Ask Jerry
Book structure
Asked by Steve Curtin on June 8, 2020
I'm writing a non-fiction business book. My agent prefers a book with 10 chapters and discourages separating chapters into sections or parts. My existing 50,000-word manuscript falls neatly into seven chapters and four distinct parts. Do you see anything wrong with formatting a book in this way? Thank you.
Jerry's Answer
I'm assuming, Steve, that before you tried to write a book in that genre, you read dozens of them so you know the conventions and expectations. Often business books are studied in small work teams weekly, so leaders want them to have 12 or 13 chapters so they can be covered in a quarter.
The ten-chapter suggestion surprises me, but you should feel free to simply ask your agent what's behind it. You have to assume he knows what he's talking about, so there must be some logic to it.
Same with breaking the chapters into sections. I kind of appreciate that because I like learning in bite-sized chunks.
But my bottom line is have an open discussion about it, leaning toward following his counsel. That's part of his reason for being. :)