New answers tagged non-fiction
5
Don't ever use the word if. It is a sign of lack of conviction. If you want to impose your clickbait on the audience, don't give them an opportunity to make a choice. Look at your own examples. They are affirmative. The audience feels like making a choice, but they really aren't.
12
Clickbait isn't like news where you tell someone the headline so they'll click for more information.
Eggplant linked to lower cancer rates.
Clickbait is where they have to click just to find out the headline.
This one vegetable stops cancer!
There's no nuance in clickbait. Not like medical articles where you use caution about overselling things.
...
3
All of those examples imply there is some specific kind of secret knowledge you can learn quickly that will change your life.
In your example, "really famous" is not specific enough. First, in writing, "really" is an intensifier without meaning. What exactly is the difference between being "famous" and "really famous"? Or "mad" and "really mad"?
Even then, ...
0
Try to use common habits and trends in your industry. Popular series, movies, shows etc.
8
Click bait works by pushing psychological buttons.
Most of those buttons are in the form of tangible curiosity and fear.
Fear: If you don't know this hinted secret you will die
Tangible Curiosity: List. "10 secrets of the incredibly famous" (your test, rewritten)
Also, promises and calls to action tend to trigger people's BS reflex. So, avoid those ...
0
In works with the Japanese Language, post WWII, Japanese tend to adopt (American) English words (as well as any other language) pretty handily, and Modern Japanese has many loan words from English from the U.S. Occupation. There is even a format of writing Romance Languages (those that use the Latin Alphabet) into Japanese characters and back based on the ...
0
You may also be interested in looking at Publishers Global. They have listings of publishers and you can search or filter on what kinds of subjects they publish. Keep in mind that some publishers, especially larger ones, may have multiple imprints to keep different genres separate (e.g., one imprint for sci-fi and another for mystery). I used this to get a ...
1
Yes, you can contact publishers directly. They DO care about genre, but most publishers publish in a wide range of genres. Your best bet to find what genres they cover is to purchase an up-to-date copy of "Writer's Market." Yes, they will typically list submission guidelines online. Query first, unless the submission guidelines say otherwise. Address it ...
0
I see that you have marked this question as "academic writing" but I'm going to talk a bit (ok, a lot!) about other types of writing as well to give you an idea about how you can think about paragraph breaks, in academic writing and otherwise.
Fiction
In fiction you have at least one hard rule for paragraph breaking:
In dialog, you always write one ...
2
If you always transition from one paragraph to the next in the same way, your writing will feel formulaic and boring. If you're writing a 5 paragraph essay and your teacher has given you clear instructions, by all means follow them, but for longer academic pieces (which can be dozens or occasionally hundreds of pages long) always transitioning in the same ...
0
It's not easy, but the core answer is: You need to learn the market.
Being from outside the U.S., or not having an existing platform, might be issues, but they shouldn't be dealbreakers -- lots of U.S. agents work with foreign clients, and a good book on a good topic can sell beautifully.
But: you need to know what else is out there. What other books on ...
3
Answer: Another way to think about your question is:
How do I get the right literary agent to find me?
For non-fiction, the following details are routinely requested by US agents. Not every time, but these things are requested (for NF) regularly:
A full proposal of the work (it sounds as though you have this covered)
A robust media platform (this is to ...
6
I highly recommend http://agentquery.com. It's free, searchable by category and oriented towards North American agents. I haven't personally had any luck yet securing an agent through them, but the listings all seem to be legitimate, and comparable to the ones you can find through other valid sources.
I do recommend, however, taking the time to click ...
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