Cheap 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might (Book) (Pat Walsh) Price

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Customer Reviews of 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might

A Must Read for All Writers or Would-be-Writers!!!
Based on its title, I thought this book would be one of those silly tongue-in-cheek how-to books whose purpose was to provide a few laughs at the expense of us poor struggling writers! However, this book was written by Pat Walsh, a former reporter of The San Francisco Chronicle who now edits books for a small independent publisher. So, he has experience as a writer and an editor and provides a well-written book chock full of excellent advice for beginning writers as well as current advice for seasoned writers. Writers will enjoy the many humorous anecdotes gleaned from thousands of pages of manuscripts, proposals, and queries that have passed over Mr. Walsh's desk. The book is divided into parts such as: "Talk is Cheap," "A Cold Hard Look," and "The Publishing Game" and includes sections on self-publishing, vanity presses, writing conferences, agents, etc. I recommend this book to every beginning and seasoned writer. K.J. McWilliams children's book author of The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo and Pirates

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Long on humor & realism; short on practical advice
I'm not big on long reviews, but this book definitely caught my attention. So here goes... <
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>I feel pretty mixed about this book. On the one hand, Walsh offers a seemingly realistic view of the publishing field. On the other, as a "how to" book, Walsh falls far short on the giving advice beyond the surface level, something I was looking for from the founding editor of an independent publisher. <
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>On the plus side, I found Walsh's book to be witty, funny and matching my experience with the publishing world -- that getting published involves "...an unholy amount of work and a great deal of time." I appreciate his focus on writing well and completing your book (I've read some book proposals recently that were absolutely horrendous). <
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>My take-aways from this book included: <
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>1. Finish your book. <
>2. Write well. <
>3. Don't self-publish <
>4. Stay out of the slush pile. <
>5. If you don't have an agent, forgeddabouhdit. <
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>While I agree with the first two points, I found myself less willing to take Walsh's word on the last 3... <
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>On the negative side, Walsh seems to miss following his own logic. <
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>1. Early on in the book, he tells a story of a misguided young woman he met who (erroneously, Walsh seems to think) believes that getting published is more about who you know, and then proceeds to make that exact argument throughout the rest of his book (that is, if you don't know an agent, you'll never get published.) <
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>2. The ONLY writer who can acceptably write anything along the lines of "I was too lazy to look this up" is Dave Barry, who is writing for laughs. Walsh uses this phrase several times throughout his book, which I find inexcusable. Walsh seemed to be attempting to come across as personable here, but he failed. If you're too lazy, don't write. <
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>3. In discussing both the self-publishing industry, Walsh give it short shrift and did not seem to do his homework here, either. Equating self-publishing with vanity publishing is an overgeneralization, and ignores the excellent work of Dan Poynter (author of "The Self-Publishing Manual") and Tom and Marilyn Ross (authors of "The Complete Guide to Self Publishing"). <
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>4. Walsh makes the same mistake with those people who are disguntled with the publishing world. Since, as Walsh says, "..it is in the publishing's industry's best interest to reject you, discourage you and ignore you.", then it does not follow that people who critique the publishing world are engaging in "counterattacks" or are "paranoid". Perhaps some of those authors who cannot get published (such as Paul Linden, of Columbus, OH, who's writings on bodymind topics are lightyear ahead of his time)hold valid critiques of the publishing industry. <
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>5. Walsh must go to public libraries and bookstores that stock very different materials from the ones that I go to. Walsh contends that most of today's published material is excellent. I find that many of the books that I read from these sources are (in Walsh's words) "overpriced, overhyped crap". <
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>6. Walsh's advice for finding an agent (without which, he says, your book will go unpublished) seems to be opening up an independent publishing group, and wait for an agent to approach YOU. Ingenious? Yes. Practical for the rest of us? Hardly. <
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>7. Finally, I thought that Walsh's book could do with one more run through by his editor. Some of his sentences came across as unclear. I'd caution about technical jargon, too. (Just what IS a "purple sentence", anyway?) <
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>Pat Walsh's should be praised for wanting to write a book that describes an editor's experience. Such a book would be an important contribution to the field of writing. <
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>This book, however, is not it.

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walsh needs a vacation
This is a jaded, sarcastic and very pessimistic viewpoint on submitting your work for publication. Over the first few pages I thought it was going to be just some guy spewing hatred for hacks, but it turned out to be much more than that, and something I couldn't put down. Much of the advice is based on nothing more than the author's opinion, and while it will not apply to everyone in every situation, it is nonetheless sound. In reading cases where I did not agree with Walsh, I often considered trying to prove him wrong, which made it somewhat of an inspirational book in my opinion. I do agree with most of his advice however, and it is commendable in going beyond the things that may be just plain common sense. As an editor at a relatively small publishing house, Walsh gives a a realistic picture of what editors do (it's so much more than just marking out text and saying "no" all day), what they look for, and why. Although the author warns that this book will only be helpful if you have a completed manuscript in hand (and outright advises not to buy it if you don't), I recommend this book to all writers and anyone interested in publishing.