WRITING ADVICE: How to be a Writer - Sally O'Reilly

Release Date: 03/11/11

SYNOPSIS:

How To Be a Writer is a comprehensive guide to the career of writing from experienced writer and creative writing tutor Sally O'Reilly. The book will cover questions such as: If you want to be a writer, should you invest in a creative writing course? If so, which one? Are writing groups a good thing? What grants, awards and prizes are available to the aspiring writer? How should you plan your career in the long term? It will also feature an introduction from Fay Weldon - 'Why I wish I'd read this book when I was 25' - and will include comments and case studies from other established authors, agents and industry experts. How To Be a Writer will include everything that a writer needs to know about running their own career, from choosing an agent to cafe scribbling, and from filing a tax return to flirting with the literati and it will be an essential reference book for any author who takes their work seriously.


REVIEW:

OK this book is a little different to a lot of the books out there as rather than deal with getting that first book done, what this concentrates on mainly is building your career as a writer from networking to contracts, from PR to the Perils and Pitfalls as well as giving you the reality check about how to make your finances stretch.

It’s well written, the author clearly knows what they’re talking about and it’s a book that helps people take that next step into a world that is not only cold and harsh but one that many have had to learn the hard way in how to survive almost as if writing that first book plunges them into the middle of the ocean with sharks waiting for that buffet bell to ring. It’s a similar circumstance as it’s a sink or swim usually and the ones that you tend to hear about are the survivors rather than those who fell foul.

Add to this a book that is broken down into manageable chunks and a style that is friendly as well as informative and its almost as if you’ve been kitted out with that special survival training that you’re going to need. All round, for me, this is a great book and whilst I’m yet to be published it’s a title that gives me area’s to focus on to help improve areas of my craft that I haven’t even thought about. Solid, helpful and a title that I think a great many writers will find useful.