Stacy: When you use data, when you bring in an interview, you need to harness that story and tell that story to your audience, whether it’s your reader of your book, or the podcast listener or the audience in your keynote. So remember that data tells a story, even numbers, which seem very unsexy and uninteresting. Actually, they can be deeply compelling and with numbers. Also, keep in mind that you want to be sparse with your use of them, because if you throw a bunch at people, they don’t know what story to take from that. So you have to help shape that for them, and you have to help build that story with the data and the research you’re bringing in.

Stacy: Welcome. This week I am going to record a shorty but sweetie episode on research for a nonfiction book. I got a question about this. Actually, I got a couple of questions about this. I got an email from a listener asking about how to research for a nonfiction book. And then I also got a question from somebody in my group coaching cohort idea to draft. As part of this cohort, we meet twice a month.

Stacy: I help coach people through stuck points on their book, and in this particular situation, the author was asking, how do you balance writing the book with gathering the research that you need for the book? So I’m also going to read you the question that I received by email just to frame this conversation, and we’re going to dive right in. This is going to be short and practical and what’s neat about the advice I’m going to give you as well is that this doesn’t just apply to books. So if you’re researching for a keynote or you need to write an article or you’re putting together a presentation, these tips will apply to that too. So listen in because this will be really practical and really useful.

Stacy: Let me read the questions question was from Sarah says, I do have a question that I’ve been thinking about when I see your posts and wondered how you approach your research for the books you write. I’m curious as to how research factors into the process for you. I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. I also appreciate your snippets of life in Portugal. It’s been many years since I have visited, but I have great vivid memories. So thank you for that question, Sarah. So first of all, let me just give a tiny bit of background on how I learned how to research. I think this is important to know that in my graduate program, so I have a master’s in professional writing and editing. And as part of my program to get my tuition paid for, I had a graduate assistantship.

Stacy: So this gave me my tuition, which was amazing, and health insurance and a teeny tiny little stipend that I was supposed to live on. And as part of that, I worked at a scientific journal. So my job as a research assistant was to support. There was another employee there in going through studies and vetting studies for the executive editor. So that when our editor in chief, he would kind of breeze in the office every so often he’d look at our stack of we don’t recommend these ones. We do recommend these ones. And so I learned how to analyze a study and determine pretty quickly its validity. We were often looking for human rights or animal rights violations. We were looking at size of study, were exploring. Was it a double blind placebo study?

Stacy: Were there factors that were causing the researchers to be biased in some way? So we had a whole list of things that were looking at. And so that was super useful because I learned how to evaluate a study. So I’m going to give you a couple of those pieces of tips, or those tips, I should say pieces of tips, actual tips to look at when you are researching as well. I’ll get back around to that, but I think it’s good to know where that foundation comes from with me. And then also, just as spending a bunch of my career as an editor and as a ghostwriter as an editor, part of my job as an editor was to check people’s information.

Stacy: So I would see a statistic, or I would see a statement that they’d made, and I would go digging through the internets to confirm it or push back on the author. And then as a ghostwriter, I was tasked with bringing in the research. A lot of the time, it was me that was gathering that research. So I had to get good at learning how to research. And there are a couple of types of research, right? There is the gathering of data, gathering of case studies that other people have created, right? Like, perhaps there’s a story that you’re pulling from, or there’s an actual scientific study that has people’s experiences detailed through the study. But then there’s also interviews, and that’s a whole different type of research.

Stacy: And I want to talk about that, too, because interviews, I think, are one of the number one book sabotagers. I find that a lot of people get really hung up on needing to do interviews, and they spend all this time building out time for the interviews, and I think it’s actually just a stall tactic to keep them from actually writing their books. I think it’s one of the many self inflicted roadblocks that we put up in the book writing process. So let me come back around to that, but I want to give you my philosophy on how I research. Number one, when I’m writing a book or any piece of content, my first goal is momentum. I want to keep going. I don’t want to lose my momentum. I want to see that draft through to the end.

Stacy: I’m also mindful of the fact that I don’t want to have a ton of holes when I get done. So when you finish a first draft, there is nothing worse than leaving massive, gaping holes for yourself and then coming back to go through in the second draft and realizing that you have a ton of work to do, there’s always going to be holes, and we’re going to talk about that in a minute. But I do try to leave as few of holes as possible, or I’m keeping good track of what those holes are so that I can start to gather what I need to be able to fill those holes. So an example of a hole that you might leave would be, let’s say you’re writing a business book.

Stacy: And of course, as part of your business book, you are going to want to tell client stories. And you know that you want to interview 15 clients for this book, but you also know that your clients are really busy. You’re really busy, and organizing these is probably going to take months to complete it. What I would personally do while I’m writing that book is I would write, to the best of my knowledge of the story. I would leave notes for myself in the draft. So what I’ll often do is I might write a paragraph, and then I might have a line break, put brackets, highlight in yellow, and put add paragraph with data and results.

Stacy: And then in this separate notes document that I’m keeping notes of interview questions that I want to ask the individuals, and I would put in those specific questions that I have for that interview. So I would write that the best that I can do any initial, like googling or pulling from sources I can find, and then I would go out and I would do that interview, and then I would use the transcripts from that interview to write that chapter, revise that chapter, that section. For transcripts, I typically use Fireflies AI if I’m working on short form. I’ve also worked for years with a really great company called CLK transcription. I use them when we’re doing ghostwriting projects within the team. We go to them because having well done transcripts makes a big difference. But for everyday use, Fireflies AI is great.

Stacy: We use it all the time for lots and lots of things. So that’s what I would do. In the case of an interview with data or other research points that you want to integrate. I usually am doing some level of looking for that data while I’m writing, but you have to be really mindful about how the brain works when it comes to writing. So if I’m writing and I stop myself to go and find a data point, and I don’t find it immediately, like the second I start looking, and even if I do, I’m interrupting flow. So generally when I’m writing, what I will do is I will write whatever it is I’m writing.

Stacy: And as I’m writing, I will again add in brackets, or I’ll add in a comment to myself within the document, add data point on blank, and that’s my note to myself to come back in and fill that data in later. I often will go at the end of my writing session. So when I start to feel the steam going, like, okay, the words are coming slower, it’s about time to wrap it up, or even a little bit before that. So I have enough energy. I will then go and I will look for that data and I’ll fill in as much as I can. There will still likely be some holes because life writing stuff.

Stacy: And so when I am really struggling to find data or I know, let’s say I’m missing this data point and I know exactly who I need to go to get that data. I’m going to pause there. I’m going to leave myself a comment or again, drop know, yellow highlight, add data point from Dr. Simmons. Let’s say I’m reaching out to a woman named Dr. Simmons, getting a data point from her, getting some researcher information from her, and then when I get that information, I will come back. Another tactic I use when I’m writing is that I will go through and fill in some holes that day while I’m writing in that session. But then I often will budget one day at the end of my planned time for that chapter, and that one day is my whole filler day.

Stacy: So let’s say I’m planning to write a chapter every two weeks and I’m writing four to five days a week. Well, that last day that I had, quote unquote, budgeted for writing, I’m not actually writing on that day. I am only going and filling in those holes and adding research or taking whatever steps I need to take to gather the information that I will need there. So we’re really aiming to keep that momentum, keep that flow going, but also be realistic that you will have to put some of that time into it. What I don’t want you to do is think that you have to have all of the research done at the outset. They have to have all the interviews completed. They have to have all the data points.

Stacy: It’s just, number one, not realistic that you’re going to know all the things that you need. And actually, I think your time is better served most of the time to go in and fill it in later. The exception to this is if you plan to start out a chapter with a data point or a case study or something like that. Obviously, it’s good practice to gather that ahead of time because you need it to be able to write. And I don’t want you to sit down to a blank page and not have what you need. So if you are going to, let’s say, start a new chapter or a new section and you need a data point, spend the time, the day before gathering that information or even during the outlining process to gather those really big, important data points. Okay.

Stacy: Other point to know is that when you are interviewing people, you’re going to need to access or you’re going to need to secure, I should say, legal approval from them. And so there are all kinds of processes around that, depending on the type of book that you’re working on, but generally you’ll want to get some sort of release. I am not a legal expert. I am not a legal advisor, but I do have a really great episode with an attorney that I will link to in the show notes, so be sure to listen to that one. It’s a really great foundation on copyright and fair use and all the legal things that have to do with books. But you do need to know that you got to get people’s permission if you’re going to use their name and tell their stories.

Stacy: One little tip for you is that when you are interviewing somebody and you’re planning to include their information in the book, assuming it’s in a positive light. Right? Which would be my hope for most of us. We’re telling good stories, positive stories that you want to be mindful when you go back to them for their blessing, that you give them specific instruction to only correct typos because people love to have opinions. And if you leave it way too open ended, they’re going to come back with all these edits that don’t even fit with your book. So just be mindful of the fact that they’re going to need some instruction on how to give you feedback on this book. Okay, so I’m going to move on from here. So much more I could dig into.

Stacy: And we did get into more specifics within my program because I love in the program, I get to hear people’s unique circumstances and coach directly to them. But this is advice that really should fit for nearly any situation in any book or keynote or any other thing you need to research for. I want to give you a couple of places that you can go look for good research, good data. Number one is Google Scholar. I will link to that in the show notes. It’s just scholar, google.com. Simple, easy peasy. Within Google Scholar, I suggest that you search by date. And I usually, personally I like to go not too far back. So at least within the last five years, typically, or it depends on what we’re studying, it depends on what the information is about.

Stacy: Because there’s some data points that it’s okay to go a little older and some that you actually need to be even newer. It needs to be like within the last year or two, keeping in mind that your book is not going to be to market probably for a little while, right. So that’s another piece I also will do when I’m working on a book is I’ll highlight data that I want to update. So sometimes I will actually update data closer to publication. If, for example, you’re working on a finance book and you need relevant real estate data or there’s a census that you want to include or something like that.

Stacy: The other thing that I’ll do to find information is I will just go to Google and I’ll type in the thing I’m looking for and then I will go to news article or something that is highlighting a study that I want to use, and then I will go from that news article. They almost always link to the primary source, which is the original journaled article that’s in the scientific whatever it is, the journal or online publication, and it’ll take you right there. So you really should always be using primary sources. Primary source would be an interview. It would be the actual article from the research scientists. You need to go directly to the source.

Stacy: It is poor practice and lazy, in my opinion, to quote news article from today’s show, even though I’m sure they do a good job as an author or as somebody who is putting work out into the world, you need to be more disciplined than that and you need to find the actual data. Now, when you go to the scientific study or the research article, whatever it is you’re referencing, there’s two main places that you’re going to look for your information. One is the abstract and the other is the conclusion. Generally, both of those pieces are available publicly, so you typically don’t have to pay for the articles. But I have found in the past that when I have needed to access an article, sometimes they are super expensive, like hundreds of dollars for one article.

Stacy: If you reach out to the authors and tell them what you’re using it for and explain that you’re not making money off of using their work, I mean, of course you have to be honest about the fact that you’re going to sell the book at the end. You don’t even really need to include that piece, but you can say, hey, my name is so and so, I’m working on a book about x. I would love to include your data. I’m able to access these two things, but I’d really like to see the table that you put together of the participants. Would you be willing to grant me access to this publication? And most of the time they’re going to say yes.

Stacy: I haven’t made this request a lot because I’ve often been able to access through a university or something else, which public libraries will often give access to these sorts of things, but that’s in your back pocket if you need to get access to something and you can’t quite reach it. Those are it. I’m looking at my notes here. I think I got the main things down. I hope that this was a really useful power session on how to do good research. Of course, more that we could dig into, but I hope that these tips are really useful for you in the next thing that you need to gather information for. And then just don’t forget, last little nugget is that don’t forget the storytelling.

Stacy: So when you use data, when you bring in an interview, you need to harness that story and tell that story to your audience, whether it’s your reader of your book, or the podcast listener, or the audience in your keynote. So remember that data tells a story. Even numbers, which seem very unsexy and uninteresting, actually, they can be deeply compelling and with numbers. Also keep in mind that you want to be sparse with your use of them, because if you throw a bunch at people, they don’t know what story to take from that. So you have to help shape that for them, and you have to help build that story with the data and the research you’re bringing in. So that is it for this week. Our short, what did I call it? At the top, like short and Sweetie podcast episode.

Stacy: Thank you for joining me. Thank you as always to Catherine Fishman for project support and to Rita, who produces this fine podcast. And I will be back with you before you know it.