The Author's Toolkit: A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing and Publishing Your Book

by Mary Embree, Allowrth Press

A seasoned writer and editor walks readers through the process of writing and publishing a book, from nurturing the seed of an initial idea through the complexities of distribution. Original.

Genres: Writing, Reference, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

Reviews

[G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some useful info, but needs a trigger warning

Some of the info in this book is quite basic, such as how to conduct research. But I did learn some new things that will be useful. A note to the author - it is never OK to use the full n-word by a non-black person. Never. It is universally acknowledged. Your point could have been made without using such harmful and triggering language. Please remove it in the future. It is not worth harming the minority to make a point to the privileged majority.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite being published in 2015, much of the advice felt dated for the modern writer. Something the book did well was referring the reader for more information on topics the author doesn’t cover in depth. However, many of these referrals are for books written by Tad Crawford, the founder of Allworth Press, which published this book, which is a potential conflict of interest.

[Sarah Boonstra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having never actually written a book, this was a helpful introduction. This isn't a nitty gritty of book writing, but a simple overview of all the processes involved. It was very outdated and glazed over some topics that could have been covered in more detail.

[Amanda Woolard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is for people who have never tried to write. Much of it includes common-sense information. The only part I found helpful was the in-depth information on publication, which included both traditional and self.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction into the book writing industry…

Great introduction into the book writing / publishing industry…. I definitely found pertinent information to research further on publishing and writing.

[Stacy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a slight book that claims it is “a step-by-step guide to writing a book”, however if that is what you are looking for then this is not the book for you. This is a book for someone who have zero knowledge of how a book gets published. This is not a book to help you through the process of writing a book. The second chapter on Researching is full of obvious suggestions like; use the internet, libraries, encyclopedias, almanacs, magazines, dictionaries, etc. So, if you do not realize that the internet is there to help you, this is the book for you.

I could go on about some of the nuggets of wisdom contained in this book (“write from the heart” “show don’t tell” or on letters to publishers “the print should be sharp and dark enough to read easily”), but I won’t. The only chapter I found of any interest was Chapter 6 about Copyrights. Also, I see that there is a revised edition that has 60 more pages. I cannot say that I have any hope these extra pages will be helpful, but it’s possible. Since I have nothing else to add except more complaints I think I’ll stop here. If you are serious about writing and publishing a book, read Stephen King’s On Writing or even Walter Mosely’s This Year You Write Your Novel.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't think the process of writing a book and seeking publication could have changed that much since this was published. Maybe it hasn't--maybe this book was just never that great to begin with.
It's sorely outdated and shows its age, ranging from talking about how to use a card catalog in the library for research (my childhood library did away with their card catalog around 1995-1996, four or five years before this book was published) to self-publishing digital books on floppy disks. In 2000, my computer didn't even have a floppy drive.

Anyone who has spent 15 minutes online reading about what to do before sending query letters already knows everything this book has to say. The actual process of writing a book isn't even touched on, so the part of the title that says it's a "step-by-step guide to writing a book" leaves me baffled.

I did not learn a single thing from this book, but some of the quotes at chapter headings were nice.

[Tabatha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this book may be out of date, it was an alright read and got me a little further to being able to publish my books to come. One think that irked me about this was the constant change of he/she throughout the book. It was not written well in that aspect.

[Kate Matson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this nonfiction book. It's loaded with info on everything about how to write a book. It even talks about the query letter and publishing. This is a definite read for the future authors.