CCBC-Net Archives

Re: Nonfiction hardsell

From: Claudia Pearson <pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 15:39:45 -0500 (GMT-05:00)

NONE OF THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS ARE INTENDED TO APPLY TO NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS. THIS POST IS ABOUT LONGER TEXTS FOR OLDER READERS.

 A number of well established albeit often smaller publishers publish non-fiction for middle grade and older readers. These tend to be in series that follow a specified format and are usually written by inhouse staff writers on under contract with authors who accept assignments for a specified fee.

I believe the following all publish nonfiction series for older readers: 
  • Allosaurus Publishers
  • Bess Press, Inc.
  • Branden Publishing
  • Capstone Press
  • Compass Point Books
  • Fulcrum Publishing
  • Lerner Publishing Group
  • Mason Crest Publishers
  • Morgan Reynolds, Inc.
  • Morning Glory Press 
  • Oliver Press
  • Rourke Publishing, LLC
  • Stackpole Books

Enslow Publishers publishes biographies, a friend of mine wrote a number of them. Second Story Press has done a series on the Holocaust which are biographical. 

Larger publishers like Scholastic also publish series nonfiction books which tend to have a topical orientation (presidents, carreers, technology, biology, construction, etc). One series Scholastic publishes for 8th graders is called ON THE RECORD, which is biographical in nature and is described as: "Based on Dr. Alfred Tatum’s four social justice platforms and Erin Gruwell’s classroom-tested ELA strategies."

Some writers who long to publish a nonfiction text about a specific subject complain that they cannot get an editor interested in a nonfiction book they have already written for older readers, but it's a business decision made by the publisher, not an editorial decision made by editors. Trying to sell an editor an already completed work which does not fit the format and content design of an existing series doesn't work because publishing houses market new series on the premise that after five or ten years a nonfiction book is out of date rather than trying to market individual titles written by individual authors. They do not see a mass market for nonfiction. 

Even the best fiction needs to have a commercial aspect these days to get acquired by a major publisher. They are all looking for the next HUNGER GAMES, or HARRY POTTER because they are in the business to make money. But recent legal decisions may generate a shift in the market that will make it easier and more profitable for publishing houses to publish nonfiction for sale directly to the consumer. Or a new subscription service might arise to offers fans of nonfiction a constant stream of new nonfiction in electronic formats. A good nonfiction text is a good nonfiction text no matter what the format might be.

Claudia Pearson

Claudia Pearson
coRA SCBWI Southern Breeze
Georgia - Alabama - Florida Panhandle
pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net

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Received on Sun 08 Jun 2014 03:40:07 PM CDT