Customer Reviews

101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists: Insider Secrets from Top Writers

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I liked this book a lot. Besides books on small business and nonprofit management/fundraising, I love to check out good books on writing. I don't find many new ones that are good because they all seem to say pretty much the same ol same ol. But this one, the one being reviewed, seemed to rise above the pile and stand out. I found it to be worthy of a review.

If you are lucky enough to get hold of this book, then you will be able to read it and learn that successful writers are good at the following:

>>Be creative
>>Be original
>>Be a good storyteller
>>Be a voracious reader
>>Be passionate
>>Be disciplined
>>Be a marketer (self promoter & promoter of your books)
>>Be a strategic planner (write something that will sell)

The book is split into four parts: (1) Passion, (2) Creativity, (3) Discipline, and (4) The Business. I found the first three parts to be great. Take a look at the Search Inside feature provided by Amazon to examine the Table of Contents for this book. It is a fairly detailed TOC and you will learn a lot about what is covered.

I thought the first three parts of the book were very well done. They were well written and well organized. My only criticism of the book comes with regard to Part IV. Times are changing in the writing world. With the advent of PCs, POD publishing options, and the Internet, writers are no longer required to play flunky to publishers. The author partly acknowledges this. But he does not explain it in graphic detail and fully inform the reader of how things are today (at least in my opinion). Where was the chapter on blogging? Where's the chapter on Myspace? Where was the chapter on strategic planning? And where was the chapter on writing a good book or two that you simply give away or sell from your Web site in order to create an author platform (self promotion tool)?

Other books you may want to read to supplement this book's Part IV include: "The Web Savvy Writer" (websavvywriter dot com), "The Author's Guide to Building an Online Platform" (ISBN: 1884956823), and "The IndieAuthor Guide" (ISBN: 1434857689). 5 stars!

After years of toying with the idea of becoming a "novelist," I have decided to get serious about it. So my first step was to look through books on the subject. I am not dumb regarding the subject; so many books were far too trite to warrant purchasing. THIS book was an exception. The quotes from various authors would be enough to justify owning this book, but the advice from the author is also somewhat unconventional and has already helped me to organize my thoughts and get words on paper in what promises to be an excellent use of my time - and that's really what this process is all about.

Don't expect a large book that goes into detail about how to construct a successful plot, or even the characteristics of one. It is all very general advice, your usual, but each "habit" includes good advice from successful writers. That's what makes this book helpful; it gives you a look into the mindset of published, best-selling and award-winning writers. I don't get the feeling it's meant to be read front-to-cover, rather it's just something that you can open up if you need advice on any part or stage of writing. It is more of a reference than a book, but it can be taken either way. I recommend it; it's simplicity makes it readable and valuable.

This book is a wonderful source of encouragement and help, even to one who has four books out! And it's not just for Novelists. I don't write Novels, - I write narrative non-fiction -- still this book is helping me get through my latest project. I keep calling my friends who are also writers and reading them portions or quotes. I love this book! It's like a shot of energy, when I'm in the middle of working on the art I love.

Why can R.A. Salvatore sell millions and you can't? "The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists: Insider Secrets from Top Writers" draws from a huge pool of talented writers who present their habits and routines they use to put their best-selling novel out into the world. With names like R.A. Salvatore, Robin Moore, Mary Higgins Clark, the talent pool does know what they are talking about. For anyone who is delving into the avenue of long fiction, "The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists" is encouraging reading.

I particularly like this book because the novelists quoted are not necessarily MEGA-literary stars, but they are, indeed, real, hardworking, successful novelists who hone their craft and rely on elbow-grease to sell novel after novel. As a writer still pretty far down on the food chain, I find these morsels of wisdom refreshing. Andrew McAleer has congregated seasoned writers to offer us snapshots of what it's really like to be a working novelist. It wasn't designed to be a textbook about how to write, but it sure is a blueprint for how to persevere when the odds are stacked against you, and you receive little concrete encouragement as you toil away, usually in a room by yourself. I read entries at night to inspire me to forge ahead, one day at a time, one page at a time. If you're an aspiring writer or a serious writer inching his or her way towards the completion of your novel, you'll enjoy this book, and the writers behind the words.

You don't have to be a novelist to enjoy or benefit from reading this book. There's excellent tips in the book that have helped me with creating writing. I'm always curious to know what the best minds think, and McAleer delivers it.

This book was obviously a work of love on the part of Mr. McAleer. He shares advice and quotes from many of the bestselling authors on the market today. This book is not only for those who may be trying to break into the published book world, but for anyone who wants to know what successful authors have to say on the subject. Kudos to Mr. McAleer for this newest work. Hopefully there will be many more to come!

I received 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists as a gift for Christmas in 2008, and what an excellent gift it makes! For those of you looking for a reference that teaches you how to construct a novel in all its aspects, you won't find it here. What you will find is exactly what the title suggests: a compilation of suggestions and routines, along with commentary, by professional novelists who practice what they preach. For the novice, the book will both encourage you in the habits you already have and prod you into forming new ones, all for the sake of completing the novel you are writing. If you're already a novelist by profession, then this book will serve as sort of a creative pumping-up, if only to remind you that you're on the "write track". An excellent learning tool and one I'll be reading again and again.

Bravo, Andy McAleer for your knowledgeable and informative hand book for the unintiated and almost initiated.