Everything You Need to Know to
Write Publish & Market Your Book
by Patrika Vaughn |
A Cappela Publishing ISBN 0-9656309-9
Review by Jodi Greene
Every once in a while a book comes along that is so
elegant it is destined to become a classic. What Strunk
and White's Elements of Style did to clarify
rhetorical modes and grammatical rules, Write Publish
& Market now does for the craft of
writing-what-will-sell.
Patrika Vaughn, a 25-year veteran of the industry
(she's a published writer and ghostwriter, editor,
publisher and literary agent) shows writers how to write
what people want to read, and how to then get those
works published, whether they be books or articles. She
does a thorough job, beginning with what a writer needs
to know before (s)he writes and progressing right
on through to the actual writing, the marketing, and how
to choose one's best publishing option.
With today's dizzying array of publishing options—
everything from electronic to on-demand publishing;
major to minor publishing houses; niche publishing;
self-publishing, etc.—the marketing information she
offers is invaluable. While many books discuss writing
or marketing or publishing, this differs from its
competitors in that it shows how these three aspects
interact to spell publishing success or failure.
Her advice on writing destroys writer's block. She
offers a step-by-step approach that moves writers beyond
self-doubt and into focused writing. She then moves on
to issues of quality: how to show and not tell; how to
make readers care about your protagonist; how to
describe in such a way that readers form a mental
picture of your scenes. Keeping your plot interesting
and making your endings satisfying are also covered,
along with many other aspects of the writing craft.
Most surprisingly, when she gets to the scary part
of how to present your manuscript to the market, you
discover to your great relief that you've already done
the hardest part of this job, without even realizing you
were dealing with it!
I've read a lot of how-to books on writing. If I
had to choose just one to keep beside me as I write, it
would be Write Publish & Market Your Book.
Copyright © Jodi Greene 2003
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