Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books

by Jean Marie Stine

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471037397
• ISBN13: 9780471037392
• Release Date: February 1997
• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Congratulations to my competitor!

I'm always a bit wary when I read a book on the same topic as one of my own, but in this case - especially - I was delighted to see that Jean Marie shares many of my own beliefs about structuring non-fiction and getting it published. Along with some similarities also there are many differences between our two books, which only goes to show that there is always room for another expert to share his or her experience and knowledge with new authors. An excellent guide and well worth buying.

Great book

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? What families and friends need to know about addiction and recovery.

This book helped me get an agent...

...and to sell my book! Complaints of "lacking sample queries and proposals" against this text seem fairly thin when her suggestions clearly (and repetitively, but some of us need that!) direct readers on how to compose their own! For those seriously (read: willing to do the necessary legwork and research) seeking direction on how to create a thorough, presentable, and persuasive proposal on your "How-To" concept, I'd recommend this book without reservation!

Writing Successful Self-Help and How To Books

Fantastic Book! I'm grateful to have received it. Ms. Stine gives us the benefit of her experience in publishing. While writing my proposal, following her program, I clarified the book I'm currently writing. Thanks to Jean Marie Stein for a great job and a valuable book. Lee Benton

I read it, I used it, I got my book published.

This is one book that I not only read but referred back to again and again. I have read this book over three or four times; I have marked up paragraphs and highlighted important passages. This book really crystallized my planning for a book I had in mind. In chapter 4: the author's five ways of structuring a How-to book gave me an idea for the overall structure (I chose method 4 the "component-based book"). Her extensive and helpful discussion of titles and subtitles and how and why to choose them (chapter 3) lead me to spend a great deal of time in considering this critical book element. Finally, the chapters about proposal writing for a How-To book were simply great. Several other books discuss proposals and give examples, but many are for fiction proposals which aren't close to what I was trying to do. The narrowing of focus to just How-To/Self-Help proposals was just what I needed. Highly recommended.