Review - The Writer's Secret Weapon

I recently heard from Mywriterscircle.com member Louise Dop, who has produced an e-book by the above title. Louise kindly sent me a review copy.

The Writer's Secret Weapon is essentially a collection of tips and advice for writers on making the most from the Internet (the 'Secret Weapon' of the title). Louise is a successful freelance writer and technical author, and in her new e-book she describes some of the tools and strategies she uses every day in her work.

The Writer's Secret Weapon is supplied as a downloadable PDF file. It is well written, and attractively illustrated with screengrabs showing some of the resources referred to (no doubt Louise's background in technical writing came in useful here!). There are six chapters. The first one concerns searching on the Internet, which is of course a fundamental skill for writers today. Louise doesn't waste too much time on search engine basics. Rather, she talks about a range of free, personalized tools you can use to save time on searches and make them more efficient. There are some strategies here I will certainly be trying myself in the coming weeks.

Subsequent chapters cover online communities (I'm pleased to say Mywriterscircle.com gets a mention!), and how to save, share and back-up your writing on the net. Another chapter covers blogging and other methods for raising your online profile, e.g. submitting your work to free article websites. The chapter titled 'A Window on the World' focuses on news sites and online radio - the BBC comes in for a good plug here! Finally, 'Harnessing the Power of Time Wasting' features a broad selection of websites and services of interest to writers. In fact, calling them time wasters is a little unfair, as many of the resources discussed in this chapter could be of great practical benefit to most writers.

The Writer's Secret Weapon is a quick, easy read, and most writers will find something here they can use. A nice feature is that at the end of each chapter Louise lists all the URLs she has referred to in the chapter concerned. These are all clickable, so you can go directly to the website in question. It isn't really aimed at complete beginners, but if you have at least a basic degree of competence with a web browser, this e-book should take you up to the next level.

Louise is a British writer, and the guide does have a certain UK bias, e.g. the section on news sites focuses on the BBC and does not mention US news sites such as CNN. This chapter in particular could be a candidate for expansion in the next edition. However, all of the resources discussed are of course available to anyone in the world via the Internet.

The Writer's Secret Weapon is priced at a very modest $5.99 (about 4 UK pounds). It's available via Louise's website at www.clearlywrite.co.uk and if you're a writer looking to make the most of your Internet connection, it's well worth the small investment. Incidentally, Louise has self-published using the popular online service Lulu, and her e-book is an interesting example of how any writer could potentially publish their work in this way.