Review: Provides inspiration and practical ideas for would-be authors
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 15, 2013
Author Tom Corson-Knowles states in the introduction to The Kindle Writing Bible that the book is for those who have dreamed of writing a book but don't know how to begin. In my opinion, the book largely achieves its goal of motivating and inspiring would-be authors to take the plunge into writing their first book. As the title indicates, the book is focused on nonfiction writing, but many of the ideas in the book are applicable to fiction as well. The book advises aspiring authors to do the market research to find subjects that will appeal to enough readers to have a significant sales potential. There are some directions on how to do this.One chapter describes the mechanics of the writing process, breaking it down into five steps, although the author acknowledges that the process is not always done sequentially. There were some good ideas here for novice writers, but I had a problem with the author's comments on editing, where he advocates "crowdsourcing" a book to family and friends for editing and proofreading. I review a lot of books, almost all self-published by indie authors, and poor editing and abysmal spelling and grammar are a huge turn-off. The author noted that ebook errors can be corrected based on comments from readers, and the book re-uploaded. Unfortunately for the author of the ebook, any negative reviews that resulted from a lack of editing will remain long after the typos are corrected. (Note: For printed books, the author does recommend hiring a professional editor.)Chapter 7 (Overcoming the 7 Deadly Writing Obstacles) had some useful ideas about staying focused and avoiding the bane of every author: writer's block.Overall, I think that would-be nonfiction authors who are "sitting on the fence" would pick up some good ideas as well as the motivation to start writing their first book.The Kindle Writing Bible is part of the author's "Kindle Bible" series.A review copy of the book was provided by the author.