The Literary Handyman Library

“The Literary Handyman” by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (as reviewed by Graeme Fraser)

Right at the outset Danielle tells her readers that this book is a toolbox. Not one that is precisely ordered but one like we all have at home (or at least one like mine) – where everything is in there, you just need to find it! And of course, like a good reviewer I’ve used my own words – not hers.

But here are some of her words:

“If you don’t catch their interest, a reader is going to just close the book and never open it again. If you are lucky, they stop there; if not look out for the scathing review”

Now that’s what I call tempting fate!

Upfront confession – I reviewed this book because I received a copy as part of Library Thing’s show more “Early Reviewer” project. But just because I didn’t pay for it, does not mean I won’t give it fair review!

Take a deep breath – and relax!

Danielle herself warns that the topics covered in this collection of books (because she has combined more than one book and a number of relatively short articles on all aspects of writing and publishing a book) are basic and more likely to help those just starting out on their publishing journey, rather than experienced authors.

Well she’s wrong!

Together with my wife Veldra I have co-authored 24 legal text-books and written one non-fiction book (which someone else will be reviewing for this site), and though our work was generally of a technical nature ( a subject Danielle does not pay attention to, since her main emphasis is on writing fiction), there is much even we could learn from this “toolbox”.

What I particularly liked was that the book consists of short distinct and self-contained chapters. This is not the typical book that you’d start reading at the beginning and work your way through to the last page (you could do that if you wanted to of course). Rather like scratching through the toolbox looking for the right tool for the job, you will probably find this book especially useful if you do what I did – skimmed the contents and then dipped into the chapters that caught my attention. (By the way, they all have quite interesting titles). That approach allows you to keep to coming back and deriving the maximum benefit from the information contained in each chapter.

And for the record I did read the whole book!

Though Danielle eschews the notion that this book is intended to be a “textbook”, the net result when you’ve worked through all the chapters is that you will have gleaned a lot more knowledge than just a few “tips on writing from someone who’s been there”!

Three other aspects of the book that caught my attention (apart from Danielle’s informal, almost chatty style, which makes some potentially dull topics quite interesting) were:

• the practical examples she uses to illustrate the points she’s making (hope she spotted and appreciated my use of “breaks” for emphasis!) and

• the challenging “writing exercises” which will be useful for a writer of any level to do (probably more than once too!).

• the “summing up” paragraph at the end of the chapters, which makes sure you’ve got the point of the chapter.

In short, this book would be a welcome addition on any bookshelf and I dare say would be referred to regularly by any writer as a “primer” on any topic related to the writing and publishing of a book. show less

This book offers a lot of great tips for authors and aspiring authors. There is information on writing fundamentals such as choosing names and how to create believable characters. After the advice section, there are writing exercise prompts to help put the advice into action. The second part of the book is about the business of selling and promoting your work, including how to deal with the inevitable rejection.

The book is very well written, with many humorous asides. Lots of great advice for those who need real-world examples by someone who's been there!

A genuinely inviting anthology by a slew of professional and published authors of all stripe. Part inspiration and part instruction, the entire book is an easy read one can finish in a few sittings. Most entries are only a few pages, but the information really does stick with you, thanks to the authors' friendly style and the editor's choice of articles. Filled with practical advice and personal anecdotes, it really is a decent read-through for every author.

"The Literary Handyman" by Danielle Ackley-McPhail is an extremely ambitious how-to guide for writers at just about every stage of their careers. The author says early on that the book is geared more toward unpublished writers, but I think there is something for just about everyone in this nearly 900 page volume. With more than twenty-years in the publishing business and fifteen-years as an author, Danielle has plenty to say. Many of these short chapters have been published elsewhere (and all are attributed), but it is "handy" to have them all in one place.

This is NOT, however, a book that is really suitable to read on a kindle because a reader probably would want to move back and forth between the chapters, selecting one of the wide show more variety of writing topics for a particular purpose. Once I downloaded the book to my computer, it was much easier to navigate back and forth. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about becoming a writer. And it's also nice for experienced writers to read. I learned quite a bit along the way.

I won an e-copy of this book from the Library Thing Early Reviewer drawing and my opinion is my own. show less

I was primarily looking to this book for guidance as a beginner approaching writing non-fiction. As such, I did feel that the vast majority of the book, especially the "craft" portions were very fiction oriented and not so helpful. That said, I did appreciate the insight into the publishing industry, tools to use, and components of books to give extra consideration to (e.g. covers, indices, appendix, etc.). Overall, seemed like a good book, but not very suited to my orientation.

My students are creating a school library as a class project. This book was very helpful for me (not a librarian) to walk them through their project. A lot of their questions were answered with parts of this book clearly and straightforward for the students comprehension.

How to write a book.
How to produce a book.
And how to market it.

If you're starting out to publish your first book this is the treasure trove to look into in order to avoid annoying mistakes which could devastate your ambition on the way.

Very comprehensive, a load of good advice for starters.

Just the fact that the 'Literary Handyman Library' is in itself somewhat sloppy was a slight minus to me.