oxford University Press USA
Table of Contents:
| A Note to the Reader | 11 | |
| Prologue: First, a little story ... | 15 | |
| Introduction | 27 | |
| Ch. 1 | Thinking Like an Editor: Audience, Audience, Audience | 39 |
| Pt. 1 | The Submission Package | |
| Ch. 2 | How to Write a Proposal | 61 |
| Ch. 3 | Wrapping Up the Submission Package: The Table of Contents, the Sample Chapter, and Supporting Materials | 97 |
| Ch. 4 | Placing Your Manuscript with a Publisher : To Agent or Not to Agent, and Other Questions about the Publishing Acquisition Process | 120 |
| Pt. 2 | The Writing Process | |
| Ch. 5 | A Question of Fairness and Other Limits of Argument in Serious Nonfiction | 141 |
| Ch. 6 | Using Narrative Tension | 177 |
| Ch. 7 | From Introduction to Epilogue: Writing Your Book Chapter by Chapter - and What to Do When You Get into Trouble | 196 |
| Pt. 3 | From Edition to Marketing to Publication | |
| Ch. 8 | How to Be Published Well | 223 |
| App. A | Sample Proposal and Writing Sample | 239 |
| Acknowledgments | 269 | |
| Index | 271 |
Interesting book: Business and Administrative Communication and The Organizational Behavior Reader
Factory Physics
Author: Wallace J Hopp
After a brief introductory chapter, Factory Physics 3/e is divided into three parts: I – The Lessons of History; II – Factory Physics; and III – Principles in Practice. The scientific approach to manufacturing and supply chain management, developed in Part II, is unique to this text. No other text or professional book provides a rigorous, principles-based foundation for manufacturing management. The Third Edition offers tighter connections between Lean Manufacturing, MRP/ERP, Six Sigma, Supply Chain Management, and Factory Physics. In addition to enhancing the historical overview of how these systems evolved, the authors show explicitly how users can achieve Lean Manufacturing objectives (faster response, less inventory) using the integration aspects of MRP/ERP/SCM systems along with the variance analysis methods of Six Sigma. Factory Physics provides the overarching framework that coordinates all of these initiatives into a single-focu sed strategy.
Booknews
Outlines underlying principles that drive operating relationships within a factory. Sections of technical notes present justification, examples, and methodologies that rely on mathematics (although nothing higher than simple calculus). Includes study questions, problems, and intuition-building exercises. This second edition contains more problems and examples, Web support, and additional material on areas including inventory management, personnel, variability pooling, and supply chain management. Can be used for manufacturing management students in a core manufacturing operations course, MBA students in a second operations management course, and BS and MS industrial engineering students in a production control course. Hopp is affiliated with Northwestern University. Spearman is affiliated with Georgia Institute of Technology. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Table of Contents:
| Factory Physics? | 1 | |
| Pt. I | The Lessons of History | |
| 1 | Manufacturing in America | 14 |
| 2 | Inventory Control: From EOQ to ROP | 48 |
| 3 | The MRP Crusade | 155 |
| 4 | The JIT Revolution | 155 |
| 5 | What Went Wrong | 168 |
| Pt. II | Factory Physics | |
| 6 | A Science of Manufacturing | 186 |
| Basic Factory Dynamics | 213 | |
| 8 | Variability Basics | 248 |
| 9 | The Corrupting Influence of Variability | 287 |
| 10 | Push and Pull Production Systems | 339 |
| 11 | The Human Element in Operating Management | 365 |
| 12 | Total Quality Manufacturing | 380 |
| Pt. III | Principles in Practice | |
| 13 | A Pull Planning Framework | 408 |
| 14 | Shop Floor Control | 453 |
| 15 | Production Scheduling | 488 |
| 16 | Aggregate and Workforce Planning | 535 |
| 17 | Supply Chain Management | 582 |
| 18 | Capacity Management | 626 |
| 19 | Synthesis-Pulling It All Together | 647 |
| References | 672 | |
| Index | 683 |
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