How to Write and Sell Your First Novel

The book started out extremely well, the first chapter was inspirational and very informative. The second chapter explained the different genres of fiction, i.e. mainstream, romance, mystery, etc. Further along the book, I found the book was most practical in its advice on preparing your final draft and submitting it to publishers.

The second part of the book is basically a biography covering the lives of several authors. Some were quite interesting as they were compressed into two or three pages, such as the careers of John Grisham, Stephen King, and Mary Higgins Clark. I do admit those were very inspirational as well.

The disappointment was in the long, extensive, and detailed biographies of George O'Toole, Steven Linakis and a few others. I believe this was hardly relevant to the subject; one may think they were included in the book for inspiration to the reader, but the amount of detail that is put in there about the authors' lives may tend to leave you wondering, "He (Oscar) could've said that in a page, why'd he use up 8 pages?"

I've read more than a few good books on writing; several are quite inspirational. The difference here is that this book is practical. I wrote my first novel following the guidelines set forth in Collier and Leighton's book, and I sold it to a major publishing company. Inspiration is great; inspiration plus methodology is better.

I have read a lot of books on the subject of writing, yet never have I been so encouraged by one. I would not hesitate to recommend it. I will definitely read it again.

I have read Gardner's monsterpiece as well as Forster's and have come to the conclusion that this book is preferable to both. Why? It's written by an editor, not a writer, so it is vastly more objective than anything an author of fiction could produce. Unromantic to a fault, it is packed with good ol', common sense advice on how to write a publishable book.

I have read Gardner's monsterpiece as well as Forster's and have come to the conclusion that this book is preferable to both. Why? It's written by an editor, not a writer, so it is vastly more objective than anything an author of fiction could produce. Unromantic to a fault, it is packed with good, old, common sense advice on how to write a publishable book.