Craig Pittman: Turn your story into a book

Got hold of a good story?

BOOK IT!

Based on a true story!• Save your notes• Put in all the

details• Start building a

timeline• Look for scenes –

go see it!

New tools for digging

• Old days: peering at microfilm, digging through the library stacks

• Now: Google News Archive• Also Google Books

Getting your arms around it

• How do you do a big job? Break it into smaller jobs

• Outline book into chapters, then outline each chapter

• Think of chapters as stories

• Start plugging away

Sweating the details

• Proof your text so you don’t look stoopid• Footnotes – look at different styles• Remember, you have to do the index too• Permissions for photos, maps, song lyrics etc.

The necessary evil• Don’t count on

newspaper reviews• …but radio, TV

looking for guests• Contact book stores,

libraries, clubs• Make use of website,

Facebook, Twitter• Know how to play

Amazon’s game

Good luck (you’ll need it)

• About 190,000 books are published every year in United States

• But there are millions of readers waiting• One reader’s praise can make it all worthwhile