Books I’ve read and recommend on writing and publishing.

Of course this list isn’t all inclusive, that would take hours, but the titles mentioned here cover all the bases and would be a good starter library for any writer.

Book Proposals That Sell, by Terry Whalin, ISBN 1932124640. A good primer on what should be included in your nonfiction book proposal written from an acquisition editor’s point of view, which is exactly what Terry Whalen is. The book contains 21 secrets to boost your proposal to its fullest potential, a checklist, a sample proposal and lots of straightforward, useful advice. The basics of the publishing industry and how the acquisition process works is covered from an insider’s perspective. This book will help you scale the walls to publication.

Making The Perfect Pitch, ISBN 0871162067 by Katharine Sands, a successful literary agent with the Sara Jane Freymann Agency in New York, corrals 40 top agents and experts from CAA, Trident Media, Meredith G. Bernstein, Jane Dystel Literary Management, and more and gets them to tell what really excites them about pitches, query letters and proposals. "Making The Perfect Pitch" is well organized and the approach is unique. While it's informative to have the expertise of one agent it's invaluable to have the opinion of a number of different agents'. Ms. Sands brings a breadth of knowledge and experience to writers they desperately need and seldom receive. If you're hunting for an agent, you need to know how to pitch and "Making The Perfect Pitch" gives you the ammunition to be dead on target.

The Frugal Book Promoter, by Carolyn Howard Johnson, ISBN: 193299310X. An author’s greatest challenge can be to climb the marketing mountain and get their title visible to potential customers. If a reader doesn’t know about your book, how on earth will they be able to purchase it? Carolyn tells you how to promote, from sending out your own ARCs (advance review copy), to why a website is important, to utilizing all the perks of amazon. This truly is well placed promotion on a shoestring.

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Dee