MBR: The Writing/Publishing Shelf

[Midwest Book Review]

The Writing/Publishing Shelf

The Writing Game
W. A. Harbinson
BookSurge Publishing
1419644378 $19.99 www.waharbinson.eu.com www.booksurge.com
1-886-308-6235

W. A. Harbinson's "The Writing Game: Recollections Of An Occasional
Bestselling Author" isn't simply another instruction manual on how to
write better or how to get published. It is instead, a candid
autobiographical account of being a professional writer with more than
thirty years of experience at making a living in the highly competitive
and volatile publishing industry. That experience includes the writing
of more than fifty novels, as well as a wealth of short stories,
magazine articles, screenplay adaptations, and radio plays. This is a
graphic and detailed account of living a life and pursuing a career
fraught with the possibilities of artistic and financial failure.
Enhanced with superbly articulated accounts of his dealings with
editors, other authors, and showbusiness celebrities, "The Writing
Game" is as entertaining as it is engaging, and a 'must read' memoir
for anyone who contemplates embarking upon a professional writing
career for themselves.

Cite It Right
Julia Johns & Sarah Silvia
Source Aid
1284 A Main Street, Osterville, MA 02655
0977195708 $26.99 www.sourceaid.com

Now in an updated second edition, Cite It Right: The Source Aid Guide
to Citation, Research, and Avoiding Plagiarism is a guide written
especially for students and researchers. Cite It Right spells out
exactly how to give credit where credit is due in circles where being
"by the book" in one's references and citations is absolutely critical
to earning good grades, furthering one's career, creating a
professional-quality paper, and avoiding even the slightest possibility
of unintentional plagiarism. Chapters briefly refresh the reader about
the basics of researching and writing papers, but the four main
chapters of Cite It Right are particularly devoted to the express
guidelines required by four different professional organizations: the
Modern Language Association, the American Psychological Association,
Chicago Manual of Style, and Council of Science Editors. Though not
sponsored or endorsed by any of these groups, Cite It Right
meticulously spells out each group's precise format guidelines,
including their individual terminologies, specific examples, and the
format expected for different types of citations. A "must-have" for
anyone preparing a scholarly work, especially if for one of these big
four writing styles.

Wabi Sabi for Writers
Richard R. Powell
Adams Media Corporation
57 Littlefield Street, 2nd floor, Avon, MA 02322
1593375964 $12.95 www.adamsmedia.com 1-800-872-5627

Wabi Sabi for Writers is a philosophical source of inspiration for
intermediate to advanced writers. Author Richard Powell, who studied at
the Kootenay School of Writing under such acclaimed authors as Margaret
Atwood and David McFadden, Wabi Sabi for Writers emphasizes that while
perfection is great to strive for, the struggle to create flawless
beauty is in essence a false idea in an imperfect universe - absolute
"perfection" is impossible, yet imperfection contains within its own
sense of timeless beauty. Written in a soothing style of narrative
flow, Wabi Sabi for Writers applies ancient Japanese aesthetic to
modern practical principles and suggestions, and is filled cover to
cover with tips, tricks, and techniques for improving one's writing
production rate. From the value of personally experiencing and
connecting with nature, to applying the concept of "yugen" in hinting
at depths below the surface and engaging the conscious mind to puzzle
over the unseen, Wabi Sabi for Writers is an invaluable and
inspirational tool for promoting personal fulfillment as well as
improved quality in one's writing.

Rewriting
Joseph Harris
Utah State University
7800 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-7800
0874216427 $19.95 www.usu.edu/uspress

Written by Duke University Writing Program director Joseph Harris,
Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts is a guide written especially
for college students and professionals seeking to refine their academic
writing technique. Leaning away from the static ideas of thesis,
support and structure and toward a more naturally flowing and dynamic
writing style, Rewriting challenges the reader to think of writing an
adaptive, social activity and shape one's written intellectual opinions
and discussions accordingly. Presented strategies for coaxing a more
persuasive and intuitive tone into one's logical academic written
arguments include forwarding (taking words, images, or ideas from text
and putting them to use in new contexts), countering (suggesting
different ways of thinking rather than simple nullification of a given
ideal), and much more. Recommended for intermediate to advanced
academic writers for its solid recommendations to make prose more
readable, immersive, thought-provoking and natural-sounding.

Your Guide to Marketing Books in the Christian Marketplace
Sarah Bolme
Crest Publications
PO Box 481022, Charlotte, NC 28269
0972554653 $17.99 www.marketingchristianbooks.com

Written by Sarah Bolme, the co-founder and director of Christian Small
Publishers Association, Your Guide to Marketing Books in the Christian
Marketplace is a straightforward guide for publishers, self-publishers
and authors seeking to promote quality books specifically among
Christians. Chapters discuss basic steps such as securing distribution
and garnering book reviews, how to connect with Christian retail stores
and churches, harnessing the power of the Internet, reaching out to
special markets such as the Christian homeschool market, eBooks, and
markets for Spanish-language Christian books, and much more. Contact
information and URLs for stores and websites enhances this
experience-tested, high-quality "how to" guide. An absolute "must-have"
for anyone involved in marketing Christian books, though the general
tips, tricks, and techniques will prove useful for marketing mainstream
books as well.

The Well-Fed Self-Publisher
Peter Bowerman
Fanlove Publishing
3713 Stonewall Circle, Atlanta, GA 30339
0967059860 $19.95

Award-winning author and self-publishing expert Peter Bowerman explains
how to do-it-yourself publish and earn a solid living in The Well-Fed
Self-Publisher, a how-to guide that especially focuses upon the steps
of the process and how to maximize profits. Self-publishing can
potentially be much more lucrative than landing a publisher, since
publishers all too frequently come with meager royalty rates, a typical
18-24 month wait to publication, the loss of book rights, and minimal
or nonexistent help with marketing. The Well-Fed Self-Publisher covers
how to develop a "marketing mindset", find reviewers willing to spread
book publicity, get in the big bookstore chains, build a
cash-generating website, minimize dependence on the unreliable
mainstream media, filter through the print-on-demand hype, and much
more. A "must-have" for anyone considering self-publishing as a career.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to
promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. We
accept no funds from authors or publishers in order to avoid possible
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"California Bookwatch", "Internet Bookwatch", "Children's Bookwatch",
"MBR Bookwatch", "Reviewer's Bookwatch", and "Small Press Bookwatch".
All of these publications are archived and available for free on the
Midwest Book Review website at http://www.midwestbookreview.com

Anyone wanting to submit books for review consideration can send them
to:

James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129

To submit reviews of any fiction or non-fiction books, email them to
Fruga...@aol.com (Be sure to include the book title, author,
publisher, publisher address, publisher website/phone number, 10-digit
ISBN number, and list price).

James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com