A writer for 35 years and writing instructor in journalism and creative writing for two decades (New York’s New School, NYU, and Columbia University), Susan Shapiro offers a trove of valuable inside secrets and practical advice in this guide to telling and selling personal essays. It’s like a complete, compact course on getting published—very up-to-date.
According to the author, social media has opened new doors so that it is now “easier to make your opinion and narrative known.” And she really does expect novice writers to get published in just five weeks, as she has witnessed among her own students and demonstrates through samples of their writing. We learn, for instance, that “the most successful writers don’t necessarily have the most talent but are the most obsessed.”
Unlike most writing experts, Shapiro uses an informed, conversational style that gently takes aspiring writers under her wings without a know-it-all lecturing tone. She purposely avoids an academic approach in order to create a results-oriented guidebook she wishes had been available when she first learned how to sell her own writing. Her book includes helpful lists of what to do and what to avoid doing, explanations of how to balance showing with telling, and numerous examples of topics that worked for her and her students in getting published. Approximately half the book is devoted to end-of-chapter sample essays, writing exercises/assignments, checklists, and recommended reading lists and Internet links. The author includes instructions on writing cover and pitch letters (with examples of each), finding lucrative markets, ensuring payment, and handling the aftermath of publication (ex: possible TV/radio interviews, requests for inclusion in anthologies, job offers).
All along this fascinating journey into publishing personal essays, opinion pieces, and short humor essays, Shapiro never loses sight of the fact that she was—and is, in many ways—one of us: still seeking and aspiring, always honing and improving her writing. This writing “bible” is a generous, straightforward, and easily referenced work that belongs on the shelves of beginning and intermediate nonfiction writers and that undoubtedly will result in many new “bylines.”
This review is based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher.
According to the author, social media has opened new doors so that it is now “easier to make your opinion and narrative known.” And she really does expect novice writers to get published in just five weeks, as she has witnessed among her own students and demonstrates through samples of their writing. We learn, for instance, that “the most successful writers don’t necessarily have the most talent but are the most obsessed.”
Unlike most writing experts, Shapiro uses an informed, conversational style that gently takes aspiring writers under her wings without a know-it-all lecturing tone. She purposely avoids an academic approach in order to create a results-oriented guidebook she wishes had been available when she first learned how to sell her own writing. Her book includes helpful lists of what to do and what to avoid doing, explanations of how to balance showing with telling, and numerous examples of topics that worked for her and her students in getting published. Approximately half the book is devoted to end-of-chapter sample essays, writing exercises/assignments, checklists, and recommended reading lists and Internet links. The author includes instructions on writing cover and pitch letters (with examples of each), finding lucrative markets, ensuring payment, and handling the aftermath of publication (ex: possible TV/radio interviews, requests for inclusion in anthologies, job offers).
All along this fascinating journey into publishing personal essays, opinion pieces, and short humor essays, Shapiro never loses sight of the fact that she was—and is, in many ways—one of us: still seeking and aspiring, always honing and improving her writing. This writing “bible” is a generous, straightforward, and easily referenced work that belongs on the shelves of beginning and intermediate nonfiction writers and that undoubtedly will result in many new “bylines.”
This review is based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher.