Review: The Best-Seller Secret

The Best-Seller Secret is the latest in WCCL's range of products and courses for writers, which also includes my courses Essential English for Authors, Write Any Book in Under 28 Days and Quick Cash Writing.

The Best-Seller Secret is written by Dan Strauss, Senior Editor of the WCCL Network, and successful author Mel McIntyre. It's provided as an instant download in the universal PDF format, and is therefore suitable for all computing platforms: Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

Like all WCCL products, The Best-Seller Secret is beautifully produced, and it has obviously been professionally written and edited. I should make one point clear right away, however. Despite the title, The Best-Seller Secret will NOT show you how to write a best-seller (for that, try Novel in a Month or my own Write Any Book in Under 28 Days).

Rather, The Best-Seller Secret is for anyone who has written a book, or is on the way to doing so, and wants to know how they can get it into the Amazon online bookstore's Top 100 Books list, with all the benefits that can flow from this.

You might perhaps think that only a major publishing house would have the resources (and budget) needed to propel a book into best-sellerdom. But, as this guide reveals, the Internet has changed all that.

The main manual - I'll get to the bonuses later - sets out a ten-step strategy to make your book an Amazon best-seller. It would be unfair to the publishers to reveal too many of its secrets, but they include getting celebrity endorsements, building up a pre-launch network of people who will help to promote your book, and using free bonuses to encourage people to buy.

The Best-Seller Secret really does make this whole process seem realistic and achievable. Yes, it will involve you in doing some work, but the returns (both direct and indirect) from having an Amazon best-seller should justify this many times over. It definitely can be done, and the guide includes several case studies of successful campaigns.

One thing I particularly liked about The Best-Seller Secret was the 'Campaign Flow Chart', which shows visually over several pages how to organize your publicity campaign. It's good to see WCCL using a few more diagrams and illustrations in its products these days. I was also impressed by the way the authors weren't afraid to discuss potential pitfalls and what to do if a particular aspect of your publicity campaign goes wrong.

In addition to the main guide, you get three additional bonus items. These are as follows:

Guide to Promoting Yourself & Your Book - This is a list of twenty 'quick-and-dirty' techniques for getting news of your book out to the world.

What's It Worth?- This mini-guide looks at pricing your book and, more importantly, easy techniques you can use to justify giving it a higher price tag.

Sample Letters & E-mail Templates - This is a set of templates you can use for e-mail messages to help market your book. It includes sample messages for endorsement requests, joint venture proposals, sales letters, and so on.

Really, my only reservation about The Best-Seller Secret is that it won't be suitable for every writer. As mentioned above, it's only likely to be relevant to you if you've written a book, or are well on the way to doing so. And it's likely to work best with non-fiction books, although many of the strategies would be effective with novels too.

I also think that the methods set out in The Best-Seller Secret would work best - or at least be easiest to apply - if you are self-publishing. It could undoubtedly work with conventionally published books too, but you would need to liaise closely with your publisher. Of course, it's hard to imagine that your publisher would have any objections if your efforts result in your book becoming a best-seller!

In summary, if you're writing a book or have written one, this guide to turning it into an Amazon best-seller could be one of the best investments you'll ever make. If you haven't yet written a book, a guide such as my Write Any Book in Under 28 Days might be more useful to you now, and then buy The Best-Seller Secret once your book is well on the way to completion!

Amazon Vine Review: The Painted Man

I recently read and reviewed my latest book from the Amazon Vine programme. I thought perhaps you might be interested to see it.

The book in question is The Painted Man, by Peter V. Brett. It's the first book in a planned trilogy of fantasy novels. With certain minor reservations I found it an enjoyable read. Here's a (slightly edited) version of my review.

The Painted Man is the first book of Peter V. Brett's Demon Trilogy.

It follows the lives of three young people growing up in a world where demons are very much real rather than fantasy figures. They rise from the world's core at nightfall to attack human beings, who can only protect themselves by hiding behind 'wards' - magical sigils the demons cannot (usually) pass.

The three main characters are Arlen, a talented warder (drawer of wards), Leesha, a healer, and Rojer, a jongleur (travelling minstrel). All three feel destiny pulling at them to finally rid their world of the demon plague.

Peter V. Brett has crafted a compelling fantasy novel with some original ideas, generally sympathetic characters, and an absorbing, fast-paced plot.

The Painted Man is decently written in a plain, unadorned style, though it is never going to win any literary awards. Brett's prose lacks the depth and lyrical qualities of, say, a Robin Hobb or a Robert Silverberg, two distinguished current fantasy world-weavers. There were also a few places where I felt the plotting creaked a bit, notably in the strand concerning Leesha.

Nonetheless, this is a promising debut by a new fantasy author. Anyone who enjoys reading an exciting adventure novel, without expecting it to be a literary masterpiece, is unlikely to be disappointed. I'll certainly be looking out for the second volume.

Here's a permalink to my review on Amazon.co.uk, in case you'd like to read it in situ. As ever, if you like the review, a 'Helpful' vote is always appreciated!

Finally, I've included image links to the book's sales pages at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com at the foot of this post. Note that, while The Painted Man is available from Amazon.co.uk now, the US version won't be available till March 2009 (and for some reason it will be called The Warded Man in the US). Note also that if you are receiving this post by email, you will need to visit my blog to see the image links.

Review: Novel in a Month

Novel in a Month is the latest in WCCL's range of products and courses for writers, which also includes my courses Write Any Book in Under 28 Days and Quick Cash Writing.

Novel in a Month is written by Dan Strauss, Senior Editor of the WCCL Network and a successful author/novelist himself.

The course is provided on CD-ROM in the universal PDF format. It is therefore suitable for all computing platforms: Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

Like all WCCL products, Novel in a Month is beautifully produced, and it has clearly been professionally written and edited. The main manual (I'll get to the bonuses later) takes you step by step through everything you need to know to write a novel in the shortest possible time. Not surprisingly, I guess, the method set out in Novel in a Month bears a close resemblance to the one I set out in Write Any Book in Under 28 Days (though, of course, the latter is aimed primarily at people who want to write a non-fiction book).

I don't suppose I'm giving away too much if I reveal that the system described in Novel in a Month involves writing your first draft in three weeks, then editing it in the fourth. There is also a preliminary stage of planning and outlining, which takes up the first day or two.

Novel in a Month is packed with hints, tips and guidelines for novelists. Among the things I particularly liked were the 'population index' chart for developing characters, and Dan's P.L.O.T. plotting method, neither of which I had seen before.

Indeed, I thought Novel in a Month was particularly strong on plot and plotting methods. As well as the P.L.O.T. system, the course includes five top tips for plotting your novel, six universal plot archetypes, and so forth. My only slight reservation concerns the index card system that Dan advocates as an aid to plotting. Don't get me wrong, it's a great system, but personally I'd much prefer to work on my PC rather than start fiddling about with bits of cardboard. Still, it wouldn't be hard to adapt Dan's system to something a little more 21st century.

Other areas discussed in depth include dialogue, characterization, pacing, editing, viewpoint, writing in scenes ('show, don't tell'), and descriptive writing. Dan (correctly) emphasizes the importance of economy of style and resisting the temptation to overwrite. I can't help thinking, however, that he might have chosen a better example of this art than the late US science fiction author Isaac Asimov, entertaining though some of his short stories undoubtedly are (have you tried reading any of his 'Foundation' novels, though?). Perhaps I'm being a bit picky, however!

In addition to the main guide, you get five additional bonus items. These are as follows:

1. Getting Dialogue Down - a mini-guide to writing convincing (and correctly punctuated) dialogue.

2. How to Get Free Publicity for Your Novel - a 15-page guide showing how to get your book promoted on a shoe-string budget.

3. How to Get Celebrity Endorsements for Your Novel - if you've bought my Write Any Book in Under 28 Days course you'll know this already - but if not, the advice in this report will tell you exactly how to put this powerful technique to good use.

4. The Hottest Agents in the US and UK - this bonus guide contains over 40 pages of agent contact details, e-mail addresses, websites, guidelines, requirements, and so on.

5. 33 Techniques for Fine-Tuning Your Fiction - personally I think this is the most important and valuable of the bonuses. It shows you how to fine-tune your novel so that it stands out from the competition. Applying these 'advanced' techniques could make all the difference between having your book rejected and getting it accepted for publication.

Overall, Novel in a Month gets my recommendation as the most comprehensive course I have seen on writing a novel in the shortest possible time. If you are thinking of joining in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this November, it could be the ideal guide to have at your side and on your PC. But even if you don't intend to try writing a complete novel in a month, it would still be a very useful guide to plotting and writing your first best-seller!

My Latest Amazon Vine Book Review

I recently read and reviewed my latest book from the Amazon Vine programme. I thought perhaps you might be interested to see it.

The book in question is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer. It's fair to say it's not a book I would have read normally, although the fact that it is partly set in Guernsey - which I visited earlier this year - piqued my interest.

Anyway, I'm pleased to say I enjoyed it a lot more than my previous Amazon Vine selection. Here's a (slightly edited) version of my review.

Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I must start by saying that I have an innate prejudice against books written entirely in the form of letters. However, this novel went a long way towards curing me of this.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is set just after World War 2, when the German occupation of Guernsey in the Channel Islands had only recently ended. The central character is a writer, Juliet Ashton, who begins a correspondence with the members of the eponymous society. They are a group of disparate individuals who met regularly during the occupation to read and discuss books, keep their spirits up, and provide mutual support (and as they tell their stories, it becomes clear that the support given was very much practical as well as emotional).

I found reading this book a bit like listening to a radio play. Each of the letter-writers has his or her own distinctive voice, and gradually you get to know and understand them better, through both seeing what they write themselves and what others write about them. Although I do still have some reservations about novels written entirely in this form, I have to admit it works well at showing readers the characters from different perspectives and bringing them more vividly to life.

The book is perhaps a little slow in the beginning, as we read letters sent between Juliet and her publisher and other people in her life such as her friend Sophie. As the correspondence with members of the society gets into its stride, however, the book becomes much more gripping. There is a lot of presumably well-researched information about what life was like in the Channel Islands during the German occupation, and it really does bring this lesser-known aspect of WW2 into vivid focus. To the author's credit she pulls no punches about the worst aspects of life at that time, both in Guernsey itself and in the Nazi concentration camps. Some readers might find certain scenes described in the book quite disturbing.

It does, however, have a happy ending. A harsh critic might say that it has a touch of the Mills & Boon about it as Juliet finally finds True Love, but of course I would say no such thing!

In summary, then, this is an entertaining and at times moving novel, with a fascinating background. I will certainly look out for Ms Shaffer's next book, though I might prefer it if next time she uses a more conventional narrative format!

Here's a permalink to my review on Amazon.co.uk, in case you'd like to read it in situ. By the way, if you do visit, and you like the review, a 'Helpful' vote is always appreciated!

Finally, I've included image links to the book's sales pages at Amazon.com and co.uk at the foot of this post. Note that, as this was an Amazon Vine selection, the book won't actually be available to buy until next month. Note also that if you are receiving this post by email, you will need to visit my blog to see the image links.

Happy reading!

How Well Read Am I?

Linda Jones recently tagged me on a meme about what bloggers have and haven't read. You have to look at the list and:

1) Bold those you have read.

2) Italicise those you intend to read.

3) [Bracket] the books you LOVE.

4) Reprint this list on your own blog.

Incidentally, as I understand it the list in question comes from the American Big Read survey of the 100 most popular books there. The list differs somewhat from the UK Big Read list. As you might expect, a few more American titles are included!

Anyway, here's my version...

1 [Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen]
2 [The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien]
3 [Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte]
4 [Harry Potter series - JK Rowling]
5 [To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee]
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 [Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell]
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 [Catch-22 - Joseph Heller]
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams]
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 [Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll]
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 [Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres]
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie-the-Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 [Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy]
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 MISSING
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 [The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon]
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 [Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding]
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - A. S. Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 [The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro]
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 [Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I make that 59, so I still have quite a few titles left to read! Although there may be one or two books in the list I read long ago and have now forgotten about - Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree Collection, for example.

Looking at my list also makes me realise that I seem to have steered away from reading most Russian authors. That's definitely something I shall have to remedy before too long...

I must admit also that there are one or two books in the list I know almost nothing about - in particular, the titles by Rohinton Mistry (86) and Mitch Albom (88). Perhaps these books are better known in the US than in the UK? Anyway, if you've read either of these titles, I'd be interested to hear your opinions on them.

I'm tagging Suzie, Carrie and June next, because they all volunteered when I posted a request on my forum (I didn't like to just nominate people). You can also see Linda's list here. Between us, it seems, we've actually read the great majority of the books in the top 100!

My Holiday Reading

Before it becomes too much of a distant memory, I wanted to mention a couple of books I read on my recent Greek holiday.

The first of these was What Was Lost, a novel by Catherine O'Flynn. This is actually quite a short novel, but I highly recommend it. So far as the content is concerned, I can't really do better than quote the review by Jenny Colgan on the back cover:

"It's quite extraordinary. There's an amazing insight into the mind of a young girl, a very funny account of working in a high street record store, an entirely sympathetic hero in the form of a security guard, a cracking mystery, a brilliant sense of place in the form of a modern shopping centre, and a ghost story to boot. I adored every page of it and recommend it to everyone."

I agree with every word of that. I suppose it helped for me that it's set in Birmingham (England), a city I lived in for 20 years and am still close to now in Staffordshire. Even so, I thought it was a brilliant book, both funny (don't miss the description of a butcher's shop window on page 10, which had me chuckling for days after) and also poignant. If you're looking for something to pack for reading on the beach or beside the pool, I reckon it would be an excellent choice.

Here are my usual links to the book's pages on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. As ever, if you are receiving this post by email, you will need to visit my blog to see these.




Unfortunately I didn't enjoy the other title I took with me as much. This was The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway. I've put links to this below, although the book isn't officially published yet.




This was actually my first free book I got as an Amazon Vine reviewer, and I had high hopes for it. As it turned out, I admired the quality of much of the writing, but thought that as a novel it was fatally flawed. I've copied my Amazon.co.uk review below...

Well written, but lacks narrative drive
Good things first: The Gone-Away World is beautifully written. At times I was blown away by the almost musical quality of Nick Harkaway's writing. And the basic concept of the book - that most of the Earth has become uninhabitable after a nuclear disaster, save for a narrow band of land surrounding the mysterious Jorgmund Pipe - is unusual and intriguing.

On the minus side, though, I felt at times the author was so in love with his prose, the actual story almost became secondary. None of the characters really engaged me, although there are some nice cameos (notably the narrator's mentor, Master Wu). Neither do I share the author's fascination with martial arts and (believe it or not) Tupperware, though I can appreciate that others may find these aspects of the book quirky and amusing.

The Gone-Away World does include some quite funny (and caustic) observations about the nature of business, bureaucracy, international relations, and so on. They reminded me a little of the asides in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, although they lacked Pratchett's warmth and sly humour.

The most serious problem with this book, in my view, is the lack of narrative drive - a compelling storyline, in other words. This is partly down to its structure. The opening chapter sets up an intriguing scenario, and I wanted to know what happened next. But then the story goes back in time to the narrator's childhood and on through his adolescence and early adulthood; and this rambling narrative takes up most of the rest of the book. I didn't find the 'coming of age' stuff particularly interesting, and completing the book - to find out how the action in the opening chapter was resolved - ultimately became a bit of an endurance test for me.

There are things to enjoy in this novel, but overall I was rather disappointed by it. Nick Harkaway is clearly a talented writer, but in my view he needs to take a few lessons from his father (spy novelist John Le Carre) on how to create a compelling plot, and try to reign back his obsession for style over substance. I'll await his second novel with interest, but I doubt if I'll be reading this particular one again.

As you'll see if you check out the Amazon.co.uk link in particular, other Amazon Vine reviewers weren't exactly bowled over by this book either. At the time of writing it has an average rating of 3 stars out of 5, which I think is about right (it's what I gave it). I'm afraid that if the publishers had hoped to whip up anticipation by getting an avalanche of glowing reviews pre-publication, they'll be disappointed. Obviously, I can't recommend this book myself, though some reviewers have liked it.

Fingers crossed, I'll enjoy my next Amazon Vine selection a bit more!

Best UK Market Directories for Writers

We may not even be half-way through 2008, but already the 2009 market directories are coming out.

So I thought in this post I would take a look at the three main UK directories. I'll save the US market guides for another post.

As a UK-based freelance, I buy at least one of these guides every year. The content varies between them, but they all include comprehensive lists of UK publishers, agents, magazines, newspapers, and so on. Nowadays, as well, they include a growing range of articles and ancillary information. If you're serious about making a living from your writing, and UK-based or want to write for UK markets, having a current edition of one of these guides on your bookshelf is, in my view, essential.

The best known, and longest-established, guide to the UK market is The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, published by A&C Black. I've posted a link to the 2009 book's page at Amazon.co.uk below. As ever, if you're receiving this post by email, you will need to visit my blog to see this.


The 2009 WAYB is published on 15 June 2008, and has a foreword by Kate Mosse. It weighs in at 832 pages and is available for 9.89 UK pounds from Amazon.

The WAYB is still the favourite UK market guide of many writers. It has a good range of publishers and markets, and unlike the other guides includes information specifically aimed at freelance artists and photographers as well. It has a website at http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/, which includes a free search facility (although the only info given for a magazine or publisher is its website and email address). You won't go far wrong with the WAYB, but its two main competitors are ahead in some respects.

The WAYB's longest-standing rival is The Writer's Handbook, published by Macmillan. You'll have a little longer to wait for this one - the 2009 edition is due out on 25 July 2008. Here's a link to its Amazon page...


The 2009 Writer's Handbook also has 832 pages and costs 9.89 UKP on Amazon (what a coincidence!). It is edited, as usual, by Barry Turner. The Writer's Handbook has been my favourite market guide for a few years now. There's more information on writing for newspapers and magazines, and more on radio, TV, small presses and theatre companies. The new 2009 edition also apparently includes free online access to The Writer's Handbook website, offering a directory of markets and some additional resources and advice for writers. I don't have a URL for this, however, and assume the site is not operational yet (unless you know otherwise?). The obvious URL at http://www.writershandbook.co.uk/ seems to be owned by someone else and is currently up for offers. I assume some frantic behind-the-scenes negotiation is going on!

The last of the three UK directories is the 'new kid on the block'. Writer's Market UK comes from David & Charles and is edited by Caroline Taggart. The 2009 edition was published back in April this year at a slightly cheaper price of 8.99 UKP on Amazon.co.uk. It weighs in at an impressive 976 pages.


I bought Writer's Market UK for the first time this year, and was impressed by what I found. The presentation is more attractive than either of the two rival guides, who will have to start looking to their laurels. There are nearly 100 pages of articles on most aspects of writing, as well as a particularly wide range of publishing houses. There is a also a good selection of writing websites.

One thing I found a little bit confusing was that some magazines were listed under Publishers - so having looked for, and failed to find, the details for Readers Digest under Magazines, I fortuitously discovered them later under Readers Digest Association in the Publishers section. To be fair, I could have looked up Readers Digest in the index at the back of the book and found it there, but at the time I assumed it just wasn't listed.

Buyers of Writers Market UK also get a one-month free trial of their online service at http://www.writersmarket.co.uk/. After that, I assume you have to pay, but despite my best efforts I haven't been able to find out what they charge.

These are all excellent guides, but my overall recommendation goes to Writer's Market UK at the moment. When The Writer's Handbook 2009 comes out, with its promised free website, that may also be worth considering. The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook is slightly behind the other two in my view, but if your interests also extend to photography and art, it may nevertheless be your best choice.

Review: Book Proposal Secrets

Book Proposal Secrets is the latest in WCCL's range of products and courses for writers, which also includes my courses Write Any Book in Under 28 Days and Quick Cash Writing.

The author of Book Proposal Secrets is Mel McIntyre, who has also written several other WCCL courses (and will soon catch up with me as WCCL's most prolific author of writing courses!). It is provided as an instant download in the universal PDF format. It is therefore suitable for all computing platforms, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and Linux. Book Proposal Secrets is password-protected, but that's only a minor inconvenience. Once you have opened it, you can print out all or any of the pages as you wish.

Like all WCCL products, Book Proposal Secrets is beautifully produced, and it has clearly been professionally written and edited. The main manual (I'll get to the bonus items later) is 61 pages long, and takes you step by step through everything you need to know to create a book proposal that should knock the socks off a potential publisher.

For those who don't know, I should explain that writing a proposal is an alternative method to trying to sell a completed book. The method has the big advantage that if you can 'hook' an agent or publisher with your book proposal, you may be able to get a contract before you have even written the book itself. At the very least, if you get an expression of interest, you can go ahead and write the book with every expectation that it will be published. And even if you have already written your book, many publishers and agents nowadays prefer to receive a proposal initially rather than the whole manuscript.

It should be mentioned that this method is best suited to writers of non-fiction books, however. A new novelist would be highly unlikely to sell a book on the basis of a proposal and outline alone (though it's been known!).

Anyway, Book Proposal Secrets explains exactly how to craft the perfect book proposal. At its core is the author's ten-step method for creating and structuring your proposal - from Step 1, 'The Hook', through to Step 10, 'The Query Letter'. Mel explains how to write each section of your proposal, with links to other useful resources where appropriate. The advice is given with particular reference to the US market, but most of it would apply equally to writers in the UK and other parts of the world as well.

In addition to the main guide, you get various bonus items. These include a set of book proposal templates you can use to help produce proposals for a number of different types of book. These include how-to and self-help books, gift books, sales and marketing books and true crime books, as well as a generic book proposal template. These set out exactly what items your proposal should contain for the genre in question, though it must be said that several of them are actually quite similar!

You also get a bonus guide titled 'People you MUST know to get published'. This doesn't list agents and publishers as you might expect, but rather points you to various resources and (especially) websites that have the relevant information on them. This is a sensible approach, as contact details for agents and publishers are constantly changing. It therefore makes sense to list specialist websites that publish this info, rather than compiling a directory that would swiftly go out of date. Some of the websites listed in the bonus guide are free, but others charge a modest subscription.

The other bonus is a guide to 'power words' to punch up your proposal. This sounds quite useful, though as I haven't seen this particular item (it was only added to the package after I received my review copy) I can't actually tell you any more about it!

Overall, Book Proposal Secrets is the most complete guide to writing book proposals I have seen, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know how to produce a professional-looking proposal that has the best possible chance of being accepted. My only slight criticism is that I would like to have seen a few more examples of successful proposals that resulted in a publishing contract being offered. Still, maybe that's something for the next edition!

Review: Travel Writing Secrets

Travel Writing Secrets is the latest in WCCL's range of products and courses for writers, which also includes my courses Write Any Book in Under 28 Days and Quick Cash Writing.

The author of Travel Writing Secrets is Mel McIntyre, who has also written several other WCCL courses. It is provided as an instant download in the universal PDF format. It is therefore suitable for all computing platforms, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and Linux. Travel Writing Secrets is password-protected, but that's only a minor inconvenience. Once you have opened it, you can print out all or any of the pages as you wish.

Like all WCCL products, Travel Writing Secrets is beautifully produced, and it has clearly been professionally written and edited. The main manual (I'll get to the bonus items later) is a substantial 220 pages long. It takes you through pretty much everything you need to know to get started as a travel writer. The content is well organised and crammed with useful, practical information. For example, in chapter two alone you will discover the three things travel articles MUST do, the seven types of travel article, and five secrets for gathering information for your articles.

Travel Writing Secrets also covers interviewing techniques, outlining and writing skills, and how to pitch ideas to editors. And it has in-depth advice on marketing your work, with details of large numbers of potential markets, mainly in the US and the UK. The market info, which is largely in a separate 'bonus' guide, includes website details (with links to contributors' guidelines where available) and unpublicised email addresses to which you can submit your queries. This is invaluable information; and obviously as the guide has just been published, it is currently bang up to date.

If I was to make one very small criticism, it is that Travel Writing Secrets is strongly orientated towards selling travel articles to newspapers and magazines. Nothing wrong with that, but I might like to have seen a little more about selling your work to travel companies, for their brochures and so on. This is referred to as a possibility in the manual, but no more. I'd also like to have seen more details about how you can get yourself invited on free press trips to exotic destinations by travel companies and their PR agencies. Well, I can dream, can't I?!

As well as the main manual, you get a range of bonuses. These include the markets guide I have already mentioned, a guide to writing query letters (the best way to get commissions), and a set of 'templates' that take you step by step through writing three different types of travel article. The latter would be great for beginners who are still feeling their way, though later on you might prefer to dispense with them or adapt them to your personal style.

Another bonus is a guide to taking travel photographs that sell. Obviously, your chances of selling a travel article will be much better if you can offer photos as well, and this bonus manual is packed with hints and tips on how to do this. It's all good stuff, although rather surprisingly it doesn't include any actual photographs!

Overall, Travel Writing Secrets gets my recommendation as a comprehensive introduction to the exciting world of travel writing. Just about everything you need to know is here, written in a chatty, entertaining style, with real-life examples to back up the points made. If travel writing appeals to you, I'd recommend ordering a copy today. Your first commission should cover the modest sale price several times over.

BONUS! Readers of this blog seem to like my special bonuses, so I'm offering one for Travel Writing Secrets as well. I've been able to source a half-hour downloadable video that explains how you can make money from your digital photos, even if - like me - you're far from being an expert photographer. The video reveals a range of websites that will let you make money from ANY photo (with a few obvious exceptions), as well as setting out some ingenious strategies for putting your photographic skills to profitable use.

The video has been produced to a high standard by an Internet marketer called Dr. C, and I have had to pay a fee to get the rights to it. However, it seemed to me an excellent match with Travel Writing Secrets, as it sets out a range of extra ways you can profit from your travel photos (and any others you take).

I'm giving away the video to anyone buying Travel Writing Secrets via a link in this review. It will play on your computer in the free Windows Media Player, and also includes a text file with URLs for all the sites referred to in the video (and other useful links). To claim this extra bonus from me, just forward a copy of your email receipt showing the purchase of Travel Writing Secrets to travel-at-nickdaws.co.uk (change the -at- to the usual @ sign). I will then get back to you with instructions for downloading your extra bonuses. Of course, these are in addition to the usual bonuses being offered at the Travel Writing Secrets website.

Good luck, and happy travel writing!

Review: The Ultimate Copywriter

The Ultimate Copywriter is the latest in WCCL's range of products and courses for writers, which also includes my courses Write Any Book in Under 28 Days and Quick Cash Writing.

The Ultimate Copywriter is by professional copywriter Mel McIntyre, also known as Top Copy Guy. It is provided on CD-ROM in both PDF and audio (MP3) format. It is therefore suitable for all computing platforms, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

The first thing I noticed about The Ultimate Copywriter is that it is very well written. Some advertising copywriters I know seem unable to write in normal English, but that is evidently not the case with Mel McIntyre. The content is neatly set out, and (like all WCCL products) it has clearly been professionally designed and edited. The usual 24-hour customer support is available from WCCL's dedicated help site at www.myhelphub.com.

The main part of The Ultimate Copywriter is a substantial manual of over 180 pages. It is divided into eight sections, plus appendices. It begins by explaining what copywriting is, and how writers can break into this lucrative field. After that, it gets down to the nitty-gritty of how to write good advertising copy.

The manual covers various copywriting tasks. Three that are discussed in particular detail are writing copy for websites, writing a sales letter, and writing a press release. Other avenues such as article writing are also covered, though in less detail.

The advice in the guide is backed up with copious examples. Mel has written and/or edited advertising copy for WCCL, and I found it especially interesting to read his in-depth analysis of the website sales copy for their Write a Movie in a Month course. Mel shows how the '15-point sales letter formula' described in his guide was used to create and structure the web page in question. As this is one of WCCL's best-selling products, it certainly appears to have worked.

There are not one but two sections devoted to how to get work as a copywriter, and these will be of particular interest to new copywriters. I found Mel's advice - and the examples of how he got his first copywriting jobs - quite inspiring, and I will definitely be trying out some of these strategies myself. He also lists a number of websites that regularly advertise opportunities for copywriters, including several I was previously unaware of.

How does The Ultimate Copywriter compare with WCCL's other copywriting guide, Power Copywriting by Bob Serling, which I reviewed in this blog post a few months ago? The most obvious difference is that The Ultimate Copywriter is aimed four-square at writers who want to break into this field. Power Copywriting is good, but it has a different target readership. It is basically a tool for website owners and entrepreneurs who want to write their own copy. The Ultimate Copywriter also covers a wider range of copywriting tasks than Power Copywriting, which is basically all about creating website sales pages.

In fact, though, you don't have to choose between them, as if you buy The Ultimate Copywriter, for the launch period at least you will get Power Copywriting thrown in free, along with various other special bonuses. Considering that The Ultimate Copywriter is currently selling for almost the same price as Power Copywriting, this looks like a good deal to me.

Do I have any criticisms of The Ultimate Copywriter? To be honest, very few. It is a well written, comprehensive guide, and most aspects of freelance copywriting are covered. There is perhaps a slight bias towards online copywriting, but I guess this is understandable in a guide sold via the Internet! The online marketplace is of course huge and growing every day, but it might have been nice to see a bit more about the 'traditional' opportunities for copywriters that still exist, e.g. writing brochures, leaflets and newspaper ads.

Still, this is only a minor criticism. If you want a guide that will get you started in the exciting world of freelance copywriting, I highly recommend The Ultimate Copywriter, especially with the range of free bonus items currently on offer.

Review: The ABC Checklist for New Writers

I was kindly sent a review copy of this new book for writers by Lorraine Mace and Maureen Vincent-Northam, both of whom I know are readers of this blog. The book's full title is The ABC Checklist for New Writers - How to Open Doors and Get Noticed the First Time Around, and it is published by Orana Publishing Limited (2007). The book's ISBN is 978-0-9550751-7-9.


I'd better get one admission out of the way first. I have a certain prejudice against books such as this where the content is organised alphabetically (apart from dictionaries, of course!). The effect is almost inevitably that the book zig-zags from topic to topic, and is difficult to sit down and read from start to finish. And even looking up particular subjects isn't always as straightforward as you might wish, if the writers have chosen a different way to organise the material from what you expect.

Lorraine and Maureen have done their best to counter this problem by including a full list of contents at the start and plenty of cross-references throughout the book - so, for example, under the subject heading Cliches you will find the direction to 'see also Consistency, Dialogue, Final Checks, Originality and The X Factor' (don't worry, the latter is nothing to do with Simon Cowell's TV show!). Even so, incongruities do exist. I looked in vain for Copyright - one of the key topics that worries new writers - under 'C', only eventually to discover it as a sub-heading of the section 'Legal'. A conventional index at the back of the book would have helped.

With that reservation out of the way, however, I have to say that this book is very good indeed. It is beautifully produced in trade paperback format, very readably set out, and extremely well written and edited. The book includes lots of practical advice on topics that often puzzle new writers, including manuscript layout, agents, vanity publishers, writers' groups, research, multiple submissions, invoicing, and many more. The advice is concise but helpful, and at the end of each article there is a handy bullet-point summary.

To some extent the book also serves as a writer's style guide, and includes articles on setting out dialogue (which can be a minefield for new fiction writers), grammar, punctuation, spelling, and so on. Inevitably the book cannot go into great detail on these huge topics, but the advice given is sound enough, even though it may not always address the particular question you want answered!

It is interesting to compare this book with another title aimed at new writers, The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World by Linda Jones, which I reviewed recently in this post. The two books are quite different, but both are very good. Linda's book contains some great 'inside tips' based on her long experience as a freelance journalist and PR, and will probably do more to inspire you. On the other hand, The ABC Checklist for New Writers is a very good general reference book for new (and not-so-new) writers, and I suspect that buyers will refer to it more often from day to day. If I was a new writer, I would definitely want both of these titles on my bookshelf.

The ABC Checklist for Writers can be ordered from any bookshop or the Internet store Amazon.co.uk (see image above). It is aimed at UK writers, but much of the advice would be equally relevant to writers in other countries. At the end of the book, and out of alphabetical order, are short sections of useful addresses, awards and prizes (all UK and Ireland based), a glossary of writing terms, and resource lists of books, magazines and websites. Incidentally, the latter includes the excellent Writelink forum run by Sue Kendrick, but not my own forum at http://www.mywriterscircle.com/. I hope that Lorraine and Maureen will rectify this in the next edition!

Review: Power Copywriting

Power Copywriting is a new course just released by my publishers WCCL. It's written by top US copywriter Bob Serling, and is provided as an instant download in the standard PDF format.

Power Copywriting is 149 pages long. My first impression on opening it on my PC was that it was well written and neatly presented. However, this is the sort of manual you really do need to print out to get the most from. Fortunately WCCL have not built in any copyright-protection features that stop you doing this, so you can print all or any of the pages if you like.

Power Copywriting is primarily about writing website copy, though many of the principles set out would apply equally to other forms of copywriting, e.g. sales letters.

At the heart of the manual is Bob Serling's "32 Step Power Formula" for creating compelling website copy. In general I was highly impressed with this. I always like how-to guides that provide easy-to-understand, step-by-step instructions, and Bob certainly delivers here. One point that came across very clearly to me is that website copywriting is about much more than just sitting down and spinning out a few paragraphs of purple prose. Bob emphasises the importance of researching the product or service you are marketing in great depth. As he says, if you have all the facts about the product at your fingertips, actually writing the sales material becomes quite easy and straightforward.

Another point I gleaned from the manual is that successful copywriting is very much a two-way street with your client. Bob regards it as an important aspect of the copywriter's work to come up with a compelling offer that a customer simply can't say no to. That may mean getting back to your client and suggesting that he offers more and better bonuses, a beefed-up money-back guarantee, and so on. This is certainly something I can identify with from my own experience of copywriting. You must be prepared to liaise with your client to help him come up with the strongest possible offer (while still allowing him to turn a fair profit!).

After the (long) chapter devoted to explaining the 32-Step Formula, there is a Workshop section where Bob shows how he applied the formula in an actual copywriting assignment. He goes through all 32 steps in order, showing how he incorporated them in the finished sales copy (which is reproduced in the manual as well). This is very informative, and actually includes some additional advice and information that is well worth taking on board.

As an occasional copywriter myself, I picked up a lot of useful tips from this manual, and I'm sure my copywriting is going to improve massively as a result. There was just the odd thing I disagreed with, including Bob's recommendation to split long copy over a number of different web pages with a 'click to continue' button at the foot of each. In fact, in my experience this is seldom done on the web today, and I think for good reason - each time the prospect gets to the foot of a page he has to click to continue, and if he can't be bothered to do this, you have lost him. Personally I think it is better to keep your sales copy to a single page, even if it does end up quite a long one!

In addition to the main manual, buyers of Power Copywriting also get five bonus audio interviews in MP3 format, from copywriting gurus Joe Vitale, Marlon Sanders, Audri Lanford, Corey Rudl and Declan Dunn. I must admit I haven't listened to these yet, as the total file size is over 300MB, and even with my broadband connection Firefox tells me it will take over two hours to download! I definitely intend to do this, however, probably overnight, as these guys really are the creme-de-la-creme of Internet copywriters.

Finally, I should emphasise that Power Copywriting is all about writing web-based sales copy. If you want to know how to do this, whether for your own sites or on behalf of your clients, I recommend it highly. It's well written with lots of examples to support the points made, and would be suitable for beginners as well as people such as myself who have some knowledge of copywriting but realise they still have plenty to learn. One thing Power Copywriting doesn't do, however, is tell you how to set up your own copywriting business. Still, I understand that WCCL have a new course on that subject coming out next year!

Review: The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World

I was pleased to be invited recently to the book launch of The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World. This is the first published book by my near-neighbour Linda Jones.


Linda is a highly experienced newspaper journalist who now runs the PR and journalism agency Passionate Media. She is also a student of my Quick Cash Writing course, and kindly wrote in the acknowledgements section of this book, "Thanks to Nick Daws for inspiring a more 'rounded' writing career, when all I feared I was fit to write about was local news." Aw, shucks, Linda, it was nothing...

Anyway, I got my copy of the book at the launch (along with several plates of the very nice buffet). My first impressions were highly favourable. Unlike earlier books in the Greatest Tips series I have seen, The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the Worldis in small hardback form. It is beautifully designed and produced, even including a ribbon for use as a bookmark. Full marks to the publishers for making such an excellent job of a book that sells for just 6.99 UK pounds (around $14.00 US).

Of course, the main thing with any book is the content. As you might expect of a writer with Linda's pedigree, The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the Worldis exceptionally well written. The book is particularly strong on freelance journalism. As I do not have a journalistic background myself, I found these sections especially informative. The book really does make you feel that writing features for top newspapers and magazines is an attainable goal, and the advice on pitching an idea in particular is invaluable. This applies all the more so as Linda does this sucessfully herself every day - so she really does walk the walk as well as talking the talk.

Other sections of the book look at interview and research skills, writing for the Internet, and commercial writing (writing for business clients, in other words). Again, this is all stuff Linda does regularly herself in her day-to-day work. Her advice is based on years of experience, and it shows. Again, I made quite a few notes in these sections.

Of course, in a 160-page book not every aspect of freelance writing can be covered in depth. There is not much on fiction writing, book writing, or writing for the broadcast media, for example. However, if you are interested in freelance journalism and related areas - and these are often the best fields for new writers seeking to establish themselves as freelances - The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the Worldoffers essential guidance for (as noted above) a very modest price. It would also make a nice Christmas present for any would-be writer!

LATE ADDITION - If you visit this page of Linda Jones's blog, you can read more about the book launch and see a slightly scary picture of me engrossed in reading it!

Review: How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days

How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days is a downloadable guide by Internet marketing expert Jim Edwards and copywriting guru Joe Vitale (recently interviewed on WritersFM ).

This is one of the top-selling guides for would-be e-book authors, so I thought it was high time I got round to reviewing it. It is aimed mainly at people who want to make money by selling "how-to" type e-books on the Internet. As I can testify from my own experience, this is probably the biggest market for e-books right now, though the sales of fiction e-books (e-novels, if you like) are gradually increasing as well.

I had no problems ordering and downloading How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days from the sales site. Indeed, Jim and Joe have gone to great lengths to make this process painless, even for people who haven't bought this type of product before. I was impressed to receive an e-mail containing frequently asked questions about the downloading process as soon as I ordered. Of course, this probably helps reduce anguished emails to their helpdesk as well!

The manual itself is in the universal PDF format, and it is well written and attractively set out. I was also pleased to see that all the hyperlinks had been made active (not always the case in PDF e-books). It's an impressive 202 pages long, though this does include some of the advertised "bonus items".

As the name suggests, How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days takes you through every stage of devising, producing and selling an e-book. The authors talk at some length about finding a suitable niche in the market, and this section did remind me somewhat of the corresponding section in my Write Any Book in Under 28 Days course. It's all good stuff, though I didn't find any great surprises in it.

What impressed me more was the section where Jim and Joe analyze the ten reasons why people buy e-books. This makes fascinating reading, and as I went through, it started to give me ideas for new e-books I could write in the future.

At the heart of the guide is where the authors reveal their "7 Day" method for actually writing an e-book. It would be unfair to give away too much about this, but one thing I particularly like is the advice to write the sales page for your e-book first! That's a great idea, and will help you focus your mind on what your e-book needs to include to appeal to its target readership.

Day 7 of the "7 Day" method is when you publish your e-book. There is some excellent advice here, though if you are new to e-commerce, it may not be enough on its own to get your sales site up and running. But the basic advice on writing sales copy and structuring your website is sound, and links are included to other sites and resources that can help you with the practical aspects.

The bonus items include interviews with a number of successful e-book entrepreneurs, and these are all well worth reading - not only for the nuggets of advice they impart, but also to inspire you to try to emulate their success. There are also several short reports, including one which reveals how you can set yourself up to handle credit card payments with a single $50 payment. I don't suppose I'm giving away too much if I reveal that this is by selling your e-book via the popular Clickbank service.

How does How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days compare with The 24-Hour Ebook Writing System by Melanie Mendelson, which I reviewed a while ago in this post ? As you might expect, the two titles overlap somewhat. Both are very good, and I particularly like the way Melanie's guide incorporates free outlining and PDF-creating software. However, How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days contains a lot more advice about marketing your e-book, a topic which Melanie's guide barely touches.

As regular readers will know, if possible I like to throw in a bonus for purchasers of items I review on this blog (and like). With How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days, therefore, I'm giving away a copy of another manual titled "Getting Started With Clickbank". I didn't write this myself - it's by someone with a much greater knowledge of Clickbank publishing than I possess - but I liked it so much I bought the reproduction rights to it. If you're thinking of publishing your e-book with Clickbank - and you could do a lot worse - this guide will get you off to the best possible start.

To get this free gift from me, just order How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days via one of the links in this review, then forward your email receipt to me at bonus-at-nickdaws.co.uk (change the -at- to the usual @ sign). Put the words BONUS CLAIM in the subject line. Once I have verified your order, I will email details of how you can download your free bonus report.

Happy e-book writing!

Review: Self-Publish Worldwide

Self-Publish Worldwide is a brand new manual by Ruth Barringham, a successful author and self-publisher based in Australia.

The main guide comes as a PDF file. It comprises 72 pages of concise, no-fluff information for people who wish to self-publish their own book in hard copy format.

The manual is divided into three main sections. Part A is titled 'How to publish your book quickly'. This covers the main methods of preparing and publishing your book, including traditional self-publishing and POD (print on demand) methods. It discusses preparing your book in Microsoft Word, then converting it to PDF format. There is also a very informative section on creating your book's cover.

Part B covers methods of financing your self-published book. It is a fairly short section that sets out ways of raising extra cash from writing. As such, it doesn't have much to do with self-publishing, though Ruth does get extra points from me for mentioning my Quick Cash Writing course!

Part C is titled Making Your Book Available Worldwide - personally I found it the most useful and interesting part of the manual. It covers such matters as getting celebrity testimonials, getting your book into public libraries, how (and why) you should sell your book via Amazon.com, and much more. This is all invaluable information if you want to sell as many copies of your book as possible.

Apart from the manual itself, you get five free bonus items, again in PDF format. These are as follows:
Bonus 1 - How to Write & Where to Send a Press Release
Bonus 2 - Jargon Busting List
Bonus 3 - List of International Book Stores
Bonus 4 - International Book Club Addresses
Bonus 5 - Where & How to Have Your Book Reviewed

Overall, I thought Self-Publish Worldwide was a useful guide to getting your book published in print form, including some invaluable insights based on Ruth's own experiences. If you're thinking of using a POD publisher, for example, you should definitely read Ruth's analysis of the pros and cons of the leading companies in this field. The advice in this section alone is worth the price of the manual, and could save you from making an expensive mistake.

Do I have any criticisms? Well, I must admit I was a little disappointed to discover that the manual only covers self-publishing in hard copy form and not as an e-book. I appreciate that this was not Ruth's aim, but I had hoped that, as the manual was published using the popular Clickbank service, Ruth