The Successful Writer's Handbook
Patricia Fry
Enjoyed the read
Highly recommended

"The Writing Life" offers information including how to establish self as a writer. Fry's advice to make a commitment and establish a routine are sound counsel for new writers who often find themselves writing catch as catch can.

Chapter 2 "Get Ready, Get Set, Write" leads reader in discussion on how to get Articles published and how to promote your book once it is written. Writing magazine articles is an excellent method for getting a little attention for your book since most times a bio will accompany the article. Self Publishing and making your book more salable are covered in Chapter 3 "Get Published Now". Fry gives tips on self publishing and making the completed book a more marketable product. "Marketing Tips" are covered in Chapter 4 as Fry points out what should be obvious… find out what is necessary to make the book salable. Chapter 5, "Communication 101" is filled with information on how to talk to people, and why writers need other writers, Fry stresses networking and belonging to writing organizations as important tools for writing wellbeing. Chapter 6 "The Business of Writing" discusses Web Sites and Bookkeeping, how to research and recession proof writing. The reader is guided into understanding the necessity for finding what works in each individual case. "Build your Writing Business" is discussed in Chapter 7 as Fry guides the reader toward how to establish goals and ways to meet them. Chapter 8 culminates with "Take Care of the Writer Within". Journal writing is discussed, and finds a receptive audience in this journal keeper.

Writer Patricia Fry has crafted an enormously helpful information packed work in her book "The Successful Writer's Handbook". Fry offers tips from her own long and successful life as a writer along with other words of wisdom gleaned from reading, fellow writers and many years of study into the matter. Her tips regarding the necessity for establishing a mindset as 'writer' are invaluable. Too often writers who work at home find themselves interrupted repeatedly by those who know they are at home and 'not working.' Writer Fry stresses the need for letting everyone know this is your 'work time' and you should not be interrupted anymore than you would be if you were out in the work world.

I found The Successful Writer's Handbook is a well written informative book filled with an abundance of excellent advice, facts and wisdom for the beginning and not so beginning writer. Writer Fry has a nice readable manner of writing as she sets down her tips for the reader. Fry offers concrete examples of how to promote successfully once the book you are writing has become a tangible reality. Too often writers isolate themselves in their writing and forget that once the book is written it must be gotten in the hands of readers if writers are to reap benefits from their work.

"The Successful Writer's Handbook" is one I will keep in my own library.