Online Writing Books

As I wrote in my latest novel,Standup Comedian: The Secret and Beyond "My father is in the baling wire generation, my son is in the digital generation, but I am in the duct tape generation. My point? The guide is written so that even I understand the suggestions and how to implement them. I am in the process of doing that right now as I write this review.

I read the book, and now I am going back through doing the easiest suggestions first and will progress to the more involved marketing efforts as I come to them. If only I had know this information when I published my first novel,Beyond the Shadow of Death: Book One of the Adam Eden Series.

Kenneth Ray Taylor author of Return to Zero: Book Two of the Adam Eden Series and other books.

This is a bit difficult to read, but enlightening on several points; it's not really clear in some areas. Recommended skimming the points that are less than top rated and spending more time with the higher rated items.

Well, I must admit that I wish I had found this book before I published my first ten books, but all is not lost since I am in the process of writing twenty (20) more in 2008.

This book and the information contained within are essential reading for any author who sells his or her books on Amazon. Simple easy to follow instructions on how to get the most out of Amazon in regards to making your books a financial and physical success on Amazon by utilizing all the tools that Amazon provides.

I have already started implementing some of the steps in this book and will hopefully be doing all of them by the end of this week.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for absolutely everyone who is selling a book or books on Amazon. This is the best money I have spent in any format on selling more books on Amazon. Pick up this book immediately and start implementing the information provided in it even sooner.

Shawn Kovacich
Martial Artist/Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series.

The book by Brent Sampson is very helpful and easy to follow. It is sort of like having a coach standing over your shoulder, giving you hints and pointing out little-known Amazon tricks. I dug right in and did some of the easy things he suggested to get more attention from Amazon.com for my own book, "For Widows Only!" I only wish I had had "Sell Your Book on amazon" earlier.

Amazon is where most people familiar with the Internet turn for information about a book and to order it. I have to hope Amazon doesn't get greedy and start limiting access to PODs and self-published books. I find that to be one of their primary assets, the one-stop shop for ALL books. I always know I can find it on amazon.com

I might not have thought to write a review of this book, without "Sell Your Book on amazon" suggesting such a thing. Simple to do, but quite effective. Recently I am beginning to get more reviews for "For Widows Only!" and I can see that this has affected sales. Readers beget readers. Amazon's review process is the old "Word of Mouth" system updated to the electronic age, and instead of influencing one person at a time, we might influence 10, 50 or 100! Who knows?

I suspect Sell Your Book... will be around through several updates. Easy to use and indispensable for authors who are trying to help their book sales.

[...]

Thank you, Brent Sampson, for saving me the expense of being called a dummy in order to learn. Your book was insightful, comprehensive and carefully laid out. The tone was professioal, but straightforward as if you were merely sharing your knowledge with someone. Very helpful!

The author did a fantastic job with this book. It is a must-have for fiction writers.

James Scott Bell does a great job of dissecting the basics of plot and structure. Even writers who've been working for a while will find plenty of useful information in the book - especially in the chapter on generating story ideas.

Beginning writers, or writers who are just now starting to hone their craft will find tons of good advice including the basics of outlining, working with plot in various drafts, viewing plot as a vital part of your story, and knowing how and when to make the plot work to it's best advantage.

This book along with a dictionary, thesaurus and Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" should be on every writer's bookshelf.

If you're thinking about writing fiction, this book is a "must have." In order for a writer to write page one, he needs to know where he's going, and how he's going to get there. This book systematically walks you right through the entire process. I found it to be very beneficial in not only answering the how's but also the why's. It intoduced ideas and thoughts that I had never considered before that am sure will make my writing better. I would recommend this book as a prerequisite to anyone interested in writing good fiction. I found it to be well worth the time and money, as are all of the other books in this series.

Great advice and generous tips. Finally I understand the three-act structure, and the notion of creating suspenseful fiction doesn't seem so daunting. Thanks.

What this book should be called is 'How to Sell Your Soul for a Monetarily-Successful Writing Career: Now in 14 Intensely Dull Chapters!'. Bell goes on and on about 'connecting with the reader', but it's really just a thinly-veiled way of saying 'sell a lot of copies'. Which is fine, I guess, but it gets old.

Even disregarding that aspect of it, it's not that what Bell has to say is all bad; he does discuss a lot of important principles. But if one has ever taken any kind of writing class at all, or even simply read a book, one should be able to figure it out on one's own. Essentially, this is a book for the people who didn't pay attention in high school English.

These extracts from Angelina's journal provide a unique insight into the plight of refugees all over the world. It is heart-wrenching to read about the terrible ordeals these people have faced during war & continue to face even after the fighting is over. The courage they show during such adversity is humbling & inspiring to the last page. A must-read book if you have any interest in the plight of your fellow man.

Angelina Jolie has a very personal connection with those who are in hard circumstances like the poor in Africa, one can speculate why but cannot realistically claim it is not sincere. She spends a lot of her time and money there and writes with warmth and humility. She expresses appreciation for those things in other areas that help keep poverty and related problems at bay. A good read as a eyewitness account of what people are going through but also a meaningful social commentary, most of all I find this book an inspiring example of how to bravely contribute whatever one can.

One of the most treasured books in my home library, Angie's courage and compassion for those less fortunate comes alive in every page of this book. This book is very inspiring and very humbling at the same time. My respect for Angelina has increased a thousand fold from reading this gem...plus she is donating all her proceeds to the UNHCR! I hope she writes more books!

This was a great book, i am soo glad i bought it. It really made things real and showed you the reality of what goes on in the world outside the bubble of your own perspective and own country. I would recommend this for everyone, even if your not an angelina fan because everyone should know about these living conditions that are how a large portion of the world are subjected too and it really makes you appreciate what you have. I wish that the book was longer i loved it so much!.

Fabulous, amazing book. Journal like style makes everything so real. Any easy read but still one can learn so much from what she shares.

I have found the insight and information contained in this book tremendously valuable in learning and gaining a little understanding into the Torah. Each year as I go through it I glean a little more knowledge. So much stuff, I will be learning from it as long as I read it.

The Chumash is a wonderful book to have for those learning the Hebrew language or the biblical culture, the rabitic commentaries are very intriguing but all in all i would recommend this to any one and everyone

I wish I had purchased this product months ago also. Very easy reading the notes are very informative. They give understanding as to what was meant and being said. If any student of the Bible wants to truly understand what God was saying and is saying to us then they need to add this product to their library along with other Jewish books. The good news is truly of the Jew. Very much worth the money.

This is a must for any Jewish home. Almost every Orthodox Shul (excluding the Chasidishe Shuls in Brooklyn and Kiryas Yoel) in America has numerous copies for the Torah readings. This Chumash is also a required purchase for any potential convert (the vast majority of Orthodox Rabbis require this for conversion).

Item was like brand new condition bu at a used price. Dealer sent out immediatly.

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwilight V. Swain contains some gems, but you must mine deep to find them. This book was written several decades prior, and it shows. While one could get away with prose that takes forever to get to the point, the modern reader and writer expects a faster delivery.

Yes, this is a symptom of the microwave society. I don't excuse it, but acknowledge it. Unfortunately, this book could lead new writers to believe bloated prose is still acceptable in publication today.

Believe me: It's not.

I still recommend purchasing the book as the wisdom is timeless, but the technique in delivery is not.

Realize what you are getting. You might--as I did--thumb through some passages that go on and on before that single sentence makes the point near the end.

That one sentence is still worth it, if you don't mind the mining.

Wolfe

I've read this book a few times now and I find it one of the most helpful in crafting genre fiction. Swain gives a writer the nuts and bolts for building scenes and increasing tension to a satisfying conclusion for the reader. If you want to get published, I highly recommend reading this book and studying it!

While the price of this book is steep, it is worth every cent!
It is the best book about writing that I have ever read.
I learned more from this one book than from the combined hundreds of other books on writing I own.
If you have the write stuff, this one book should be on your desk!
John Bradt

If there is one book a writer just got to read, this is the one...

Tom Aardahl
Published writer

This is is a very good book for the serious fiction writer. Swain has a sort of "hard-boiled" writing style that is a pleasure to read. Although his formulaic approach has been abused, or, rather, religiously followed by countless romance/adventure/western books, this isn't the fault of the formula. Swain knows form, and he makes sure you know that it is YOUR job to use the form as a guideline. I see his explanation of structure---basic stuff, beginning, middle, end, scenes, climax, in every Hollywood "formula" movie. All Swain has left out in his book is how it is usually raining during the climactic scene in a movie! Maybe they just started this trick in the 1980s...this book was written in 1965.
If you take notes from this book and study them you will have a much deeper understanding of fiction form. I have read many books on fiction and this is easily the most practical and "hands on." Not many "how-to" books remain in print for 42 years. Swain's book will toughen you up. I recommend it.

This book contains many examples of resumes, including before and after examples.

Information on words to use, as well as a grammar refresher, will help you polish the phrases on your resume and avoid tiresome, overused phrases.

There is also a section on cover letters and a section devoted to making your resume visually appealing so that it stands out.

I found tons of useful information in this book, not just platitudes and superficial advice like some resume books dish out.

I checked this book out of the local library, and realized it was worth buying for long-term reference. The thing I like best about the book is the way it speaks to the basic question "Why do I write a resume?" Most treatments just show you how; this one shows you what you're trying to accomplish with a resume and how best to do that. It has many specific examples, too--so that when you're finished, you have a document that can accomplish what the resume can accomplish in today's world of work.

This book is phenominal! It is simple to read and has a workable plan to constructing a simple resume that works with your cover letter.

This is packed full of specific advice to create your own personal resume.
A few example resumes are thrown in as illustration of the ideas.
Probably the only one you need to buy!

By using the suggestions for organizing and presenting information in this book, I have a whole new appreciation for the things I've managed to accomplish over the years. Nearing retirement age, with five successful careers behind me and another just starting up, I still found little niches of self-defeating behavior, ways in which I was emphasizing the wrong thing or ignoring key accomplishments.

More than just a guide to resumes, this book helped me see that the new career change will bring my work life a lot closer to my core values; and it showed me clearly how to be successful from the very start.

This is the best cartooning and illustration
book that has EVER been created. It accomplishes cartoons and
illustrating and explains everything. THIS is
the only book you will ever need. Don't let this
book escape you, you will NEVER forgive yourself if
you let this treasure get away. It is total visual
instruction. Easy to understand. Easy to attempt.
It is the book I keep on the drawing desk next to me
because it is so complete. Wow!!!!!!---- Luisa Felix

What I like about this book is the fact that it is not only instructional for comic book artists but also for all artists. He writes and draws to enhance what he is teaching so that it is not even noticed by the reader that he is being taught. I have met Scott and he is as entertaining and funny in person as he is in his book.

Great book for beginning comic artists. You will not be taught technical details for how to draw or lay out panels, but you will be shown how to pace comics, shown some basic face anatomy in the context of emotion, given a few inspirational tips on choosing characters, and so on. Probably an interesting read even for people who aren't sure that they want to get into comics.

Scott McCloud takes the insights that made him a celebrity in Understanding Comics and takes them further away in Making Comics, this time focusing in the craft itself. Much of his knowledge is useful not only to comic creators, but to people interested in visual and audiovisual arts, and sometimes to artists in general. His concepts and diagrams ("mmmmm... diagrams.") are clear and powerful. Scott McCloud: a theorist who likes to be understood.
I loved the much needed notes sections and the activities and exercises he suggests, which take the book one step even further from a great theoretical book.

I definitely don't care to make comics and although I occasionally pick-up a random issue or a graphic novel, I really don't read them much either. I was mainly interested in this book because I heard of good things about it and I wanted to be more informed about the process someone has to go through to make a comic. Although this book mainly focuses on creating a story, it held my attention and I feel like I walked away with a little more knowledge than I did before. I lot of the storytelling techniques I read in this book are things I've heard of in books about storytelling in other mediums, but it contains a lot of things specific to comics too. This is probably one of the more funny books I've read on the subject of storytelling and I like this approach better than a straightforward textbook approach. I don't think I'll be coming back to this book much for reference, but I'm glad I read it.

a great collection...i don't think it includes 'thus spake zarathustra', though. if it does, my apologies. if i'm right, then that's an odd omission. otherwise, i love it.

I think you have to be highly intelligent or very bored to read Nietzsche, and understand him. It seems you have to live with his books for a long time to really get it. While I love to read, I have taken a few stabs at this one, and I find I don't have the dedication to finish just yet, and will reserve full judgment until I do. In the meantime, I see Nietzsche being quoted in almost everything else I read, so maybe over time I'll pick up enough in passing that I will be spared having to read him first hand. From what I've gathered so far he is tedious, depressing and often insightful. When Nietzsche says "I am not a man, I am dynamite" he means to explode all preconceptions of morals, or the concept of good and evil. He questions everything, while enjoying nothing. I think he was one miserable wretch, but that is his loss and our gain. It could take years to crack his code...don't know how necessary that is, so I choose to keep him around as reference material instead. He is easier to digest that way, on your own terms, in small chunks rather than as an elephant, although you are likely to get indigestion either way.

Nietzsche IS the greatest philosopher of modern times, and this anthology is the perfect place to start if you're a student or new to Nietzsche. It's also a great bargain and collects several works together that one would be spending extra money on to get separately. I strongly reccomend this, as the works in here ( especially the Geneology of Morals, and Beyond Good and Evil) are key. I have been highly satisfied with this purchase and I recommen buying this along with Viking's Portable Nietzsche.

The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, ah one of my dear, dear friends, this book contains, in their entirety, The Birth of Tragedy (1872, 1886), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), Genealogy of Morals (1887), The Case of Wagner, and my personal favorite, Ecce Homo, (both 1888). It also contains selected aphorisms from Nietzsche's transitional period (1878-1882), that is aphorisms from the book Human, All-Too Human (1878), its two sequels - Mixed Opinions and Maxims (1879) and The Wanderer and his Shadow (1880), The Dawn, or Daybreak (1881) and, of course, The Gay Science (1882), the book in which Nietzsche first coined his "God is Dead" fraise for which he is so famous (and infamous).

Also, there is priceless commentary by not only the editor of the book, the great Professor Walter Arnold Kaufmann, but modern philosophers such as Martin Heideggar, Albert Camus (probably my favorite philosopher besides Dostoevsky), and Gilles Deleuze.

I would advise the newcomer to Nietzsche not to start with this volume though. The best and most compact edition with selections from all of those books and others (including Thus Spoke Zarathustra) in their entirety is Kaufmann's The Portable Nietzsche. The latter volume also contains Nietzsche's priceless letters he wrote to his friends after he went insane in 1889.

I picked up this book to get a feel for Nietzsche and have reviewed several commentaries on the other works available on or translated from Nietzsche. For those of you who are not intimately familiar with his work, let me summarize what I've learned:

From a modern point of view, Nietzsche is racist, sexist, anti-religious (including Jews, Christians/Catholics, etc.), and sometimes even anti-German. Given this concise but inflammatory list, you can imagine why very few people get over their critical anger and stop to figure out if there's anything worthwhile left in his work. If you can come to terms with the fact that much of this attitude is a relic of his times (pre WWII Germany) and skim by this material without getting hostile to his body of work as a whole, there is a lot of valuable insight in his works.

To this book specifically, Kaufmann is well regarded as one of the best translators of Nietzsche's work, derived particularly from his fluency in both German and English. As a native German speaker, he understands all the subtle aspects of Nietzsche's artistic writing style. When Kaufmann translates this into English, he remains extremely fluent but is willing to translate the subtexts plainly, to the benefit of readers who might not otherwise understand those subtexts.

To be fair Kaufmann is also criticized (by some) as a mediocre philosopher who showed unrestrained favor to Nietzsche, going so far as to attack Nietzsche's critics both with his reviews and his power in the philosophical community. While this opinion of Kaufmann may or may not be true, this book relies primarily on Kaufmann's translation and not his commentary, making the concern largely moot.

With a fair mind, Nietzsche's writings make a few major philosophical contributions:
-The greatest is certainly his master-slave framework of morality including the philosophical term/concept ressentiment. See wikipedia for an overview.
-Nietzsche offers an interesting commentary on art and decadence which I believe is enlightening though poorly communicated.
-He also makes some characterizations of "the masses," their desires, and their leaders (embodied in priests of the church). Especially when generalized/taken out of its anti-Christian framework, this discussion is an interesting perspective on what "the masses" really want and how their leaders operate. When we replace "the priest" with any modern populist, I found the comments especially relevant even today.
-No doubt there are others, but these have struck me particularly.

In summary, Nietzsche's work contains a number of very powerful ideas, often lost in the soup of controversial and inaccurate comments. If you try to analyze Nietzsche's concepts as complete units, they will come out as dated and consequently of little modern value. If you are willing **and able** to read Nietzsche for his flashes of genius, many of the elements of his work are timeless and should be integrated into your understanding of philosophy and "truth" -- and if you read Nietzsche, you'll realize that this is put in quotes for a very specific reason.

Writing Children's Books for Dummies offers everything you need from start to finish to write your own children's book. Go for it !

Wonderful, "to the point" information. Not overwhelming, makes me think that this dummy might have a shot at getting my work published.

As a Publisher of a mid-size children's book publishing company I come across many people who believe they know how to write books for children, but sadly do not know where or how to even begin. My recommendation to them is to read WRITING CHILDREN'S BOOKS FOR DUMMIES. This is the definitive guide for all aspiring writers as well as for established writers who might need a refresher on the latest formats and trends in the market.

Excellent book for the beginning Children's Book writer. Lots of great tips and pointers for getting that manuscript written and published.

This book takes you through all the steps necessary in writing children's books. Very helpful!

bought this copy for my daughter. she wishes she'd had it years earlier. loves it.

I retired a few years ago and wish that I had taken my Gregg Reference Manual with me as a "parting gift." I used to take calls from people regarding grammar questions. Little did they know I would grab this book and easily page to the correct answer. I impressed many people over the years; and then, of course, the answers became second nature to me. I have recommended this book many times and finally am going to purchase my own copy for home. It is a good book just to read. Absolutely EVERYTHING is in there.

This manual is a great tool with easy to locate information and a wealth of information; it is not, however, the end-all of writing. It is a good business writing manual, but to an English student and editor, it falls rather short. For example, Sabin's advice on generic pronouns and gender may suit a business proposal with "his or hers" and "he or she" littering the page, but in the humanities, this is becoming less and less acceptable. Items such as this seem unimportant only until you need them.

The GRM is a fine grammar manual if needed only for occasional use casually and in business situations, but for intense scrutiny, it wouldn't be my first choice.

I am an independent corporate trainer who teaches people to write better at work. When my students ask me for my advice about good books to guide them as they write at work, this is the reference book I recommend.

I also tell them several other things about the book. First, this is not just some handbook that secretaries can use to look up how to format a letter. It is an authoritative reference for all aspects of writing English. It should be next to the dictionary and thesaurus on the shelf of everyone who needs to write at work, from clerks to executives. Second, if your boss or anyone else argues with you about any rule of writing, you only have to point to the relevant entry in this book. All arguments stop there. Third, the size of the book is deceptive. It uses small font and thin paper. With normal font and paper, it would be the size of two or three large dictionaries. That's how much useful stuff is packed in this book.

It takes a while to get used to how the information in the book is formatted, but it is well worth the effort. All entries in the index include page numbers as well as topic numbers, which they call "rules." The book is logically structured around these rules, and it makes related topics easy to find.

I rated this book 5 stars because I think it is superior in all categories for a reference book: comprehensive content, abundant examples, thorough index, authoritative author, and reasonable price.

As a business education teacher, I highly recommend this reference manual to anyone entering the secretarial field. It provides a complete source for answering questions concerning grammar, punctuation, English usage, etc. The well-done index allows easy access to the needed information. It is an absolute MUST for office employees. Eva Lewis, El Cajon, CA