If you’re a writer of fiction with limited publishing success, consider writing nonfiction. 

Why would you want to do that? Because it will make you a better writer. 

The elements that make good fiction are the same for nonfiction.  You need to tell a story.  If you think about it, most stories are nonfiction.  “Did you hear about what happened to Bill and Susie?”

You also have a better chance of getting published and getting paid. 

There is a continual demand for nonfiction and there is money involved, primarily due to advertising revenue.  If a magazine publishes monthly, with the ads already sold, when the first of the month rolls around you can be damn sure they will be putting out a magazine.  And what do they place around and among all the ads?  Nonfiction writing!  Original words!  Your story!

If you start getting published and receive positive feedback, it will inspire you to continue your writing journey. Writing is difficult and lonely. Making a connection with readers makes it less difficult and lonely.

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Hello Breaking Into The Craft readers. I’m Matthew Walter, friends since first grade with your BITC creator, James Miller. Besides our friendship, we support each other’s writing and discuss the craft.

When James told me his idea for a new direction for BITC, I said, “Go for it!  When you look at the supply and demand of fiction, there has to be tons of good stories that never see the light of day.”  I’m glad to see his weekly posts and read some good fiction.

I love reading fiction and writing fiction. However, I’m primarily a writer of nonfiction. I respect you writers of fiction, because writing fiction is a struggle for me.  But if your goal is to get published, try writing some targeted nonfiction.  

For ideas, turn to your work and interests. If you’ve spent any time in a workplace, I’m sure you’ve been struck with an idea about how to make something better.  See if there is a trade magazine that would publish your ideas.

If you have a hobby, chances are there is a magazine or website looking for content. I’m an avid disc golfer and I published a humorous piece on some of the disc golf forums.  I received overwhelmingly positive responses, with a few negative (You have to take the good with the bad.)

Your local newspaper would almost certainly accept good writing on pertinent topics. Look for a question no one is answering. Do your research and become a reporter.  Even Stephen King started out writing for his school newspaper.  

Get writing and see what you can accomplish. You may surprise yourself. 

I’ve been writing and selling my nonfiction writing for the past fifteen years. I started my blog, Curiousfarmer, in 2009. I had never written much before that. I liked the challenge of crafting an interesting story, and it was a way of capturing my thoughts and questions as I farmed.

Without ever proclaiming myself an expert, my blog quietly proclaimed it for me. It wasn’t long before an editor at Successful Farming found me and asked if I would contribute. I said sure. I was honored, as my family has been reading that magazine forever.

I wrote and sold three articles to Successful Farming.  They pay well.  When an editor suggests changes, I always have the revision back to them within 24 hours.  They pay enough; I’m not about to argue my work is too precious to edit. 

Successful Farming is in the commodity agriculture business and I’m a regenerative farmer, so ultimately we weren’t a good fit. If I could go back in time, with the writing experience I have now, I may try to pitch different ideas to work with them.  But I let it go at the time.

I kept posting to my blog.  I received some positive feedback, but was mostly internally driven, which is a great character trait for a writer.  I had no real writing goals, but I just kept posting, building my body of work.

I partnered with another couple to market our products in Madison, Wisconsin under the brand name Jordandal Farms.  When their marriage ended, the partnership dissolved and I didn’t want to pay what they wanted for their share of our brand name.  

Voila!  I started over as Curiousfarmer, with an online presence dating back nearly ten years and hundreds of posts.  When potential customers wanted to check us out, I could direct them to Curiousfarmer.com.  This thing I had been doing for no compensation other than the joy of doing it, was now valuable to me.

A couple years later, Covid hit, and when our farmer’s market was shut down, I was forced to pivot again.  I had been assembling a small email list.  I sent an email to all our customers asking if they would like to meet in Madison for a contactless meat drop off.  Many of them wanted to!  

If you remember the early months of Covid, there was a scarcity mindset but my business boomed. I added to customers to my email list weekly.

I settled on an every other week delivery schedule. On the Saturday I wasn’t delivering, I sent an email to my customers reminding them I was coming to Madison next week and to place their order if they wanted anything.  I quickly got bored with the typical email, listing what we had in stock, what was good, etc.  I was basically saying, “buy my bratwurst.”

I realized that besides good meat, most of my customers wanted a connection with a farmer, so I reasoned a short story about the farm might be appreciated. It was. I received even more positive feedback about my writing and felt the challenge to come up with a new story every other week. It propelled my writing to another level.  

I started to really enjoy writing and the process of discovery. Not always, but sometimes, it felt like I was uncovering hidden treasure. I got busy after our outdoor farmer’s market opened back up when Covid tailed off. I decided to save my stories for the winter months when I would return to email marketing.

I’m not sure why, but I got the notion to try to sell some articles again. I was subscribing to two regenerative ag magazines, Acres USA and Stockman Grass Farmer.  I submitted an article to Acres USA and was rejected. I submitted to Stockman Grass Farmer and was accepted.  

I decided to concentrate my efforts on Stockman Grass Farmer as that seemed to be a better fit for my expertise.  I asked the editors what they were after and then tried to shape my articles to their specs.  

Its working.  In the last few years I’ve published ten articles in Stockman Grass Farmer. This year is shaping up to be my best year yet, with four articles published already and four months to go.  

I worked really hard last winter in my slower farming time and submitted eleven articles. Stockman Grass Farmer works a bit differently; they don’t tell you if they accepted your article, they either publish it or they don’t. The first time I know an article is accepted is when an issue comes out and I find one of mine in there. I receive a check shortly after. They usually don’t edit my articles, but when they do, they just do it themselves, sometimes in ways I don’t like, but they’re paying, so I never complain.

This is my experience with writing and selling nonfiction. Unless I become way more prolific, I’ll continue to focus on submitting to Stockman Grass Farmer as we seem to be a good fit.  

In the meantime, to challenge myself, I’m working on fiction.  I feel like I have a head start finding my voice because of all the nonfiction stories I’ve written. My wife sees the checks come in, so she never rolls her eyes when I say, “I’m working on my writing.”  

Nonfiction has catapulted me into writing.  It may do the same for you.  Give it a try.

-Matthew