Have you taught your nonfiction book’s content?

Last updated: November 25, 2025

There are so many reasons people pick up and read self-help or prescriptive nonfiction. Perhaps they need a solution to a problem, are curious about a topic, want to learn a new skill or grow emotionally or spiritually.

Perhaps a friend, therapist or doctor recommended a book to help give them clarity, knowledge, reassurance, or inspiration.

Over the past year, I’ve read self-help books on what the hell is happening with my perimenopausal body and how to deal with it (Oh, the joys of this stage in life), bringing more joy/fun into my life, minimalism, and improvisational and art quilting with a focus on design principles and letting go of rules.

Each of these books have offered information, techniques, strategies, and inspiration to help me solve a problem, learn a new skill, approach a topic in a new way, or make decisions.

These books worked. They did what they said they would and fulfilled the promise they made to me, the reader.

How did the author’s make sure they fulfilled their promise? They tested their content with their readers, and one of the best ways to do this is through teaching it.

Why you should be teaching your content

Teaching your content before you write your self-help book has a few significant benefits.

1) You can make sure that your content is meeting your readers’ needs and solving their problems.

You don’t want to write a book that fails right out of the gate. Test your content to make sure that it actually works for your readers.

2) You get real time feedback on what areas/content make sense and where you need to revise.

As an educator, there have been times when I’ve taught the same lesson three times in a day. Quite often, the third time I teach it is quite different than the first time. I can see where my students have gotten confused and can either cut or add information, provide more time or activities for practice, or I can rearrange the content. I can also adjust how much time I spend on each piece of the lesson depending on what the students need.

As your students ask questions and ask for clarification, you can note all of them and revise your content to address those questions in your book.

This information is invaluable when you’re sorting through your content and arranging it in a way that makes sense for your reader.

3) Teaching gives you an opportunity to connect with your reader, hear from them, and listen to them.

This can also be a great opportunity to collect real world stories for your book, speaking, or future workshops. When you have real people engaging with your content, you can watch, listen, and learn yourself.

4) You can easily identify areas where you’re suffering from the “curse of the expert” which happens when you forget where your reader is or what they know in relation to your content.

You either start at a level that is far too advanced because you think, “Surely, everyone knows this.”

No, they do not.

The other way the “curse of the expert” shows up is that you include far too much information and overwhelm your students. You forget that it’s all new and can be too much for your reader/learner.

Teaching your content live helps you to see the gaps in knowledge that your readers have that you might need to address in your book.

5) It’s a great opportunity to build your community and reach your readers (aka platform) before your write.

If you’re going for a traditional or hybrid publishing deal, you know how crucial platform is to landing a deal. Teaching and getting in front of your readers and building an engaged community with them can be a strong piece of your platform and the marketing plan in your proposal.

Ways to teach your content

When I say “teach” your content, you have a few options.

You could either teach a live, local workshop or a class.

You could do a webinar or class online.

You could have a casual conversation, a coaching session, or a Q&A session with an ideal reader or two and walk them through a section of your content that they might find helpful. This doesn’t have to be super complicated. Reach out to a potential reader or two to get started and have a call with them. That’s it, super informal.

The key is to track what’s working and what’s not, and you’ll figure this out by asking questions, getting feedback, revising, and repeating.

You do not need to teach your entire framework to make any of these teaching opportunities useful. You can break your content down and teach it in smaller chunks, testing each one at a time. Choose a chapter or section to share, or give a top-level overview of your framework.

Then, note their questions and where they get confused. Find the holes in your content now, before you write your whole book.

Structuring your Class or Workshop

If you are teaching a live workshop or class, build in discussion time to allow your students to process the information together and discover any questions or confusion.

In an online environment, you can provide several prompts, put attendees into breakout rooms, and ask them to bring their questions back to the larger group at the end. Then, note their questions!

In a live workshop, you can do conversation structures like “think-pair-share” where students think of their answer to a question through a writing prompt, partner up, and share their ideas/thinking with a partner.

You can group them in larger groups as well. This is one of my go-to strategies whether I’m teaching adults, AP high school students, or at-risk gang members at a residential high school. It works for a wide ranger of learners.

How to know what’s working and what’s not

As you’re teaching, the trick is focusing more on your learner than on your content.

Ask Them Questions

You have to pause often and ask specific questions that go beyond, “Does this make sense?” Most will nod “yes.”

Instead, do what are called “checks for understanding” which is a quick question used assess whether the learner has learned the key point before moving on.

For example, if I just taught you that the point of your book is the truth your readers must believe in order to fix their problem, the underlying argument that you’re making, and we did several discussion activities to solidify that information, and develop the student’s point, a question I might ask would be, “If you had to say your book’s point in one sentence, what would it be?”

I’m checking if they can apply this information and actually achieve the objectives I’m teaching.

Ask for their Questions

Pause frequently and ask if they have questions. Then, stay silent, until it might feel uncomfortable. Give them time to not only formulate their question in their head but also ask it.

Generally, adults are better at asking questions but some won’t even though they have them.
Note every question that’s asked

Read the Room

This one is key if you’re in a live workshop situation. Watch your learners and their behavior. When do they look bored, sleepy, or confused?

What is their body language saying? Are they leaning way back, paying more attention to their phone, super fidgety? If so, this might be a good time to tell a story or get them moving. While this isn’t a post on how to teach effectively, watch your students.

Their energy can be helpful in knowing where you might lose your readers as well.

If they get bored or confused in a live class, this is an area that you’ll have to focus on writing in an engaging way in your book, through:

• Breaking down the information and simplifying it further
• Tying the information to the learner’s lived experience so they relate to it
• Including stories that amp up emotion, curiosity, or connection to the content
• Surprising them with an interesting application of your content
• Opening a curiosity gap by asking questions that don’t have obvious answers. Don’t be afraid to let your reader/learner wrestle with your content a bit if it’s appropriate
• Providing concrete examples of your content so your learner can see it in action

Each of these strategies can up engagement. If I was teaching in a live setting and “losing” my students, there are so many strategies to up engagement. But with a book, you’re not there, watching to see when they get lost or bored as they read which means you need to identify those areas before you write.

Use a Feedback form or Course evaluation

This can be a google form that you send to them or it can be as simple as a piece of paper with some written feedback on the content not the overall presentation. Ask for any areas of confusion, any additional questions they may have, areas that they understood really well, favorite stories or content etc.

Then, use any feedback to guide you as you select your content and create the outline for your book.

Teaching allows you to find those places where students gets stuck or confused and revise them with additional information, changing up your examples before you write your book.

Conclusion

Teaching can be a fabulous way to test run your book’s content, and I strongly recommend it. There are so many benefits for both you as an author and your reader.

Give it a shot, whether its a one-on-one conversation with a beloved client or a workshop with 20 or more students.

Teach your content, ask questions, build your community, and write an amazing book!