Which of these 16 types of nonfiction books are you writing?
Originally published March 2026.
Adult nonfiction is the single best-selling book category in the United States, accounting for more than 37% of all print book sales. And how much money is generated from those sales? According to the Association of American Publishers, adult nonfiction generated $2.88 billion in revenue in 2024.
And yet when most people think about writing a book, they picture a novelist dreaming of dragons and imagining sci-fi futures in a post-modern universe. Or they picture the celebrity working with a ghostwriter to share the behind-the-scenes details of a wild life in the public eye. Or they’re thinking about the big-name people with cult-like followings who write about everything from productivity to how to 50x business profits in 30 days.
Sure, these archetypes contribute to the high rate of nonfiction book sales, but what I’ve found is that there are many, many authors out there in the traditional publishing and self-publishing spaces who are wildly successful at writing nonfiction for their specific audience and niche.
The only problem is that many experts, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, creatives, podcast hosts, speakers, educators, and women with decades of hard-won experience, stories, and frameworks that change how her clients think tend to underestimate themselves. She's not sure her book counts. She's not sure where it fits. She's not sure her idea is even a real book.
Part of my work as a nonfiction book coach and editor is helping writers find the book in their ideas, and understanding where their book fits in the nonfiction landscape is one of the first steps toward building it.
Before we get into the many nonfiction subgenres, I want to give you a tool that will make the whole list more useful.
The first question to ask before you choose a type of nonfiction book
In my work with authors, I've found that most nonfiction books are written for one of two reasons (and usually both at once): legacy and leverage.
Legacy is about preservation and meaning. A legacy book documents your story, captures your hard-won wisdom, honors the experiences that shaped you, and creates a record that outlasts you. It's the book you write for your family, your community, the people who come after you, or simply because the story deserves to exist in the world. The reader of a legacy book walks away with something true about a shared human experience.
Leverage is about impact and growth. A leverage book builds your authority, articulates your framework, attracts the right clients, opens doors, and works as a business asset long after you've moved on to the next thing. It's the book you write because you have expertise that can change how people work, lead, live, or think — and a book is the most efficient way to share it at scale. The reader of a leverage book walks away knowing how to do something they couldn't do before, or seeing something they couldn't see before.
As I said, most books are both.
A memoir can also build a business. A framework book can also preserve a story. The legacy vs. leverage distinction isn't a rigid either/or — it's a compass. Knowing which one is pulling you harder helps you make better decisions about what kind of book to write, how to structure it, and what you want your reader to walk away with.
Here's a quick way to orient yourself:
If your primary goal is to preserve a story, honor an experience, or share wisdom rooted in your personal journey, you're likely writing toward Legacy. Memoir, autobiography, narrative nonfiction, and essay collections often live here.
If your primary goal is to build authority, articulate a methodology, attract clients, or create a business asset, you're likely writing toward Leverage. Business books, self-help, how-to guides, and expertise-driven frameworks often live here.
If you feel the pull of both, welcome. That's where the most interesting nonfiction books get written.
The type of book you write will depend entirely on your goals as an author and what you want your reader to leave with. Use that as your filter as you read through the genres below.
What makes a book nonfiction?
Nonfiction is writing rooted in truth. It presents real events, real people, real arguments, and real expertise — as opposed to fiction, which is imagined. Within that broad definition, there are meaningful distinctions that affect how your book is structured, how it's marketed, and where it lives on a bookstore shelf.
Two foundational categories to know:
Narrative nonfiction tells a true story using the techniques of literary fiction — character development, scene-setting, narrative arc, tension, voice. The facts are real; the presentation is story-driven. Memoir, biography, creative nonfiction, and investigative journalism tend to fall here.
Prescriptive nonfiction tells the reader what to do or how to think. It presents a framework, an argument, a methodology, or a set of instructions. Business books, self-help, how-to guides, and expertise-based books tend to fall here.
Most nonfiction books that experts and entrepreneurs write are prescriptive, but the most compelling ones borrow heavily from narrative. The framework alone is not enough. The story that makes the framework land is what earns the reader.
17 types of nonfiction books you need to know about
1. Memoir
Memoir is narrative nonfiction focused on a specific period, experience, or theme in the author's life. Unlike autobiography, which attempts to cover a life comprehensively, memoir zooms in. It asks: what does this particular experience mean, and what does it illuminate for the reader?
The best memoirs are not just personal — they're universal. They use the author's specific story to say something true about a wider human experience.
Examples: Educated by Tara Westover, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Who writes it: People who have lived through something significant and are ready to examine it with honesty and craft. Entrepreneurs who built something from nothing, professionals who navigated a defining crisis, women whose personal experience is also a cultural story. Memoir is often where the Legacy half of the Legacy vs. Leverage framework lives — the book that preserves a story worth preserving.
2. Autobiography
Autobiography is a chronological account of the author's life, typically written by someone with significant public standing. Where memoir is thematic and selective, autobiography is comprehensive and sequential.
Examples: Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi
Who writes it: Public figures, executives, political leaders, and people whose full life story carries historical or cultural significance. For most entrepreneurs and thought leaders, memoir is the more appropriate and more readable form.
3. Biography
Biography tells the life story of someone other than the author, written from the outside in using research, interviews, and primary sources.
Examples: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Who writes it: Journalists, historians, and writers with deep access to or expertise on their subject. Less common as a first book for experts and entrepreneurs.
4. Business and Leadership books
This is one of the most commercially powerful categories in nonfiction — and one of the most relevant for the authors I work with. Business books present a framework, a philosophy, a methodology, or a set of strategies that help readers think differently about how they work, lead, build, or grow.
The best business books are not just advice collections. They have a clear thesis, a defined reader, and a coherent argument that builds from first page to last.
Examples: Good to Great by Jim Collins, The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Who writes it: Executives, founders, consultants, coaches, and thought leaders who have developed a body of insight through their work that deserves more than a LinkedIn post. If you have a framework that's changed how your clients think — and clients keep telling you that you should write a book — you're probably writing a business book. [link to "How to hire a book editor"]
5. Self-Help and personal development
Self-help sits at the intersection of prescriptive and inspirational. These books present tools, strategies, and mindset shifts that help readers improve a specific area of their lives — relationships, productivity, health, money, confidence, habits.
The category has a reputation problem — "self-help" conjures vague affirmations and recycled advice — but the best books in this genre are rigorously researched, structurally sound, and genuinely transformative.
Examples: Atomic Habits by James Clear, The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Tawwab
Who writes it: Coaches, therapists, educators, and practitioners who have developed a repeatable approach to helping people change. If your clients hire you for transformation and you've built a methodology around that work, you might be writing a self-help book — or a hybrid of self-help and memoir.
6. How-to and instructional books
How-to books teach a specific skill or walk the reader through a specific process. The value proposition is clear: by the time you finish this book, you will be able to do X.
Examples: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (writing), The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (organization)
Who writes it: Experts and practitioners who have developed a clear, teachable process. The challenge with pure how-to books is that process alone is rarely enough to sustain a full book — the narrative layer, the examples, the story of why this matters, is what makes the reader stay.
7. Narrative nonfiction and creative nonficiton
Narrative nonfiction uses the storytelling techniques of fiction — scene, character, dialogue, tension, pacing — to tell a true story. Creative nonfiction is a related category that gives the author more latitude to play with form, structure, and voice.
Both require significant craft investment. These are not books you write by recounting events — they're books you construct, shape, and build with the same intentionality as a novel.
Examples: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, Just Kids by Patti Smith, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Who writes it: Writers who have a story to tell and the skill or willingness to develop the craft to tell it well. Often overlaps with memoir or investigative journalism.
8. Investigative and journalistic nonfiction
Investigative nonfiction examines a subject, event, or phenomenon in depth — seeking to understand what's really happening, why it matters, and what it means. Literary journalism applies narrative techniques to reported stories, blurring the line between journalism and memoir.
Examples: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Who writes it: Journalists, researchers, and writers with deep access to a subject and the reporting instincts to build a case. Less commonly a first book for entrepreneurs, though the investigative impulse — let me find out what's actually true about this — shows up in the best business books too.
9. History and politics
Historical nonfiction examines past events, eras, figures, or movements. Political nonfiction analyzes power structures, policy, social movements, and the forces shaping public life.
Examples: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
Who writes it: Historians, political scientists, journalists, and public intellectuals. These books typically require significant primary source research and academic or journalistic credibility.
10. Science and nature
Science nonfiction translates complex research and natural phenomena for general audiences. Popular science — the most commercially viable corner of this category — strips away jargon and makes the work of scientists and researchers accessible and compelling.
Examples: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Who writes it: Scientists, researchers, science journalists, and educators. The challenge is calibrating for the right audience — deep enough to be credible, accessible enough to be readable.
11. Philosophy and ideas
Philosophy and ideas books ask big questions — about ethics, meaning, knowledge, society, and the human condition — and build an argument in response. They don't just present information; they take a position and defend it.
Examples: The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Who writes it: Thinkers who have developed a coherent worldview through their work and are ready to argue for it on the page. This category overlaps significantly with business books when the philosophical argument is applied to professional life.
12. Memoir-business hybrids
This is one of the most compelling and underutilized forms in nonfiction — the book that builds a business argument through a personal story, or tells a personal story that is also a business case study. The structure is narrative; the value is prescriptive.
Done well, a memoir-business hybrid has the emotional power of memoir and the practical utility of a business book. It's the form that often produces the most distinctive, most memorable books in the expert and entrepreneur space.
Examples: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Who writes it: Entrepreneurs, founders, and experts whose personal story is inseparable from their professional philosophy. If your story IS your framework — if what happened to you is how you built your methodology — this might be the form for your book.
13. Essays
A book of essays collects thematically related pieces — personal, critical, or cultural — into a cohesive whole. Essays can be introspective, argumentative, journalistic, or some combination of all three.
Examples: We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
Who writes it: Writers with strong voices who have been developing ideas through shorter-form work — newsletters, columns, blog posts, social media — and are ready to collect and deepen that thinking into something book-length. If you've been writing online for years, an essay collection might be closer than you think.
14. Health and wellness
Health and wellness nonfiction covers the full spectrum from clinical and research-based to lifestyle and personal transformation. It includes books on nutrition, mental health, fitness, chronic illness, and the relationships between all of these.
Examples: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski
Who writes it: Clinicians, practitioners, researchers, coaches, and people with significant personal experience navigating a health challenge. Strong nonfiction in this category combines credible expertise with accessible storytelling.
15. Religion and spirituality
Spirituality nonfiction ranges from systematic theology to personal spiritual memoir to practical guides for specific practices. It's one of the most enduringly popular categories in nonfiction.
Examples: The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, Everything Is Spiritual by Rob Bell
Who writes it: Clergy, spiritual directors, practitioners, and people whose spiritual experience is the basis of a teaching or a story. Often overlaps with memoir and self-help.
16. True Crime
True crime nonfiction investigates real criminal cases — typically through reporting, court records, and interviews — and builds a narrative around what happened and why. It's one of the fastest-growing categories in publishing.
Examples: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
Who writes it: Journalists, investigators, and writers with deep access to a case and the reporting skills to reconstruct it. Occasionally written by those directly affected by the case.
17. Cookbooks and food writing
Cookbooks are one of the most commercially consistent categories in nonfiction — and one of the most visually demanding. Food writing more broadly includes culinary memoir, food history, and cultural explorations of cuisine.
Examples: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat, Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
Who writes it: Chefs, food professionals, culinary educators, and writers with a deep relationship to food, culture, and cooking. Cookbooks are a significant production investment — photography and design are not optional.
Which type of nonfiction book are you writing?
Most nonfiction authors I work with are writing one of three things: a business or leadership book built around a framework they've developed through their work, a memoir or memoir-hybrid about a significant personal experience, or a self-help or how-to book rooted in a methodology they've used with clients or students.
Often they're writing some combination of all three and they don't quite have language for what the book is yet.
Figuring out what kind of book you're actually writing and what your reader is actually coming to it for is one of the most clarifying pieces of work you can do before you write a single chapter. It determines your structure, your argument, your tone, and your market.
If you're not sure what kind of nonfiction you’re writing yet, that's exactly the kind of question worth working through with the right editorial support before you're deep into a draft that's heading in the wrong direction.
FAQ
What are the main types of nonfiction books? The major categories of nonfiction include memoir and autobiography, biography, business and leadership books, self-help and personal development, how-to and instructional books, narrative and creative nonfiction, investigative journalism, history and politics, science and nature, philosophy and ideas, essays, health and wellness, spirituality, true crime, and cookbooks. Most nonfiction books written by experts and entrepreneurs fall into business, self-help, memoir, or some hybrid of these.
What is the difference between narrative and prescriptive nonfiction? Narrative nonfiction tells a true story using the techniques of literary fiction — scene, character, voice, and arc. Prescriptive nonfiction tells the reader what to do or how to think — it presents a framework, methodology, or argument. Most books by entrepreneurs and thought leaders are prescriptive, but the most compelling ones borrow from narrative to make the framework come alive through story.
What is the most popular type of nonfiction? Self-help and personal development is one of the most consistently best-selling categories. Business books, memoir, and narrative nonfiction also perform extremely well commercially. The specific answer varies by year and cultural moment — but nonfiction as a whole generates more revenue than any other genre in the US book market.
What type of nonfiction should I write? Start with your reader and your material. What do you know that your reader needs? What's the story only you can tell? If your expertise is the foundation, you're likely writing a business book, a self-help book, or a how-to guide. If your personal experience is the foundation, you're likely writing a memoir or a memoir-hybrid. Most expert authors write some combination of both — and figuring out the balance is one of the most important early decisions in the book development process.
What is the difference between a memoir and an autobiography? Memoir focuses on a specific period, experience, or theme in the author's life — it's selective and thematic. Autobiography attempts to cover a life comprehensively from beginning to present — it's sequential and broad. Most experts and entrepreneurs writing about their lives are writing memoir, not autobiography.
What is a memoir-business hybrid? A memoir-business hybrid builds a professional argument or framework through a personal story — or tells a personal story that is also a case study in professional thinking. The structure is narrative but the value is prescriptive. It's one of the most powerful and underused forms for entrepreneur and expert authors whose story and methodology are inseparable.
