Thursday Book Reviews: 4 Books for Authors & Writers...

The first book I want to share with you is by Midge Raymond and called Everyday Book Marketing.

I was a contributor to this book (the very last section has interviews and essays from authors on their experience with marketing, etc.) and was excited about this book, but when I received my contributor copy I was completely blown away what a fantastic book this is.

A couple things--

The book is physically beautiful.  Not a cheapy published book, but LOVELY!  

Second, it's easy to read and organized!  You can read straight through, skip things, it's up to you.

Third, I loved reading the contributions from other poets, writers, and authors.  It was a 

And finally, at the end of each section, Midge offers you ideas if you have 15 - 30 minutes, or Everyday Marketing.  

There aren't many marketing books that I like, but Midge did an amazing job with this book that at one point I was thinking, "I'm looking forward to promoting my book," and seriously, I have *never* thought that. 

Oh and it's also available for your Kindle too!

Here's the book description:

Everyday Book Marketing is for the published author who is not only a writer but who also may have another career, a family, and any number of other obligations that require fitting book promotion into a budget where both hours and dollars may be hard to find.

 

This book will guide you on the journey from Writer to Marketing Pro, offering essential marketing tools along the way—including such book promotion basics as how to schedule a book tour and how to make the most of social media to how to keep the buzz going long after your launch date.

 

Everyday Book Marketing is divided into easily accessible sections that cover not only what you’ll need to handle before publication, such as establishing a blog and website, but what you can do during your book launch and beyond. It also offers tips and advice for how to keep the never-ending tasks of book promotion manageable, whether you have ten minutes a day or two hours a day.

And PRAISE for the book:

"Raymond has a gift for dispensing gentle, intelligent advice that even the most harried and overworked will find inspiring…Everyday Writinggives us permission to call ourselves writers, and found time to practice our craft." —The Writer magazine

 

"Raymond writes in a way that gives the reader real hope that a writing life is possible…Everyday Writing is a book worth owning and pocketing for those who struggle to make time for writing."  
—Portland Book Review

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Another book which I think is hugely beneficial for poets is The Crafty Poet A Portable Workshop by Diane Lockward.

What I like about this book is that it offers you poems, prompts and even interviews.

The book is definitely a portable workshop that you can use by yourself or with a group. The other cool thing is that once you read the poetry prompt, you can read a couple sample poems created from the prompts.

One other surprising thing in this book are the interviews.  As someone who loves interviews, I found this to be one of my favorite parts of the book (yes, even more than the prompts!)

For example, Diane Lockward interviews Cecilia Woloch, asking "I like the simplicity of your title.  How did you arrive at "Blazon?"  To which Woloch replies, "This question makes me smile because I think that I'm very bad at titles and therefore I always just go for the simplest, most obvious and least potentially embarrassing thing."

I love the honesty in these interviews and the wisdom.  I actually went through and read the interviews first.

I remember when this book was coming into being and there were calls for submissions for poems from the exercises and exercises and honestly, I'm bummed I never got my act together to submit as I feel The Crafty Poet will be making the rounds for a long time as there is a lot of information included for poets of all levels, though beginners may have a bit of a learning-curve if not familiar with poetic terms, etc. Still, recommended for the poet's shelf!

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Someone sent me this to review: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Nonfiction, and while much of this book is for beginners (and it's actually a very good book for beginners because everything is spelled out for the new writer) it had a surprise in the back-- yes, interviews!  Susan Orlean, Laura Fraser, Dinty W. Moore, and Mary Roach.

It also had some hints inside the book on giving interviews which was helpful.

It covers all aspects of writing nonfiction from personal essays, to fact-checking, to writing, to publishing.  There's a bit of everything.

Which is good for someone who isn't exactly sure what s/he is going to write or even where to begin.

I wouldn't recommend this for everyone, but definitely anyone who is beginning in writing nonfiction or needs more of a reference guide to keep on their desk.


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And since I'm so impressed by interviews today, I want to mention this book, The Tiferet Talk: Interviews by Melissa Studdard.

(Also available on Kindle! for $6.99)

Which has great interviews from the Tiferet radio show.

The interviews are both positive and inspiring.  One of my favorites was with Julia Cameron when they discuss "synchronicity."  If you every read or did The Artist Way, you'll definitely enjoy this one!


Here's the description as well as the interviewees--


The Tiferet Talk Interviews is a fascinating collection of twelve interviews transcribed from the Tiferet Talk Radio show, hosted by Melissa Studdard. Some of the world's most notable writers and spiritual leaders share their thoughts on writing, tolerance, and the world we live in today. Gain incredible insight into their perspective on ways to tell the truth of our lives, access creativity, and balance magic and craft. The Tiferet Talk Interviews includes a special introduction by Donna Baier Stein and interviews with Julia Cameron, Edward Hirsch, Jude Rittenhouse, Marc Allen, Arielle Ford, Robert Pinksy, Dr. Bernie Siegel, Robin Rice, Jeffrey Davis, Floyd Skloot, Anthony Lawlor, and Lois P. Jones.

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Well, that's a lot of reading (and possibly book shopping) for now.

Happy Reading!


~ Kells

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