Want to know if that lovely little writing book calling to you from the shelves of your local bookstore is worth it? Desperate to find the resource for your specific writing and creative questions/situations/issues? That’s why I’m here, dearies. Let an obsessive book collector pick the best and present them to you for your edification and edumacation.

Picture this, my faithful readers. You are an expert in all areas of freelancing (naturally). You are well paid, completely satisfied, and never procrastinate. Life is grand. But then comes the day in which you decide to branch out, to parlay that growing fame and experience into a book, or to transform your scintillating life into a screenplay. You have questions. You need answers.

Many of you might be screaming at the screen, “look online, jackass!” Good suggestion. But what happens when, horror upon horrors, only frustrating searches result? What if, shockingly, there can be no concrete answers found in the land of Wikipedia?? It’s time for plan B. It’s time to find a text that offers frequently or occasionally asked questions about writing, read it and glory in the answers you so desire, refer to it over time, then leave it on the shelf for awhile, return to it and discover how you’ve been doing something wrong, cry, then read it again. And that could be your story with The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book.

The Gist

First and foremost, this book is for the thousands of aspiring writers who feel they have a book inside them but don’t know what to do with it…This book is also for writers who have found some success either as freelance writers or creative writers…who have mastery in one area but beginner questions in another area. While this book can’t cover every topic in-depth, it can ground you in the fundamentals and show you reliable sources to find out more.

This book sets out to the be a good general resource book, a source for freelance virgins and for those rode hard and put away wet (ah, thanks Grandma Jody, for that expression that never fails to work in any situation). I bought the text because I had specific questions about nonfiction and fiction book writing, and every quarter or so, I flip through to find what questions are relevant to me at that time, and what answers can trigger some unique business thinking.

The beauty of this book is in its organization, and its frank discussion of differing opinions. The first third of the book covers writing fundamentals: why and how to write freelance or creatively, how to conduct interviews and research, how to set up a freelance business, and more. The second third covers specific considerations and concerns about book and magazine freelancing. The book finishes with overviews of different areas, including poetry writing, script writing, children’s writing, and more. Within each section, the answers are clear when they can be, and wishy-washy when they need to be. What this means is writers are given clear direction on which rules are inviolable and which are undecided, and how to break all of them.

Some sections in which I found answers to my questions:

  • Page 33: What do They Mean When They Say…? An entire chapter devoted to deciphering publishing and freelancing lingo.
  • Page 54, 122: Structure and Process of Novel Queries. Sure, there are whole books written on the query process. But this gives a nice overview and summary of all the conflicting and complementary information out there, and is nicely accompanied by more helpful information in the Appendices.
  • Page 258: Ghostwriting and Writing for Hire. Direct answers to many of my questions during the brief period when I thought I was going to ghostwrite a memoir. Until he turned out to be an asshat.
  • Page 341: Appendix I. Extremely useful lists of novel genres, word counts, formatting guidelines, and sample queries.

Bottom Line
Writing a book, or writing for magazines? Have lots of questions? Get this book.

To Learn More
Order The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book

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