What do you think?
Rate this book
The Everything Guide to Writing Nonfiction: All you need to write and sell exceptional nonfiction books, articles, essays, reviews, and memoirs
Everyone wants to be a published writer. But only a few manage to break into print. In this guide, Richard D. Bank provides expert advice to help you reach your goals of writing and selling articles, essays, and books. Featuring step-by-step instructions covering all aspects of writing, including how
- GenresWritingNonfictionEbooks
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
17 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 27, 2016
After two books in a row that said “Follow your bliss and the reader will appear,” it was kind of refreshing to find one that talks about selling and marketing your work.
The cover page announces: “All you need to write and sell exception nonfiction books, articles, essays, reviews, and memoirs.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t keep its promise.
Mr. Richard Bank’s does prove that anybody can be published. You don’t have to be talented; you don’t need to have anything new to say. What you need is to write a book proposal with a decent table of content. Here is what the author declares, “If you decide you want to write a nonfiction book for publication, do not write the book! Agents, editors, and publishers, make their decisions based upon a book proposal and not a complete manuscript.” Obviously that’s what F+W Media did. The table of content is very thorough and touches pretty much any subject one can think of when one thinks of writing nonfiction. It covers the entire genre from reviews to memoirs. The subtitles are very enticing with titles such as “The Query and the Hook” and “Ethic for Writing Nonfiction”.
Richard D. Bank guessed that most readers will only be interested in one specific genre and will not notice that the same text is repeated, sometimes almost verbatim from one chapter to another.
Here are the rules for writing nonfiction that can be deducted from, “Everything Guide to Writing Nonfiction”.
* Your style can be trite as long as you speak with a voice of authority. “Like every form of writing, articles have a beginning, middle and end.” Duh!
* You can repeat yourself between chapters since no one is interested in all the genres and will read them all:
- p. 73 “ … if you convey authority”;
- p. 75 “ … you must have a voice of authority”;
- p. 95 “ … while maintaining your voice of authority”.
* You can talk about the technique of writing different types of nonfiction without specifying what they are. For example ‘ … you still should write in a way to make it compelling”.
* Explains something very simple that everybody already knows as if it was very technical. ‘There are various types of lists but the most popular in self-help and how-to books is probably the "bulleted” list’, which has a dot or an asterisk before each item.”
* If you really have nothing to say on a specific subject just repeat yourself, sometime on the very same page, such as in the chapter called “Writing Reviews” on page 141:
- “To accomplish this, make sure your review contains a good deal of information, facts and well-thought-out insights.
- ‘Be sure to express your opinion but make sure you have supported your position with facts and logic.’
- "… but your opinion will only be valued if it is supported by facts and information”
"The Everything Guide to Writing Nonfiction" was recommended by a friend who asked me, “How do you like the book?” My answer was “It’s really bad but I’m having fun trashing it”.
So why did I read it till the end? Here and there are some nuggets of pertinent information but very few and far between. Some of the interviews and excerpts are interesting. The exercises are straightforward and gave me a nudge to begin writing nonfiction.
I would not recommend that anyone purchase this book or even borrow it from the library. Unless, like me, they need a poorly written book to conclude that there is hope for them after all.
The cover page announces: “All you need to write and sell exception nonfiction books, articles, essays, reviews, and memoirs.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t keep its promise.
Mr. Richard Bank’s does prove that anybody can be published. You don’t have to be talented; you don’t need to have anything new to say. What you need is to write a book proposal with a decent table of content. Here is what the author declares, “If you decide you want to write a nonfiction book for publication, do not write the book! Agents, editors, and publishers, make their decisions based upon a book proposal and not a complete manuscript.” Obviously that’s what F+W Media did. The table of content is very thorough and touches pretty much any subject one can think of when one thinks of writing nonfiction. It covers the entire genre from reviews to memoirs. The subtitles are very enticing with titles such as “The Query and the Hook” and “Ethic for Writing Nonfiction”.
Richard D. Bank guessed that most readers will only be interested in one specific genre and will not notice that the same text is repeated, sometimes almost verbatim from one chapter to another.
Here are the rules for writing nonfiction that can be deducted from, “Everything Guide to Writing Nonfiction”.
* Your style can be trite as long as you speak with a voice of authority. “Like every form of writing, articles have a beginning, middle and end.” Duh!
* You can repeat yourself between chapters since no one is interested in all the genres and will read them all:
- p. 73 “ … if you convey authority”;
- p. 75 “ … you must have a voice of authority”;
- p. 95 “ … while maintaining your voice of authority”.
* You can talk about the technique of writing different types of nonfiction without specifying what they are. For example ‘ … you still should write in a way to make it compelling”.
* Explains something very simple that everybody already knows as if it was very technical. ‘There are various types of lists but the most popular in self-help and how-to books is probably the "bulleted” list’, which has a dot or an asterisk before each item.”
* If you really have nothing to say on a specific subject just repeat yourself, sometime on the very same page, such as in the chapter called “Writing Reviews” on page 141:
- “To accomplish this, make sure your review contains a good deal of information, facts and well-thought-out insights.
- ‘Be sure to express your opinion but make sure you have supported your position with facts and logic.’
- "… but your opinion will only be valued if it is supported by facts and information”
"The Everything Guide to Writing Nonfiction" was recommended by a friend who asked me, “How do you like the book?” My answer was “It’s really bad but I’m having fun trashing it”.
So why did I read it till the end? Here and there are some nuggets of pertinent information but very few and far between. Some of the interviews and excerpts are interesting. The exercises are straightforward and gave me a nudge to begin writing nonfiction.
I would not recommend that anyone purchase this book or even borrow it from the library. Unless, like me, they need a poorly written book to conclude that there is hope for them after all.
September 2, 2018
This book is extremely redundant. It is clearly not written to be read in a linear fashion. You should just skip to the back of the book and read the legal section. Bank is an attorney, so that is the one area that had a decent amount of meat to the content.
August 10, 2025
In this book, the author shares a most comprehensive and detailed description with all the elements involved in writing nonfiction. We will learn about writing various forms of nonfiction, including books, essays, and scholarly, and of course, personal essays, the voice speaking directly to readers, and the importance of leaving a universal message to readers. The book also discusses how to bring writing to a publishing level with all the necessary elements of writing, and learning where we can take ‘literary license’, privacy rights, and consideration about libel laws.
Sample writings, forms, excerpts and interviews are included to demonstrate how to write book proposals and how to query agents and publishers. Breaks down the works of nonfiction in their various styles of writing – Op-eds, creative nonfiction, memoir, reviews, peronal essays and more, and relating to fiction. We are also offered tools and ideas on writing styles and structure, word counts for each style, where to acquire good research data, copyrights, insurance protections and what constitutes plagiarism. This book explains the rules of writing by genre.
A well written and concise book. I highly recommend this book for all writers – both seasoned and new, for nonfiction and fiction writers.
Sample writings, forms, excerpts and interviews are included to demonstrate how to write book proposals and how to query agents and publishers. Breaks down the works of nonfiction in their various styles of writing – Op-eds, creative nonfiction, memoir, reviews, peronal essays and more, and relating to fiction. We are also offered tools and ideas on writing styles and structure, word counts for each style, where to acquire good research data, copyrights, insurance protections and what constitutes plagiarism. This book explains the rules of writing by genre.
A well written and concise book. I highly recommend this book for all writers – both seasoned and new, for nonfiction and fiction writers.
December 21, 2018
With exercises to hone skills learned in each chapter, this text is a book worth reading for those who are pursuing writing non-fiction manuscripts.
July 4, 2020
Great introduction to the wonderful world of creative nonfiction!
February 5, 2023
Some good stuff. A lot of fluff. Author is full of themself.
December 4, 2021
Nothing spectacular here. Nothing I didn't already know.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews