Customer Reviews

How to Write a Romance for the New Market and Get Published

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

 

 

Kathryn Falk knows her romances, and has assembled a collection of short writings by various published romance authors that vary in usefulness. Some get down to the nitty-gritty, others just skim over the topic. There are many useful tips to be gleaned, however, about writing today's sex scenes, the "new" types of romances and so forth.

The problem with the book is that Falk has inserted a lot of filler material, pages purporting to be "letters" from young, aspiring romance writers (who haven't actually written anything), and her own chatty replies to these letters which don't really convey a lot of hard-core information to the serious writer.

In a future book, Falk should cut out all filler material, and replace it with writings from the romance authors who are in the trenches.

In How To Write A Romance For The New Markets...And Get Published!, Kathryn Falk draws upon her many years of experience and the expertise of hundreds of romance authors to provide aspiring writers with information, advice, and examples of how to get their romance writings polished and published. All the elements of writing romances are covered, along with a survey of the new markets in the romance genre including: African American; Time Travel; Christian; Multi-Cultural; Asian; Unusual heroines; humor; Hispanic/Latino; romantic suspense; magic; science fiction; fantasy; and erotic. The informative and comprehensive text is enhanced with a number of invaluable appendices including the Etiquette for Manuscript Submission; Romance Publishing Houses; Agents and Agencies; Romantic Times Magazine; Romantic Times Conventions and Lady Barrow Tours; and "Recommended Books". If you are an author seeking to succeed in the field of romance stories and novels, then begin with a thorough reading of Kathryn Falk's How To Write A Romance For The New Markets...And Get Published!

I picked up the book at the mall and skimmed through it. Although there was a lot in there that didn't interest me there was a lot that did. It gave a lot of helpful information on how to develop your book for the new markets. Her advice worked. I sold my first book in 2001, my second in 2002 and I sold a third book this January. Her formulas and methods worked for me. While they may not be helpful to everyone she has my sincerest thanks for guiding me into being a published author.

I've read many fiction writing books, and this is one of the most interesting ones. Although I do not aspire to write in the Romance genre, I enjoy hearing the insights of published writers on a myriad of topics. The topics in this book go beyond the basics of plot, character, dialogue, background. Like a Writers Conference, this book is mostly inspirational, though you may find a nugget or two of useful techniques. You would not find most of this information in a beginner's book---what to do about your day job; having a writer's brain; abuse of the past perfect tense; the Purple Prose eater; I write to please myself; How to write Latino Romance; My Hero is a Werewolf, etc. This book truly provides unique advice from published writers---unlike another writing book which proported to but only contained canned interviews for the last quarter of the book. Great stuff!

Where does a beginning romance writer go to begin her or his writing odessy? Where can she or he get up to speed on industry lingo, clarification of genres, and gain an understanding of who to send what to and when? How can one find out what's hot or what's not and why, and at the same time draw some encouragement and get questions anwswered without having to ask them outloud? Where else but Kathryn Falk's, "How To Write a Romance for the New Markets." Falk's most recent writer support book is akin to sitting in grandma's kitchen, sipping tea late into the afternoon on a rainy day, with industry giants. Chatty and relaxed, they openly discuss their business and give advice while the beginner sits by the fire and learns. I wish the book had an index but other than that, it's helpful and full of useable information. Quick Quills to All Who Read It!

When it's bad, it's really bad. I agree with the first two reviewers that this book has too many "shoulds" that may not work for every writer. I, too, found the concept of talking about writing to a trio of pretend writers very silly, boring, pretentious and wasteful. Selfish as it sounds, I don't care about THEM, talk to ME--you know, the person buying/reading the book! Ironically, one of the first articles is "Never Lose Sight of the Reader." Too bad "Lady" Barrow forgot about that.

One column in the book is about socio-biology (a.k.a evolutionary psychology) which I found extremely sexist and offensive. While it purported to address why women read romances, I found none of its arguments convincing. Apparently, the entire staff at Romantic Times subscribes to this highly controversial theory, because they frequently refer to it in the magazine and on the website. Anyway, the writer of the column isn't a romance novelist or editor or publisher, I don't even think she's a psychologist (I think she may be a lawyer) so who cares what she has to say about psychology in romance books or anything else?

This book shines when successful authors discuss the nuts and bolts of writing and getting published in the romance industry, when the various sub-genres are described and explained. Read those and ignore the rest of it.

This book was great with plenty of helpful information by some of my favorite authors such as Virgina Henley, Victoria Alexander, Julie Garwood and Lori Foster. If you are unable to attend a wrtiers conference (and I have never been able to make it to one yet fingers are crossed though) this is just how I would imagine one would be like.

Great ideas about any type of romcance story in the very vast genre. This is a great tool for the aspiring author. Of course not all of the information applies or is helpful to everyone but is still worth purchasing if you are serious about the romance industry.

In this sequel to the 1980's bestseller of How to Write a Romance and Get It Published, Kathryn Falk has put together a great "how to" book that would benefit anyone seriously interested writing for the Romance genre.

Drawing from her own experience and the expertise of hundreds of romance authors (so many of the top names in the game are contributors to this book, there is simply not enough space to name them all) Falk presents a series of essays covering various topics from where to begin to an overview of the romance market. It covers the various subgenres of romance as well, including African American, Time Travel, Christian, Mulit-Cultural, Romantic Suspense and more.

Even though not every essay will be agreeable to every writer, and there are a lot of essays to pick and choose from, I would recommend this to ALL writers in the Romance genre.

I eagerly awaited the arrival of this book and when it finally came, I went straight to the contents looking for the chapter that would give real technical advice on Romance Novel writing. It ain't there. Just a bunch of fluff from published authors that is of no real help.

If you're looking for "how to" articles, do a Google search and pull up some real helpful writing tips. Don't spend your money on this book.

I didn't really care for this book. It *does* have alot of filler, like the last reviewer said. And Falk is rather full of herself when it comes to writing. Obviously she is published, so her method of plotting and preparing worked for her. However, I think it will do a beginning author a disservice to think it is the *only* way.