As much as I bristled, I only sold my book after I had a solid argument

I found out the hard way that while reporters are supposed to report, book authors have to SAY something (duh)

Writer E.N. Cherikov, by Ivan Kulikov via Wikimedia Commons. Or me, struggling to articulate an argument.

When I first set out to write my book proposal, my idea was simple: a history of online dating, through the words of regular users. I knew I’d have to do a ton of research and reporting, and convince the publishing world that this was a worthy project, but I thought I had enough of a framework to work with, and that juicy personal stories and fascinating, quirky bits of the history of love and technology would suffice. I’d report the hell out of it. If I was worried about not selling the book, it was because I thought I might not have enough Twitter or Instagram followers.

But what I kept hearing after having folks read initial drafts of the proposal: great idea, interesting research, good writing, but... what are you SAYING about online dating?

Here’s some of that first feedback from someone with a ton of experience in the industry, which I’m sharing because as I think it can help others:

I get the feeling that you haven’t yet fully grappled with your material. I think you need to more fully integrate your sources to develop common themes so the book will have a more coherent message…

... Right up front it needs to tell me why I should read this book. What will I learn? What will it give me that is worth reading it for?…

...What salient concept or fact or experience emerges from your research?

As I look at these notes, I want to face palm. These questions seem very basic. Of course I needed to address all of them in the proposal. And yet, I was annoyed at the time, frustrated that the proposal needed much more work, after I’d already put so much into it, all on spec. What do you mean “what am I saying?!” I am saying so much!

In retrospect, I find my attitude baffling. I read a LOT of nonfiction books, and I really should’ve clocked that the most successful ones have a pretty clear takeaway statement about the subject.

As I was looking through my emails with this early feedback, I stumbled upon my response:

The elevator pitch for now is "oral history of online dating, from the daters' perspective and in their own words." Not quite sure how I'd go about extrapolating an argument or a unifying experience, since I've been treating it like a classic oral history (a la Studs Terkel), but perhaps that was naive.”

Naive I was, as I’ve mentioned here before. Making a convincing case for oral history as a format for the commercial market is HARD, especially for so broad a topic.