Sci-Fi Author Joy V. Smith Shares Writing Tips from The Frugal Editor

Title: The New Book Review
Subtitle: HowtoDoItFrugally Series of books for Writers
Edition: 3^rd Edition
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johhson
Publisher: Modern History Press
Buy on Amazon
Multi award-winner including Reader Views, The Irwin Award
Pages 279

Reviewed by Joy V. Smith 

 From beginning to end, I learned what I needed to know--and there was so much I didn't realize I needed to know--to help me with my writing. She covers editing helps and resources, grammar, punctuation, computer aids, agents' pet peeves and warnings about CAPs, quotation marks, and exclamation points (one of my pet peeves), And a lot more! (heh, heh)

Of course I can't remember everything so I've used a lot of little flags. In checking some out for this review, I came across the cut and paste warning. Btw, that ruined a recent ms I sent out (the paste ended up after the end of my story). And I see there's a copyright shortcut. Don't miss the dialogue warning (cut back on those italics). Ah, there's helpful advice about hyphens and prefixes, etc. And helpful background on Smashwords and Kindle, plus info re: formatting. (I had to hire formatters for them.) I also needed to focus on front and back matter recently. (A little late....)

I wish I could memorize all that essential info, but that's what my little flags are for. (I'm glad we can end a sentence with a preposition.) I'll be rereading it.... Highly recommended because it'll save you from writing and publishing mistakes. (Nah, I'll skip the exclamation point this time.)

Note: I received a review copy from the publisher in return for an unbiased and honest review. 

 

More About the Reviewer

Joy V. Smith has been writing stories since she was a kid and made her own little books. Later she wrote articles--including interviews with editors, artists, and writers--and short stories. The closest she came to writing long stories was writing sequels to her stories. Then she learned about NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. She started writing novels then and finished several over the years; there was a lot of editing to be done; Joy owes a lot to her patient editors. Her books include: Strike Three, Sugar Time, Taboo Tech, Velvet of Swords, Well Met by Water, Detour Trail, Cold New Planet, Pretty Pink Planet, Hot Yellow Planet, Hidebound, and The Doorway and Other Stories. 

 

She also collects books by her favorite authors and pop-up books, and, of course, reference books and books on writing.