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Hello friends, and happy Fantasy Football Season to those who celebrate! My weekend was full of crushing disappointments and surprising triumphs, so, you know, a mixed bag. (But then the Broncos had to go and lose, sigh.)
This week I am beyond thrilled to welcome one of my favorite writers around: Allie Volpe, who used to write for me at The Times. I met Allie through a friend (who some of you may know), and she wrote some of my favorite stories I worked on at NYT. Longtime FWT readers may also recognize Allie from when she talked to us about moving from freelance to staff (which, coincidentally, I’m running a workshop on this month — details at the bottom), and today she’s back to give us all some tips on turning a beat into a book.
Allie is a correspondent at Vox who covers friendships, relationships, and social connection. Her first book, about friendship, naturally, is called “We Still on for Tonight?” and will be out on June 1, 2027. (You can pre-order it now!) Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and many others. Find her on Substack — which is excellent, and where the idea for this very newsletter was sparked — Instagram, and Twitter.
Take it away, Allie!
When I first started reporting on friendship nearly a decade ago, I could never have dreamed of turning those sporadic articles into a career — and eventually a book. I was struggling in the friendship department, so, naturally, my work became an outlet through which to answer the burning questions I had about my own relationships.
Over time, my work became less guided by my own experiences and more by those around me, both IRL and online. I built relationships with researchers studying the nuances and challenges of contemporary friendship. I saw platonic relationships not only through a personal lens but a societal one — the myriad ways the changing world plays a role in our friendships. But you don’t need me to explain how to cultivate a beat. You want to know how I turned that beat into a book.
The short answer is time. I first attempted to write a book proposal in 2019, and it became abundantly clear after a few months of toiling away that I didn’t have enough to say. Five years later, with hundreds more stories under my belt, I had a stronger grasp on the research and plenty of arguments I hadn’t seen reported elsewhere.
If you’re thinking about writing a book, or may want to eventually, I have some advice based on what I’ve learned. After you’ve established yourself as something of an expert in a subject area, here are some questions to ask yourself as you prepare to turn one-off articles into a cohesive body of work.
What common themes emerged from your work? After years of reporting on one topic, you likely have some big questions or takeaways. A book is your opportunity to braid them all together. These themes might be the rough sketches of chapters, or they might simply be the jumping-off point. But, in my experience, it’s important to take what you already know and have observed and expand from there.
What frameworks or paradigms have you developed from your reporting? In my experience, some of the more attractive elements of my book proposal were unique frameworks. These don’t need to be super groundbreaking, but they should be quippy or pithy encapsulations of broader ideas. Think about the ways your reporting has informed your thinking. For example, my book teaches readers to formulate what I’m calling a “friendship ecosystem” — a way of orienting your life around friendship — along with skills to help readers overcome common hurdles. Having a name and a promise for the book was a helpful way to organize it.
How has your work pushed the conversation forward? Just because a topic is in the zeitgeist doesn’t necessarily mean there’s enough meat for a book. You have a unique point of view. Now, use it to propel the conversation in a new direction. This should, ideally, be informed by your reporting and what you’ve learned. But because you’re an expert in this area, you have the authority to make these kinds of claims.
What is the overall argument or story you’re looking to tell with this book? Sometimes we can get stuck in the weeds, jumping from one 1,500-word article to another. But think about the larger story or argument that ties these pieces together. For me, it was the simple premise that friendship is work, but it shouldn’t feel like work. I made sure to keep coming back to this argument in each chapter.
How can you use research to support your arguments? Having a solid understanding of the literature around your beat really helps flesh out the points you’re making. Finding actionable elements of research was also helpful in distilling the findings into something readers could apply to their own lives.
If there’s one takeaway here, it’s the value of deeply understanding your subject matter. When you have a good grasp of the existing work, research, and arguments, you’re better positioned to make novel observations or arguments, and that’s what’s attractive to agents and publishers.
Yes, having a clear beat is helpful when presenting yourself, but getting to that point is no easy feat. For years, I was a generalist, reporting on everything from weed to pop culture, and it took me quite a while to home in on a beat. And for me, it was almost accidental. After landing those first few stories on friendship and social health, I realized I was passionate about the material and wanted to keep learning. In other words, you need to dabble in a bunch of things to figure out what lights your fire, which is why there’s no quick path from Hmm, I might be interested in this subject to I’m ready to write a book proposal.
To be honest, I don’t think I ever felt “ready” to claim I was an expert in friendship until the proposal was completed. Looking back on those dozens of pages gave me the confidence boost I needed to remember I know what I’m talking about. I’ve put in the work. I have a lot to say. And you probably do, too.
Upcoming Zoom workshops
This Thursday, Emily Stewart of Business Insider will join us for a session on how to come up with more, and better, knockout story ideas. Emily is famous for finding fresh, unique angles to topics and digging up ideas that never fail to surprise and delight readers — if you ever see a BI headline that makes you think, “Wow, I never would’ve even thought of that idea,” odds are it’s an Emily special. She’ll give us a peek into her process so we can generate stronger, more original, and more attention-getting story ideas. See you there!
On Sept. 24 @ 4 p.m. Eastern, Slate features editor Shannon Palus will join us for a workshop on how Slate builds its iconic features, and how we can use those techniques in our own writing. Shannon is an ace editor at crafting unmissable stories, and she works with and commissions a ton of freelancers, so I’m beyond thrilled for her to bring her years of expertise to this workshop and share her tips, advice, secrets, and wisdom about pitching and writing the perfect feature story.
On Sept. 29 @ 4 p.m. Eastern, Cristina Silva, managing editor and newsroom recruiter for The Boston Globe and author of Ask the Recruiter at The Poynter Institute, will join us for a workshop on how to position yourself for full-time journalism jobs. Working with job candidates is part of Cristina’s job at The Globe, and she brings that know-how to her careers column for Poynter, so this session will be chock-full of tips, advice, and guidance on applying for staff positions. Bring all those questions you’ve been curious about to a real-life newsroom recruiter!
On Oct. 1 @ 4 p.m. Eastern, join me for a workshop on how to write story pitches editors will actually read — and commission. We’ll dive deep on exactly what goes into a fantastic story pitch and how to get an editor invested in your idea. How do you structure it? What must be in it, and what should you leave out? How much pre-reporting should you do? How can you head off the follow-up questions an editor will inevitably ask? How do you even find editors to pitch or know which publication to shoot for? We’ll cover all that and much, much more.
Upgraded subscribers get 50% off registration to all events, and all registrants will get a recording, whether or not they attend live.
Oh, a few other things …
Land a great pitch recently? I’d love to feature it in a future edition of our #pitchesthatsold series! Email me at [email protected] and put “#pitchesthatsold” in the subject line. Can’t wait to see ’em!
How much were you paid for your last assignment? Feel free to contribute to our ongoing freelance rate database here. I’ll be publishing updated results of this survey soon!
Got a question about freelancing or the wider world of journalism? Let’s hear it, and I may feature it in a future Q&A post! Fill out this form with your question(s).
I offer one-on-one coaching! Is your story falling apart and you need a second set of eyes on it? Want a seasoned perspective on a pitch you’re kicking around? Interested in talking about careers and/or building your freelance business? Maybe just want an edit on a story draft? I’ve got you covered! Click below to book a session to talk about pitches, story ideas and development, editing, careers, or anything else you might need help with! (Paid subscribers get 33% off any session.)