C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

Books on writing abound and at a certain point, there’s a lot of overlap. I’ve bought so many that I’m beginning to recognize the reflex for what it is: procrastination disguised as education. My shelves are groaning for me to stop, but that’s just crazy talk. (As with all addicts, I say I can quit any time I want…just not now.)

However, Making a Literary Life by Carolyn See is different. This isn’t a day in the life of somebody camping out at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. This is somebody who teaches writing, applies for grants and has faced literary difficulty.She’s in the trenches. You’ll like her. You don’t have staff and neither does she.

There’s a lot of advice here you won’t see elsewhere. She’s a great advocate of building relationships with people in the business. You can protest and lament that it’s about who you know, or you can get out there with a campaign of “charming notes” to get to know people.

My favorite book on writing is Stephen King’s On Writing (if you haven’t got that already, you now have two books to go out and buy.) However, King’s a bit removed from the struggles of the mid-list from his perch up there in the stratosphere. See has a wry wit. She’s naked and vivisected on the buffet table so writers and would-be writers can learn from the exposed anatomy of her striving. She talks about mechanics and this insane and improbable business in an accessible way you’ll love. No wonder her charming notes worked.

The author makes an interesting argument for a non-query approach to editors. She’s also against authors buying their own books from their publisher at a discount to sell them. (That’s a pretty radical assertion in the current publishing climate where many authors are turning to their own resources to sell outside the box.)

Instead See suggests you buy your own books in bookstores, write off the expense and use the purchase to boost your tracked sales numbers while making the book a gift to bookstore staff. (I think she has a great point there. Authors doing a signing often make the mistake of thinking it’s about how many people show up to the event. It’s actually your chance to suck up to form an alliance with the bookstore staff so they’ll make an extra effort to sell for you into the future. Be nice to bookstore staff! Also, be nice generally.)

Sometimes I wasn’t sure if I agreed with her because it was brilliant advice or simply because she’s a bit of a contrarian and so am I. She lays out her publishing strategy and cheerfully acknowledges it hasn’t all been cherries and bouquets. It’s a realistic take on the literary life–several romantic moments and toasts with champagne flutes spread out amidst a lot of hard slogging.

And in what other writers’ guide are you going to find advice–and detailed advice at that–on the hows and whys of making the trip to New York to sell your work? Nowhere. Carolyn See balances the wry and practical in a book on writing unlike all the others.

I finished it the other night and I’m going to do something I never do. I’m going to read it again. The rest of the books on writing can wait.

Filed under: book reviews, Books, Writers, book reviews