Non-Fiction Platform

Non-fiction books outsell fiction roughly 3 to 1. Every publisher's marketing department knows that. Write about what you know and have a platform of expertise from which to draw from, or put a different slant on an old topic, and there is a good chance that you will make a sale, even without the name of an agent behind you. How is it that a book on totem pole carving in Alaska became a mid-list bestseller? Because it was the only book of its kind ever written on the subject, and was written by one of the only experts that had any experience with the craft