Revise To Write

A trusted editor turns his attention to the most important part of writing: revision. So you’ve just finished writing something? Congratulations! Now revise it. Because revision is about getting from good to better, and it’s only finished when you decide to stop. But where to begin? In On Revision, William Germano shows authors how to take on the most critical stage of writing anything: rewriting it. For more than twenty years, thousands of writers have turned to Germano for his insider’s take on navigating the world of publishing. A professor, author, and veteran of the book industry, Germano knows what editors want and what writers need to know: Revising is not just correcting typos. Revising is about listening and seeing again. Revising is a rethinking of the principles from the ground up to understand why the writer is doing something, why they’re going somewhere, and why they’re taking the reader along with them. On Revision steps back to take in the big picture, showing authors how to hear their own writing voice and how to reread their work as if they didn’t write it. On Revision will show you how to know when your writing is actually done—and, until it is, what you need to do to get it there.

A helpful, engaging guide to the revision of scholarly writing by an editor and award-winning author "Pamela Haag has been called 'the tenure whisperer' for good reason. Any scholar who hopes to attract a wider audience of readers will benefit from the brilliant, step-by-step guidance shared here. It's pure gold for all aspiring nonfiction writers."--Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America Writing and revision are two different skills. Many scholar-writers have learned something about how to write, but fewer know how to read and revise their own writing, spot editorial issues, and transform a draft from passable to great. Drawing on before and after examples from more than a decade as a developmental editor of scholarly works, Pamela Haag tackles the most common challenges of scholarly writing. This book is packed with practical, user-friendly advice and is written with warmth, humor, sympathy, and flair. With an inspiring passion for natural language, Haag demonstrates how to reconcile clarity with intellectual complexity. Designed to be an in-the-trenches desktop reference, this indispensable resource can help scholars develop a productive self-editing habit, advise their graduate and other students on style, and, ultimately, get their work published and praised.

How to Blog a Book teaches you how to create a blog book with a well-honed and uniquely angled subject and targeted posts—and how to build the audience necessary to convince agents and publishers to make your blog into a book. Inside you'll find: Basic information on how to set up your blog and the essential plug-ins and other options necessary to get the most out of each post Steps for writing a book easily from scratch using blog posts Advice on how to write blog posts Tips on gaining visibility and promoting your work both online and off Tools for driving traffic to your blog Information on how to monetize an existing blog into a book or other types of products Profiles with authors who received blog-to-book deals Author Nina Amir explains how writing a book in cyberspace allows you to get your book written easily, while promoting it and building an author's platform. It's a fun, effective way to start writing, publishing, and promoting a book, one post at a time.

Originally published in 1961 by the founder of Rodale Inc., The Synonym Finder continues to be a practical reference tool for every home and office. This thesaurus contains more than 1 million synonyms, arranged alphabetically, with separate subdivisions for the different parts of speech and meanings of the same word.

The Story Behind THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE If you've read his books THE WAR OF ART and TURNING PRO, you know that for thirty years Steven Pressfield (GATES OF FIRE, THE AFGHAN CAMPAIGN etc.) wrote spec novel after spec novel before any publisher took him seriously. How did he finally break through? Ignoring just about every rule of commercial book publishing, Pressfield's "first" novel not only became a major bestseller (over 250,000 copies sold), it was adapted into a feature film directed by Robert Redford and starring Matt Damon, Will Smith, and Charlize Theron. Where did he get the idea? What magical something did THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE have that his previous manuscripts lacked? Why did Pressfield decide to write a novel when he already had a well established screenwriting career? How does writing a publishable novel really work? Taking a page from John Steinbeck's classic JOURNAL OF A NOVEL, Steven Pressfield offers answers for these and scores of other practical writing questions in THE AUTHENTIC SWING.

In the Depression year of 1931, on the golf links at Krewe Island off Savannah's windswept shore, two legends of the game—Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen—meet for a mesmerizing thirty-six-hole showdown. Another golfer will also compete—a troubled local war hero, once a champion, who comes with his mentor and caddie, the mysterious Bagger Vance. It is Vance, sage and charismatic, who will ultimately guide the match, for he holds the secret of the Authentic Swing. And he alone can show his protege the way back to glory. Written in the spirit of Golf in the Kingdom and The Natural, The Legend of Bagger Vance reveals the true nature of the game in a story that is unforgettable.

A Shepherd to Fools is the second of Drew Mendelson’s trilogy of Vietnam War novels that began with Song Ba To and will conclude with Poke the Dragon. Shepherd: It is the ragged end of the Vietnam war. With the debacle of a failing South Vietnamese invasion of Northern Laos as background, A Shepherd to Fools tells the harrowing tale of a covert Hatchet Team of US soldiers and Montagnard mercenaries. They are ordered to find and capture or kill a band of American deserters, called Longshadows, before the world learns of their paralyzing rebellion. An earlier attempt to capture them failed disastrously, the facts of it buried. Captain Hugh Englander commands the Hatchet Team. He is a humorless bastard, sneering and discourteous to every regular army soldier. He cares little for the welfare of his own men and nothing for the lives of the deserters. The conflict between him and Captain David Weisman, the artillery officer assigned to the mission for artillery support, threatens to tear the team apart. Deep in the Laotian jungle, the team is caught in a final, horrific battle facing an enemy armed with Sarin nerve gas, the “worst of the worst” of the war’s clandestine weapons.

Whether you choose the self-publishing route or a traditional publisher, good revision skills are essential for every writer. Publishers are looking for print-ready quality. They have little time or money to invest on editing. For the independent author, good revision skills are even more important when reviews for poor editing can kill book sales. But polishing your own work can be tricky. Revise to Write will help you analyze your manuscript on the macro and micro levels to get a thoroughly critical overview. There’s no point to proofreading a manuscript that has major structural flaws. Start with the basic building blocks to make sure your foundation is solid. The Nuts and Bolts section helps you analyze your structure, plot and characters. Then work down to a scene-by scene review of dialogue, point of view, description, pacing and more. In the Nitty Gritty section, refine your prose with thoughtful line edits and tips for effective proofreading. Includes checklists for each section, writing exercises to help you over trouble spots, resources for finding beta readers and other writing tools. "Jam-packed with great lessons and invaluable insight, Revise to Write is a resource you'll use time and again...It's truly a gem." ~Seattle Book Review