Tuesday’s writing tip for authors

Putting Your Passion Into Print: Get Your Book Published Successfully! contains valuable writing tips  from a top literary agent and an experienced book doctor’s point of view. This gives the book a unique and valuable perspective that addresses both an author’s and a publisher’s needs.

As the authors’ website describes the book, “It’s a step-by-step, blow-by-blow description of how to take an idea you’re passionate about, make a book out of it, get it published, and deliver it into the hands, heads, and hearts of readers around the world.”

As an experienced mediator between authors and publishers, (one of the authors, Arielle Ekstrut, runs the West Coast office of the Levine-Greenberg Literary Agency) it’s a book that can help authors balance their love of their topic with their publisher’s need to make a profit. The book originated as a workshop created for Stanford University and now presented around the country at universities and writing conferences.

Writing tips
Putting Your Passion into Print is written with empathy and pragmatism. Even if you haven’t heard the authors speak, you can “hear” their voices as they share their insights and understanding of the journey they’re taking their readers–first-time authors–on. They understand what’s going on in an author’s mind–they’re previously-published authors themselves–and their advice is simple and to the point.

For example, Write Away, their chapter on writing, begins by encouraging authors to find out, through a heart-to-heart conversation with their editor, the editor’s expectations and preferred working arrangement. Quoting from page 177, they advise asking questions like:

• What would you like me to know about how you and this procss work before we begin?
• Do you want to see chapters as I finish them? Or, would you prefer to see a completed manuscript?
• Do you prefer telephonic or electronic communications?
• How closely should I stick to my outline? If there are changes in the outline, would you like me to keep you in the loop about them?

Note that these are “people” and “relationship” issues, even though Putting Your Passion Into Print is about planning, writing, promoting, and profiting from a book. It’s significant that these “people issues” are the first topics addressed in the chapter on writing–a subject often addressed as a “solitary” or “creative” activity.

On perfection
I particularly liked the section, Resisting the Temptation to Write the Perfect Section. The authors encourage you to “Write the best sentence you can at this particular moment. Then move on. That’s right. Just move on.”

Each of the book’s 14 chapters offers the same mix of “real world” advice and pragmatic advice.

Putting Your Passion Into Print is a great book on an important topic. The authors’ combination of candor, empathy, and “insider” perspective set it apart from other books on writing and getting published. It’s a fun and easy read that is well organized and conversationally delivered.