How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead

January 1, 2007
The best thing about this writers' guide is that it doesn't sound like any other writers' guide. Gore tells you to do a lot of things that other authors say are either wrong or irrelevant. Sure, you can waste time making yourself a lovely little space to write in, but how's that going to get your name on a published book? What you need to do, Gore says, is just be a writer. If you have a story to tell, tell it, and once you've told it, promote the hell out of it. Publish it yourself, if you have to, and then sell it. Check the local papers, find a spoken-word open-mike night, and go read your material in front of an audience. Send out press releases; publish your own magazine. And, most important, learn real fast that nobody out there will give a damn about what you have got to say until you make them pay attention to you. One of the snappiest, most useful books a writer for hire is likely to read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)