Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books
"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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Book details
- Author
- Jean Marie Stine
- Imprint
- Trade Paper Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 206
- Formats
- Paperback, Hardcover
- Subjects
- Language Arts & Disciplines › Writing › Authorship
- Topics
- writing self-help books · writing how-to books · authorship · writing process · publishing · nonfiction writing · manuscript development
- ISBN-13
- 9780471037392 (Paperback)9781630262594 (Hardcover)
About the author
JEAN MARIE STINE is an American editor, writer, anthologist, and publisher whose work as a senior editor at Jeremy P. Tarcher included more than 50 self-help titles. Her books include Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books, The Best Guide to Meditation and Double Your Brain Power.
Stine held senior editorial positions at Newcastle Publishing, Leisure Books, Houghton-Mifflin, St. Martin’s, and Jeremy P. Tarcher, where her titles included Women Who Love Too Much and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Double Your Brain Power was a Quality Paperback Book Club selection translated into five languages.