Damn! Why Didn't I Write That? How Ordinary People are Raking in $100,000.00...or more Writing Nonfiction Books & How You Can Too! (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Sales figures given below were gathered from reports in Publishers Weekly, from publishers' catalogs, from book cover crowings (over 150,000 sold!), from book Web sites,..." (more)
Key Phrases: subsidy publisher, writing nonfiction books, competing titles, United States, New York, Chicken Soup (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Forget everything you've heard about the travails of the freelance writer. In Damn! Why Didn't I Write That?, Marc McCutcheon contends that "you can learn the trade and begin making a respectable income much faster than most people think possible." To illustrate, McCutcheon lists 17 pages of bestselling titles, including Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance (150,000 copies sold) and Golfing, a humor book (525,000 copies sold). McCutcheon himself wrote a few well-chosen titles and claims to be "easily support[ing] a family of four, working part-time." How? Think niche, says McCutcheon. Think backlist. Think about perennially hot topics like dieting/weight loss, relationships, parenting, health, low-fat cooking, sex, spirituality, money/finances, cats, career and leadership, and computer and Internet. McCutcheon is quite helpful about things like contract negotiation, agents, proposals, and promotion. He also confers a real can-do attitude on his readers. "In the corporate world," he says, "tall, beautiful people rule. In the writing world, even Yoda can climb to the top of the success ladder." --Jane Steinberg

From Library Journal

The title says it all. This combination pep-talk/how-to guide by best-selling author McCutcheon (Roget's Super Thesaurus) offers encouragement to amateur writers who want to support themselves (and their families) by writing. Demonstrating how lucrative the publishing industry can be for the right idea at the right time, McCutcheon describes the process from idea, research, query letters, and proposals to agents, contract negotiations, and promotion. At each step, he offers insights from personal experience and shares the experiences of several well-known best-selling authors. Chapters provide suggestions to develop habits that will lead to successful full-time writing, with tips like reading trade journals on a regular basis and clipping articles from magazines and newspapers to jumpstart research. The summary of provided is a list of helpful magazines, web sites, and organizations and a descriptive sample of standard formats for manuscript submission. Not much is new here, but the commonsense approach is both upbeat and practical. A worthwhile addition for libraries supporting writing programs. Denise S. Sticha, Murrysville Community Lib., PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Quill Driver Books (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884956173
• ISBN-13: 978-1884956171
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #261,016 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #87 in

  Books > Reference > Writing > Nonfiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

96 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Damn! Why didn't I write this FIRST?, October 17, 2002

By	A. Cheek "Photo Chick" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Many 'how-to-get-published' books are vague in the concept of writing, but strong on the proposal and submittal of manuscripts. Marc McCutcheon makes his book stand out with specifics for getting your writing noticed, published, and sold. His writing style is casual and humorous, yet professional. I found it to be easy to read, inspiring, and factual. He puts in print what I've been thinking for years as I browsed through the latest Thousands-of-Reasons-to-Make-Maccaroni-type titles: I could've written that...I'm not even a PhD and I could've done that, and so-on.

McCutcheon's tips on writing are very concise and motivating, with a fresh delivery of facts, not rehashing. The book also contains a thorough section of resources; from finding an expert on your nonfiction topic of choice, to a glossary of publishing terms for newbies. You'll find examples of query letters McCutcheon used himself to sell his books, as well as sample contracts with translations from legalese into normal language.

He lists several success stories of everyday people who sold blockbusters. Common obstacles are addressed such as not having a degree (he is a high-school dropout himself), whether your idea is promotable, contract negotiation, and how to research. You are shown that with the right tools and hard work, anyone can do it.

Once believing I might be able to write a non-fiction book and get it published, I now KNOW it. This is a must-read.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great information, complete direction, July 28, 2002

By	Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The common conception about writing as a career is that it is difficult to get into and produces many "starving" artists. While this may be true in many situations, Marc McCutcheon argues convincingly that it is not necessarily the case when it comes to nonfiction writing. According to the author over 50,000 new books are published each year, but only about 3,500 of them are fiction. As a result, most of the competition is in the fiction area. The nonfiction area is by far the easiest one in which to become published.

The author relates how even a beginning writer can learn to write nonfiction and start making a living as a writer much faster than commonly believed. The book is filled with the necessary details of not only writing a great nonfiction work but also how to handle contract negotiations, why you need (or don't need) an agent, writing proposals, marketing and just about any other subject that the writer may need to know.

Throughout the book, McCutcheon encourages the new writer and points out that many top selling titles were written by ordinary people without any special writing skills or training. A book that should be on the bookshelf of all writers, I can't recommend it highly enough.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than just HOW...This books reminds you WHY, June 29, 2004

By	Krystle, SelfmadeFarmer.com (Mesilla Valley, NM) - See all my reviews

Sometimes a book is great because it's well-written, organized, clear, and/or comical. This book is all of the above. But in my opinion, what sets it apart from all the other good books on writing is Marc McCutcheon's personal touch.

This is one of those books where the author's personality really shines through. I loved it from the minute I skimmed through it in the bookstore, and straight through the 3 or 4 times I've gone back to it over the last few years. The reason that it's the only writing book I've bought instead of just borrowed from the library is simple: Marc McCutcheon has achieved the essence of what I would one day like to achieve for myself.

You might be wondering what that is, exactly. It's the freedom that comes from working for no one but yourself, and living your life in a constant state of creative expression. All you have to do to see that Marc McCutcheon has reached this point is read his dedication:

"To all the kids on Hamilton Street who have drawn me away from the confines of my office to play whiffleball, break up fights, shoot hoops, check out salamanders,...apply bandages, build snow forts,...and provide endless excuses not to work when I didn't want to anyway..."

This is the kind of life that being a successful writer can afford. There are many books that show you how to get there, but this is the only one that also reminds you why you're doing it in the first place. When you're swimming in rejection slips, uncertainty, and more than your fair share of disappointments, what you need most is NOT a how-to book, but something to remind you what you're working towards. This book is that something.