Trial and Error: A Key to the Secret of Writing and Selling

by Jack Woodford, Arnold Gingrich (Introduction)

(LARGE PRINT EDITION) This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

Genres: Writing

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1933

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this years ago. Not sure when. It was written in 1933 so it's dated in some ways, particularly in its discussion of writing and selling to magazine markets, which existed in a very different world then. However, much of the advice is pretty timeless. I remember, though, that I was somewhat put off by the overtly mercenary aspects of the book. This was exactly what the book advertised and what the title suggested would be there, so this is my issue, not anything to do with the book being misleading.

[William King · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to agree with the reviewer below who said this is the best book about how to write fiction ever written and I speak from experience. Before I read this book I had never completed a novel. I have since sold 24 of them and mostly by following Woodford's advice.

Woodford was a working writer in the era of the pulps and astoundingly most of his advice has not dated one little bit. This is a dark, cynical and very funny book by a man who knew how to write and how to sell. The chapters on how to write a novel have never been bettered in my opinion.

I would just like to point out I have no connection with the Woodford estate :). Both Ray Bradbury and Jerry Pournelle have said similar things about Woodford.

[Bhakta Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack Woodford was never a great fiction writer, but he excelled in teaching others how to create plots and write fiction. If you ever wanted to write fiction but couldn't figure out how to begin, this is the book that will show you. I wish this book was taught in high school English classes. It is that good.

This book will not make you a great fiction writer, but it will make you a fiction writer. Getting to be a good one will be your own problem.

[Xenophon Hendrix · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book about how to write fiction that I've read. Most such books leave me feeling more helpless upon finishing them than I did before starting them. This one doesn't. It is also very funny. It will be entertaining to someone who has no intention of ever trying to write fiction.

[Mike]

A deeply cynical, extremely dated predecessor to Chris Fox's Write to Market. As far as I got, the advice was basically "write crap, but write the crap that people expect; they're too dumb to recognise quality anyway".

I started out finding the writing voice at least amusing, but the cynicism slowly turned me off it.