Reading · Write at the Edge

While writing my memoir SLIP, I wanted to interview people who had been affected by eating disorders, but I wondered how to go about finding them.

After some consideration, I launched a survey and ended up collecting 724 responses from people in 44 states and 37 countries. This experiment proved instrumental; the survey responses deepened my understanding of how eating disorders affect people across genders, ages, races, and ethnicities, and they helped me identify dozens of people to interview.

I’m now taking a similar approach with my second book idea, which is about optimization culture and how it encourages people to see themselves as ongoing projects to be worked on and perfected. I launched a related survey in early July and have received 460 responses so far. I’d love to get at least 500 responses before I start reviewing all of them, so I hope you’ll consider filling out the survey. (If just 2.5% of you completed it, I’d reach the 500-response mark!)

This call for survey responses seems like a good opportunity to share lessons learned for those of you who might want to take a similar approach when working on nonfiction projects. As you read the tips below, please keep in mind that even though I’m an academic, I don’t conduct peer-reviewed research. Instead, my surveys are journalistic and are part of my reporting process as an author.

It’s hard to get commercial book deals for memoirs if you’re not famous or don’t have a large platform. Increasingly, memoirists need to lean into the “memoir+” genre, in which you write your own personal narrative and add something to it. The “plus” could be reportage, research, social commentary, investigation, or something else. Surveys can fit nicely into the reportage category because they enable you to gather data and find people with lived experience to interview. The survey was one of the factors that led to my eventual book deal for SLIP because it showed that I was willing to put in the work to expand my memoir beyond my own story.

Other authors have used surveys in similar ways, including Anne Helen Petersen. For her book Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, Petersen surveyed more than 10,000 people. (I’m in awe!) Her BuzzFeed article that sparked the book idea went viral, so that certainly helped. Petersen used Google Forms, just as I have for my surveys. Google Forms automatically generates a spreadsheet with all the responses, making it easy to search for keywords when looking for people to interview on specific topics. (Pro tip: Make sure you give respondents the option to leave their email address if they’d like to be interviewed.)

When creating surveys, it’s best to have a mix of open-ended and multiple-choice questions. Open-ended questions create avenues for storytelling. Multiple-choice questions offer opportunities for data gathering.

I also use questions to test out ideas. The first question of my new survey, for instance, reads: “I describe the period we’re living in as ‘the upgrade era,’ in which a mix of AI filters, social media trends, cosmetic procedures, and weight-loss medications are reshaping what it means to become a ‘better’ version of ourselves. When you hear the term ‘upgrade era,’ what’s the first word or phrase that comes to mind?” This question is helping me gather early impressions of my idea and will no doubt shape it.

Some writers might worry about launching a survey for fear that it will “give away” their project. This is a valid concern that’s worth considering. When launching the survey for my latest book idea, I shared just enough information to help people understand the topic of the book without giving away its focus or main arguments.

Since launching the survey, people have sent me articles that dovetail with my book idea. It’s been fun to see people react positively to it. Their responses have helped build a sense of community, which is important in the early stages of a book’s life.

You’ll likely have opinions about the topic of your book. Save those for the book itself, and let them be informed by your survey. In my latest survey, I tried to use neutral language that would allow for a range of responses. I don’t just want responses from people who agree with me; I want a diversity of perspectives that will inform and challenge my thinking about my existing ideas and opinions. As a small example, I included the word “opportunities” in this line to make it more inviting: “Through this survey, I hope to better understand how people are experiencing the expectations and opportunities surrounding self-improvement.”

While crafting the survey, I was reminded of the introduction to Jenny Odell’s brilliant book, How to Do Nothing, which redefines what it means to be productive. In it, Odell writes: “The arguments and observations I’ll make here are not neat, interlocking parts in a logical whole. Rather, I saw and experienced many things during the course of writing it — things that changed my mind and then changed it again, and which I folded in as I went. I came out of this book different than when I came in.” That, to me, is the sign of an author who sees writing not simply as a way to express ideas but to develop them.

I divided my survey into five different pages to make it feel more digestible. On the fifth page, I ask questions related to gender, age, race, location, and contact information. I made these questions optional so that people wouldn’t feel obligated to respond, and I built up to them. If you ask people for this information before they have a chance to see the survey questions, they may feel more reluctant to provide it. Surveys are an exercise in building trust with respondents who are generously offering their time and perspective.

I sent the survey to eight or nine people ahead of time to seek their input on the questions. These “early readers” were from different walks of life, and they provided valuable feedback that helped strengthen the overall survey. I made several edits to the survey as a result of their feedback and felt more confident launching it.

A lot of people have asked me: How did you manage to get over 700 responses to your SLIP survey? The short answer: I spent a lot of time on outreach. I’m taking a very similar approach with this new survey. Right after I launched it, I shared the survey description and link on my social media platforms and in the Facebook groups I belong to, mostly related to eating disorder recovery. I also joined several new Facebook groups related to topics I want to explore. Each time, I messaged the admins to introduce myself and to see if they would be okay with me sharing the survey link. Most said yes, but some said “no,” so I thanked them and moved on.

I also sent individual emails and social media messages to people across my networks and asked them to share the survey with others. Along the way, I’ve had some people and organizations share it publicly on my behalf, which has been hugely helpful. You can’t simply launch a survey and expect people to fill it out; you have to make the case for why it matters, and individual outreach is often the most effective way of doing this. The trick, of course, is making sure that you’re gathering input from a wide array of folks so that you don’t end up with a survey that only those close to you have filled out.

I kept my SLIP survey open throughout my entire writing process, and I plan to do the same with this new survey. You never know who will find it, and there may be times in the writing process when you want to breathe new life into the survey to engage your audience and hear new perspectives. When writing a book, anything you can do to keep momentum going helps.

You can see the questions yourself and take the survey here. If you have questions about the process, please feel free to share them in the comments.

How to use surveys when writing a nonfiction book

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