Lydia Yadi

Lydia is a Senior Commissioning Editor at Penguin Random House and a Novlr evangelist. She commissions narrative non-fiction in memoir and investigative journalism, and also practical how-to books that help people live better. She works with award-winning journalists, world-class academics and leading experts in their field to inform and inspire readers. She has published several Sunday Times bestsellers.

Writing

Aug 22

How to Write Engaging Non-Fiction: Nature Writing

Nature writing is a type of writing in which the beauty of the natural world is observed and described, often as a way of exploring human...

Writing

Jul 11

An Insider’s Guide to Writing the Perfect Lyrical Essay

As the name might suggest, the lyrical essay or the lyric essay is a literary hybrid, combining features of poetry, essay, and often memo...

Writing

Jun 13

How to Write Amazing Narrative Non-Fiction

Narrative non-fiction brings to life true stories like historic events and personal experiences. It uses the techniques usually associate...

Writing

May 16

How to Write Engaging Non-Fiction: Memoir

A memoir is a first-person account of a writer’s life that usually focuses on particular events or themes. ‘Memoir’ comes from the ...

Writing a memoir - Photo by Yannick Pulver on Unsplash

Course

Dec 1

Lesson 8: Recap

Over the last seven lessons, we’ve looked at how to create a winning book proposal in great detail. This last lesson brings together ever...

The Novlr step by step Guide to writing your non-fiction book proposal

Course

Nov 24

Lesson 7: Specifications and Sample Writing

In this short lesson, I’ll provide information on what book specifications you need to share with a publisher and also provide some top t...

Course

Nov 17

Lesson 6: Author Biography & Marketing and Publicity

In this lesson, we’ll look at writing an author biography and how to start thinking about marketing and publicity. In this section of the...

Course

Nov 10

Lesson 5: Competitive Titles

In this lesson, you will learn why it is important to include information on competing books in your proposal and tips on how to do it we...

Course

Nov 3

Lesson 5: Table of Contents and Chapter Summaries

In this lesson, we’ll be looking at writing a table of contents and detailed chapter summaries Writing a table of contents is important b...

Course

Oct 27

Lesson 3: Positioning Statement, Summary, Blurb

This is part of our free non-fiction book proposal course written by Lydia, Senior Editor at Penguin Random House. To see all posts in th...

Course

Oct 20

Lesson 3: Target Audience

This is part of our free non-fiction book proposal course written by Lydia, Senior Editor at Penguin Random House. To see all posts in th...

Course

Oct 13

Lesson 1: What is a book proposal?

This is part of our free non-fiction book proposal course written by Lydia, Senior Editor at Penguin Random House. To see all posts in th...

Course

Oct 6

Introduction

This is part one of our free non-fiction book proposal course written by Lydia, Senior Editor at Penguin Random House. To see all posts i...

Writing

Aug 12

An Insider’s Guide to Getting a Non-Fiction Book Deal

You’ve thought of an amazing idea for a non-fiction book that you feel passionately you need to write. But how do you get an agent or pub...