Product Description
“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
Amazon.com Review
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
Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books
Trully valuable resource for
anyone looking to write a self-help
or a how-to book/ebook/report.
Igor Kheifets
[...]
Rating: 5 / 5
I am giving this book a review for only one reason…
I have not read the book yet. In fact, it’s buried in a stack of books I want to read. But Amazon’s user interface keeps it at the top of my to-be-reviewed list of things I have purchased because — I have not reviewed it yet! For Pete’s sake.
I’m sure this is a very good book. But just because I ordered it does not mean that it is at the top of my priorities.
Amazon… please… give us the option to NOT review a purchase… or at least POSTPONE a review of a purchase…
I do not believe customers should have to review EVERY product they order.
Thank you.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’ve been going through this book as I write my own book and it has some very insightful information that I would never have known or figured out on my own. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 5 / 5
Very good book that covers all important aspects of writing self-help/how-to books. Easy to read and well-organized. The only thing I miss is illustrations and some color.
Rating: 4 / 5
This book is a must for anyone writing a “how-to” book for the first time!
It was invaluable in making our first book a reality.Why Don’t They JUST QUIT?
Rating: 5 / 5
Writing Successful Self-Help…
Product DescriptionIf you follow only a third of Jean’s advice, you’ll have a successful book. —Jeremy Tarcher, Publisher Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.Jean Stine offers an insider’s view of this growing genre. Her easy-to-follow program takes you step-by-s…
Writing Successful Self-Help…
Product DescriptionIf you follow only a third of Jean’s advice, you’ll have a successful book. —Jeremy Tarcher, Publisher Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.Jean Stine offers an insider’s view of this growing genre. Her easy-to-follow program takes you step-by-s…
Writing Successful Self-Help…
Product DescriptionIf you follow only a third of Jean’s advice, you’ll have a successful book. —Jeremy Tarcher, Publisher Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.Jean Stine offers an insider’s view of this growing genre. Her easy-to-follow program takes you step-by-s…
Writing Successful Self-Help…
Product DescriptionIf you follow only a third of Jean’s advice, you’ll have a successful book. —Jeremy Tarcher, Publisher Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.Jean Stine offers an insider’s view of this growing genre. Her easy-to-follow program takes you step-by-s…