Review: Okay, it's publishing, but it's not writing and it's not helpful
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 03 29, 2014
Mea culpa. At social media sites, before I read this book, I said I'd bought it. That may have led people to believe it might be a good, amusing book.  In my opinion, it's neither.Oh, I love Brian Johnson's humor, online. I thought I'd love this book, as well.Then, I read it and I don't.  However, to be fair: I'm a writer and the word "writing" doesn't appear anywhere on the book cover. My expectations may have been too high.This book does share some good tips about publishing. I'd read most of them in others' reports and courses, but Brian distilled them down to their basic (perhaps lowest) common denominators. Those can be useful if you're a busy author and just need some pointers.However, the rest of this book...? No. Too many run-on sentences made this book difficult to read. (I actually counted the words in one sentence, and it was 46 words long. Really.)Other sections were simply confusing. I had to re-read them multiple times to figure them out. Even then, I wasn't always sure what Mr. Johnson was trying to say.So, I wasn't happy with this book by the 20% point. I didn't like the bold-typed first letter in each paragraph, either. It seemed like very odd formatting.Then there was Mr. Johnson's heavy emphasis on keywords. His advice might sell niche research software, but I don't think it's the smartest way to predict book success. When you're planning to write a book, by-the-numbers approaches won't give you the entire story. (No pun intended.)My shoulders really sagged in disappointment when I reached the section where he recommended outsourcing book content. I won't say it's a complete blight on the indie publishing field, but it's close.Hiring someone who writes articles for $3 - $15, to author your book for you...?  Bad advice. (Yes, I once worked for an article-writing service. Among professionals, that kind of writing is called "junk on paper." Those $15 articles weren't our best efforts, and we only wrote them to pay the rent. Pride in our work...? No. We were grateful our names weren't on the finished products.)Then again, outsourcing may explain things like the 46-word sentence in this book.All in all, I think this kind of book misleads nice, trusting people with dreams of being published someday. It sells them on a business model that's more about making money than developing career skills as a writer/publisher.If you're a veteran author who can sort the wheat from chaff to glean a few tips, you may find this book worthwhile at the 99-cent price.Otherwise, I can't recommend this book.