by:
Stine, Jean Marie

Publisher:
Wiley
Published:January, 1997
ISBN:0471037397
Format:Paperback
Pages:185

Description: Amazon.com
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

Product Description:
"If you follow only a third of Jean's advice, you'll have a successful book." andmdash;Jeremy Tarcher, Publisher Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.

"After Jean reworked my first draft, paperback rights sold for $137,000." andmdash;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