Customer Reviews

Mastering the Business of Writing: A Leading Literary Agent Reveals the Secrets of Success

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I found Curtis' 1989 'Beyond the Bestseller - A Literary Agent Takes You Inside the Book Business' interesting and instructive. 'Mastering the Business of Writing - A Leading Literary Agent Reveals the Secrets of Success' has a new name. There is not much else new about it, an index, several chapters deleted, that's about it. Look in the index for 'Oprah.' You won't find it. If you are an aspiring writer and you haven't read the earlier book, buy this one. If you have read the earlier book, save your money.

This is not a how-to-write book. It covers many facets of the business of publishing: how publishers operate and how a book gets published and into bookstores. It shows you the various people involved in the process, and a careful reader will come away with an understanding of the backstage activities of publishing. Unless you have worked in publishing you will probably not get such a perspective any other way. There is much here that writers should know.

Yet he does not say enough. He speaks well, on how to handle sympathy, dialogue, action, detail, and characterization. All in chapter 39. The only chapter I really learned from. Key word, learned. Can't give a bad review, if you learn something! Still, for the money, there are better books on writing.