It is impossible to create good fantasy or science fiction without good worldbuilding, which entails knowing a whole lot about the real world works, from geology to economic drivers to the plausible physics of another planet.

Many beginners don't understand how society and culture work, what drives history, or how feudal societies really worked, yet they happily plunge ahead and create whole new worlds that could never function in real life. Our non-fiction section is, at the moment, much better stocked than our fiction, because these books are the underpinnings of all those others, and most people don't know where to start researching.

Our nonfiction categories encompass:

Writing
Get the basics right! From style manuals to basic instruction to how to get published, you can't hope to succeed if you don't know the rules, and when to break them.

High Tech
For more advanced worlds beyond swords and sorcery, and for discovering how things really work "out there."

Low Tech
For all those quasi-medieval or low-technology worlds of your imagining, you'll find out everything from what plants to use to dye cloth to blacksmithing and rise of civilizations.

Combat
Don't get laughed out of town by your character's ridiculous derring-do. Discover what hand-to-hand combat is really like from experts.