How to Write a Novel that Will Sell Well and Satisfy Your Inner Artist by Harry Bingham

Picture a Venn diagram with two overlapping circles. One circle is what I like to write. The other is what readers want to read. The area of overlap is the sweet spot. A writer who is always writing in that zone will have commercial success (to some degree) and will be able to sustain a long career without burning out.

HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL THAT WILL SELL WELL AND SATISFY YOUR INNER ARTIST is meant to help writers find that sweet spot and stay there. Bingham is the author of popular thrillers. He’s also the founder of Jericho Writers, a company that offers editing services and author mentoring. In that capacity, he’s seen tons of manuscripts and met plenty of writers, and he’s formed strong opinions about what makes a marketable novel and how writers can best write one.

To that end, Bingham offers a comprehensive guide meant to take authors from pre-planning through finished manuscript. He starts with the concept. Bingham gives some tough love here, explaining why weak ideas won’t become strong novels. He encourages clear-sighted honesty, intense market study, and a love of contemporary fiction. Too many authors rely on books twenty or more years old as role models, forgetting that their competition is writing for today’s market. Bingham spends a lot of time on this, because it’s the foundation of everything that comes after.

The rest of the book takes the author through the steps to create a complete novel, covering character, plot, prose style, and theme. At every stage, Bingham encourages authors to be meticulous, making deliberate choices about everything on the page. This approach will work well for plotters, although it might strike discovery writers as too rigid.

Bingham reminds authors that they are competing in a tough market, and “good enough” is never good enough. He wants authors to strive for excellence in every aspect of their craft. He quotes passages from contemporary fiction, both literary and genre, and explains why these passages work so well. These breakdowns are great for those of us who learn best from examples, rather than theory, and the passages perfectly illustrate his points.

Bingham has an energetic style and considerable wit, although he name-drops his author services company way too often. There were times that I felt like I was reading an infomercial for Jericho Writers instead of a how-to book. But I was willing to overlook the salesmanship because the rest of the book was so good. HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL THAT WILL SELL WELL AND SATISFY YOUR INNER ARTIST is an excellent guide for those who want to level up their craft and sell more books without selling out.

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HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL THAT WILL SELL WELL AND SATISFY YOUR INNER ARTIST can be found here

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Rating: 4 stars

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This book is best for: intermediate writers

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I recommend this book

Free Your Inner Nonfiction Writer by Johanna Rothman

FREE YOUR INNER NONFICTION WRITER is for people who are subject experts but aren’t experienced writers. Many people have valuable knowledge but have no idea how to get that knowledge onto the page. They don’t know where to begin, or how long a piece will take to write, or how to organize their work. Rothman takes these brand-new writers by the hand with a guide full of wisdom, empathy, and truth.

It starts with unlearning much of what we learned in school. We were all taught to research first, then outline, write, and finally revise. We were never supposed to go back to a previous step, stop and think, or spend time exploring a subject. But that’s not how real writing happens. Often, it’s by the act of writing itself that we figure out the best way to approach our topic. Rothman encourages writers to “cycle,” or to write a bit, figure out what they want to say, write some more, and repeat, gaining clarity with each cycle. This is the way most people naturally write, but too many of us still cling to the myth that writing must be done in linear steps, scared that writing any other way is wrong.

Rothman then takes writers through the steps to a finished article, blog post, or book chapter, including the idea phase, the writing itself, and the editing. She emphasizes that editing is not meant to make a piece “perfect.” It’s only meant to make it more accessible to your ideal reader. The most important thing is that the reader understands what you wrote. Keeping that gold standard in mind makes editing a much more straightforward task. FREE YOUR INNER NONFICTION WRITER ends with advice on getting feedback, publishing, and maintaining good work habits so the writer can do it all again.

Too many people say they will write “someday.” They push it off because it seems too complicated. Or worse, they’ve had it scared out of them, and they’re afraid to try writing, either because of impostor syndrome or fear of being judged. FREE YOUR INNER NONFICTION WRITER is a wonderful, gentle guide, that will hopefully bring “someday” one day closer for anyone who wants to write.

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FREE YOUR INNER NONFICTION WRITER can be found here

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Rating: 4 stars

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This book is best for: beginning writers

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I recommend this book

How to Write Black Characters by the editors at Salt & Sage Books

The editors at Salt & Sage books work as sensitivity readers, and in the course of their work, they kept seeing the same problems over and over. Rather than repeating themselves to individual authors, they wrote HOW TO WRITE BLACK CHARACTERS as an introduction to the topic. It’s meant as a broad overview, to help catch the most common errors, helping readers eliminate negative stereotypes and harmful tropes.

The chapters cover stereotypes, hair, language, (including an introduction to AAVE and code-switching), family, anti-Blackness, and religion. There are also chapters on Blackness in Britain and Africa, although the bulk of the book is addressing North American writers.

In the case of stereotypes, the authors explain where a stereotype came from, why it’s so harmful, examples they’ve seen, and—crucially—how to do better. Sometimes, erasing one stereotype can make an author fall into another. One example that the authors use is when you don’t want to write an “angry black woman” character, so you make her too passive and eager to please those around her, as if her emotional labor isn’t important or she’s not worthy of emotions of her own. The key is to make your character well-rounded. To help readers understand her anger and her other emotions, and why she’s worthy of having them.

I’m not Black, but some of my characters are. We live in a beautifully multicultural society, and it’s important that fiction reflect that. I learned a ton from this book, and I loved the way it went beyond the basics to the more subtle nuances. I’m grateful to the editors at Salt & Sage, who put a lot of their own lived experience on the page so that others could learn.

HOW TO WRITE BLACK CHARACTERS is a short book, but it includes a lot of resources for further reading. It underscores the theme: the author must do the work. This book is an invitation, the beginning of a conversation that should continue through other sources and by talking to members of the community you want to write about.

HOW TO WRITE BLACK CHARACTERS is not meant to substitute for a good sensitivity reader. There isn’t a checklist that a non-Black author can go by, and even if there were, checking the “not offensive” box isn’t enough when writing real characters. The authors warn readers right up front that this is an incomplete guide, blackness is not a monolith, and this guide should never be the sum of an author’s research.

But it’s an excellent place to start.

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HOW TO WRITE BLACK CHARACTERS can be found here

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Rating: 4 stars

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This book is best for: all writers

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I recommend this book

The Relaxed Author by Joanna Penn and Mark Leslie Lefebvre

There are two truths that self-published authors have taken as holy writ: there is no better marketing than writing a new book, and books are only “new” for thirty days. In the first month of a book’s life, Amazon and the other retailers will help out quite a bit with behind-the-scenes marketing. After that, you’re on your own.

If both of those things are true, then it stands to reason that the best way to succeed in self publishing is to write a new book every single month. Lots of indie authors tried it, either on their own or as a conglomerate of four to six authors publishing under a single pen name. And to no one’s surprise, many of these authors have burned out.

Even if an author isn’t writing a book a month, trying to wear both the writer hat and publisher hat can be exhausting if the writer is trying to get maximum results from both jobs. Something’s got to give. But what should that something be?

THE RELAXED AUTHOR is part manifesto, part wise guide, and part evaluation tool. Writers don’t have to do it all, and Penn and Lefebvre are here to help sort out what’s truly useful for indie authors and what’s mere hype.

THE RELAXED AUTHOR is divided into four sections: writing, publishing, marketing, and running your author business. Each step of the way, the authors ask the right questions to help writers decide how to spend their time and effort. Being a “relaxed author” doesn’t mean doing things half-assed. It doesn’t mean you should stop caring about things. Being relaxed means going at the speed that’s right for you, and making good decisions that will provide a solid foundation for your writing life.

Penn and Lefebvre take turns writing the chapters, giving two perspectives on every problem. All of the advice is solid, and where Penn and Lefebvre have differing opinions, the reasons behind those opinions is also instructive. For example, Penn uses virtual assistants while Lefebvre finds them more trouble than they’re worth. Neither one is right or wrong. They are simply doing what’s best for them. That’s the final key. To be a relaxed author is to be self-aware, and THE RELAXED AUTHOR helps writers think through every aspect of their writing and publishing life.

Stressed out writers don’t write well. Staying relaxed can, ironically, help an author stay more creative and productive for the long haul—both as an author and as a self-publisher.

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THE RELAXED AUTHOR can be found here. 

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Rating: 4 stars

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This book is best for: intermediate writers

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I recommend this book

The Write Balance by Bonni Goldberg

THE WRITE BALANCE isn’t a book about how to write. What I mean by that is, it’s not a book about craft issues like plot, character, description, pacing, or dialogue. But it is a book about the writing process. Goldberg ignores the most obvious part of the process—the first draft. There are hundreds of books out there that will teach writers how to write a first draft faster, cleaner, in thirty days, or ninety days, or a year, with or without an outline. Goldberg leaves that to other books.

Instead, she shines a bright light into other, darker corners of the writing process—those that aren’t taught much and often not even mentioned in books and classes. THE WRITE BALANCE is divided into three parts. The first is about percolation, that pre-writing period where ideas are generated. The second is about revision, including on your own and with a critique group. The final part is about going public, which can mean publication, but doesn’t necessarily have to.

Too many writers focus on daily word count, as if that’s the only metric that matters. However, Goldberg devotes fully a third of THE WRITE BALANCE to what she calls percolation. She recognizes that writers are humans, not machines, and that we need quiet thinking time as much as we need butt-in-chair time. However, she doesn’t advocate for mindless woolgathering. Goldberg offers exercises to do and a reasonable timeframe in which to do them.

The middle part of the book is about revision—another thing that gets scant attention in most how-to books. Goldberg discusses the ins and outs of critique groups and beta readers, while constantly reminding writers that their intuition will guide them well if they listen to it.

Finally, Goldberg discusses going public, although her focus is not on rushing immediately to publication. Instead, she talks about taking your time, finding the right publication path, and finding other ways to share stories, whether that is through public readings, open mics, or blogging. Publication can (and should) be in that mix, but there are lots of ways to share what we write.

Throughout, Goldberg shares lessons steeped in empathy. Everything is seen through the lens of how it will nurture or hurt writers. But this isn’t a touchy-feely book full of woo. It’s an extremely practical guide to the areas of a writer’s life that are so often overlooked. Some of us don’t even have words for what we’re doing when we’re percolating. Instead, we call ourselves “lazy” or “procrastinators,” instead of honoring the idea phase of writing.

THE WRITE BALANCE was so insightful, I sometimes felt like Goldberg was sitting in my home office with me. More than once, I whispered to my kindle, “How does she know?” But Goldberg doesn’t see through walls. She’s simply tapped into the universal struggles that all writers share, and she shows us how to make it through all the phases of writing, from first idea to publication.

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THE WRITE BALANCE can be found here

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Rating: 4 stars

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This book is best for: intermediate writers

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I recommend this book

Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch

I used to worry about the state of the English language every time I used social media. Faced with a wall of misspellings, incorrect grammar, and wild punctuation, I despaired for my mother tongue. I sometimes reminded myself that until the digital age, public writing was something that professionals did, and we never read printed words from an average person. Perhaps most writing was always terrible, it’s just that we didn’t see most of it. Other times, I worried that nobody cared about the “rules” of writing and we were all doomed to a slow slide into illiteracy.

BECAUSE INTERNET showed me that my assumptions were wrong on all counts. It’s not that people are using English incorrectly, it’s that they’re adapting language to their needs. Until recently, we had formal writing and informal speech.  For example, you’d start a letter to your grandma with “Dear Grandmother,” but when you saw her in person, you’d say, “Hi, Gran!” However, with the rise of social media, for the first time, we have informal writing.

Internet language isn’t incorrect, and it doesn’t signal the end of good grammar. It’s simply a way of expressing the informality of speech in a written format. Nor should we worry about young people being unduly influenced by it. McCulloch sites studies that show that students can easily code-switch into formal writing when required for tests or papers.

BECAUSE INTERNET takes a deep dive into internet language, starting with its history. McCulloch explains why different generations use language differently on the internet. Users are roughly divided by age, but more importantly, by when they first got online. Like all good linguists, McCulloch is descriptive rather than prescriptive, explaining why and how language is changing without ever judging people for it.

Because when it comes right down to it, the way that we write when we’re online makes sense. When we’re face to face, we communicate so much in body language, tone, and facial expressions. Written words don’t express tone of voice, so we sometimes use uppercase for emphasis, or add asterisks or tildes. We use /s to indicate that this is sarcasm or a joke, but we use a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters to indicate mockery. We misspell on purpose for humor or to pull out a word, as in, “I allllmost forgot my phone,” or the Tumblr favorite, “sameeee” to indicate absolute agreement.

And when words aren’t enough, we use GIFs to show a facial expression, or turn to emojis. McCulloch gives a detailed explanation of the history and purpose of emojis. They aren’t taking the place of body language, since body language is unconscious. Emojis are deliberate, and therefore represent gestures, such as a thumbs up or a shrug. McCulloch details how and why emojis are used and by whom. (I laughed the first time my mom sent me an emoji. It looked strange because most senior citizens don’t use them.)  

BECAUSE INTERNET is not written in an academic tone. It’s easy to read, sharp, insightful, and quite funny in parts. It gave me new appreciation for the way that language is changing right before our eyes, with the birth of new grammar for the digital age.

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BECAUSE INTERNET can be found here

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Rating: 4 stars

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This book is best for: all writers

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I recommend this book

Firefly Magic by Lauren Sapala

Marketing isn’t something that comes naturally to writers. In fact, many of us are put off by the idea. Some of that is fear of rejection or fear of wasting time and money. But most of it is because the traditional methods of selling just don’t mesh with our personalities. We think of book marketing as something extroverts do, or people who are shameless about tricking buyers, or writers who treat their books like commodities. At the very least, we think successful marketers have an unhealthy obsession with money and sales, and their art suffers for it.

FIREFLY MAGIC upends all of those assumptions about marketing. Sapala shows writers how to sell their books in an authentic way, from a place of integrity and confidence. By thinking of our books as our service to the world, we can sell books without selling out.

Sapala is a student of the Meyers-Briggs personality matrix, and she makes it clear she’s speaking to “INFJ” writers. However, you don’t need to be one of those, or even know what the letters stand for, to benefit from FIREFLY MAGIC. Sapala is speaking to introverted and highly-sensitive people, which means she’s speaking to the vast majority of writers.

Unlike other marketing books that say “do this and get rich,” Sapala understands what’s going on inside writers. She feels those feelings and knows exactly why writers are resistant to marketing. If something feels inauthentic or sleazy or uncomfortable, we won’t do it.

But here’s the interesting thing. The middle section of FIREFLY MAGIC lists the things that writers must do to be successful, and they are the very same things that other books tell us to do: get a website, use social media, have a newsletter, find your niche, lead with your unique selling point, and most of all, keep making more content. So if Sapala is telling writers to do the same thing as other marketing books, why is her book so much better? That small mindset shift—from selling to serving—makes all the difference. Other marketing books feel like sitting on a cactus, while FIREFLY MAGIC feels like stepping onto fluffy clouds. Believe it or not, Sapala can make you feel excited about marketing.

FIREFLY MAGIC is very much a “why to” rather than a “how to,” so it’s more of a companion book rather than a complete one. You’ll need other marketing books to learn the actual nuts-and-bolts of how to do it. But reading FIREFLY MAGIC first means you’ll actually be able to absorb the lessons of the other books, making sure you start your marketing efforts on the right foot and maintain them for the long haul.

FIREFLY MAGIC can be found here

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Rating: 4 stars

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This book is best for: advanced writers

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I recommend this book

The Writer’s Roadmap by Leigh Shulman

It seems so simple: make a goal, break it down into steps, and follow the steps. That’s been said in hundreds of books. Shulman says that too, but THE WRITER’S ROADMAP is specifically geared toward writers—especially writers who are trying to leave their day jobs to write full time. And Shulman adds a few extra steps and refinements that made me see this timeworn advice in a new light.

The problem is that many authors put “write a book” at the bottom of a long to-do list and wonder why it never gets done. We’re all working as hard as we can every day, but Shulman reminds us that working harder won’t get you anywhere if you’re working on the wrong thing. To keep writers on track, Shulman uses the acronym OGSM (which I kept reading as “orgasm” because I am twelve). It stands for Objective, Goals, Strategies, and Measures.

Most how-to books start with goals. It seems like a natural place to start. Goals are what we’re working toward, right? But Shulman goes one level higher. What’s the overall objective? What ties your many goals together? What gives your life purpose? It’s almost like you’re writing a mission statement for yourself and your writing.

Only after the overall objective is super clear should you turn to your goals. Goals give you focus and help you find opportunities. THE WRITER’S ROADMAP is full of questions and worksheets to help writers clarify their goals and put them in order.

Strategies are the specific steps taken. These change the most. Many of us get stuck at this step because we think we need to know exactly how to accomplish our goals. But Shulman reminds us that of all the things in an OGSM, the strategies are the most flexible. We learn as we go, and it’s perfectly okay to refine your strategies.

Measures are important too. You either do the thing or you don’t do the thing. You need to keep track so you know for sure that you’ve done the thing. Numbers don’t lie. Shulman also includes short, snappy sidebars about setting boundaries and dealing with money. I really appreciate those because don’t we all struggle with those two issues? But having them as small sidebars feels insufficient when they really need whole chapters.

I think we’re all re-evaluating our goals in 2022. The last two years have been extremely hard, and we’re all looking at our writing goals in new ways. Some writers have scaled back. Some have taken on projects outside their usual genres. Some are exploring new revenue streams. But I don’t know a single writer whose objectives and goals have stayed the same since 2019. THE WRITER’S ROADMAP is a refreshing look at an old topic, and a perfect way to start the new year.

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THE WRITER’S ROADMAP can be found here

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Rating: 4 stars

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This book is best for: beginning authors

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I recommend this book

Trough of Hell by H.R. d’Costa

Most authors are fired up to write the beginning of their novels. They know how the story starts and are eager to get going on the wonderful story they want to tell. Many authors have an easy time with the ending as well, feeling like they’re coasting downhill to the climax. Then there’s the middle. Somehow, blank pages in the middle of a story are the worst kind of blank pages.

D’Costa specializes in taking a deep dive into one aspect of story, breaking down the story beats into their smallest possible units. TROUGH OF HELL zeroes in on that section about 75% of the way through the story, when things are as bad as they can get.

This is the all-is-lost moment, when the heroine is at her lowest point emotionally. Paradoxically, she’s also the closest to achieving her true goal—perhaps not the one she wants, but the one she needs. But in order to get there, she has to reach rock bottom. Only then, when she’s at her most vulnerable, can she face the truth about herself and change for the better.

D’Costa gets very specific here, showing readers all the ways they can hurt their heroes, and how to evoke true emotions by tailoring them to the story. She gives consideration to different genres, since this story beat plays out differently in comedies and serious stories. She also shows how to use minor characters to make the all-is-lost even more resonant. She wraps it up by discussing ways to avoid cliches, keep the pace from dragging, and make the all-is-lost moment deeper and more meaningful.

D’Costa is a screenwriter, so all the examples are from movies, some of them stretching back to the 1990s. But she never discusses obscure or arty films. All of the examples are from well-known movies, and D’Costa gives enough explanation so you can follow along even if you’ve never seen the film in question. The all-is-lost moment is a vital story beat in both novels and screenplays, with the same emotional job to do, so this concept applies to novels too.

The trough of hell is one of the least fun parts of a novel to write. It’s the moment when we have to be very mean to our imaginary friends. But with a guide like TROUGH OF HELL, writing that section of a novel will be easier, and the author will have the satisfaction of knowing that the terrible trouble she put her heroes in was all worth it.

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TROUGH OF HELL can be found here

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Rating: 4 stars

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This book is best for: beginning writers

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I recommend this book

How to Market a Book by Ricardo Fayet

When people find out that I publish myself, they almost always ask the same question. “How do you market your books?” I tell them that I market my books the same way large publishers do, since nowadays, indie authors have access to almost all the same tools and sales channels the bigger publishers do. That’s usually a satisfactory answer for readers.

Fellow writers, on the other hand, often blurt out a frustrated, “Yes, but how?” Beginning writers want to know the step-by-step method from uploading a book to getting it into readers’ hands. How, exactly, does that work?

HOW TO MARKET A BOOK is a great introduction to this topic, as Fayet covers all the basics in detail. He starts with mindset, that crucial jump an author takes from creator to salesperson. Then he talks about elements of the book itself that will help it to sell—the cover, the blurb, the niche, and endorsements. Only then does he turn to things like sales channels, email lists, and price promotions. Putting things in this order makes sense. There is no use spending time and money trying to market a book that is fundamentally unmarketable.

Fayet then turns to more advanced topics like advertising platforms, audio books, boxed set promotions, understanding Amazon algorithms (as much as anyone can understand Amazon algorithms) and the ever-popular wide vs. exclusive debate. The writing is smooth throughout, with exactly the right amount of depth to serve as a good introduction without being overwhelming. And when you’re ready to go deeper on a particular subject, Fayet offers suggestions for further reading.

Fayet is one of the founders of Reedsy, which is a freelance marketplace that matches service providers (editors, book designers, web designers, etc.) with authors. Many parts of HOW TO MARKET A BOOK sounded like commercials for Reedsy. There is nothing wrong with giving your company a shoutout if you think it does things well, but there were a few times that I felt like I was reading an infomercial rather than a how-to book.

Even taking that huge grain of salt into consideration, I still found HOW TO MARKET A BOOK extremely worthwhile reading. I liked that it didn’t promise shortcuts or “easy” tricks. The suggestions were practical and straightforward in an excellent beginners’ marketing book that will teach the essential skills that every writer should learn.

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HOW TO MARKET A BOOK can be found here

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Rating: 4 stars

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This book is best for: intermediate writers

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I recommend this book.