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Recommended books
for writers
Here are a few personal favorites. You can learn more about these books – and purchase them – via
the links to Amazon.com.
Improving your writing
- What
If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers, revised
and expanded edition, by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter (Addison-Wesley,
1997). Though aimed at fiction writers, it's just as useful for non-fiction.
- Writing
for Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction by a Two-Time
Pulitzer Prize Winner, by Jon Franklin (Plume,
1994)
- Writing
without Teachers, second edition, by Peter Elbow
(Oxford University Press, 1998) – the classic book on writing
groups.
- Le
Mot Juste: A Dictionary of Classical & Foreign Words & Phrases,
edited by John Buchanan-Brown (Vintage, 1991). This isn't a writing instruction book, but it's one of those handy reference works
you'll consult again and again.
Writing book proposals
- Thinking
Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction - and
Get it Published, by Susan Rabiner and Alfred
Fortunato (WW
Norton, 2002), offers a valuable inside look at the business
of publishing.
- Non-Fiction
Book Proposals Anybody Can Write: How to Get a Contract and Advance Before Writing Your Book, revised and updated,
by Elizabeth Lyon (Perigee, 2002), is really more than a book
about proposal writing – it's also about deciding what
you want to write.
- Write
the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 Proposals That Sold and Why, second edition, by Jeff Herman and Deborah M. Adams (John
Wiley & Sons, 2001), shows what succeeds.
Selling your books
- Publicize
Your Book: An Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention
It Deserves, by Jacqueline Deval (Perigee, 2003)
is an
outstanding guide that should be read by every book author
even before they approach a publisher.
- Guerrilla
Marketing for Writers: 100 Weapons to Help You Sell Your Work, by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, Michael
Larsen
(Writers Digest Books, 2000) has excellent ideas for inexpensive
publicity.
- 1001
Ways to Market Your Books, Sixth Edition, by John
Kremer (Open Horizons, 2002) can be overwhelming, but it is a remarkable
resource for anyone who has published a book that they'd like
people
to buy and read.
Legal issues

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