Writing to Sell

by Scott Meredith

Book Overview

A super-agent's practical guide to creating and marketing varied types of writing, fully updated to include the latest trends in the marketplace. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898797500
• ISBN13: 9780898797503
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Simple and Excellent.

I own a large pile of how-to-write books. Many of the books do not get you from here to there in terms of acquiring writing skills. Most give you a destination, but only a vague sense of how to get to that destination. It's like trying to go from your house to Oz, on a clear & sunny day. Meredith's book is simple and excellent because it provides very clear directions & instructions for how to get to your writing destination.

This is my Bible

When I was given this book, I had never been paid for my fiction. Now I make a living at it; in fact, since I started applying these principles to my fiction, I've never FAILED to sell a novel. I've sold nine so far.This book contains everything you need to know.

On a par with "Stein on Writing."

Now that I've read eight or nine how-to books on novel writing, I can say with certainty that this one, along with Sol Stein's, has had the greatest impact on me. Both of these men have significant experience as literary agents, so it behooves aspiring writers such as myself to pay greater heed to them than to writers who merely let us in on their personal secrets or academics who publish scholarly papers about fiction, but are unable to sell any themselves. Editors and literary agents are the ones who must be sold on the script in order for it to be published, after all.

A book that belongs on every writer's shelf

This book is an excellent comprehensive look at writing in every aspect, especially in relation to the market, with the added spice of Meredith's unique sense of humor. While I do not think highly of the book's attitude towards drafts and revision (which is, in my opinion, more likely than not to drive beginning writers to perfectionism and then out of writing altogether) this is the only recognizable flaw in an otherwise sparkling work.

The best book on the market for the first-time writer

If you've ever thought that maybe you had a novel in you, then this is the book to help bring it out. This book contains the best overall look at writing a novel around. While it's far from being exhaustive in content, it does give you a good picture of all aspects of writing including the pros and cons of agents, how to write a great query letter, how to build a go-for-the-throat beginning, and how to create a leave-them-speechless ending. Don't miss the chapter: "Stuffing the Hollow Man" - an inc