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Author: Charles
Jacobs
ISBN: 10, 13:
0-9793636-0-8: 978-0-9793636-0-3
How often do retirees
hear “your stories are great; you should write them down and publish them?” The
most likely reply is I wouldn’t know where to begin or it just seems too difficult
to wade through the endless steps to take before my masterpiece is published. Fret
no longer, award-winning journalist Charles Jacobs’ has come to your rescue with
The Writer Within You: A Step-By-Step Guide To
Writing And Publishing In Your Retirement Years.
No doubt there are
hundred of books spewing out the same advice as this one however few cover as much
territory. And after reading this first-rate book, you will probably come to the
same conclusion that I have- its title doesn’t do enough justice to its comprehensive
and informative contents. Moreover, this is one of those primers that could easily
become prerequisite reading material for anyone, not only retirees, wishing to pursue
a general course on the fundamentals of writing and publishing.
Jacobs has over fifty
years of writing experience. His more than seven hundred and fifty articles have
appeared in magazines and newspapers all over the USA and Canada. In addition, he
has ghost written several books and published a novel,
Blood Bond. He holds a Master’s Degree from Columbia’s famed Pulitzer Graduate
School of Journalism and during his career Jacobs has held positions of Publisher/President
of the Alameda Newspaper Group, Publisher of the North Jersey Herald and News and
Editor-in-Chief of Focus.
With this vast experience, Jacobs really knows what he is writing about and succeeds
admirably in sharing his expertise, research and insights in analyzing such topics
as the essential elements of writing the novel, non-fiction writing including memoirs
and biographies, the confusing world of publishing, self-publishing, traditional
publishing, query letters, book proposals, publishing contracts, marketing and promoting
your book, magazine and newspaper writing, placing your articles, business considerations,
travel writing, ezines and ebooks, writing and promoting on the Internet, Internet
resources, commercial writing, research, and writing tools.
Every one of the guide-book’s
twenty-five chapters have been painstakingly researched and referenced reducing
to bare bones the intricate world of publishing in an easy-to-digest format introducing
the reader to the basics of writing and publishing. Above all, the book’s strength
prevails in its depth and wealth of information that it explores with its readers.
To illustrate, referring
to the chapters covering publishing and marketing your book, readers discover new
printing innovations as offset printing
which is still the most economical publishing choice, publishing-on-demand and what
to watch out for when choosing a POD publisher, Ebook publishing where seniors and
even others have an excellent opportunity to easily publish short books, self-publishing
where we go it alone from writing, designing the book cover, securing ISBN numbers,
choosing the printer, determining quantity of books to publish, sending out advanced
review copies to reviewers, distribution of the book, fulfillment houses to the
actual marketing of the book.
Did you know, as Jacobs
points out, that 85% or more of the text found in consumer magazines is nonfiction
and the figure rises to 100% in trade journals. With this in mind, Jacobs
devotes an entire chapter exploring the nonfiction article from the planning, researching,
organizing, article leads, body of the article and its wrap up, query letters to
magazine, consumer and trade editors, to the mechanics of the article presentation.
As for the quality
of Jacobs writing, it is consistently comprehensible with well focused chapters
containing extensive references to web sites, books on writing and marketing. The
book’s wide-ranging appendix complements these references with valuable URL addresses
as well as lists of books dealing with such topics as pre-publication reviewers,
short run printers, article writing books, blogs, book coaches, book distributors,
book wholesalers, book marketing and promotion, book reviewers including bookpleasures,
books for writers, chat groups, cover designs, copyrights, creative nonfiction,
ebooks, equipment, ezines, email list services, fiction writing, book formatting,
freelance websites, fulfillment, indexing, ISBN numbers, links, literary agents,
and many more. There are even sidebars sprinkled throughout containing words of
wisdom such as the remarks of famous writer, Dorothy Parker, “I hate writing, but
I love having written.”
It may be difficult
to conceive that another book pertaining to writing and publishing merits attention.
However, this guide-book should be on the shortlist for anyone aspiring to be a
writer. It’s too bad it was not available when I began my own writing in retirement.
It would have save me a great deal of time and frustration.
The above
review was contributed by: The Norm
Goldman, B.A. LL.L, Retired Title Attorney, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com.
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