Writing Successful Self-help and
How-to Books
by Jean Marie Stine
1997, John Wiley & Sons
208 Pages
An industry Insider shares her expertise In the
first book on writing for this growing market. This book offers
detailed tips and guidelines covering the entire process, from
creating a proposal that gets you through the door to preparing
your manuscript for publication. Successful how-to book editor
and author Jean Stine provides writers with the tried-and-true
strategies bestselling authors use, including clearly identifying
your audience; writing effective chapter titles, heads, and subheads;
and using illustrations and charts to enhance the text.
- Draws on examples from actual editorial notes sent to
published authors
- Ideas can be used to write a self-help or how-to book
on any subject, including health, home improvement, business,
psychology, math, travel, and more
Publisher Comments:
If you follow only a third of Jean's advice, you'll have
a successful book. ? Jeremy Tarcher, Publisher Jeremy
P. Tarcher, Inc.
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
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