For business journalists who have notebooks filled with unused reporting that didn’t make it into their daily stories or dream of turning their beat into something bigger, a recent panel hosted by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW), “From Beat to Book,” offered a roadmap for transforming daily reporting into long-form storytelling.
Moderated by Alan Deutschman, professor of journalism at the University of Nevada and author of “How Steve Jobs Changed Our World,” the session brought together journalists-turned-authors to share their advice on how to navigate the leap from article to manuscript, covering everything from pacing and proposals to passion and partnership.
Fleshing out the story
In the massive trove of information accrued by beat reporters, identifying a book-worthy story can be overwhelming. Diana Henriques, author of “The Wizard of Lies” among other books, looks for a theme or an emotion that can resonate across all readers.
“I look for … a universal emotion that is driving this story, whether it’s loyalty or betrayal, revenge or compassion. Some universal emotion that provides … the fuel that drives the story along,” Henriques said.
Bethany McLean, who wrote “Saudi America” and co-wrote other books, underscored the distinction between the obvious book and the hidden gem.
“One … is obvious that it’s a book… It’s Enron; it’s the global financial crisis. The other kind … is just that thing that no one else is thinking about … and you have to make it resonate,” McLean said.
Writing about a heavily covered topic comes with a built-in audience that cares about the story. Choosing the road less traveled, on the other hand, allows reporters to really take ownership of the story and lessens the competitive stressors of covering a well-known issue.
David Jeans, co-author of “Wonder Boy,” emphasized the value of descriptive detail in journalistic books to paint a vivid picture for the reader.
“You need to know the color of the drapes in every single room because … You want to make sure that your reader can be in the room, as well, in these scenes that you weren’t even in,” Jeans said.
His point? A strong long-form narrative immerses the reader in moments even reporters didn’t witness firsthand but can recreate through deeply reported sourcing.
Let’s get practical
Book writing demands more than just passion; it requires a plan. That’s why outlining became the lifeline for Jeans and his co-author.
“We started out with like a sentence for what each chapter would be,” Jeans said. “And then … those would be broken out into about 10 bullet points of how each chapter would look.”
Beyond structuring the writing process, Henriques encouraged reporters to plan for the logistical realities of book publishing early on.
“There are all sorts of steps in the process of getting the book across the finish line that are not reporting it or writing it … and it takes a lot of time. You have to build that into your thinking,” she said regarding time-consuming tasks such as copy editing, footnoting, fact checking, and legal reviews.
For journalists wondering whether a book project can coexist with their day job, some speakers recounted their editor’s flexibility to take time off – a book leave – to focus on their manuscript, while others had to work on their beat and book in tandem. This will depend entirely on the employer and the reporter’s financial ability to take a few months off work.
“I have moonlighted three books. I have written three books as almost a full-time preoccupation. The latter is better if you can swing it,” Henriques added.
Learning the long form
The longest story Ryan Mac, co-author of “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter,” had written in his journalism career was 4,000 words, so the prospect of writing 90,000 words to fulfill his book contract was daunting. However, Mac and his co-author ended up filing 180,000 words, which posed its own challenges.
But, how does a reporter go from writing to-the-point stories to writing an in-depth book?
“What you have to do is break it down into smaller pieces. Outlining for us was incredibly important,” Mac said.
Beyond extensive outlining, it’s all about practice, practice, practice.
“I’m kind of afraid that the answer to the question, ‘How do you learn to write books?’ is: you write books,” Henriques said. “You learn by practice.”
Still, there are tools that can help. “Pacing is so critically important,” she said. Her advice? Read your work aloud and read great writing, including fiction. “I would read Lee Child … and then I would read the draft I was working on … shortening sentences, shortening words, tightening up.”
In the same vein, McLean emphasized the importance of narrative momentum in long-form writing.
“The outline of the book has to take you somewhere, and then each chapter has to take you somewhere … Each thing has to move. It can’t just end in the same place that it started,” McLean said.
The collaboration equation
The speakers offered their wisdom for those considering co-authorship, a path that requires constant communication and flexible collaboration, which can lead to even stronger narratives than those authored by a single writer.
“You have to really know yourself very clearly to work with a co-author,” McLean said. “You can’t have a huge ego if your co-author actually has strengths that you don’t have.”
Mac and his co-author also leveraged each other’s strong suits throughout their journey.
“What you find in a partnership is oftentimes one person is better at this type of reporting or another person is better at rewriting, and you get to find and know each other’s strengths, and hopefully, over the course of the book, you play to each other’s strengths,” Mac said.
For Jeans, trust is the foundation of collaboration in co-reporting and co-authoring
“You’re effectively pulling together a puzzle … [and our writing] was also helped along by the fact that we just trusted each other,” he said. That trust allowed each to lead different parts of the reporting and writing process with clarity and efficiency.
Economics and expectations
And what about landing a deal with a publisher? Even if you don’t get a major publisher on board, you’re not out of luck – just in need of a strategy.
“There is a proliferation of niche publishers or smaller publishers who know what they want to publish,” Henriques said. “The trick there is finding the match … That takes research on your part.”
She also urged reporters looking to become book authors to consider self-publishing as an alternative yet promising path for getting their long-form work out there.
Henriques didn’t mince words about the financial realities: “Don’t get greedy with your advance … The economics of big-time publishing are such that advances are getting smaller. They’re getting harder to get.”
McLean was on the same page and noted, “The best thing about writing the book is that it’s permanent, and it does become part of your reputation, and anything you could do to make the book better will be worth it in the end, even if it means sacrificing some of the economics.”
McLean was even more candid about motivations as they pertain to financial gain.
“[Be] passionate about your topic because that’s the most important thing … not because you want the book to sell, not because you want it to make you famous … because that’s never going to get you through the really hard moments.”
So, is jumping from business beat reporting to book writing worth it, then?
“Writing a book – shot at glory, greatest achievement, proudest accomplishment of your career, or setting yourself up for potential heartbreak, failure, disappointment – or both?” Deutschman posed as his closing question.
The answer? Likely all of the above. But if this panel proved anything, it’s that for business journalists with the right story, the stamina, and the soul for it, the leap from beat to book is worth every step.
