Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books (Wiley Books for Writers Series)
by Jean Marie Stine

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Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9780471037392
• Condition: USED - LIKE NEW
• Notes:

Book Reviews of Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books (Wiley Books for Writers Series)

Book Review: I owe my book's success to this one...
Summary: 5 Stars

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

"After Jean reworked my first draft, paperback rights sold for $137,000." -Timmen Cermak, M.D., author of A Time to Heal: The Road to Recovery for Adult Children of Alcoholics

Mastering the craft and understanding the mechanics of writing self-help and how-to books is the key to getting publishers to take notice of your work. Now, in the first guide to writing self-help and how-to books, Jean Stine offers an insider's view of this growing genre. Her easy-to-follow program takes you step-by-step through the complete writing process. You'll learn the importance of:

• Structure and Style
• Clear, easy-to-understand exercises
• Creating catchy and compelling titles, subtitles, and chapter headings
• Using lists, charts, and graphs to maximum effect
• Checklists and other interactive elements
• Writing a proposal that sells
• Negotiating permissions for quotations, photos, and illustrations
• Preparing your manuscript for presentation to a publisher

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

General Books

• Health, Mind & Body > Self-Help
• Literature & Fiction > General
• Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology > General
• Reference > Publishing & Books > Authorship
• Writing > Nonfiction
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