Creating a Table of Contents for the Non-fiction Book

After you come up with a book idea, a working title and a short summary of your new book, you need to put together a table of contents. This is your roadmap for writing the book. Generally you start with the working title and drop in tentative chapter titles.  This gives you a chance to think through your book.

Take your time and let one thing lead to another. Your table of contents will not be perfect the first time. Give each chapter a title, but don't be too fussy about what you put down since you will get a chance to revise.

Example: I have a book called How to Sell and Re-Sell Everything You Write. Despite the title this is a not a book about writing but about selling articles. The focus is to see article writing as a business and to take advantage of it.

Now, let me share the process. I needed first to explain that magazines are business and how to take a magazine idea and find a magazine that might buy my articles.  I also need to explain how to use your experience to create articles and how to sell to one magazine consistently. Writers also want to know how to write more articles and sell articles to the bigger magazines. Finally I needed to explain how to sell the same article a number of times, plus how to sell articles from material you've already collected. That allows me to explore my title fully. Often I simply start making a list of the main things I want to talk about in the book.

It doesn't matter the order at this point you just jot them down as you think of them.

• Understanding magazines as a business
• Every magazine has an editorial focus that your article must meet
• Writers need to be market oriented
• Magazines buy slanted ideas
• Write about what you know
• Start with your experience
• Increasing your volume
• Writing more articles
• Selling the same article over and over
• Where to multimarket
• Using your research and articles to create more articles
• Selling to the major markets

Now we want you to combine points and cross out duplications

• Understanding magazines as a business
•  
• Writers need to be market oriented
•  
•  
• Start with your experience
•  
• Writing more articles
• Selling the same article over and over
• How to Multiple Market
• Using your research and articles to create more articles
• Selling to the major markets

Okay, I can make 8 chapters out of this.

First, we will just rough in the titles

• Magazines as a business
• How to market
• Using Your Experience
• Working with a magazine
• Writing a lot of articles
• Hitting Major Markets
• Selling articles over and over
• Using material in your files to create more markets

That's the rough table of contents. Now you need to create the best titles possible.

Start your titles with such words as Writing, Selling, Hitting and so forth. You can also use 7 Steps to….

Here is the table of contents I came up with

1.    Understanding magazines as a business

2.    Finding markets for your article

3.    Cashing in on your experience

4.    Working for a magazine like staff

5.    Turning out writing in volume

6.    Selling to Major Markets

7.    Selling the same article many times

8.    Creating an article data bank.

Next, we go back through and create the best titles we can find. Here are the changes I made

1.    Understanding Magazines as a business becomes Acquiring Magazine Savvy

2.    Finding a market for you article becomes Fitting your Ideas to the Market

3.    Cashing in on your experience, becomes How to Fit Your Experience to a Magazine's Needs

4.    Working for a magazine like staff becomes How to Establish Yourself With Editors.

5.    Turning out writing in volume becomes How to Turn Out Writing in Volume

6.    Selling to major markets becomes How to Hit the Major Magazines.

7.    Selling the same article many times stays Selling the Same Article Many Times.

8.    Creating an article databank becomes How to Make an Article Data Bank Work for You.

Here's the table of contents I wound up with.

1.    Acquiring Magazine Savvy

2.    Fitting Your Ideas to the Market

3.    How to Fit Your Experience to a Magazine's needs

4.    How to Establish Yourself with Editors

5.    How to Turn Out Writing in Volume

6.    How to Hit the Major Magazines

7.    Selling the Same Article Many times

8.    How to Make an Article Data Bank Work for You

In this kind of book the titles must be in action and involve your reader.