Because It Works!: How-To Articles from New England Writer's Network

"Do you like my story?" "Did I write my personal essay right?" "What do you think of my poem?" "Why is my work being rejected?" If you're asking these questions and not getting helpful, constructive answers, try asking the only question that Glenda Baker and the editors of New England Writers' Network ask: does it work? Because It Works! is a compilation of over 40 articles and exercises on the elements of writing fiction, personal essays, and poetry. Originally published in NEWN magazine, these articles are designed to help you determine if your writing works-and if it doesn't, how you can make it work. Because it Works! shows you: 8 ways to characterize When not to use description Point of view-simplified! What to show; what to tell The 10 dialogue commandments How and where to begin How to prop up the sagging middle The 8 awful endings You'll also learn how to critique and be critiqued, the writing process will be demystified, and you'll understand that writer's block is not a writing problem! www.newnmag.net "I've just read your article on point of view. WOW. Clear, concise, to the point, and in no way confusing . . . this is the best and easiest explanation I've seen." -Arline Chase, author and instructor for Writer's Digest School.

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Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books (Wiley Books for Writers)

Jean Marie Stine has created perhaps the ultimate how-to book: Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books. Among the many editorial positions Stine has held in her 15 years as an editor (and sometimes ghostwriter) of self-help and how-to books is editor in chief at the esteemed self-help publisher Jeremy P. Tarcher. She edited more than 50 self-help titles, including Women Who Love Too Much and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. If an author's qualifications, as Stine says in her book, are of utmost importance for a book's credibility, she is supremely qualified to write such a book.

Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books is less about writing than about every other element that goes into making a successful self-help/how-to book. Since "publishers," as Stine says here, "buy 90 percent of their books based on proposals," she addresses in detail every element of the book proposal, from overview ("mak[e] your book sound like a must-have") and analysis of the competition to sample chapter and annotated table of contents. Her insider information on everything from title creation--"the right title alone," she confides, "can make your book a success"--to the importance of including interactive elements such as checklists, quizzes, and exercises is invaluable. Still, for the beginning writer--and Stine seems to assume that the reader of this book is an expert in a field other than writing--there is surprising little, given the book's title, about the writing process itself. --Jane Steinberg

Price: $16.95

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