[Link] There’s a crisis in non-fiction book sales. What’s to blame?

We’re buying 17 million fewer factual books than six years ago. Is the rise of podcasts to blame? Or publishers’ obsession with celebrities and influencers?

by Ceci Browning

Inside the world of books there are always a few things that everybody knows about but nobody can bring themselves to say out loud. Much of the present whispering is that something has gone seriously wrong with non-fiction. When did the big magisterial titles so common on late 20th century bookshelves disappear? Where did they go? Is there anything left to read for those who aren’t interested in ghostwritten celebrity memoirs or self-help manuals?

Unfortunately those fears are backed up by facts. Fiction sales might be swelling – underpinned by the rise of romantasy and a strange new demand for dragon-based love affairs – but according to Nielsen, sales of non-fiction books in 2025 were down 6 per cent compared with 2024. It was the lowest yearly total since 2017, the sorry end point of years of painfully consistent decline.

And the books that did sell well in 2024 weren’t “big ideas” titles like Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens or charming travelogues like Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling that elbowed their way into the charts a decade or so ago.

Read the full article: https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/what-happened-non-fiction-books-publishing-industry-trends-gd9snqwjz

Anna Holloway: Don't Forget to Wave

Anna Holloway spent her teaching and administrative career of forty-six years all at one HBCU (historically black college and university). I have written about my experience, especially the early part, and I’m still in the process of learning more about black people’s experiences. Originally from the Midwest and now in the South and the mother of two interracial sons, Anna writes about her life-changing experiences as a white instructor at a black college during the time of the Vietnam War, voting reforms, and public-school integration. 

Tell us a bit about your most recent work.

Be Sure to Wave: An Interracial Family in Rural Georgia takes place 1978-92 in very rural Macon County. We experienced a gunshot in our house and a local church reacting against our three-year-old son's attending Sunday school, and we were even touched by the KKK, it appeared. But we came to like most of our neighbors, our two sons loved being in the country, and we lived seeing the wildlife. We did work and took the boys to school in Fort Valley.

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?

In my memoirs and many of my poems so far, I reflect on real-life differences between being a Southerner and being a Midwesterner, and this is through my lens of coming from the Midwest in 1968 to teach at Fort Valley State, where I spent my career of 46 years.

[Link] Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time: Essential Reads That Changed the World

by Kamal Shukla

Non-fiction literature possesses a unique power to transform perspectives, educate minds, and inspire action. Unlike fiction, these works ground themselves in reality, offering insights into human nature, historical events, scientific discoveries, and personal triumphs. The greatest non-fiction books transcend their original publication dates, remaining relevant across generations.

Why Non-Fiction Books Matter

Reading non-fiction expands knowledge while developing critical thinking skills. These books provide windows into experiences beyond our own, whether exploring distant cultures, understanding complex scientific concepts, or learning from the triumphs and failures of remarkable individuals. The best non-fiction works combine rigorous research with compelling storytelling, making difficult subjects accessible and engaging.

Read the full article: https://www.classicpages.in/blog/best-non-fiction-books-of-all-time-essential-reads

[Link] Truth, Power, Art: A Critical Manifesto on Creative Nonfiction

Lauren Markham and Chris Feliciano Arnold on the Urgency Writing Truth to Power

by Lauren Markham and Chris Feliciano Arnold

Back in 2017, White House Press Secretary Kellyann Conway coined the phrase “alternative facts” to describe realities that were inconvenient to the first Trump Administration. Eight years later, as the second Trump Administration reconfigures the federal government around the facts, opinions and impulses of its choosing, the US public is becoming desensitized to life in a country where reliable information is harder to find—and where the few remaining independent news outlets are routinely attacked for faithfully recording the realities of our fast mutating world.

At a time when reporting the facts is becoming a lost art, how can artists—no matter what they’re making—respond to history in the making?

This is work that used to happen in newspapers. But since the early 20th century, the roughly 24,000 newspapers regularly published in the US has been reduced to 6,000. The US has lost some 2,900 newspapers since 2005 alone, 130 of them in 2023. And with that dramatic reduction in news coverage, thousands of reporters and editors—writers trained in how to seek, evaluate and communicate facts in the form of stories and images—have lost their livelihoods. Worse yet, much of that storytelling and image making has been outsourced to machines and algorithms.

Not only are news sources dwindling, but, in spite of the right-wing obsession with the so-called “leftist media,” an increasing number of outlets are owned by the right. The brazenly conservative Sinclair Media controls 294 broadcast stations nation-wide. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, where he attempts to manipulate his editorial staff to cater to his business interests—and has recently shown a willingness to even to pull advertising critical of the administration and its billionaire allies. Speaking of billionaires, Patrick Soon-Shiong owns the once venerable Los Angeles Times. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, both of these newspapers declined to run an endorsement for President in the 2024 election.)

A recent Pew poll shows that 20 percent of US Americans rely on Meta for their news, and another poll showed 59 percent regularly using X for news. The billionaire owners of those corporations have made their subservience to the Trump Administration clear as day.

Even as readers are drowning in information, our ability to reliably source facts, and to make meaning from those facts, is more imperiled than at any point in US history. As journalists, we are devastated to behold the wreckage of our field. As writers and artists, we wonder how literature can help fill the void.

Read the full article: https://lithub.com/truth-power-art-a-critical-manifesto-on-creative-nonfiction

Using Fiction Technique in Nonfiction

On the surface, nonfiction writing might appear to be much easier than fiction writing. With fiction, the writer has to create a distinct world, characters, atmosphere, and plot, engaging in cerebral “heavy lifting” to tell a tale. Nonfiction (in some quarters) is mostly seen as compiling facts, data, information, and the occasional direct quote. If you didn’t know better, you would swear that it took no effort to create a nonfiction piece.

But writing nonfiction can be as creatively engaging as fiction, and I have the experience to prove it. I have written newspaper editorial columns, zine pieces, pop culture essays (published in such fine collections as Rising Son Reruns and When the Shadow Sees the Sun), and even academic pieces for the DePaul Pop Culture Conference. Spoiler: writing nonfiction isn’t “easier” than writing fiction, but you can find fiction-writing techniques scattered throughout various nonfiction works.

First, consider your “main character” of the work. Whether you’re writing a biography, an oral history, or a narrative of an event, there is always a protagonist (or group of protagonists), antagonists, and a general sense of conflict. Highlighting those protagonists and their efforts, and finding a naturally occuring arc, can provide a sense of that the overall “story” is about. Harvard University professor Yunte Huang integrates themes around assimilation and Chinese-American culture into his work. Two of his books focus on specific individuals: the first, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History, not only focuses on the fictional character but also his creator, Earl Der Biggers, and how the character has impacted American culture. It also integrates Chang Apana, the Hawaiian detective who may or may not have influenced the creation of Chan, and provides insight into the relationship between a cultural assimilator and the assimilated. His latest work, Daughter of the Dragon, focuses on Chinese-American actress Anna Mae Wong‘s career and her efforts to integrate aspects of her culture into her acting and other professional efforts.  In my essay for ATB Publishing’s Outside In Regenerates, I used the fictional character of the Monk to generate insights into the Doctor Who story “The Time Meddler.”

Another technique is developing a unique atmosphere around your nonfiction subject through selected perspectives. Fiction handles this through descriptive prose and dialogue, establishing a sense of “world building” that engages the reader to dive more deeply into the subject. Two Marx Brothers-related works achieve such an atmosphere: one through engaging in a similar tone to their movies, the other through stark differentiation. Roy Blount Jr’s Hail, Hail, Euphoria!: Presenting the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, the Greatest War Movie Ever Made provides a pitch-perfect match of scene-by-scene commentary and insight into their 1933 film that fosters both readability and strong narrative. In contrast, Robert J. Bader’s Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother provides a down-to-earth examination of the youngest Marx Brother (and the one who seemingly has less of a reputation). Bader provides a historical and emotional context that provides a much-needed source of humanity and relatability to an individual who opted to wander back into relative obscurity. 

(In my Rising Suns Reruns essay “Family Bonding Through Kaiju Fighting”, I started discussing the obscure tokusatsu show The Space Giants by describing the media landscape during my childhood…but framed it through my experience. It provided the proper historical context while generating empathy and identification for the reader. After all, many of us have rushed home from school to watch our favorite shows, but very few want to have a scholarly discussion of analog UHF/VHF broadcasting…)

One final fiction technique that works well in nonfiction is adopting a casual narrative tone. Like fiction, nonfiction strives to develop a unique voice that engages the reader. Although creating an atmosphere is critical in writing nonfiction, that atmosphere will not work if the writer takes a Jack Webb-style just-the-facts-ma’am approach. Finding the right approach to discussing a subject can differentiate between a piece read repeatedly for reference and a one-shot read that informs but doesn’t last. David Maurer’s The Big Con was initially written in the 1930s as a then-contemporary linguistic exploration of “con men” culture, but grew in prominence to eventually influence such television series as Mission: Impossible and Leverage through its descriptive and engaging insights into the workings of the confidence game. Another great example comes from Patrick McCray, writer of The Dark Shadows Daybook and The Dark Shadows Daybook Unbound. His essays about the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows take a casual yet insightful look at particular episodes of the series, integrating McCray’s experiences in theater with an extensive knowledge of the series’ storylines. 

(And I’m not just a reader – I’m a close, personal friend)

Writing engaging fiction is a challenge. Writing nonfiction also has challenges, but using fiction techniques can make it easier and your work more engaging.

(Visit the author's website.)

Creative Non-Fiction

Hey, writerly types, we spend a lot of time covering fiction on this blog because that's the main topic we discuss. But what about the other side of creative writing? No, not poetry. I'm referring to creative non-fiction. Let's bang that drum this week, shall we?

What kind of non-fiction do you prefer to write/read? Personal essays, how-tos, researched topics, true accounts (biographies, true crime, etc.)?

Alisa Richie Childress: I write personal essays. I write stories from my own life about mental health struggles (mine and my son's). Caregiving for me mother who passed from Alzheimer's last year. A lot about grief as I lost both of my parents in three years, my dad from cancer in May 2020, and my mom from Alzheimer's in June 2023. I write about parenting and what it is like to raise a child who had a major mental health crisis and who is gay (we live in a red state with conservative family members). Mostly I with about whatever I feel like I need to get out and what I hope will help others. My blog is alisachildress.com. I have been published in physical and online journals and write a lot on Medium.

Brian K Morris: I like to read mostly historical and scientific books when I read nonfiction. These days, I'm mostly into the business behind the creative efforts (such as how the comic companies were run by people affiliated with organized crime, or the boom/bust periods of comic books) these days. I also enjoy books on writing and marketing because I always want to do better at my job.

L. Andrew Cooper: I’ve been writing a lot of interviews for which I do extensive prep and into which I put significant thought, so that’s a biggie. Otherwise, I’ve done a lot of academic literary and film criticism, and after a long hiatus, I recently got back into film criticism a bit and found I still enjoy it. As for reading, I enjoy reading non-fiction for research related to whatever I’m writing (fiction or non). Otherwise, I enjoy reading philosophy.

Elizabeth Donald: Nonfiction is my bread and butter. I took my journalism degree into the newspaper world in 1997 and have worked in the news ever since, including my time on the national ethics committee and as president of the St. Louis Society of Professional Journalists. I was a full-time newspaper reporter for more than 20 years and I covered every beat except sports. I have stood in the snow outside a murder site and waited for an indicted governor at the end of a long dusty road and interviewed a president before he was anybody. Sometimes it was the county fair and sometimes it was the vicious beating death of a toddler. I wrote stories that changed the law and stories no one read. 

I went freelance in 2018 so I could have the freedom to go to grad school and begin teaching, but I have continued to work for local and regional news organizations, for regional and national magazines and so on, including a few investigative pieces. Freelancing has also given me the freedom to write more personal essays, writing essays and other free-form nonfiction, most of which is published on Patreon and Medium if it is not picked up by a magazine.

Scott Roche: Read - Biographies, history (particularly of science), and religious topics (not solely my religion, though primarily). Write - How to, reviews, commentary, and I'm getting to the point where I want to write some memoir-adjacent stuff.

Sean Taylor: I read a lot of various shades of nonfiction, everything from religious stuff (both classic like Augustine's City of God and contemporary progressive like Jim Wallis and Keith Giles), political/cultural stuff (currently reading White Rage and Hatemonger), to history (my fave is Lies My Teacher Told Me), and then also more fun stuff like books about horror and giallo movies and bios of my favorite actors and actresses. In terms of writing, I tend to do more essays about reading (like here on the blog), movie reviews (for a new book), and articles about the art and craft of writing. 

Van Allen Plexico: Most of my top sellers are nonfiction. Two books about the Avengers comics (I edited and coordinated both and wrote sections) and five books about Auburn sports (co-authored with my podcast cohost).

The Avengers books got me badges to Heroes Con and raised a lot of money for charity; the Auburn books have gotten me TV and radio appearances, speaking engagements before alumni/fan groups, and several book signings.

So yeah, I love writing nonfiction.

I also enjoy reading it a lot -- as a History professor I sort of have to -- and I find nonfiction works better in general on Audible than fiction does. So it's easier for me to listen to.

When writing non-fiction, particularly if you also write fiction, how does your routine or strategy differ from when you write fiction (if at all)?

Elizabeth Donald: Nonfiction and fiction use completely different brain cells, at least for me. My newspaper colleagues used to joke that I could sneak in a novel when the police beat was quiet, but I can’t work that way. After 25-odd years of writing news every day, I can turn out a high-quality news story in 15 minutes. It’s like falling off the proverbial log. Fiction, on the other hand, requires a good energy environment, the right caffeinated beverage, the alignment of the stars and planets and possibly the sacrifice of the nearest available virgin for the words to come. You’d think it would be easier to write stuff you can make up rather than the stuff that has to be accurate, ethical, responsible and all that jazz, but for me, the reverse is true. This goes back to one of those old writing saws we all hear and ignore: practice practice practice. Every word you write makes you a better writer, and I know journalism is easy for me because I’ve written 2-5 stories every day for decades. If I wrote fiction all day, every day for the next 20 years, maybe that would be like falling off a log.

Van Allen Plexico: I've found that when writing nonfiction I tend to outline very carefully beforehand--more even than I do in fiction. With fiction, I'm usually trying to leave myself lots of leeway to change the story as it wants to change when it unfolds.

With nonfiction, I need to know up front, "Okay, this section will cover the Sonny Smith years of AU Basketball; and this first chapter will be about how Auburn hired him and his first press conference and the preseason and then how his first team fared. And then the next chapter will be about how he recruited Charles Barkley and about Charles as a freshman. And then a separate chapter just of funny stories about Charles. And then..." sort of like that.

Alisa Richie Childress: I do not really write fiction, but I would like to. I have written a short piece in the Imaginarium anthology and am working on another. I have some ideas for novels. But I do not have a good fiction writing process. Or really a great writing discipline at all. I am working on this.

L. Andrew Cooper: Although I’m big in outlines for both fiction and non, for non, there’s an even more structured funnel process that goes from reading and research to organizing notes into conceptual groups that become outline points that become sections, paragraphs, etc.

Sean Taylor: It's actually easier for me to write nonfiction than fiction. I think this comes from being a Literature major in college and having to write so many essays and papers. They just kind of roll out of my brain onto the page. Fiction becomes so much more personal and that slows me down a lot because I really try to get my first draft super close to the way I want it. Nonfiction is the kind of thing I tend to trust myself to go back and edit/rewrite as needed.

Brian K Morris: Before I focused on New Pulp fiction, I wrote a number of articles about comic books. Usually, I'd look for the drama in the project (editorial whims, stumbling blocks in the production process, inherent challenges in changing a series' direction, etc.) and build a narrative with a satisfying conclusion. For instance, one of my favorite articles for Back Issue Magazine was about the final tales of the Silver Age Supergirl, how she'd gone from Superman's Secret Weapon to public acceptance, on-off powers, different locales, then her eventual death to become a spirit that helped talk people off the ledge, returning to her roots as a "secret weapon" for good.

What do you find most fulfilling about non-fiction writing?

Scott Roche: For me, any writing scratches roughly the same itch. Writing non-fiction does tap into a different vein. It requires more research/experience. For me it requires a different kind of brain work. I wouldn't say it uses a different part of your brain since I haven't done that research and am not a psychologist/neurologist, but it would make sense to me if it did.

Elizabeth Donald: I always knew I wanted to write and create, and I wanted to be in public service. Journalism allowed me to indulge both, while also engaging my brain, and I was able to make some small difference in the world around me. It is an incredibly difficult job, poorly paid with wildly unpredictable hours and an enormous emotional and mental toll, and as a weekend bonus, absolutely everyone hates you! We burn up new journalists at an alarming rate. But I loved it, and I still do. Doing what we do is a privilege, and one I’ve never taken for granted: we tell people what happened today, because they need to know. It’s that simple, and that complex, and completely unappreciated in this modern era. We write the first rough draft of history, as Phillip Graham said, and that is an enormous responsibility, as well as our honor.

Sean Taylor: When I write about writing, which is the bulk of my nonfiction, I'm telling the story of who I am directly. When I write fiction, it's still telling my story too, but it's far more subtle, far more hidden behind the symbols and the themes. With nonfiction, I can just come out and say what I think, feel, believe, etc. 

Van Allen Plexico: The really creative part of that kind of book for me is when I write the beginning and the ending, where I lay out what the book is trying to do, and then I make the closing argument at the end for what I was trying to say in it.

L. Andrew Cooper: I get to say what’s on my mind quite directly!

Alisa Richie Childress: The type of writing I do is very cathartic. Putting it all in paper helps me to organize me thoughts and my feelings in a way that I cannot do if I keep them in my head, it even if I am just journaling. Having an imagined audience to talk to helps me with clarity. I also hope that I am helping others. It really makes me feel good when someone tells me how much something I said resonated with them or helped them in their journey.

Brian K Morris: I enjoy finding out new ways of looking at something real, whether it's the history of a comic book character, getting perspective on a creator and their thinking, or instructing WHY something has merit, such as writing book reviews and how simple it can be.