Customer Reviews

The Nasty Little Writing Book : Longtime New York Publishing Insider Reveals Secrets Only Best-Selling Authors Know

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

If brevity's the soul of wit, this 121-page wheeze is still too long. Smug author thinks it's a laff riot to invert standard advice (single-space your manuscripts, never revise a word, demand $1,000,000 in your query letters . . . are we getting the joke yet?). Soon, even author herself grows bored, starts satirizing romance novels and anything else within her limited reach--in a nonstop, archly overwritten style.

The only valid lesson this book teaches is what it might to be like to be being trapped in an elevator with Dame Edna on speed.

This book has to be the most cynical look at writing and publishing I've ever devoured. Reading it is like walking blidfolded through a patch of cockleburr--every few lines you wince. Not ready to laugh at yourself, at bestsellers, at writing, at writers, at publishing in general? Then don't open this one. It spares no one and nothing.

Written by literary agent Madelyne Simone Rovenhauer, with the assistance of D.W. St. John, The Nasty Little Writing Book is a very special guide to writing your own book and getting published - with a dark, satirical twist. Not all of its sometimes cynical advice is meant to be taken literally; many an aspiring or published author will savor a well-earned chuckle from the tongue-in-cheek suggestions. Parody assertions such as that publishers do not remainder books before their time, or that the author bears no responsibility for publicity, are not to be read at face value! At the same time, many insider "dirty little secrets" in the New York dominated publishing industry are exposed for all the world to see, from an expose on sentence sophistry to writing crises as a ploy. Highly recommended as leisure reading for the experienced writer looking to enjoy a good (albeit occassionally rueful) laugh, The Nasty Little Writing Book should be required reading for anyone who aspires to be a "best selling" published author from one of the major publishing houses.

I have no idea if this woman even exists, but my God what a nasty book. If this babe is real I pity the poor souls she comes across. There is a lot to make fun of in the publishing world, the writing world, and she makes a grab for all the rings. While not catching them all, she comes close.

Some negative reviewers just do not get that this is written with the intention of being satire, plain and simple. It is a fun jab to people who do know about publishing. It cuts to the ribs. There are some truths in it, if you are wise enough to read it as it's intended, so many words of advice that publishers give new writers, only to be ignored, so many hoops to run through, yet again dismissed as not true by some... no wonder this author cut the rug at them! lol If you take offense, then you didn't read it for its intended purpose, to be complete tomfoolery, but if you know about publishing and know the many ins and outs, then you'll get a good laugh for less than a buck.

I pity the unpublished writer who fails to read the introduction to this book. It is a satire so don't heed the "advice." I found parts to be very funny, and some not so funny. Actually, I thought it was overwritten. I think it would have been more effective as an essay. There are some insider jokes that probably will sail over the heads of those who are not attuned to the publishing business.

If you take things very literal, then avoid this book a all cost. If you like a cynical sense of humor, then this book is a funny look at the writing industry.

Just do not take it seriously.

If you've read as many how to write a bestselling novel books as I have, you might enjoy this satire.

The way many reviewers have reacted to this book, you would think their religion was under attack. Maybe the fantasy that anyone can be a bestselling author IS their religion? Who knows.

Anyway, if you like spoofs, this might be a fun one for you. The Kindle versions's reasonable at less than a buck.

As a former librarian and recovering aspiring fiction writer, I've read---or tried to read---hundreds of "how to write a novel" books, most of which are not worth the time to read.

This is the book I've been waiting for all these years: a tongue-in-cheek spoof of books that are, by and large, much too serious and pedantic for their own---and the reader's---good.

If you hold editors, agents and successful writers in as high regard as they seem to hold themselves, you may want to pass this one up, as it is sure to raise your blood pressure. Dame Rovenhauer is not at all bashful about puncturing the pretensions of a pompous industry, and she does it with panache.

This is one bitter woman! God help the neophyte who gets hold of this one. There is truth here, but it is couched in satire. Funny stuff, though, some of it. Too long, but not bad.