Thread: Writing 'self help' books, whats your view ?

Don't know whether this is in the right section, so if the mods want to move then please do


I was floating around the likes of amazon and play.com and saw the various writing 'self help' books that they offer. Such as write a novel in a year, so many common mistakes when writing and various similar titles. Whats your view on these books ? Do you feel that they offer any value for money or if they are sold more on good marketing and people wanting to become something that they may not necessarily have the skill for ?

Just curious as to the opinion on these.

I think it's the latter. In my opinion, if you have talent and a good imagination, all you need to do to be a good writer is to a. read and b. write.

TheDexMan - Most of those books are designed to make money for the publisher, the writer, and the writer's agent. Be especially wary of any that promise wonderful things with little effort. The ones that are more likely to be of real help are the very specific ones intended to teach a very narrow field of writing, generally non-fiction. I've helped put a couple of that type together, and the contents provide very practical guides on subjects such as broadcast news writing.