5 Questions to Ask When Writing Your Book

As a developmental academic editor who helps authors think through big-picture issues related to their writing, I have a lot of conversations with scholars about how to approach drafting a book. Many of the faculty I encounter have already spent a lot of time considering their book’s argument, evidence base and scope. But there are additional areas that are beneficial to consider early in the drafting process.

So below I list five questions to consider as you begin writing your book, along with tips and exercises to help you do so. It’s preferable to think about these issues in the early stages of writing, but it’s never too late!

1. How do my chapters work together?

Editors often read books in which the chapters lack a clear arrangement. If you can easily shuffle the order of your chapters, they need work; book chapters should ideally build upon each other and add up to something as a whole.

So as you think through your book’s structure, consider how each chapter advances your argument and how they all relate to one another. To get at this structure, briefly summarize each chapter’s contribution and then think about how they fit together. Is there a later chapter that might work better earlier because it provides important context or helps set up the problem? Is there overlapping material in two separate chapters that makes them redundant and would work better in one chapter? Once you’ve thought through your chapter order, take some time to talk through it with a colleague. Often articulating it aloud and responding to someone else’s questions can help you gain additional clarity.

2. Who is my specific audience?

Scholars often aren’t trained to think much about audience—in graduate training the focus is generally on very narrow audiences (like a dissertation committee). But defining the audience for your book is important because it helps you determine which literatures to engage with and make decisions about content and voice.

When thinking about your audience, try to be specific. Writing for a subset of a discipline instead of the broad discipline (e.g., environmental anthropologists instead of all anthropologists) focuses your book and makes it easier to market. So think about who your core audience is; this is the main group you want to focus on as you write. You will likely also want to identify additional audiences. Do you aim to speak to other disciplines? To people outside academia? (And, if so, who? Policymakers? Financial experts?)

Once you have established your audience, pick people who would be kind, thoughtful, critical readers to stand in for each segment of the audience. Then write for them. Writing for particular people can help focus your writing and make it more engaging.

3. Do I intend for this book to be taught?

It’s totally fine to not have this as one of your goals. However, if you do want your book to reach students, especially undergraduates, keep that in mind right from the start, since it will shape your writing. Publishers are often happy if students are part of an intended audience, since that can boost a book’s reach and its sales.

If you do want students as part of your readership, define which students, including what level (upper-level undergraduates? Graduate students?), as well as in what kinds of classes the book could be taught. Then keep these groups in mind as you craft your text. Students will need assistance in understanding theoretical concepts as well as background information. Writing about the Ottoman Empire? Explain relevant background about it to help students follow the text. Talking about materiality? Define what you mean by this theoretical concept.

Once your manuscript is drafted, consider hiring a smart, thoughtful student from the target group to read and comment on it, asking them to pay special attention to places where they feel confused, lost or overwhelmed. Then revise accordingly.

4. Where might I publish this book?

There is a lot of useful advice out there regarding when and how you should approach publishers to talk about your book. A good rule of thumb is to not do this until you have a good sense of the book’s argument and contents. Acquisitions editors are busy people, so you want to be able to have a coherent conversation with them about whether your book could be a good match for their press.

However, don’t wait too long before talking with editors. Editors may offer significant suggestions about the manuscript, even in a brief conversation, which may influence how you write it. You might also learn that your book may not be a good match for particular presses. It’s useful to know that early so you can decide how to proceed moving forward.

In determining which presses to reach out to, pay attention to where books on similar topics have been published recently (this grid from the Association of University Presses can help). Along with recommendations from colleagues in your field, there are key organizations that offer rich resources, including professional editor contact information. For example, the Editorial Freelancers Association offers a member directory of freelance editors. In turn, Editors Canada offers a searchable directory of publishing professionals. Once you have narrowed your list down to a few presses, reach out to the acquisitions editor in your subject area and ask if they would be willing to have a brief conversation about your book at an academic conference or over Zoom.

5. Why do I want to write this book?

This important question sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of other pressing concerns. These might include issues like: What kind of books are popular in my field right now? What do I need to publish for tenure? What book would be the easiest to write given the data I have?

All of these are important questions, but do not forget to spend time reflecting on your own motivation for writing and on where your passion lies for your project. Writing a manuscript can take years, and if you are not personally invested in it, the process risks becoming miserable, which can impact your writing and your mental well-being. So reflect on this topic and then consider how your passion for the project can coincide with the answers to questions about relevance, tenure and your time frame.

All of these questions are useful to return to periodically as you write your book to help keep you on course. It can also be helpful to revisit them together, because if one answer changes, another might, too. Keeping them in mind from the start can help make your writing more focused and productive and ensure that you remember what made you want to write the book in the first place.