Subscribe to RSS 2.0Can you handle the truth (in book form)?
Snowbooks started out with hardly any non-fiction, but we're planning to gradually add more into the mix. We've already talked about why. It's easier to spot gaps in the market with non-fiction. And 'good' is less a matter of taste and more a matter of standards. Both of those mean our hard work is less of a gamble and more likely to pay off. And non-fiction titles often benefit from colour and pictures in a way that novels don't. And that's good because it's more difficult to self-publish graphics-heavy books and less likely that an e-book reader will be able to do a good job of displaying them any time soon.
With that in mind I'm thinking of talking about and reviewing lots of non-fiction on this here blog and I'm wondering whether I might be out of step with the current make up of the Snowblog readership. So who are you people? When you tot up the books you read in a year, what's the ratio of fiction to non-fiction titles? I'd love to know. I could quite imagine that the average Snowblogger is 20:1 Fiction to Non-Fiction. Maybe higher. Am I right? I used to be like that: 50-60 novels per year and a couple of non-fiction titles, probably pop science books. But now I'd say my ratio was more like 1:20. Anyone else undergone a change like that? Maybe someone with a ratio like 1F:20NF wouldn't be visiting the Snowblog in the first place.
I'm guilty of it myself, but do you find that when you think of publishing, your first thought is always fiction?
Comments: 13
I'm about 3F:1NF, but the NF is specialised fields - Writing advice or treatises on weapon forms.
Posted by: Rachel Green on September 20, 2007 11:23 AM
Oh now, Rachel, you really have to explain those last four words. If not to the blog at large, then please e-mail me. I'm fascinated. (And thanks for the info.)
Posted by: Rob on September 20, 2007 11:26 AM
From last 30 books read (not including poetry and art books): 22 non-fiction 8 fiction. Of the 22 non-fiction 5 biographies: Orwell, The Clash, Peter Kay (xmas present from my sister), Frank McCourt (Teacher Man) and Ptolemy Tompkins (Paradise Fever). Of the remainder: 4 history specific; 1 general history/overview (Basque History of the World); 2 science; 2 journalism; 2 memoir; 2 nature; 2 travel; 1 investigative and 1 politics (Chomsky). Hope that gives you something to go on.
Posted by: Bill Sinclair on September 20, 2007 11:36 AM
Yep, I'm a 20F:1NF Snowblogger.
Posted by: sue hepworth on September 20, 2007 12:18 PM
Oh dear Bill, you sound very boring. No wait, not boring. That other thing. Interesting. Very interesting with all sorts of excellent knowledge at your fingertips. If only Snowbooks did more NF books (hmm, that sounds like National Front, how about NoFi?) we could maybe sell you some.
Posted by: Rob on September 20, 2007 12:46 PM
If we're listing books read - my last 10 were
This Wonderful Writing Life;
Themes and Subtext in Fiction;
A Beginner's Guide to Plotting;
(all non-fiction books by Bodmyn Corner);
the remaining 7 were novels by Anita Shreve, Anne Tyler and Mary Lawson.
Posted by: Sally Howe on September 20, 2007 02:25 PM
No problem with non-fiction, but please refrain from publishing those oh-so-depressing "I was abused as a child" biographies.
What is it with this current sub-genre? Why do so many people buy this dross? Do they feel better about themselves 'cos they're apparently better off than someone else?
Posted by: Christopher Teague on September 20, 2007 05:43 PM
Of the last ten books read only one was non fiction - nothing about weapon forms though! Damn shame , feel like i've missed out somehow.
Posted by: keith hargreaves on September 20, 2007 05:54 PM
With me its 95F:5NF - and the NF is usually biography or history.
When I was at uni I was told that you never read a 'proper' or academic NF book from beginning to end. You found what you were looking for in the index and read that bit.
Fiction takes you to another world.
Posted by: Sally Zigmond on September 20, 2007 06:46 PM
I read more fiction by far. Likely 100:1. The nonfiction I read is generally memoirs, biography, or writing books. The last thoroughly fact-based book I read was Gangs of New York, and that was in 2002; the fact that I distinctly remember this should show you how rarely I read them.
What kind of nonfiction are you thinking of focusing on? Books like City Cycling and the workout books, or more dull--er, fact-based books about science and such? Or criticism, or essays?
Posted by: KatharineC on September 21, 2007 02:27 PM
Katherine, Sally Z, I'm a little disappointed. Do you never read books about the real world that blow your mind? Like about where we came from and how the world works and why things are the way they are? Because when a chunk of the picture clicks into place, well I daresay it's as much fun as reading a made-up story.
But I take the point. My idea is more to sort of make the fact-based stuff fun to read.
Posted by: Rob on September 21, 2007 06:42 PM
I'd say 60:40. I used to read almost exclusively fiction, but recently – since I decided I want to write HistFic I've taken a hefty swing into NonFic. (I've got the jargon, if not a publishing contract ;) )
It started with the biography of William Marshal, reputedly the greatest knight who ever lived, and that led on to books on medieval life, warhorses, and the Knights Templar. Then I visited Hardwick Hall, the home of Bess, a contemporary of Lizzie the First, so I've been delving through Elizabethan and Tudor history, and then I thought… well… the Victorians were just fascinating, weren’t they. So I'm now surrounded by piles of historical stuff while I'm back on fiction – currently Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts and, at the same time, Northanger Abbey by… er… whatshername ;)
Dee
ps - still haven't mastered the art of using my smart email *tch*
Posted by: Dee Weaver on September 21, 2007 07:49 PM
Rob,
I am a complete Non Fiction head but I try and pack in Fiction too. If I was pushed to quantify i'd say 65:35 or maybe 70:30.
Fiction tends to be Sci-Fi & Fantasy with a good few classic fiction and the odd original fiction thrown in.
Non Fiction ranges from Classical History all the way up to Modern Biography and Topical Political.
Fun all round really!
Eoin
Posted by: Eoin Purcell on September 24, 2007 09:25 PM