Reference : Writing Skills

Editing is a tricky business. It requires analytical flair and creative panache, the patience of a saint and the vision of a writer. Transforming a manuscript into a book that edifies, inspires, and sells? That’s the job of the developmental editor, whose desk is the first stop for many manuscripts on the road to bookdom—a route ably mapped out in the pages of Developmental Editing.Author Scott Norton has worked with a diverse range of authors, editors, and publishers, and his handbook provides an approach to developmental editing that is logical, collaborative, humorous, and realistic. He starts with the core tasks of shaping the proposal, finding the hook, and building the narrative or argument, and then turns to the hard work of executing the plan and establishing a style. Developmental Editing includes detailed case studies featuring a variety of nonfiction books—election-year polemic, popular science, memoir, travel guide—and authors ranging from first-timer to veteran, journalist to scholar. Handy sidebars offer advice on how to become a developmental editor, create effective illustration programs, and adapt sophisticated fiction techniques (such as point of view, suspense, plotting, character, and setting) to nonfiction writing. Norton’s book also provides freelance copyeditors with a way to earn higher fees while introducing more creativity into their work lives. It gives acquisitions, marketing, and production staff a vocabulary for diagnosing a manuscript’s flaws and techniques for transforming it into a bestseller. And perhaps most importantly, Developmental Editing equips authors with the concrete tools they need to reach their audiences. more...

Price: $35.00

A comprehensive guide to writing advertising copy, this text provides tips on how to identify the target audience; how to write advertisements, brochures, flyers and direct mail; and how to check that the copy is working once written. more...

Price: $17.99

Kalmans exquisite illustrations give the revered style manual, now in its fourth edition, a jolt of new energy, making the learning experience more colorful and clear. more...

Price: $16.00

Whether you're writing self-help, memoir, or the Great American novel, you'll need a professionally prepared book proposal to sell it. In The Everything Guide to Writing a Book Proposal , author Meg Schneider and literary agent Barbara Doyen team up to provide the inside scoop on getting your name in print. more...

Price: $14.95

This book guarantees you’ll never look at the English language the same way again—if you write, read or speak it, it just ain’t possible to live without this tell-all guide. (“Ain’t,” incidentally, is not a bad word.) more...

Price: $10.95