Writer Career Path #3: Non-Fiction Writer

How to become known for a niche you own (and build a business around it).

Oct 22, 2023

Dear Writer,

So you want to be a Non-Fiction Writer?

In 2022, I co-wrote a book called Snow Leopard, about how to create (and dominate) your own category as a writer. In that book, we published our research analyzing the Top 500 (which came out to the Top 444, adjusting for duplicates) best-selling Non-Fiction business books of the past two decades—looking for patterns and key insights to reverse-engineer what makes a best-seller.

Note: We used the constraint “business books” to exclude outliers like autobiographies of celebrities or presidents, memoirs, etc. So while this isn’t a perfect analysis of the entire Non-Fiction category, it’s directionally correct and reveals some important, overarching lessons if you want to achieve success as a Non-Fiction Writer.

I am going to reference our biggest takeaways from this study, and build on them here to explain how the career path of becoming a successful Non-Fiction Writer works.

And for the sake of clarity, I am defining the Non-Fiction Writer career path as someone who:

A) Wants to find success in the traditional world of Non-Fiction publishing.
B) And writes one or more books on Non-Fiction topics.

For some, this means approaching Non-Fiction as a career in and of itself—they identify as a “writer,” first (Robert Greene, Ryan Holiday, Malcolm Gladwell come to mind). But for many others, writing one (or multiple) Non-Fiction books is really just a way to amplify their career. They are an executive, startup founder, marketer, small business owner, or solopreneur first—and a writer and “published author” second.

Either way, the goal of this career path is to achieve a level of status in the Non-Fiction world that either grants you the title of “professional writer” and/or (if you are a business owner) “published author” and perceived “industry expert.”

Note #2: I am going to exclude self-published Non-Fiction writers from this Career Path (myself included) because even though the overarching principles are the same, Non-Fiction self-published writers are better categorized as Writerpreneurs, which we’ll talk about later. Primarily because it doesn’t matter how many copies you sell or how much money you make as a self-published Non-Fiction writer, you will never unlock the status rewards a traditionally published Non-Fiction author does.

The Big 7 Non-Fiction Categories

Anything that is based on facts, real events, and real people constitutes as Non-Fiction.

But if you want to become a successful, even somewhat mainstream Non-Fiction Writer, you will most likely be playing in one of the Big 7 Non-Fiction categories.

According to our research, the Big 7 are:

Personal Development: Makes up 23% of best-selling Non-Fiction business titles, and generates 35% of the category’s revenue.
Personal Finance: Makes up 25% of best-selling Non-Fiction business titles, and generates 19% of the category’s revenue.
Insights/Thinking: Makes up 15% of best-selling Non-Fiction business titles, and generates 16% of the category’s revenue.
Leadership: Makes up 13% of best-selling Non-Fiction business titles, and generates 15% of the category’s revenue.
Case Study/Allegory: Makes up 11% of best-selling Non-Fiction business titles, and generates 9% of the category’s revenue.
Functional Excellence: Makes up 8% of best-selling Non-Fiction business titles, and generates 6% of the category’s revenue.
Relationships: Makes up 5% of best-selling Non-Fiction business titles, and generates 5% of the category’s revenue.

You should have two big takeaways from the above analysis.

The first should be that if you have aspirations for becoming a mainstream Non-Fiction Writer, then you should plan on writing books in one of these 7 overarching categories. Why? Because these 7 categories are what appeal to the widest number of readers. This choice alone increases your chances of success much more than “the quality of the writing.”

The second should be that, regardless of topic, you should consider how you can write about that topic through a Personal Development or Personal Finance lens. The largest total addressable markets of Non-Fiction readers are people who want to improve themselves and people who want to make more money (or stop losing money). So if you want to resonate with the most people possible, speak to those desired outcomes.

The Positioning: Idea-Centric vs Author-Centric

Now, when your book is placed on the world’s bookshelf, is the reader buying your “idea?” Or are they buying “You?”

Idea-Centric Books: These are books that evangelize an idea, oftentimes backed by data, research, and/or a variety of stories that “prove the point.” The draw to the reader is the idea or topic being covered, not necessarily the status of the author.
Author-Centric Books: These are books that evangelize the author, and their expertise and credibility. The draw to the reader has less to do with the idea or topic, and more to do with the status of the author.

Speaking as someone who has ghostwritten thousands of Non-Fiction articles, as well as several Non-Fiction books for some very accomplished people, let me tell you: most people want to believe “they” are what’s important (not the idea). They think the reader is buying “them.” And the vast majority of the time, not only is that false… but it’s not an economically productive way to approach selling books.

According to our analysis, Idea-Centric books have better unit economics (meaning they can command higher and more stable price points) and generate more revenue per unit sold. Whereas Author-Centric books are more popular (and collect more Amazon reviews) but actually generate less revenue per unit sold. Author-Centric books are also significantly less likely to remain relevant after ~5 years. So even if you are a celebrity or well-known figure in your industry and can rationalize writing an Author-Centric book, it’s worth considering how you could increase the shelf-life of your work by giving the “idea” the spotlight over yourself.

Consider for a moment the following difference in positioning:

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers: The Story of My Success by Malcolm Gladwell

One word changes everything!

The first title asks if you (the reader) are interested in reading about how “outliers” become successful—that’s the big idea of the book. The second title asks if you (the reader) are interested in reading about how Malcolm Gladwell, an outlier, became successful. Two very different value propositions for the reader. And if we ran a test, the former would outperform the latter by a wide margin because the total addressable market of people who are interested in reading about “outlier success” as a topic is magnitudes larger than the total addressable market of people who are interested in reading about Malcolm Gladwell’s career.

This is, by far, the most common trap people fall into in the world of Non-Fiction writing. They make the mistake of thinking “they” are the main character—when in reality, the reader and “the idea” you are sharing with them are the main characters. And the total addressable market of readers interested in a new and interesting idea will almost always be larger than the total addressable market of readers interested in “You.”

If the book you want to write is Idea-Centric, the ideal categories are:

Personal Development
Insights/Thinking
Case Study/Allegory
Relationships

Because these topics are more interesting when reinforced with curated stories, insights, and research—not just your own personal experiences.

Whereas if the book you want to write is Author-Centric, the ideal categories are:

Personal Finance
Leadership
Functional Excellence

Because with these topics, “who” you learn from is very important. You want to learn Personal Finance from someone who is rich. You want to learn Leadership from someone who is a battle-tested leader. You want to learn Functional Excellence from someone who is excellent in their chosen field.

Either way, data shows if you want to resonate with the widest number of readers, you are always better off evangelizing and marketing “the big idea” in your book—not yourself.

The “Proven” Non-Fiction Book Structure

I’m not sure who deserves credit for establishing this structure, but Malcolm Gladwell certainly had a hand in popularizing it.

The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson, Range by David Epstein, Blink by Malcolm Gladwell… these books and many more all follow the same structure:

Open each chapter with a “little-known” story about someone or something with relevant credibility: a historic figure, a groundbreaking company, a “rags to riches” everyday person, a little town, a big city, etc. Bonus points for citing an interesting statistic or scientific study.
50% of the way through the chapter, end the story on a cliffhanger.
Insert your own commentary as an author with your interpretation of the story—and emphasize the takeaways for the reader.
Resolve the cliffhanger and finish the story. “Show” the conclusion you just articulated.
End the chapter with a recap of takeaways.

Now, can you write Non-Fiction books that don’t follow this structure? Of course you can—and many find success.

However, especially as a first-time Non-Fiction author, and especially if you have minimal credibility and are writing an Idea-Centric book, best believe your publisher will encourage you to use this structure. It’s easy to replicate. It leverages well-known allegories. And it’s a nice middle ground between education and entertainment.

The Art Of Non-Fiction

What does it take to become a successful Non-Fiction Writer?

Not nearly as much as it takes to become a successful Literary or Genre Fiction Writer!

At the end of the day, Non-Fiction is a game of two things:

Accumulating Expertise
Establishing Credibility

You either accumulate that expertise and credibility over the course of your career and then write a book (or multiple books) on your learnings, or you set out to accumulate expertise and credibility on a specific subject through research and then write a book (or multiple books) on your learnings.

But notice how neither of these things has much to do with the “quality of writing.”

This is arguably the biggest difference between “Literature” and “Non-Fiction.” Literature is all about the writing—how it sounds, how it stacks, how it moves, what it symbolizes. Whereas in Non-Fiction, the quality of the writing comes second to the knowledge transfer happening between writer and reader. In Literature, the reader reads for pleasure, thoughtfulness, even mental resilience. But in Non-Fiction, the reader reads for information. Anything “creative” on top of that is a bonus, nothing more.

Here’s an easy way of organizing these different career paths in your mind:

Literature: The value proposition to the reader is the style & language (“What does this text show me about the world or myself?”)
Genre Fiction: The value proposition to the reader is the plot (“What happens next?”)
Non-Fiction: The value proposition to the reader is the information (“What’s the answer to this question?”)

Now, is there a quality-in-the-writing difference between reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and The ONE Thing by Gary Keller? Of course. Malcolm Gladwell has been a journalist and staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996, and Gary Keller is a serial entrepreneur who writes books to amplify his companies. And yet, they’re both New York Times best-selling authors.

Furthermore, the quality of writing isn’t really what makes a reader buy or not buy either one of their books. As a Non-Fiction reader, you will gladly tolerate sub-par writing if it means inhaling answers to questions you find interesting (“What is the ONE thing I should be focused on in my life and business?”). Or, said in the inverse: if the Non-Fiction book isn’t giving you the information you seek (the answers to questions you find interesting), you probably aren’t going to read it.

If you want to become a successful Non-Fiction writer, you should view the above as liberating. You don’t need to become the next Ernest Hemingway or Jane Austen. All you need to do is acquire expertise (either through your career or research), and use that expertise to help readers answer questions they find interesting.

For example…

Case Study: Gary Keller

Gary Keller is the founder and Executive Chairman of Keller Williams, the largest real estate company in the world.

But in 2013, he and his Vice President of Strategic Content, Jay Papasan, decided to co-author a Non-Fiction book together called The ONE Thing—which went on to become a Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today bestseller. They had written other Non-Fiction books before, such as The Millionaire Real Estate Agent and The Millionaire Real Estate Investor as educational resources establishing their thought leadership in the world of real estate. But The ONE Thing was their first book to break into the mainstream and reach a broader audience.

No shade to Gary or Jay (I enjoyed the book), but from a writing perspective The ONE Thing is a far cry from a book like The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. The language is simple (like 5th grade reading level simple), and the instructions are rudamentary. But because the book answers a universal question millions and millions of people struggle to answer: “How do I choose what to focus on?”, readers were interested. The quality of the writing wasn’t what made the book successful. The information was.

That said, there are two big mistakes that could have prevented The ONE Thing from becoming such a successful book—and I want to point them out so you don’t make them.

Mistake #1: Making the book Author-Centric instead of Idea-Centric. By 2013, Keller Williams had become a massively successful company and Gary Keller had built his fortune. He could have centered himself and titled the book something like: The ONE Thing: How I Became Successful. But he didn’t. Instead, he put the spotlight on the “idea,” dramatically increasing the size of the total addressable market of readers. (I had no idea who Gary Keller was when I first picked up The ONE Thing and read it—and that’s the point.)
Mistake #2: Writing the book through the lens of real estate instead of personal development. Had Gary & Jay written The ONE Thing through a real estate lens, the book probably would have done well in their niche… but never would have broken into the mainstream. Instead, by ascending up The Big 7 Non-Fiction categories and writing through a personal development lens, they dramatically increased the size of the total addressable market of readers. (There are far more people on planet earth interested in learning how to focus than there are people interested in learning the ins and outs of real estate.)

Had Gary and Jay made the above two mistakes, The ONE Thing would have flopped.

Non-Fiction Writer Career Path #1: Writer-First, Entrepreneur-Second

There are two very distinct paths to success in the world of Non-Fiction.

The first is the Ryan Holiday, Malcolm Gladwell, Robert Greene path where you identify as a writer first—and anything entrepreneurial you do thereafter comes second. For example: Ryan Holiday has built a media company around the topic of Stoicism, and Malcolm Gladwell has built a podcast & audiobook production company. But these writers established themselves as “writers” in their respective niches, first.

A common way Non-Fiction writers get their start is by working as a journalist or staff writer for a publication. From the perspective of a publisher, giving book deals to staff writers makes sense for a variety of reasons:

Reason #1: If you’re a staff writer for The New Yorker or The New York Times, you’ve already been vetted from a skill perspective. You’ve been trained on how to write professionally, you’ve acclimated to working with an editor (and receiving feedback on your work without your ego crumbling), and you’ve proven longevity by being on staff for years or even decades.
Reason #2: If you’re a staff writer, you’ve already proven your ability to write things readers want to read. More importantly, you’ve built a library of content that shows (objectively) which topics resonate most with readers—and you have the data to back it up. For example, when Little Brown first gave Malcolm Gladwell a publishing deal, their very first question was: “What’s the most popular article you’ve written for The New Yorker?” His answer was a piece called “The Tipping Point”—which they encouraged him to expand into a book and went on to become one of the best-selling Non-Fiction books of the past 20 years.
Reason #3: If you’re a staff writer and you’ve been writing in the same niche for a long period of time, you’ve already established yourself as a thought leader. Unlike most first-time authors, you are starting your Non-Fiction book-writing career with credibility. It’s much easier for a publisher to market a first-time author who has been working as a staff writer for a notable publication than it is for a publisher to market a writer who is publishing their first Non-Fiction book but doesn’t have much to point to as far as legacy writing experience.

Said simply: the reason publishers love giving book deals to journalists and staff writers is because it mitigates their risk. These writers have proven skills, they have audiences, they have data, and they have credibility.

Now, do you have to be a staff writer for The New York Times to land a book deal as a Non-Fiction writer? Of course not. You could be a professor (Casandra Brené Brown, author of Dare To Lead), a psychologist (Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow), or a prominent figure in your chosen field. All the publisher is really looking for are those two things: expertise and credibility.

In fact, there is a growing trend of publishers giving Non-Fiction book deals to internet entrepreneurs, course creators, influencers, and digital writers with huge social followings and email lists—none of whom have any badges of credibility in the legacy world of writing. What they have is expertise (sharing their knowledge in public), and credibility (their online followings).

However, more times than not, these digital writers & creators establish themselves and make their money as Writerpreneurs first (which is a different career path) and pursue Non-Fiction book deals as a way to amplify their businesses and further establish credibility. Very few of these types of digital creators trade their internet businesses to go all-in on becoming a Non-Fiction author.

Which leads us to…

Non-Fiction Writer Career Path #2: Entrepreneur-First, Writer-Second

The second career path has almost nothing to do with writing—and everything to do with career success.

Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson (one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time).
Relentless by Tim Grover (trainer of NBA legends Michael Jordan & Kobe Bryant, among many others).
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins (one of the world’s top ultra-endurance athletes and retired Navy SEAL).
You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero (personal finance and success coach for women).
#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso (founder of Nasty Gal, one of the fastest-growing retailers in the world).
Cold Hard Truth On Men, Women, and Money by Kevin O’Leary (entrepreneur, investor, and co-host of one of the most popular reality shows on television, Shark Tank).

And so on.

Notice how none of these people are “writers-first.” They are entrepreneurs, investors, trainers, coaches, etc., who have acquired expertise and established credibility over the course of their careers—and then chose to write a book (or multiple books) sharing their lessons learned.

Whenever I explain this career path to writers, the misunderstanding is that they need to go become a “celebrity” in order to land a book deal. And that’s not true. Again, all a Non-Fiction publisher is looking for is expertise and credibility. Your expertise could be incredibly niche (“I have created hundreds of cooking recipes for people with gluten & dairy allergies”), and your credibility could be modest within that niche (“I have been helping people with Celiac Disease fix their diet and heal their gut for 12 years”). As long as the publisher can point to those two things, they can market your book—and “You.”

Non-Fiction Skills

Learning how to write Non-Fiction isn’t hard.

In fact, most people don’t realize there is a sort of “universal” Non-Fiction voice that gets used by the vast majority of writers. We all like to believe our voice is special, and unique, and impossible to replicate—and yes, every once in a while a writer comes along where that’s the case. But broadly speaking, most Non-Fiction comes down to executing five universal skills:

Skill #1: Specificity of language.

Which is better?

A: “The key to waking up in the morning is to just get yourself out of bed no matter what.”

B: “The key to waking up in the morning is to set your coffee maker to start brewing coffee 10 minutes before your alarm goes off, so the moment it does, you’re hit with an aroma that trains your brain into thinking it’s time to wake up.”

From a language standpoint, the second sentence isn’t any more complicated than the first (they’re both written at a 5th grade reading level). But the second one is significantly more specific. And the more specific the language, the more valuable it is for the reader.

This is the single biggest difference between mediocre Non-Fiction writing and writing that grabs and hooks you.

Skill #2: Organization of ideas.

But being specific is just the tip of the iceberg.

Next is learning how to assemble ideas in a logical order.

What does the reader need to know first?
What do they want to know second?
What’s going to keep them interested in reading?
And how do you make sure they don’t get lost along the way?

This isn’t a particularly difficult skill. But it is a time consuming and laborious one. Oftentimes the first draft of anything you write is an exercise in getting all the things you want to say out of your brain and onto the page. But it’s the second draft, the work of refinement, where you’re forced to question the order.

Skill #3: Formatting of text.

Third is the skimmability and readability of what you’ve written.

You could keep the content exactly the same, but if one writer wrote an entire book with no subheads, no paragraphs, and no bulleted lists—just a giant wall of text for 300 pages—and another writer took that same content and broke it up into pieces, we all know which version you would read and which version you would throw into the fireplace. Formatting matters. And there are really only three skills when it comes to formatting: bolded subheads to separate sections, rhythm writing principles to alternate short and long sentences and paragraphs, and bulleted lists.

(You’ll see I’m doing all of these things here.)

Skill #4: Alternating stories, advice, and research.

Fourth is understanding how to hook readers and keep them engaged.

And in Non-Fiction, the big 3 are:

Stories (personal or curated)
Advice (personal or curated)
Research (your own or cited)

So, how do you write a chapter of a Non-Fiction book? You open with a story. Then you summarize the takeaways and give the reader some advice. Then you support your advice by referencing a stat or study. Repeat.

Or, you open with advice. Then tell the reader a story that shows that advice in action. Then you support your advice by referencing a stat or study. Repeat.

Or, you open with a little-known fact, statistic, or research study. You tell the reader the story of how that little-known fact came to be. Then you summarize the takeaways and give the reader some advice.

Once you understand that all Non-Fiction is really just different combinations of these 3 puzzle pieces, you can write anything.

Skill #5: Simple grammatical proficiency.

Finally, the last skill (which is a very low bar in the world of writing) is to write cleanly and “professionally.” And if you’re working with a publisher, an editor, and/or a ghostwriter, they’ll take care of this for you.

Minimal tangents.
Minimal misspellings.
No run-on sentences.
Proper use of punctuation.
Correct use of language & vocabulary.
Etc.

I always find it funny when aspiring writers put so much focus on the “professionalism” of writing—especially in the world of Non-Fiction where “professionalism” is the last priority. Some of the most helpful Non-Fiction pieces of writing on planet earth exist on subreddits and forums where readers will tolerate any number of misspellings and run-on sentences if it means getting an answer to their question. And Non-Fiction books aren’t any different.

So, does “professionalism” matter in your writing?

Sure—but don’t confuse it for the main attraction, which is making sure your writing is answering a valuable and interesting question for your target reader.

Time Horizon

How long does it take to become a “successful Non-Fiction Writer?”

First, let’s start by defining “success.”

If you measure success as status in the legacy world of publishing, then all you need is a book deal. The economics of that book deal could be horrific, your advance could be minimal, but because a publisher granted you their seal of approval you’ll be considered by many to be a “professional writer.”

If you measure success as “I want people to see me as a thought leader and titan in my industry,” then be prepared to write multiple books in the same category over a long period of time. Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a great example. He’s widely respected as an expert in the world of decision theory & risk probability—partly because of his career in the trading world, but more so because of the books he’s written on the subject: Fooled By Randomness; The Black Swan; Antifragile; among others. You don’t get to his level of perceived expertise without articulating and crystallizing your insights, at scale, over decades.

Now, if you measure success in terms of cash, becoming financially successful as a Non-Fiction Writer can and often does happen much faster than becoming financially successful as a Literary or Genre Fiction writer.

That’s because Non-Fiction tends to answer questions that are urgent and important in the world today. And as a basic rule of thumb: things that are urgent or “timely” tend to receive more attention and profit in the short term but generate less attention and profit over the long term (because every day that goes by, that work becomes less and less relevant). Whereas things that are “timeless” tend to receive less attention and profit in the short term (because they’re less urgent), but generate significantly more attention and profit over the long term (because their value compounds over time).

Which leads us too…

The Business Of Non-Fiction

Something I find tremendously interesting is how different the ceiling for Genre Fiction is from Non-Fiction—despite the fact that Non-Fiction is actually a larger mega-category than Fiction.

According to Wordsrated, Non-Fiction books make up approximately 88% of new titles published every year—whereas Fiction books only make up approximately 11% of new titles (with poetry books making up the remaining 1%). And yet, the most successful Non-Fiction Writers don’t even scratch the surface of what Genre Fiction Writers end up unlocking for themselves from an earning potential standpoint.

While these numbers are hard to find publicly, it’s reasonable to conclude there is approximately a 10x difference between the most successful Non-Fiction writers and the most successful Genre Fiction writers. In Non-Fiction, a book like The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson selling 15 million copies is considered a grand slam home run. And most of the Non-Fiction authors who have achieved such altitudes of success have net worths in the $5M to $50M range. (It’s not enough to live on, but it’s a start.)

Now compare that to one of the best-selling Genre Fiction books of the past decade: The DaVinci Code, which has sold over 80 million copies. And it’s reported that Dan Brown, the author, has amassed a fortune upwards of $200M.

There is very clearly a ceiling difference between these two career paths—with the top Genre Fiction books out-performing the top Non-Fiction books by five to fifteen (or more) times.

There are a few reasons I believe this is the case:

Non-Fiction books are easier to write (lower barrier to entry).

The average person can write a Non-Fiction book sharing their lessons learned or life story much more easily than they can assemble a coherent fiction story. Which is why 8x more Non-Fiction titles are published each year than Fiction titles.

Non-Fiction books are primarily used for credibility to advance other more lucrative business models (particularly in the short term).

A growing trend in the world of business is to treat Non-Fiction books like business cards. The book doesn’t need to be “good,” it just needs to establish you as an “author” and “industry leader.” There are even companies like Scribe that pair people with ghostwriters to help them write Non-Fiction books that position them as an authority in their industry. Whether that book sells 1 million copies or 1,000 copies is irrelevant: if you get a Non-Fiction book deal, you are a “professional, published author.”

Non-Fiction books tend to be more “timely” and less “timeless,” reducing the benefit of compounding.

Here’s an easy example: In 2001, Jim Collins wrote a book called Good To Great—which sold over 4 million copies and became one of the most-cited business books of the 2000s, establishing itself as a “must read” among executives. And yet, 20 years later, many of the case studies in Good To Great are no longer relevant. Circuit City, a company hailed as an example of greatness in the book, ended up bankrupt. And some of the most valuable companies today (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google) weren’t even mentioned. This is what makes Non-Fiction such a challenging mega-category. Advice “today” rarely remains true “tomorrow.”

Non-Fiction books are more dependent upon expertise, and expertise is a hard thing to stretch across multiple books without becoming redundant.

One of the primary ways a Non-Fiction writer receives a book deal is if he or she possesses specialized knowledge in an industry. To sell one book, this is incredibly compelling: a reader would love to learn about the art of Extreme Ownership from two U.S. Navy SEAL Task Unit members. But once you’ve read one book on the art of Extreme Ownership, do you need to read another? Maybe, but probably not. And conversely, once you’ve told your life story and shared everything you as a U.S. Navy SEAL know about how to take “extreme ownership” in your life, do you have more to say to write a second book? Or a third book? Again, maybe. But probably not. Non-Fiction topics do not have the same “serial potential” Genre Fiction stories do.

Non-Fiction books tend to lean toward “education,” which is a smaller total addressable market than “entertainment.”

Even the best-selling Non-Fiction books, many of which have significant entertainment value, sell a fraction of the amount of copies as a mainstream Genre Fiction story. For example, of the Top 25 best-selling books of all time, 24 are Fiction and only 1 is Non-Fiction (Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill). And aside from the Quran or The Bible, to the best of my knowledge there isn’t a single Non-Fiction book that has outsold Harry Potter or The Lord Of The Rings.

The Non-Fiction Writer Business Model

Even if you get a $1 million advance, that’s not really where the big money or the fast money is in Non-Fiction.

The money is in using Non-Fiction books to establish your leadership position in a given category and then build a constellation of lucrative businesses around your expertise. Because, if you think about it, books are an incredibly inefficient “business.”

You are constrained to a price point of $35 or less.
The vast majority of people only buy a book once (no recurring revenue).
The hardcovers & paperbacks are analog products with lower margins (and are more expensive to warehouse, ship, etc.) opposed to digital products which have very high margins (and have almost no distribution costs).
The standard Non-Fiction book deal from a publisher is a $5,000 - $25,000 advance in exchange for 85% ownership (meaning you get paid a 15% royalty on every book sold). So on a $20 book, you are making around $3.

It is significantly harder to make $20,000 per month selling books than it is to use your book as credibility to push readers to a more lucrative business. Assuming $3 per book, that means you need to be selling 6,666 books per month, every month, in order to sustain that level of income.

And is your inner monologue is saying, “Yea but that’s why you take the book deal! The publisher will help you with distribution!?”

As a data point: The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday was published in 2014, and has sold over 2 million copies. A decade later, Amazon data shows it sells, on average, 500 copies between print and eBook per month—which comes out to approximately $7,500 in monthly earnings. Not bad. But wait… the publisher takes 85% of that, which means Ryan Holiday gets paid around $1,000 per month from sales of The Obstacle Is The Way. (Actually not enough to live on.)

Which is why the predominant business model in Non-Fiction is to try to land the biggest advance you can (by acquiring difficult-to-replicate success in your career and/or building a large audience online), and unlock all the status outcomes that come from being a “published author” to propel your other, more lucrative businesses.

Here are the other ways Non-Fiction writers monetize—which allow you to make significantly more money in the short-term relative to Genre Fiction or Literary Fiction writers:

Speaking: This is the most-common business model for Non-Fiction writers. You either write a book based on your own expertise, or you research your way into becoming an expert on a topic—and then you parlay that perceived expertise into speaking at conferences and company events (that can pay anywhere from $5,000 to upwards of $50,000 per speech).
Coaching: This is the second most-common business model. You write a book on “How To” do something, and readers will want to pay you to help them do that same thing with or for them. The nuance here is that coaching tends to cater to everyday consumers, whereas consulting or advising tends to cater to company executives and entrepreneurs.
Consulting/Advising: This is the third most-common business model. You write a book that demonstrates your expertise in a given area, and a small percentage of people who read your work will want to pay you to help them think through and solve similar problems in their life and/or business. Most writers don’t know that many of their favorite Non-Fiction authors make significantly more money as consultants than they do from their book sales—and also have equity stakes in some extremely well-known companies from their advisory deals.
Events and Workshops: Tony Robbins is probably the best example here. Despite being a New York Times best-selling author seven times over (and selling over 15 million copies of his books), it’s estimated he earns anywhere from $300,000 to $1,000,000 per speaking event, and his cult-like seminars generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue each year. In the context of his entire portfolio of businesses, book sales make up a small sliver of the pie.
Digital Goods: Courses, eBooks, paid newsletters, etc. These digital businesses are becoming exponentially more popular for Non-Fiction writers who want to scale their expertise. All you have to do is turn the content of your book into a video course and suddenly you can charge 10x or even 100x more than the price of your book (and you own 100% of it!). Why sell your insights for $20 (of which you get paid $3) when you could repackage those insights into a 10-hour video course and charge $300 or even $3,000 for it?
Physical Goods: There are fitness authors who sell protein powder, beauty authors who sell makeup, yoga instructors who sell yoga mats (or are affiliates for Lululemon yoga pants), etc. And the more successful the book, the more likely readers are to turn into customers.
Services: Advertising and marketing agencies are a great example here. If you are the founder of a Facebook Ads agency, you want to write a Non-Fiction book to establish the fact that you (and your agency) are “the best” at what you do. More readers means more clients—and clients paying you $3,000 or $10,000 or $30,000 per month is a much better business model than selling books.

Every once in a while, you’ll hear of a Non-Fiction author landing a 6 or even 7-figure advance. But it’s worth internalizing two things: first, that’s an outlier event (and far from “the average”), and second, big advances aren’t how all the top Non-Fiction authors build their fortunes.

They become wealthy by leveraging their success as a writer into other more lucrative businesses.

For example…

Case Study: Ryan Holiday

One of the best-selling Non-Fiction Writers of the past decade is Ryan Holiday.

He created and dominated the niche of Stoicism, has written close to a dozen books on the topic, and his books have sold millions and millions of copies (in addition to being referenced and recommended by Air Force generals, professional athletes and coaches, and celebrities from all sorts of different industries). He is one of the few Non-Fiction Writers who has achieved a level of success in the traditional publishing world where he could live solely on the royalties of his book sales—if he wanted to.

But in 2022, Ryan Holiday did an interview where he explained the business he’s built inside the niche of Stoicism, and some of the other ways in which he makes money—including selling leather-bound versions of Marcus Aurelias’ Meditations; a 5.5” tall, hand-sculpted pewter portrait bust of Marcus Aurelius; a Daily Stoic Challenge Deck featuring quotes from Stoic philosophers like Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus; and coins with reminders engraved on them, such as Memento Mori (which translates to: “Remember that you [have to] die” in latin) to not take life for granted.

And in this interview, despite selling millions of copies of his books, Ryan Holiday says on his business of selling $26 Stoicism-themed coins: “It’s a nice business—it’s better than the publishing business.”

That’s a strong statement from a writer who has essentially achieved the pinnacle of success in the Non-Fiction Writer career path. And a clear signal that when it comes to writing Non-Fiction, the predominant business model isn’t to sell books.

It’s to write books that reinforce your dominance in a niche—so you can monetize that niche with other more lucrative products and businesses.

My Recommendation

There is a giant contradiction in everything I’ve shared with you above:

The Big 5 publishing houses have educated generations of Non-Fiction writers into believing “there’s no money in publishing,” and that the real money is in speaking, consulting, and amplifying other businesses. As a result, whether you’re a staff writer for the New York Times or an NBA coach with eleven championship rings, you’ve accepted that “there’s no money in publishing” and have no problem taking a book deal where you give up 85% ownership in the product. “You’ll make more money, faster from your other business endeavors,” the publisher says. And in many ways, they’re right.

But the irony is that The Big 5 publishing houses generate a combined $12 billion in annual revenue. So, there is absolutely money to be made in publishing. It’s just not going to you.

In my opinion, if you only want to write one book and use it to power-level your credibility and amplify your businesses, you should take that book deal—because the economics are irrelevant. You want that legacy badge of approval, and taking the book deal will give you that badge of approval. It’s not worth mastering all the other entrepreneurial skill sets required to be successful as a writer on your own.

However, if you know you want to be a serial Non-Fiction writer (a Ryan Holiday or Seth Godin publishing 10+ books on a given topic), you should consider using a book deal to power-level your credibility in the short-term—but then self-publish thereafter. Because a) all the status outcomes have already been unlocked (once you’re a “published author,” you’re a published author forever), and b) there is absolutely money to be made in Non-Fiction… if you don’t give up 85% ownership in your book.

As a recap:

In the short-term, Non-Fiction tends to make more money, faster.
But Non-Fiction also has a 10x lower ceiling than Genre Fiction.
The predominant business model in Non-Fiction isn’t actually to sell books. It’s to leverage the credibility of your book into speaking, consulting, events, physical/digital goods, and services.
There are 2 ways to become a published Non-Fiction writer: first, start as a staff writer or journalist at a noteworthy publication and/or bootstrap your credibility by researching a topic in-depth and building a following of your own online; or second, achieve some form of “success” in your career and then leverage your expertise and career credibility into a book deal.
If you want to be perceived as an industry expert in a given category, be prepared to write multiple books in that category over a long period of time (decades).
Keep in mind the more “timely” your Non-Fiction book is, the shorter its shelf life (and the more often you will need to reinvent yourself and write another in order to stay relevant). Whereas the more “timeless” your Non-Fiction book, the longer its shelf life but the less likely it is to be as profitable or popular in the short term. (Some of the best-selling Non-Fiction books of all time didn’t catch their stride until 5 or 10 years later.)