I read The House on Mango Street when I was in college, and the novella broke me wide open as a writer. It was so simple yet so powerful. How did such a short book achieve so much?
The author, Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros blends her personal story with fiction through a series of vignettes. I still think about one of the lines: “My Papa, his thick hands and thick shoes, who wakes up tired in the dark, who combs his hair with water, drinks his coffee, and is gone before we wake, today is sitting on my bed.”
Her idea: share a story of what it’s like to grow up as a Mexican-American. What it’s like to witness pain and love. To feel the call to leave but also to feel responsibility to your community. And it’s told in the simplest way, through the eyes of a twelve-year-old girl, with simple but beautiful language.
It might seem odd that I’m referencing a fiction work—after all, I specialize in nonfiction—but I’ve found that great fiction offers powerful guidelines for writing great nonfiction.
If you’re a business or nonprofit leader, coach, consultant, speaker, or everyday person with an extraordinary message or story to share, here are three keys to turn your big idea into a best-selling book—with fiction as a guide. And be sure to read all the way to the end, because I offer a caveat that I hope changes how you think about the impact of your book.
Rule #1: Make a statement.
The most impactful books are bold and thought-provoking. They’re also clear: They share a core message and build on it with supporting arguments. Everything grows from a central thesis, which serves as the connective tissue in the book. A few examples of mega-bestsellers:
- In Big Magic, author Elizabeth Gilbert asserts creativity lives just beyond fear. Her book is organized around helping readers access a creative, vibrant life.
- In The Body Keeps the Score, author Bessel van der Kolk, MD, stays true to the core message: Trauma “reshapes the body and brain”; there are ways to help the brain-body release that trauma. Everything in the book organizes around this central idea.
- In We Should All Be Millionaires, author Rachel Rodgers states that more women should be millionaires—but we haven’t been raised and socialized to make it happen. The book then organizes around mindset, habits, and practical strategies to help women build wealth.
Rule #2: Uncover the simplicity.
When I coach new authors, I’m often pushing them to find the simplicity in the complexity. The reason: Simple is hard. It’s much easier to be unclear and confusing than to drill down to the simplest, clearest, most resonant structure, messaging, and writing.
To achieve simplicity, you must start with complexity. The process of finding simplicity is too detailed to include here, but I want the core idea to stick with you: Keep it as simple as possible. Avoid complex structures, lots of callout boxes and interviews, and too many graphics. Push yourself to be clear above all else. Don’t adorn your ideas with flowery language that requires a dictionary to understand.
As the character Dr. Asa Breed says in Cat’s Cradle, “Dr. Hoenikker used to say that any scientist who couldn’t explain to an eight-year-old what he was doing was a charlatan.”
In my book coaching, I use both writing and sticky notes to access this first layer—and then guide authors through a process to uncover clarity. Find the course, coach, or process that works for you to help you reach the level of clarity that makes you a virtuoso, not a charlatan.
Rule #3: Tell great stories.
Here’s an invitation: Step away from your device and peruse your book shelf or Kindle library. Specifically, nonfiction. Now, of the books you’ve read—because if you’re like me, you still haven’t read the majority of the books you’ve bought—which ones truly impacted you? Which shifted your mindset, mended your heart, opened your mind, and changed your life?
I’ll take a wild guess: They weren’t boring. And I’ll take another shot in the dark: They included stories. Maybe lots of stories.
A key challenge authors face when they’re crafting a book that connects to their expertise is that they think stories are fluff. They’re not. In fact, they’re necessary. People remember stories. They make a lasting impact. Bonus: They’re highly shareable.
In one Harvard Business School study, researchers studied the effect of stories on memory and belief. They created two groups: one that read only the data and the other that read about the data but wrapped in storytelling. According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, “While the effect of a story faded by roughly a third over the course of a single day, for a statistic, the temporal decay was a much more dramatic 73 percent.”
In short: Stories impact us stronger than stats, and we remember them more. So include stories, because they matter—and they can truly impact your readers’ lives.
Step into your next stage.
I would be remiss in this article if I didn’t mention a truth that too many authors either don’t know or choose to ignore: No one will line up to buy your book, even if it is the best-written book in the history of (wo)mankind.
Writing a best-selling book is one thing; marketing a best-selling book is an effort of its own. The good news is that a well-written book is the foundation of any solid book-marketing strategy. Your book should be a shelf-stable business, brand, or impact sustainability tool that will be loved, notated, and shared for years or decades to come. Writing a book like that requires time, attention, care, and deep thinking—all of which happens when you truly engage in the book-writing process as a transformative journey. From that clarity and great book, you’ll be able to approach with more ease the next, all-important stage of stepping into your next level and show up big for the book-marketing process.
Now, a caveat: I’ll acknowledge that the “best-selling” is a big of a click-trigger, but please forgive me for defaulting to what I knew would get you to read this blog post. The sentiment behind it is genuine. And the good news is you don’t have to hit bestseller to have an impact on a whole lot of lives. You can leverage your book to get in front of audiences, book podcast interviews, land clients, and even support nonprofits. All of that takes place in the marketing stage, and it results from a great book.
With that said, when new authors approach the writing and publishing process, I remind them—and I’ll remind you—to be where you are. Enjoy every stage you’re in, but keep a view on the stages to come.
Are you working on a book? If so, how did this article shift or expand your thinking? Please share with me in the comments. I read and respond to every comment and love hearing from you!
P.S. This is a genuinely human article. No AI was used to write this piece.
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