First-time author and TikTok sensation Sophia Smith Galer shares first-hand advice on making your book idea a reality
Journalists might be used to quick turnaround articles or long-read features, but penning a book is a different beast entirely.
VICE News senior news reporter Sophia Smith Galer has recently published her book Losing it: Sex Education for the 21st Century and gave some tips on her TikTok account on writing a book from idea conception through to publication.
Pick a topic you are passionate about. It is likely you will juggle this project around other work and so you must avoid getting bored or burnt out. Second, find a gap in the market you can meet because that is an essential element of a proposal to book publishers.
"The minute I looked at the market, I could see no-one had addressed sex education and sex misinformation [in] a journalistic way before. The books which covered adjacent subjects were quite academic," she explained.
Something more accessible was not being provided and she landed a book deal by meeting that demand. But she says you must also be the best person to tell the story by leaning into your own experiences and expertise - something journalists should have in droves.
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