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Edupreneur Resources   |   Jul 31, 2012

How to get started writing and publishing a teaching book

By Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

Do you want to publish an education book or publish a book for teachers? Need tips for writing and publishing education books? On this page, you’ll find information about how I got started writing and publishing books for teachers, and learn how you can write teacher books, too.

Who Am I to Give Advice?

I’m far from an expert on the subject of publishing books, but  I’ve done it successfully three times  and I’m honest about the process, so I tend to get a LOT of emails asking for advice. There are many ways to get your book published and make money selling books for teachers, and I’m happy to share what’s worked for me. I can’t guarantee that I’ve done things the “right way,” but I’m enjoying writing books and I’ve been making steady money doing so since 2008. Hopefully when you read my advice, you’ll find some ideas that resonate and will work for you, too.

Video: Advice for Publishing a Book for Educators

Dr. Will Deyamport III interviewed me  about educational publishing. In the video below, you’ll hear me speak about:

• How I got the ideas for my books and started publishing
• Balancing full-time teaching with book writing
• What motivates me to write and how I use writing to improve education
• The decision between traditional and self-publishing
• eBook vs. print copy sales
• How to leverage book sales and consulting opportunities
• How my writing and creative process works
• My advice for those who want to write and publish a book
• The importance of promoting your book on social media

Who Said Anything About Publishing? Get Writing!

First things first: most people who worry about how to publish and sell their book haven’t even written the book yet . In fact, I’d say 95% of the people who email me asking for help are still stuck in the “I have a great idea for a book” phrase. My advice is always the same:  write the book before you worry about anything else . There are an untold number of half-finished manuscripts languishing in desk drawers. Until you’ve got a book that is well-written (and well-edited), everything else is a moot point.

If you go the traditional publishing route, chances are good that a publisher is going to want to see a complete manuscript before deciding whether or not to publish it. Sure, established authors can just submit proposals, but if you’re an unknown, the publisher will probably not pay you much attention without a finished manuscript. At the very least, they’re going to want the table of contents and some sample chapters.

Having a few chapters done is not enough. How will you know what direction your book will ultimately take? Maybe the first few chapters will end up being redundant, or need to be placed in a different order. And it’s very likely that they won’t be your best work if you haven’t seen how they fit within the larger context of what you’re trying to say. You will probably want to change the title, subtitle, description, etc. before the book is done. So why try to market something that is incomplete and going to change?

If you decide to self-publish, it’s even more important to have a finished product because self-publishing is a much quicker process. You can have a stack of copies in your possession within days of sending the book to the printer, and Amazon will often list it within a week or two. All the self-publishing routes (Lulu, Smashwords, etc.) have similar requirements for formatting, etc., so you really don’t need to select your self-publishing option until the book is basically done.

So, in case I haven’t been clear:  Stay focused on writing your book.  That’s the hardest part, and once you’ve got that done, there will be tons of options open to you. The publishing industry is evolving so quickly that it’s becoming easier to publish a book with every year that passes, so there is absolutely no reason to stress out about how to publish a book that you haven’t even written yet.

How Do You Know What to Write?

I think everyone has a book inside them. And every teacher I know has a teaching idea or perspective that deserves to be shared with the world. Don’t doubt yourself! Write what’s on your heart. Write what  has  to be written. Write the things that you will lay in bed at night thinking about if you don’t get them out on the page. Don’t worry about how it will be received yet; that part comes during for the editing process. Right now? Write.

Editing Your Manuscript

You will need to have your book professionally edited before you submit it to a publisher or try to self-publish it. Remember, you want your very best work to be shown to the world. It’s also helpful to have the perspective of an outside party who’s not personally invested in your book. It’s better to get brutal honesty from your editor than from Amazon reviewers after the book is published. (Ouch.)

Okay, Fine,  Now  Let’s Talk About Publishing

There are a lot of paths you can take to get your book into the hands of readers. The only one I would NOT recommend is using a vanity press, which is a company you pay to publish your book. That’s just not necessary in 2014.

One good option is to submit your book to some publishing houses in hopes of getting published. I’ve never gone that route as I wanted to have complete editorial control over my books and also did not want to share royalties with a publishing company. I hear that trying to get your book accepted in traditional publishing can be a lengthy, frustrating process, although it’s not nearly as painful for education books and I know quite a few teachers who have had their books published that way. There are a number of reputable education publishers who accept titles from new authors (including classroom teachers), so if you do your research, you may find something that works for you. You might want to check out Scholastic, Evan-Moor, Jossey-Bass, ASCD, Kagan, Eye on Education, etc.  Although I do have connections with people at each of these publishing houses, I cannot recommend your book to any of them. I’m sorry!

Be sure to ask lots of questions about the royalty rate you will receive. There are some publishers (none that are listed above) that will pay teachers a very small flat rate for their book and then the company owns the content and never pays out another dime. You’d do far better selling your book as a PDF on TeachersPayTeachers or TeachersNotebook than taking a flat rate from a big publishing house. Don’t do it! You deserve to earn profits from your book every time it sells–and books in the education genre should continue to sell well for many years.

Another path is to start your own publishing company. This is what I chose to do. I started my own business for both publishing and consulting services and called it  Due Season Press and Educational Services . I established a PO Box and DBA, bought a block of ISBNs, and set up an account with Lightning Source (which does Print-On-Demand printing and handles all book distribution.)  This was a relatively simple process that gives me full control over my books and cuts out the middle man: only Lightning Source and either Amazon or PayPal take a cut from my book sales. The other advantage is that I can do  educational consulting and professional development services based on my books , all under one company that I own personally.

A third option–and probably the easiest, most common one–is to self-publish using Smashwords, Lulu, or another self-publishing service. Like starting your own publishing company, self-publishing also cuts out the middle man and maximizes your control and royalties. I don’t know a lot about the companies that offer these services, although I know many authors who have used Lulu and Smashwords, and most are pretty satisfied.

If you’re thinking about self-publishing, I highly recommend the book  Self-Printed: The Sane Person’s Guide to Self-Publishing  by Catherine Ryan Howard. Catherine kindly sent me a review copy of the Kindle version and I was thrilled to see that she spells out exactly what to do if you want to self-publish your book (or more accurately, self-print: when you read the book, you’ll understand the difference). Her blog  Catherine, Caffeinated  is also extremely helpful and has all kinds of great tips for anyone wanting to self-publish a book. Both the book and the blog provide a lot of information about promoting and marketing your books.

What About eBooks?

Formatting your book for mobile readers is not optional. You  need  to do it, and it’s a terrific way to make more money from your books because the delivery cost is so much lower than with print copies. By the end of 2009, I was selling more eBooks than hard copies, and each year since then, the ratio of eBook sales to hard copy sales has increased dramatically.

I use a company called eBook Architects to format my books for Kindle (MOBI) and ePUB, although you can do it yourself (and the book  Self-Printed  that I recommend above will walk you through you through the steps.) I like eBook Architects because I know that the formatting has been correctly completed for every eReader device and there is a lifetime guarantee on their work, so if the formatting requirements change, they’ll fix the books.

Getting the Word Out About Your Books

Most writers (myself included) HATE having to promote and market their books. However, it’s a little known fact outside the publishing world that even if you have a big publishing house behind you, most of the promotion burden still falls on the author. Publishers rely heavily on authors to blog about their books, share them on social media, promote their book tours, etc. It’s a simple fact: no one cares about your book more than you, so  you’ll  need to be the one to help spread the word.

I’m assuming as you read this that your book is neither written nor published yet, which is actually good in terms of promotion. That gives you time to build up a platform for yourself and connect with others through a website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. That’s the subject of another article (I touch on it briefly on the  Becoming and Educational Consultant  page) but the number one thing to remember is this: share high quality content and do it because you enjoy doing so.

If you don’t give away good content on your website/blog, no one will be interested in reading your book. Potential readers need to know what you’re all about and how you write in order to be assured that the book will be valuable to them. Find a way to blog that is enjoyable to you: if it’s not, then you’ll feel like your book is a burden and you’ll get frustrated with the fact that no one is reading it.

Where Should I Sell My Books?

99% of my book sales are made online, either through my website or through Amazon. School systems and universities also buy my books, but they find me online, contact me online, and complete the transaction online. Book stores and teacher supply stores never factor into the equation.

There are literally millions of new books being published, and brick and mortar bookstores simply can’t stock them all. And in 2012, you really don’t NEED a book store to carry your book. Because they have the widest selection of titles and their prices are rock bottom, Amazon has the lion’s share of book sales (and it’s increasing every year). Use that to your advantage.

You may find that it’s worthwhile to visit teacher supply stores in your area to try to get them to stock your book, but it wasn’t worth it for me. I was told that my local store orders all its products a year in advance and I’d have to come back in 9 months to even make my pitch. I’m not interested in working within old-school systems like that and didn’t pursue it. That was in 2009, though, and perhaps things have changed. They also might be different in your area.

There are a few in-person opportunities that HAVE been fruitful for me. If you do consulting or professional development, that’s a great opportunity to promote your books and make sales. Education conferences can also serve as networking places and lead to sales. Try pitching to your school district and see if they’re interested in buying copies, as well.

When Do I Get Rich?

Probably never. But the great thing about writing education books is that they have a long shelf life. The hottest novel only makes the New York Times bestseller list for a short time and then it’s forgotten. But a good education reference book can continue to sell very well for a decade or more. I first published  The Cornerstone  in 2008 and every year it sells more copies than the year before. In fact, this is true of all three of my books: the more people who stumble across my website, the more book sales I get. And with 75% of teachers quitting within the first 5 years, there’s a whole new crop of potential readers coming up all the time. I don’t mean to sound glib about teacher retention, but there’s certainly no shortage of new teachers who are looking for ideas, and as a writer/publisher, this works strongly to your advantage.

Angela Watson

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Great post, Angela! When I wrote my book, I submitted a sample of the activities to a bunch of different educational publishing companies. I just sat down with all of my teacher material books and checked the covers. Many of them had a list of where to send manuscripts. You can read more about how my process went at http://www.mrsjoyhall.com/becoming-a-published-author/ . I totally agree with you about self-publishing to keep the rights to the book. It almost felt like I was giving something away. If anyone is thinking about writing a book, I say GO FOR IT! 🙂 Joy from Joy of Teaching

So I retired after 35 years and mainly taught high school sp Ed to voc students. I have written about 30 short stories. Each story has a common 3 part reading response. ie #1 5 sentence chapter summary #2 teacher led creative writing activity #3 3 comprehension questions.

I just want some company to take them on to publish where I receive a royalty. Any ideas where I should go? I live in Canada.

Angela, thanks so much for all of your help. You have become quite the mentor to me without even knowing it! I have two books in the works and cannot wait to set up a time to chat once they’re finished. Thank you again so much for your guidance!

Aw, you’re so welcome, Gretchen! You’re going to love tomorrow’s blog post then–a teacher who published a children’s book is going to share her advice. 🙂

I have written a book about poetry 25% is my original writing and 75% are examples of what 4th and 5th graders have written over the years. Is there an audience for this kind of book? The writing is amazing!

Many thanks,

Mary Groesch

Hi, Mary! There certainly might be an audience for it. My advice is to start building that audience now through a blog and social media…and most importantly, an email list. Focus on sharing great, helpful free content, and then get that book published and into the hands of those who would want to read it!

I found your information very fascinating. I am almost done with a book for teachers or others who was to teach kids how to write poetry. I had a significant stroke, though many people say they can’t tell, in 2011 and ended up retiring early in 2013. I’ve talk in the U.S. for 26 yrs/ and 5 yrs in international school in South America. I was trained by master teachers in progressive approach. I’ve traveled to 36 countries, given writing workshops mainly in foreign countries. I was trained by National Geographic from 1990 until almost 2010. Needless, the say, I have many, many examples of the children/parents given me their consent use their work. How should I go about publishing it?

Hi, Mary! I highly recommend self-publishing. You can upload the PDF directly to CreateSpace.

Hi Angela, I’m no book expert but last year a primary school in Belfast asked me to consult on their music. I wrote a full, detailed scheme of work for the full primary years P1 – P7 and went into the school and taught each class every week. By doing this I had written a practical, exciting music scheme for non-specialists which tied in to the curriculum, taught it to each class for a full year and trained the teachers to teach it themselves in subsequent years. The Headteacher wrote a fabulous recommendation for my work and advised that I publish and sell it to schools. Her teachers are all independently following my scheme now and it works. I have no idea where to even start! Any advice? Christine.

I think the advice here would definitely work for you. You can self-publish for sure.

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How to Write a Textbook

Last Updated: May 7, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Megan Morgan, PhD . Megan Morgan is a Graduate Program Academic Advisor in the School of Public & International Affairs at the University of Georgia. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Georgia in 2015. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 92% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 89,370 times.

With the rising costs of textbooks today, you may be interested in writing your own textbook. Perhaps you are a teacher who has been frequently dissatisfied with overpriced textbooks that don't meet your students' needs. Or maybe you have significant expertise in an area of knowledge and would like to compile it in a handy resource. The world of textbook publishing has recently become more accessible to writers and scholars; with a bit of practice and patience, you can navigate the writing and publishing process.

Preparing Your Textbook

• Write for an audience that you already know. If you have worked as a college professor of mathematics, you might not know the best way to reach an audience of middle schoolers.
• If you are writing for an audience that is unfamiliar to you, consider hiring a collaborator who is familiar with this demographic.
• As you decide on a subject, consider which areas are underserved in modern education. Does your book fill a void in the market?

• Define your Unique Selling Point. The USP defines what makes your textbook special. What does it offer that no other textbook offers? You will need to explain to publishers and other teachers (who might become your customers) why they should pick your book over others.

• Will you include a corresponding web site for the textbook where students can find practice test questions? Could you design fun games to help educate your audience (especially younger students)? Consider adding in these additional elements for the textbook.

• Are you passionate about your subject? If you are invested in the material you are writing on, then this will help you through the arduous task of publishing. If you just want to make a quick buck, you won't find much return on your time and efforts toward the project.

Drafting Your Textbook

• How many chapters will you include? How will you divide specific topics between the chapters?
• Will the chapters be independent from each other, or will students need to read one before they can move on to the next?
• Will you arrange the chapters in ascending order of difficulty? By the time the student finishes the textbook, will they be prepared to move onto the next grade level in the subject?

• What are the goals of the course in which this textbook would be used? What skills should students leave the course having practiced? What should they know to prepare for the material in the next grade or class level?
• How will your textbook correspond to standardized tests that students need to take during the school year? Consider finding examples of these tests to help guide your answer to this question.

• Instead, write a complete draft of each chapter in the book. Once you have a full draft of each chapter, you will be able to better understand how they all work together and where you need to add more material or cut down on the length.
• Create a set writing schedule and then stick to it. If you make a regular habit of writing your textbook (say, from 3:00-5:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays), you will be able to consistently get significant work done. Avoid writing erratically in large chunks of time.
• If you are working under a publisher's deadline, do not procrastinate. Give yourself plenty of time to complete the task at hand. Set weekly goals in the months leading up to your deadline.

• You might find your word processor program (like Microsoft Word) is not very useful for including visuals alongside text. You should consider putting part of your draft in a layout program like Adobe InDesign, where you can keep images alongside text. [3] X Research source
• Give yourself some time to play around with InDesign and learn the basic principles of it. This will come in handy if you decide to self-publish the book.
• For any outside images or graphics that you include, make sure that you have permission to include them in your book. You could be sued for copyright infringement if you don't.

Preparing Your Textbook for Publication

• The editor will be able to help you find the best way to organize and clarify your content. She will also be able to assist in sentence-level improvements in grammar and word choice.

• Look up the "Contact" information on the publisher's web site. They will generally have guidelines for how to submit a book proposal or get in touch with an editor.
• In order to get approved by a traditional press, you will need to provide the publisher with a book proposal. The book proposal will generally provide the title of the book and a 1-2 paragraph summary of each chapter. Make sure you clearly explain the content of your book and why it will be important for your target audience of students.
• Make sure the book "fits" the publisher's list of books. Do they sell other books similar to yours? If they do, this is a positive sign because they won't have to spend extra money marketing a different item on their publishing list.
• With traditional presses, you will also have to sell the copyright of your work to the publisher; you will no longer have rights over the material once you sign a contract with them.

• Amazon.com recently entered the textbook publishing game. If authors sell their self-published textbook through Amazon for $9.99 or less, then the author will receive 70% of the royalties. This is a significantly higher rate than the 10% that is often offered by traditional presses. [4] X Research source
• You could also make your textbook available for purchase through iBooks' textbook platform or through a personal web site.
• With self-publishing, you often don't have to put together a book proposal and you can generally retain your rights to the material. However, it is harder to spread the word about your textbook to schools and universities.

Launching and Selling Your Textbook

• Try to keep your textbook at a significantly lower price than textbooks from a traditional publisher if you have self-published. You don't want your students or their parents to believe you are taking advantage of them.

• If there are popular bloggers in your field who have a wide audience, you might also ask them to review your book as a resource for their readers.

Expert Q&A

• Keep in mind that your textbook will need to be adapted throughout the years as technology and political and historical landscapes change. You don't want your book to become out-of-date or else it won't be relevant. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32654/title/So-You-Want-to-Write-a-Book-/
• ↑ https://www.wired.com/2012/01/why-education-publishing-is-big-business/
• ↑ https://www.creativebloq.com/print-design/design-and-lay-out-book-indesign-4137471
• ↑ https://time.com/3678310/amazon-textbooks-self-publish/

About This Article

To write a textbook, start by determining your subject, grade level audience, and how you want to structure your book. Next, identify the most important material, break that content into chapters, and write a first draft for each chapter. Avoid working on one chapter at a time until each one is perfect, since that will slow you down. Instead, revise your drafts after you get the content down on the page. Don't forget to include pictures, tables, and other graphics to make your content more engaging! For tips on getting your textbook published, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How To Write An Educational Book

by Skill Prepare | Aug 18, 2023 | Blog

Are you enthusiastic, about sharing knowledge and creating a lasting impact on the lives of readers? Writing a book provides an opportunity to fulfill these aspirations. Whether you have experience as an educator possess industry expertise or simply hold a wealth of knowledge to impart this comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of crafting an educational book that captivates, educates and inspires.

Introduction to Writing an Educational Book

Creating a book goes beyond disseminating information. It involves crafting a resource that empowers readers to learn and develop. Educational books cover an array of subjects ranging from textbooks and curriculum guides to skill based manuals and self help guides. Regardless of the genre or topic the ultimate goal remains consistent; providing readers with in depth comprehension and practical application of the subject matter.

In this guide we will delve into the steps involved in writing a book – right from generating initial ideas to publishing and promoting your work. We will explore the phase by discussing how to select a topic define your target audience and establish goals and objectives. Subsequently we will proceed with planning. Structuring your book in order to ensure it offers both organization and engagement, for readers.

Once we have established the groundwork we will delve into the process of writing and editing. We will emphasize the significance of creating content conducting research and dedicating ample time to editing. Additionally we will explore publishing options to authors and provide strategies, for effectively promoting your educational book to maximize its reach and influence.

Whether you are an aspiring writer or an experienced author seeking to venture into literature this guide equips you with the knowledge and tools to develop a compelling and valuable resource for your readers.

So let us embark on this journey of crafting a book that empowers others through knowledge and education !

Preparing to Write an Educational Book

Before immersing yourself in the writing process it is vital to lay a foundation for your book. This section provides guidance on steps that will help you prepare adequately ensuring that you have a direction and purpose for your book.

Choosing a Topic

The first step, in writing a book involves choosing a topic that aligns with your expertise and passion. Take some time to think about the areas in which you have knowledge and a genuine interest. This will greatly influence your motivation and enthusiasm as you go through the writing process. Make sure to do research to identify market demand and trends so that you can choose a topic that truly resonates with your target audience.

When it comes to selecting a topic, brainstorming and narrowing down ideas is crucial. Start by jotting down all ideas, of how broad or niche they may seem. Explore perspectives, angles and subtopics related to your idea. Once you have a list of ideas evaluate each one based on its viability potential impact and alignment, with your goals. Narrow down your options to choose the topic that will work well for an educational book.

Defining your Target Audience

Understanding your target audience is key in creating a book that effectively meets their needs and interests. Consider factors like the age group and educational level of your intended readers. Are you writing for children, teenagers, college students or professionals? By understanding their requirements and learning preferences you can tailor your content accordingly.

To gain insights into your target audiences preferences consider conducting surveys or interviews. Engage with readers or experts, in the field to gather feedback and understand their challenges, pain points and expectations. This valuable information will help you craft content that deeply connects with your readers providing them with the knowledge and solutions they are seeking.

Setting Clear Goals and Objectives

Before you embark on the writing process it’s essential to define goals and objectives, for your book. By determining the purpose of your book you can shape your content creation in a way that aligns with your vision. Are you aiming to educate, inspire or offer guidance? Clearly defining the desired learning outcomes will guide readers towards achieving their goals after reading your book.

Alongside setting goals it is important to establish a timeline and milestones for your writing journey. This will keep you organized and motivated throughout the stages of writing. Breaking down the writing process into tasks like outlining, researching and writing chapters enables efficient progress. Assigning deadlines to each task ensures a pace towards completing your book in a timely manner.

By preparing and laying a foundation for your educational book you position yourself for success, in creating a valuable resource that caters to the specific needs of your target audience. So lets continue this journey of crafting a book as we move on to the next section.

Planning and Structuring your Educational Book

Once you’ve selected a topic and identified your target audience it’s time to strategize and structure your book. In this section I’ll provide you with insights, on how to create a organized and captivating book that effectively delivers your content.

Creating an Outline

An outline acts as the foundation for your book serving as a roadmap for your writing journey. Begin by outlining the sections of your book, such as the introduction, chapters and conclusion. Each chapter should focus on a subtopic or concept related to your theme.

Within each chapter incorporate subsections or headings to further break down the content and make it easier for readers to navigate through your book. These subsections act as guideposts leading readers through the progression of your ideas and ensuring a flow of information.

Keep in mind that the outline is not set in stone and can be adjusted as you progress with writing. It provides a framework that allows you to organize your thoughts and ideas while maintaining clarity and coherence, in your book.

Developing a Strong Book Title and Subtitles

Your book title is the first impression readers will have of your book. It should be concise, engaging and accurately convey the content and purpose of your book. To come up with title options it’s an idea to brainstorm and gather feedback from trusted individuals or even focus groups. This will ensure that your title resonates well with your intended audience.

In addition subtitles can play a role, in providing clarity about the focus and benefits of your educational book. They give readers information about the content helping them determine if your book is relevant to their needs. A captivating subtitle can attract readers. Offer them a clear understanding of what they can expect from your educational book.

Organizing Content and Information

When writing your book it’s important to think about how you organize and present the content effectively. Consider the order of chapters and topics to ensure an coherent flow of information. Begin with concepts gradually building upon them so that readers grasp the basics before moving on to complex ideas.

To enhance the learning experience for readers consider incorporating visuals like diagrams, charts and illustrations. These visual aids can help clarify concepts and make your content more engaging. Furthermore using examples and case studies that demonstrate real life applications of the knowledge you’re sharing will make it easier for readers to understand and apply the information in situations.

Strive for a balance between theory and practical application, in your book. While its crucial to establish a foundation providing practical advice, exercises and actionable steps will empower readers to apply their newfound knowledge in their own lives or areas of study.

By planning and organizing your book you can create a well structured and captivating resource that effectively imparts valuable information to your readers. Now lets move forward to the section where we delve into the art of writing and editing your book.

Writing and Editing your Educational Book

The process of writing and refining your book is where your ideas truly come alive and take form. In this section we’ll guide you through the steps of crafting informative content while ensuring that your book shines with polish and remains free, from errors.

Writing Engaging and Informative Content

To make your educational book impactful and unforgettable it’s vital to develop a writing style that resonates with your target audience. Consider the tone and voice that will effectively convey your message while maintaining consistency throughout. Whether it leans towards authoritative (or a blend of both) find a writing style that captivates readers attention.

Using concise language is paramount, in writing. Avoid using jargon or complex terminology that might confuse readers. Instead aim for simple writing that maintains the depth and quality of your content. Break down ideas, into understandable explanations that readers can grasp and apply in their lives.

Using stories and real life examples can significantly improve the readers understanding and engagement. Stories have an ability to illustrate concepts in a way while case studies provide tangible instances that demonstrate how the knowledge can be practically applied.

Conducting Thorough Research

Thorough research is essential for creating a book that’s credible and provides accurate up to date information. Rely on sources like journals, reliable websites and expert publications to gather information and support your ideas.

When incorporating sources it’s vital to cite them to give credit to the original authors and avoid plagiarism. Follow recognized citation styles such, as APA, MLA or any other relevant format throughout your work. This will enhance professionalism. Maintain integrity.

Editing and Proofreading your Manuscript

Editing and proofreading are stages of the writing process. After you’ve finished your draft take time to review and refine your manuscript. Start by evaluating clarity, structure, flow of content. Make sure your ideas are organized in an order with transitions, between chapters and sections.

Take the time to check for any grammar or spelling mistakes that could undermine the professionalism of your book. While using grammar and spell check tools is helpful it’s also worth considering getting assistance from an editor or proofreader. Fresh eyes can often catch errors that you may have missed during self editing.

Don’t hesitate to seek feedback from readers or trusted individuals who can offer insights and suggestions for improvement. Their perspectives can help you refine your content and address any areas that may require clarification or elaboration.

By dedicating time and effort to creating informative content conducting thorough research and carefully editing your manuscript you’ll be able to produce an educational book of high quality that truly resonates with your readers. Now we can move on to the section where we’ll delve into publishing and promoting your book.

Publishing and Promoting your Educational Book

After completing the writing and editing process it’s time to share your book with the world. Effective publishing strategies along with promotion will ensure that your book reaches its intended audience while maximizing its impact. In this section we will explore options for publishing your book well as discuss strategies, for effective promotion.

Choosing a Publishing Method

When it comes to getting your book there you have two main options; traditional publishing or self publishing. Traditional publishing involves submitting your manuscript to publishing houses. They handle tasks, like editing, designing, printing and distributing your book. While this route gives you access to established distribution networks and promotional support it can be a process.

On the other hand, self-publishing allows you to maintain creative control and ownership of your book. With self-publishing platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and IngramSpark , you can easily publish and sell your book in both print and digital formats. Self-publishing offers flexibility, faster time to market, and higher royalty rates. However, it requires you to take on the responsibilities of editing, cover design, formatting, and marketing.

Consider the advantages and disadvantages of each approach while keeping in mind your goals, resources and preferences. Research different publishing. Self publishing platforms that align with your vision and requirements. Choose the approach that best suits your needs.

Designing an Eye-Catching Book Cover

An appealing book cover design is essential, in captivating readers attention while effectively representing the essence of your book. To ensure an professional cover, for your book it’s worth considering investing in professional cover design services or learning the fundamentals of graphic design. This will enable you to create a cover that not only grabs attention but also accurately represents the content within.

When designing your book cover take into account the genre, target audience and overall theme of your book. Incorporate imagery, typography and color schemes that align with your topic and resonate with your readers. An pleasing cover will entice readers and increase the likelihood of them picking up your book.

Marketing and Promoting your Book

Another crucial aspect is promoting your book. It’s essential to reach your target audience and generate interest. Building an author platform plays a role in establishing credibility and connecting with readers. Consider developing an author website or blog where you can share content interact with readers and showcase your expertise.

Leverage social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to establish an online presence. Engage with your audience by sharing sneak peeks, behind the scenes content as valuable insights related to the subject matter of your book. Collaborating with influencers or industry experts can help expand your reach by tapping into their established audience base.

Additionally organizing book launch events or virtual tours can create excitement, around your book while attracting attention from readers.

Collaborate with bookstores, libraries or educational centers to organize book signings or speaking engagements. Take advantage of media opportunities such, as interviews, podcasts or guest blogging to showcase your expertise and promote your book to an audience.

Remember that effective promotion requires ongoing effort. Continuously engage with your readers, gather feedback, and adapt your marketing strategies as necessary to ensure exposure and impact for your book.

By selecting your publishing method designing an attention grabbing book cover and implementing marketing strategies. You can help enhance the visibility and reach of your educational book. Now lets move on to the conclusion and wrap up our guide on how to write a book.

Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of our guide on how to write a book. We’ve explored the steps involved in creating a resource that educates and inspires readers. Lets summarize the points we covered throughout this guide.

We started by understanding the significance of books and their role in sharing knowledge, for lasting impact. Then we delved into the preparation phase. In this discussion we covered the importance of selecting a topic that aligns with your expertise and passion identifying your target audience and establishing goals and objectives.

Moving forward we explored the planning and structure of a book. We emphasized the significance of creating a organized outline developing a book title and subtitles and arranging content in a logical and captivating manner.

Afterward we delved into the process of writing and editing. We discussed strategies for crafting informative content conducting research as well, as ensuring meticulous editing and proofreading. These steps are crucial in delivering a notch book that effectively conveys your message.

Lastly we tackled the aspects of publishing and promoting your book. We explored both publishing options well as self publishing alternatives. Additionally we emphasized the importance of designing an attention grabbing book cover while providing marketing strategies for promotion.

Now that you possess the knowledge and tools to embark on your writing journey, for a book remember that it is a labor of love requiring dedication, perseverance and continuous learning. Embrace the process with enthusiasm while staying motivated throughout. Never underestimate the impact your book can have on the lives of its readers.

• SpringerLink shop

Writing a textbook – Advice for authors

What is a textbook.

• Is written for primarily students. Whilst the textbook may also be of interest to other audiences, such as researchers, the main audience should be students
• Supports a course: there must be courses being taught at multiple universities for which the textbook would be suitable. The textbook could either be the only textbook recommended for the course, or it could be a more supplementary textbook that would appear on a recommended reading list. 

Why write a textbook?

There can be several reasons why a textbook gets written:

• There is no textbook on the topic: if this is a relatively new area or perhaps a more niche topic then perhaps no-one has written a textbook to support courses yet
• Existing textbooks are inadequate: perhaps current textbooks don’t cover the topic very well and you have to dip in and out of several different textbooks to cover all the topics you need. Perhaps current textbooks are outdated and haven’t kept up with the research, meaning you have to do a lot of work providing your own notes to supplement these textbooks
• Prestige!: you could write the textbook on the topic and become a household name (in academic circles at least!)
• The opportunity to expand the impact of your educational materials by working with an internationally recognized publisher who can promote and disseminate the textbook  to a global audience

You should carry out market research to ensure there is an audience for your textbook and to help you understand what the competing textbooks would be:

• Is there a market for the textbook: are other people teaching similar courses? Is this course taught at universities around the world?
• What should be covered in the textbook: look at how other instructors teach this course - what topics are commonly taught? These should feature in your textbook
• How should you structure the textbook: again, looking how this course is taught, is there a common order that the topics are taught? Your textbook should reflect this
• What features to competing textbooks include: If they all have exercises then yours probably should too. Is there anything that you could add to your textbook to make it stand out from the others, e.g. case studies, definitions of key terms, etc.?
• Look at reviews of competing textbooks: what do readers like/dislike about the textbook? Have a look at sources such as Amazon and speak to colleagues about the textbooks they use

Have a vision for the textbook! Before you begin writing a proposal for a textbook or approaching a publisher, you should have a clear idea in your mind about what the textbook will be:

• Who am I writing this textbook for: have a clear understanding of who your target audience is i.e. what level of degree course will this textbook support?
• What is the objective of my textbook: Why is this textbook needed? Will it be a core course textbook, i.e. the only textbook for the course, or will it be more supplementary i.e. only covering part of a course and appearing on a recommended reading list? How will it meet a course curriculum?
• How will students benefit from my textbook: will they gain an in-depth understanding of a topic, or develop a skill set to understand a particular problem, etc.?
• Do I have already material that I can turn into a manuscript: can I repurpose my own lecture notes, slides, assignments/course questions, etc.?

There are a few final points to consider before you start writing, or to bear in mind as you are writing. 

• Prerequisite knowledge: what topics or concepts should readers already be familiar with? Do you need to review these or further explain them?
• Self-contained: students typically want a one-stop resource so you should try to ensure that as much of the information that student needs is presented in your textbook
• Modular chapters: students will likely dip in and out of the textbook rather than read it linearly from start to finish so try to make chapters self-contained where possible, so they can be understood out of context of the rest of the textbook
• Succinct and to the point: keep focused on the course that the textbook is supporting and the topics that need to be covered. Avoid including less relevant topics, very advanced topics, explanations of concepts that students should already understand, and any other content which may not actually be useful to the student
• Didactic elements: elements such as exercises, case studies, definitions and so on help break up the main chapter text and make it more engaging. Consider what didactic elements you want to include before you start writing so you can ensure that the main chapter text provides the right information to support the didactic element e.g. that a concept is adequately explained in order to answer an exercise question, or that theory is suitably described before a corresponding case study is given
• Writing style: textbooks can have a lighter, more conversational writing style than monographs and references works. Try to use active rather than passive sentences e.g. “It is believed by some physicians that…” becomes “Some physicians believe that…”
• Online resources: if you have exercises, consider writing a solutions manual for instructors so they don’t have to work out all the solutions themselves. Are there data sets, spreadsheets, programs, etc., that would be useful for students to access so they can test concepts themselves? The same copyright issues apply for online resources as for the print book – see Obtaining permissions for further information
• Write an Introduction to explain who the textbook is for and how it should be used: confirm the level of the students e.g. 3rd year undergraduates; confirm the course that the textbook supports; list any prerequisites or assumptions you have made about the student’s background knowledge; explain how the textbook could be used. If applicable, identify core must-read chapters and chapters which are more advanced or optional; provide short summaries of the chapters (just a sentence or two)
• Test your material as you write: use your draft chapters as part of your lecture course and see how students respond to it. Do they understand the concepts you are explaining? Are they able to complete any exercises?

Important downloads  (manuscript guidelines and SEO tips)

How to Write a Book From Start to Finish: A Proven Guide

So you want to write a book. Becoming an author can change your life—not to mention give you the ability to impact thousands, even millions, of people.

But writing a book isn’t easy. As a 21-time New York Times bestselling author, I can tell you: It’s far easier to quit than to finish.

You’re going to be tempted to give up writing your book when you run out of ideas, when your own message bores you, when you get distracted, or when you become overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the task.

But what if you knew exactly:

• Where to start…
• What each step entails…
• How to overcome fear, procrastination, a nd writer’s block…
• And how to keep from feeling overwhelmed?

You can write a book—and more quickly than you might think, because these days you have access to more writing tools than ever. 

The key is to follow a proven, straightforward, step-by-step plan .

My goal here is to offer you that book-writing plan.

I’ve used the techniques I outline below to write more than 200 books (including the Left Behind series) over the past 50 years. Yes, I realize writing over four books per year on average is more than you may have thought humanly possible. 

But trust me—with a reliable blueprint, you can get unstuck and finally write your book .

This is my personal approach on how to write a book. I’m confident you’ll find something here that can change the game for you. So, let’s jump in.

• How to Write a Book From Start to Finish

Part 1: Before You Begin Writing Your Book

• Establish your writing space.
• Assemble your writing tools.

Part 2: How to Start Writing a Book

• Break the project into small pieces.
• Settle on your BIG idea.
• Construct your outline.
• Set a firm writing schedule.
• Establish a sacred deadline.
• Embrace procrastination (really!).
• Eliminate distractions.
• Conduct your research.
• Start calling yourself a writer.

Part 3: The Book-Writing Itself

• Think reader-first.
• Find your writing voice.
• Write a compelling opener.
• Fill your story with conflict and tension.
• Turn off your internal editor while writing the first draft.
• Persevere through The Marathon of the Middle.
• Write a resounding ending.

Part 4: Editing Your Book

• Become a ferocious self-editor.
• Find a mentor.
• Part 5: Publishing Your Book
• Decide on your publishing avenue.
• Properly format your manuscript.
• Set up and grow your author platform.
• Pursue a Literary Agent
• Writing Your Query Letter
• Part One: Before You Begin Writing Your Book

You’ll never regret—in fact, you’ll thank yourself later—for investing the time necessary to prepare for such a monumental task.

You wouldn’t set out to cut down a huge grove of trees with just an axe. You’d need a chain saw, perhaps more than one. Something to keep them sharp. Enough fuel to keep them running.

You get the picture. Don’t shortcut this foundational part of the process.

Step 1. Establish your writing space.

To write your book, you don’t need a sanctuary. In fact, I started my career o n my couch facing a typewriter perched on a plank of wood suspended by two kitchen chairs.

What were you saying about your setup again? We do what we have to do.

And those early days on that sagging couch were among the most productive of my career.

Naturally, the nicer and more comfortable and private you can make your writing lair (I call mine my cave), the better.

Real writers can write anywhere .

Some authors write their books in restaurants and coffee shops. My first full time job was at a newspaper where 40 of us clacked away on manual typewriters in one big room—no cubicles, no partitions, conversations hollered over the din, most of my colleagues smoking, teletype machines clattering.

Cut your writing teeth in an environment like that, and anywhere else seems glorious.

Step 2. Assemble your writing tools.

In the newspaper business, there was no time to hand write our stuff and then type it for the layout guys. So I have always written at a keyboard and still write my books that way.

Most authors do, though some hand write their first drafts and then keyboard them onto a computer or pay someone to do that.

No publisher I know would even consider a typewritten manuscript, let alone one submitted in handwriting.

The publishing industry runs on Microsoft Word, so you’ll need to submit Word document files. Whether you prefer a Mac or a PC, both will produce the kinds of files you need.

And if you’re looking for a musclebound electronic organizing system, you can’t do better than Scrivener . It works well on both PCs and Macs, and it nicely interacts with Word files.

Just remember, Scrivener has a steep learning curve, so familiarize yourself with it before you start writing.

Scrivener users know that taking the time to learn the basics is well worth it.

Tons of other book-writing tools exist to help you. I’ve included some of the most well-known in my blog po st on here (for software) and here (for writing tools) fo r your reference.

So, what else do you need?

If you are one who handwrites your first drafts, don’t scrimp on paper, pencils, or erasers.

Don’t shortchange yourself on a computer either. Even if someone else is keyboarding for you, you’ll need a computer for research and for communicating with potential agents, edi tors, publishers.

Get the best computer you can afford, the latest, the one with the most capacity and speed.

Try to imagine everything you’re going to need in addition to your desk or table, so you can equip yourself in advance and don’t have to keep interrupting your work to find things like:

• Paper clips
• Pencil holders
• Pencil sharpeners
• Printing paper
• Paperweight
• Tape dispensers
• Cork or bulletin boards
• Reference works
• Space heaters
• Beverage mugs
• You name it
• Last, but most crucial, get the best, most ergonomic chair you can afford.

If I were to start my career again with that typewriter on a plank, I would not sit on that couch. I’d grab another straight-backed kitchen chair or something similar and be proactive about my posture and maintaining a healthy spine.

There’s nothing worse than trying to be creative and immerse yourself in writing while you’re in agony . The chair I work in today cost more than my first car!

If you’ve never used some of the items I listed above and can’t imagine needing them, fine. But make a list of everything you know you’ll need so when the actual writing begins, you’re already equipped.

As you grow as a writer and actually start making money at it, you can keep upgrading your writing space.

Where I work now is light years from where I started. But the point is, I didn’t wait to start writing until I could have a great spot in which to do it.

• Part Two: How to Start Writing a Book

Step 1. Break your book into small pieces.

Writing a book feels like a colossal project, because it is! Bu t your manuscript w ill be made up of many small parts .

An old adage says that the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time .

Try to get your mind off your book as a 400-or-so-page monstrosity.

It can’t be written all at once any more than that proverbial elephant could be eaten in a single sitting.

See your book for what it is: a manuscript made up of sentences, paragraphs, pages. Those pages will begin to add up, and though after a week you may have barely accumulated double digits, a few months down the road you’ll be into your second hundred pages.

So keep it simple.

Start by distilling you r big book idea from a page or so to a single sentence— your premise . The more specific that one-sentence premise, the more it will keep you focused while you’re writing.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before you can turn your big idea into one sentence, which can then b e expanded to an outline, you have to settle on exactly what that big idea is.

Step 2. Settle on your BIG idea.

To be book-worthy, your idea has to be killer.

You need to write something about which you’re passionate , something that gets you up in the morning, draws you to the keyboard, and keeps you there. It should excite not only you, but also anyone you tell about it.

I can’t overstate the importance of this.

If you’ve tried and failed to finish your book before—maybe more than once—it could be that the basic premise was flawed. Maybe it was worth a blog post or an article but couldn’t carry an entire book.

Think The Hunger Games , Harry Potter , or How to Win Friends and Influence People . The market is crowded, the competition fierce. There’s no more room for run-of-the-mill ideas. Your premise alone should make readers salivate.

Go for the big concept book.

How do you know you’ve got a winner? Does it have legs? In other words, does it stay in your mind, growing and developing every time you think of it?

Run it past loved ones and others you trust.

Does it raise eyebrows? Elicit Wows? Or does it result in awkward silences?

The right concept simply works, and you’ll know it when you land on it. Most importantly, your idea must capture you in such a way that you’re compelled to write it . Otherwise you will lose interest halfway through and never finish.

Step 3. Construct your outline.

Writing your book without a clear vision of where you’re going usually ends in disaster.

Even if you ’re writing a fiction book an d consider yourself a Pantser* as opposed to an Outliner , you need at least a basic structure.

[*Those of us who write by the seat of our pants and, as Stephen King advises, pu t interesting characters i n difficult situations and write to find out what happens]

You don’t have to call it an outline if that offends your sensibilities. But fashion some sort of a directional document that provides structure for your book and also serves as a safety net.

If you get out on that Pantser highwire and lose your balance, you’ll thank me for advising you to have this in place.

Now if you’re writing a nonfiction book, there’s no substitute for an outline .

Potential agents or publishers require this in your proposal. T hey want to know where you’re going, and they want to know that you know. What do you want your reader to learn from your book, and how will you ensure they learn it?

Fiction or nonfiction, if you commonly lose interest in your book somewhere in what I call the Marathon of the Middle, you likely didn’t start with enough exciting ideas .

That’s why and outline (or a basic framework) is essential. Don’t even start writing until you’re confident your structure will hold up through the end.

You may recognize this novel structure illustration.

Did you know it holds up—with only slight adaptations—for nonfiction books too ? It’s self-explanatory for novelists; they list their plot twists and developments and arrange them in an order that best serves to increase tension .

What separates great nonfiction from mediocre? The same structure!

Arrange your points and evidence in the same way so you’re setting your reader up for a huge payoff, and then make sure you deliver.

If your nonfiction book is a memoir ( more scene based ), an autobiography ( more fact-based ), or a biography, structure it like a novel and you can’t go wrong.

But even if it’s a straightforward how-to book, stay as close to this structure as possible, and you’ll see your manuscript come alive.

Make promises early, triggering your reader to anticipate fresh ideas, secrets, inside information, something major that will make him thrilled with the finished product.

While a nonfiction book may not have as much action or dialogue or character development as a novel, you can inject tension by showing where people have failed before and how your reader can succeed.

You can even make the how-to project look impossible until you pay off that setup with your unique solution.

Keep your outline to a single page for now. But make sure every major point is represented, so you’ll always know where you’re going.

And don’t worry if you’ve forgotten the basics of classic outlining or have never felt comfortable with the concept.

Your outline must serve you. If that means Roman numerals and capital and lowercase letters and then Arabic numerals, you can certainly fashion it that way. But if you just want a list of sentences that synopsize your idea, that’s fine too.

Simply start with your working title, then your premise, then—for fiction, list all the major scenes that fit into the rough structure above.

For nonfiction, try to come up with chapter titles and a sentence or two of what each chapter will cover.

Once you have your one-page outline, remember it is a fluid document meant to serve you and your book. Expand it, change it, play with it as you see fit—even during the writing process .

Step 4. Set a firm writing schedule.

Ideally, you want to schedule at least six hours per week to write your book.

That may consist of three sessions of two hours each, two sessions of three hours, or six one-hour sessions—whatever works for you.

I recommend a regular pattern (same times, same days) that can most easily become a habit. But if that’s impossible, just make sure you carve out at least six hours so you can see real progress.

Having trouble finding the time to write a book? News flash—you won’t find the time. You have to make it.

I used the phrase carve out above for a reason. That’s what it takes.

Something in your calendar will likely have to be sacrificed in the interest of writing time . 

Make sure it’s not your family—they should always be your top priority. Never sacrifice your family on the altar of your writing career.

But beyond that, the truth is that we all find time for what we really want to do.

Many writers insist they have no time to write, but they always seem to catch the latest Netflix original series, or go to the next big Hollywood feature. They enjoy concerts, parties, ball games, whatever.

How important is it to you to finally write your book? What will you cut from your calendar each week to ensure you give it the time it deserves?

• A favorite TV show?
• An hour of sleep per night? (Be careful with this one; rest is crucial to a writer.)

Successful writers make time to write.

When writing becomes a habit, you’ll be on your way.

Step 5. Establish a sacred deadline.

Without deadlines, I rarely get anything done. I need that motivation.

Admittedly, my deadlines are now established in my contracts from publishers.

If you’re writing your first book, you probably don’t have a contract yet. To ensure you finish your book, set your own deadline—then consider it sacred .

Tell your spouse or loved one or trusted friend. Ask that they hold you accountable.

Now determine—and enter in your calendar—the number of pages you need to produce per writing session to meet your deadline. If it proves unrealistic, change the deadline now.

If you have no idea how many pages or words you typically produce per session, you may have to experiment before you finalize those figures.

Say you want to finish a 400-page manuscript by this time next year.

Divide 400 by 50 weeks (accounting for two off-weeks), and you get eight pages per week. 

Divide that by your typical number of writing sessions per week and you’ll know how many pages you should finish per session.

Now is the time to adjust these numbers, while setting your deadline and determining your pages per session.

Maybe you’d rather schedule four off weeks over the next year. Or you know your book will be unusually long.

Change the numbers to make it realistic and doable, and then lock it in. Remember, your deadline is sacred.

Step 6. Embrace procrastination (really!).

You read that right. Don’t fight it; embrace it.

You wouldn’t guess it from my 200+ published books, but I’m the king of procrastinators .

Don’t be. So many authors are procrastinators that I’ve come to wonder if it’s a prerequisite.

The secret is to accept it and, in fact, schedule it.

I quit fretting and losing sleep over procrastinating when I realized it was inevitable and predictable, and also that it was productive.

Sound like rationalization?

Maybe it was at first. But I learned that while I’m putting off the writing, my subconscious is working on my book. It’s a part of the process. When you do start writing again, you’ll enjoy the surprises your subconscious reveals to you.

So, knowing procrastination is coming, book it on your calendar .

Take it into account when you’re determining your page quotas. If you have to go back in and increase the number of pages you need to produce per session, do that (I still do it all the time).

But—and here’s the key—you must never let things get to where that number of pages per day exceeds your capacity.

It’s one thing to ratchet up your output from two pages per session to three. But if you let it get out of hand, you’ve violated the sacredness of your deadline.

How can I procrastinate and still meet more than 190 deadlines?

Because I keep the deadlines sacred.

Step 7. Eliminate distractions to stay focused.

Are you as easily distracted as I am?

Have you found yourself writing a sentence and then checking your email? Writing another and checking Facebook? Getting caught up in the pictures of 10 Sea Monsters You Wouldn’t Believe Actually Exist?

Then you just have to check out that precious video from a talk show where the dad surprises the family by returning from the war.

That leads to more and more of the same. Once I’m in, my writing is forgotten, and all of a sudden the day has gotten away from me.

The answer to these insidious timewasters?

Look into these apps that allow you to block your email, social media, browsers, game apps, whatever you wish during the hours you want to write. Some carry a modest fee, others are free.

• Freedom app
• FocusWriter

Step 8. Conduct your research.

Yes, research is a vital part of the process , whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction.

Fiction means more than just making up a story.

Your details and logic and technical and historical details must be right for your novel to be believable.

And for nonfiction, even if you’re writing about a subject in which you’re an expert—as I’m doing here—getting all the facts right will polish your finished product.

In fact, you’d be surprised at how many times I’ve researched a fact or two while writing this blog post alone.

The last thing you want is even a small mistake due to your lack of proper research.

Regardless the detail, trust me, you’ll hear from readers about it.

Your credibility as an author and an expert hinges on creating trust with your reader . That dissolves in a hurry if you commit an error.

My favorite research resources:

• World Almanacs : These alone list almost everything you need for accurate prose: facts, data, government information, and more. For my novels, I often use these to come up with ethnically accurate character names.
• The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus : The online version is great, because it’s lightning fast. You couldn’t turn the pages of a hard copy as quickly as you can get where you want to onscreen. One caution: Never let it be obvious you’ve consulted a thesaurus. You’re not looking for the exotic word that jumps off the page. You’re looking for that common word that’s on the tip of your tongue.
• WorldAtlas.com : Here you’ll find nearly limitless information about any continent, country, region, city, town, or village. Names, monetary units, weather patterns, tourism info, and even facts you wouldn’t have thought to search for. I get ideas when I’m digging here, for both my novels and my nonfiction books.

Step 9. Start calling yourself a writer.

Your inner voice may tell you, “You’re no writer and you never will be. Who do you think you are, trying to write a book?”

That may be why you’ve stalled at writing your book in the past .

But if you’re working at writing, studying writing, practicing writing, that makes you a writer. Don’t wait till you reach some artificial level of accomplishment before calling yourself a writer.

A cop in uniform and on duty is a cop whether he’s actively enforced the law yet or not. A carpenter is a carpenter whether he’s ever built a house.

Self-identify as a writer now and you’ll silence that inner critic —who, of course, is really you. 

Talk back to yourself if you must. It may sound silly, but acknowledging yourself as a writer can give you the confidence to keep going and finish your book.

Are you a writer? Say so.

• Part Three: The Book-Writing Itself

Step 1. Think reader-first.

This is so important that that you should write it on a sticky note and affix it to your monitor so you’re reminded of it every time you write.

Every decision you make about your manuscript must be run through this filter.

Not you-first, not book-first, not editor-, agent-, or publisher-first. Certainly not your inner circle- or critics-first.

Reader-first, last, and always .

If every decision is based on the idea of reader-first, all those others benefit anyway.

When fans tell me they were moved by one of my books, I think back to this adage and am grateful I maintained that posture during the writing.

Does a scene bore you? If you’re thinking reader-first, it gets overhauled or deleted.

Where to go, what to say, what to write next? Decide based on the reader as your priority.

Whatever your gut tells you your reader would prefer, that’s your answer.

Whatever will intrigue him, move him, keep him reading, those are your marching orders.

So, naturally, you need to know your reader. Rough age? General interests? Loves? Hates? Attention span?

When in doubt, look in the mirror . 

The surest way to please your reader is to please yourself. Write what you would want to read and trust there is a broad readership out there that agrees.

Step 2. Find your writing voice.

Discovering your voice is nowhere near as complicated as some make it out to be.

You can find yours by answering these quick questions :

• What’s the coolest thing that ever happened to you?
• Who’s the most important person you told about it?
• What did you sound like when you did?
• That’s your writing voice. It should read the way you sound at your most engaged.

That’s all there is to it.

If you write fiction and the narrator of your book isn’t you, go through the three-question exercise on the narrator’s behalf—and you’ll quickly master the voice.

Here’s a blog I posted that’ll walk you through the process .

Step 3. Write a compelling opener.

If you’re stuck because of the pressure of crafting the perfect opening line for your book, you’re not alone.

And neither is your angst misplaced.

This is not something you should put off and come back to once you’ve started on the rest of the first chapter.

Oh, it can still change if the story dictates that. But settling on a good one will really get you off and running.

It’s unlikely you’ll write a more important sentence than your first one , whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction. Make sure you’re thrilled with it and then watch how your confidence—and momentum—soars.

Most great first lines fall into one of these categories:

1. Surprising

Fiction : “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” —George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nonfiction : “By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, The Last American Man

2. Dramatic Statement

Fiction : “They shoot the white girl first.” —Toni Morrison, Paradise

Nonfiction : “I was five years old the first time I ever set foot in prison.” —Jimmy Santiago Baca, A Place to Stand

3. Philosophical

Fiction : “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Nonfiction : “It’s not about you.” —Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

Fiction : “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon. —James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss

Nonfiction : “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’” —Truman Capote, In Cold Blood

Great opening lines from other classics may give you ideas for yours. Here’s a list of famous openers .

Step 4. Fill your story with conflict and tension.

Your reader craves conflict, and yes, this applies to nonfiction readers as well.

In a novel, if everything is going well and everyone is agreeing, your reader will soon lose interest and find something else to do.

Are two of your characters talking at the dinner table? Have one say something that makes the other storm out.

Some deep-seeded rift in their relationship has surfaced—just a misunderstanding, or an injustice?

Thrust people into conflict with each other . 

That’ll keep your reader’s attention.

Certain nonfiction genres won’t lend themselves to that kind of conflict, of course, but you can still inject tension by setting up your reader for a payoff in later chapters. Check out some of the current bestselling nonfiction works to see how writers accomplish this.

Somehow they keep you turning those pages, even in a simple how-to title.

Tension is the secret sauce that will propel your reader through to the end . 

And sometimes that’s as simple as implying something to come.

Step 5. Turn off your internal editor while writing the first draft.

Many of us perfectionists find it hard to write a first draft—fiction or nonfiction—without feeling compelled to make every sentence exactly the way we want it.

That voice in your head that questions every word, every phrase, every sentence, and makes you worry you’re being redundant or have allowed cliches to creep in—well, that’s just your editor alter ego.

He or she needs to be told to shut up .

This is not easy.

Deep as I am into a long career, I still have to remind myself of this every writing day. I cannot be both creator and editor at the same time. That slows me to a crawl, and my first draft of even one brief chapter could take days.

Our job when writing that first draft is to get down the story or the message or the teaching—depending on your genre.

It helps me to view that rough draft as a slab of meat I will carve tomorrow .

I can’t both produce that hunk and trim it at the same time.

A cliche, a redundancy, a hackneyed phrase comes tumbling out of my keyboard, and I start wondering whether I’ve forgotten to engage the reader’s senses or aimed for his emotions.

That’s when I have to chastise myself and say, “No! Don’t worry about that now! First thing tomorrow you get to tear this thing up and put it back together again to your heart’s content!”

Imagine yourself wearing different hats for different tasks , if that helps—whatever works to keep you rolling on that rough draft. You don’t need to show it to your worst enemy or even your dearest love. This chore is about creating. Don’t let anything slow you down.

Some like to write their entire first draft before attacking the revision. As I say, whatever works.

Doing it that way would make me worry I’ve missed something major early that will cause a complete rewrite when I discover it months later. I alternate creating and revising.

The first thing I do every morning is a heavy edit and rewrite of whatever I wrote the day before. If that’s ten pages, so be it. I put my perfectionist hat on and grab my paring knife and trim that slab of meat until I’m happy with every word.

Then I switch hats, tell Perfectionist Me to take the rest of the day off, and I start producing rough pages again.

So, for me, when I’ve finished the entire first draft, it’s actually a second draft because I have already revised and polished it in chunks every day.

THEN I go back through the entire manuscript one more time, scouring it for anything I missed or omitted, being sure to engage the reader’s senses and heart, and making sure the whole thing holds together.

I do not submit anything I’m not entirely thrilled with .

I know there’s still an editing process it will go through at the publisher, but my goal is to make my manuscript the absolute best I can before they see it.

Compartmentalize your writing vs. your revising and you’ll find that frees you to create much more quickly.

Step 6. Persevere through The Marathon of the Middle.

Most who fail at writing a book tell me they give up somewhere in what I like to call The Marathon of the Middle.

That’s a particularly rough stretch for novelists who have a great concept, a stunning opener, and they can’t wait to get to the dramatic ending. But they bail when they realize they don’t have enough cool stuff to fill the middle.

They start padding, trying to add scenes just for the sake of bulk, but they’re soon bored and know readers will be too.

This actually happens to nonfiction writers too.

The solution there is in the outlining stage , being sure your middle points and chapters are every bit as valuable and magnetic as the first and last.

If you strategize the progression of your points or steps in a process—depending on nonfiction genre—you should be able to eliminate the strain in the middle chapters.

For novelists, know that every book becomes a challenge a few chapters in. The shine wears off, keeping the pace and tension gets harder, and it’s easy to run out of steam.

But that’s not the time to quit. Force yourself back to your structure, come up with a subplot if necessary, but do whatever you need to so your reader stays engaged.

Fiction writer or nonfiction author, The Marathon of the Middle is when you must remember why you started this journey in the first place.

It isn’t just that you want to be an author. You have something to say. You want to reach the masses with your message.

Yes, it’s hard. It still is for me—every time. But don’t panic or do anything rash, like surrendering. Embrace the challenge of the middle as part of the process. If it were easy, anyone could do it.

Step 7. Write a resounding ending.

This is just as important for your nonfiction book as your novel. It may not be as dramatic or emotional, but it could be—especially if you’re writing a memoir.

But even a how-to or self-help book needs to close with a resounding thud, the way a Broadway theater curtain meets the floor .

How do you ensure your ending doesn’t fizzle?

• Don’t rush it . Give readers the payoff they’ve been promised. They’ve invested in you and your book the whole way. Take the time to make it satisfying.
• Never settle for close enough just because you’re eager to be finished. Wait till you’re thrilled with every word, and keep revising until you are.
• If it’s unpredictable, it had better be fair and logical so your reader doesn’t feel cheated. You want him to be delighted with the surprise, not tricked.
• If you have multiple ideas for how your book should end, go for the heart rather than the head, even in nonfiction. Readers most remember what moves them.
• Part Four: Rewriting Your Book

Step 1. Become a ferocious self-editor.

Agents and editors can tell within the first two pages whether your manuscript is worthy of consideration. That sounds unfair, and maybe it is. But it’s also reality, so we writers need to face it.

How can they often decide that quickly on something you’ve devoted months, maybe years, to?

Because they can almost immediately envision how much editing would be required to make those first couple of pages publishable. If they decide the investment wouldn’t make economic sense for a 300-400-page manuscript, end of story.

Your best bet to keep an agent or editor reading your manuscript?

You must become a ferocious self-editor. That means:

• Omit needless words
• Choose the simple word over one that requires a dictionary
• Avoid subtle redundancies , like “He thought in his mind…” (Where else would someone think?)
• Avoid hedging verbs like almost frowned, sort of jumped, etc.
• Generally remove the word that —use it only when absolutely necessary for clarity
• Give the reader credit and resist the urge to explain , as in, “She walked through the open door.” (Did we need to be told it was open?)
• Avoid too much stage direction (what every character is doing with every limb and digit)
• Avoid excessive adjectives
• Show, don’t tell
• And many more

For my full list and how to use them, click here . (It’s free.)

When do you know you’re finished revising? When you’ve gone from making your writing better to merely making it different. That’s not always easy to determine, but it’s what makes you an author. 

Step 2. Find a mentor.

Get help from someone who’s been where you want to be.

Imagine engaging a mentor who can help you sidestep all the amateur pitfalls and shave years of painful trial-and-error off your learning curve.

Just make sure it’s someone who really knows the writing and publishing world. Many masquerade as mentors and coaches but have never really succeeded themselves.

Look for someone widely-published who knows how to work with agents, editors, and publishers .

There are many helpful mentors online . I teach writers through this free site, as well as in my members-only Writers Guild .

Step 1. Decide on your publishing avenue.

In simple terms, you have two options when it comes to publishing your book:

1. Traditional publishing

Traditional publishers take all the risks. They pay for everything from editing, proofreading, typesetting, printing, binding, cover art and design, promotion, advertising, warehousing, shipping, billing, and paying author royalties.

2. Self-publishing

Everything is on you. You are the publisher, the financier, the decision-maker. Everything listed above falls to you. You decide who does it, you approve or reject it, and you pay for it. The term self-publishing is a bit of a misnomer, however, because what you’re paying for is not publishing, but printing. 

Both avenues are great options under certain circumstances. 

Not sure which direction you want to take? Click here to read my in-depth guide to publishing a book. It’ll show you the pros and cons of each, what each involves, and my ultimate recommendation.

Step 2: Properly format your manuscript.

Regardless whether you traditionally or self-publish your book, proper formatting is critical.

Because poor formatting makes you look like an amateur .

Readers and agents expect a certain format for book manuscripts, and if you don’t follow their guidelines, you set yourself up for failure.

Best practices when formatting your book:

• Use 12-point type
• Use a serif font; the most common is Times Roman
• Double space your manuscript
• No extra space between paragraphs
• Only one space between sentences
• Indent each paragraph half an inch (setting a tab, not using several spaces)
• Text should be flush left and ragged right, not justified
• If you choose to add a line between paragraphs to indicate a change of location or passage of time, center a typographical dingbat (like ***) on the line
• Black text on a white background only
• One-inch margins on the top, bottom, and sides (the default in Word)
• Create a header with the title followed by your last name and the page number. The header should appear on each page other than the title page.

If you need help implementing these formatting guidelines, click here to read my in-depth post on formatting your manuscript.

Step 3. Set up your author website and grow your platform.

All serious authors need a website. Period.

Because here’s the reality of publishing today…

You need an audience to succeed.

If you want to traditionally publish, agents and publishers will Google your name to see if you have a website and a following.

If you want to self-publish, you need a fan base.

And your author website serves as a hub for your writing, where agents, publishers, readers, and fans can learn about your work.

Don’t have an author website yet? Click here to read my tutorial on setting this up.

Step 4. Pursue a Literary Agent.

There remain a few traditional publishers (those who pay you and take the entire financial risk of publishing your book rather than the other way around) who accept unsolicited submissions, but I do NOT recommend going that route. 

Your submission will likely wind up in what is known in the business as the slush pile. That means some junior staff member will be assigned to get to it when convenient and determine whether to reject it out of hand (which includes the vast majority of the submissions they see) or suggest the publisher’s editorial board consider it.

While I am clearly on record urging you to exhaust all your efforts to traditionally publish before resorting to self-publishing (in other words, paying to be printed), as I say, I do not recommend submitting unsolicited material even to those publishers who say they accept such efforts.

Even I don’t try to navigate the publishing world by myself, despite having been an author, an editor, a publisher, and a writing coach over the last 50 years.

That’s why I have an agent and you need one too.

Many beginning writers naturally wonder why they should share any of their potential income with an agent (traditionally 15%). First, they don’t see any of that income unless you’re getting your 85% at the same time. And second, everyone I know in the business is happy to have someone in their corner, making an agent a real bargain.

I don’t want to have to personally represent myself and my work. I want to stay in my creative lane and let a professional negotiate every clause of the contract and win me the best advance and rights deal possible.

Once under contract, I work directly with the publishing house’s editor and proofreader, but I leave the financial business to my agent.

Ultimately, an agent’s job is to protect your rights and make you money. They profit only when you do.

That said, landing an agent can be as difficult and painstaking as landing a publisher. They know the market, they know the editors, they know what publishers want, and they can advise you how to put your best foot forward.

But how do you know who to trust? Credible, trustworthy agents welcome scrutiny. If you read a book in your genre that you like, check the Acknowledgments page for the agent’s name. If the author thinks enough of that person to mention them glowingly, that’s a great endorsement.

If you’re writing in the inspirational market, peruse agents listed in The Christian Writer’s Market Guide . If you’re writing for the general market, try The Writer’s Market . If you know any published authors, ask about their agents.

The guides that list agents also include what they’re looking for, what they specialize in, and sometimes even what they’re not interested in. Study these to determine potential agents who ply their trade in your genre. Visit their websites for their submission guidelines, and follow these to a T.

They may ask for a query letter, a synopsis, a proposal, or even sample chapters. Be sure not to send more or less than they suggest. 

The best, and most logical place to start is by sending them a query letter. Query simply means question, and in essence the question your letter asks is whether you may send them more.

Step 5: Writing Your Query Letter.

It’s time to move from author to salesperson.

Your query letter will determine whether a literary agent asks to see more, sends you a cordial form letter to let you down easy, or simply doesn’t respond.

Sadly, many agents stipulate on their websites that if you hear nothing after a certain number of weeks, you should take that as an indication that they’re not interested. Frankly, to me, this is frustrating to the writer and lazy on the part of the agent. Surely, in this technological age, it should be easy to hit one button and send a note to someone who might otherwise wonder if the query reached the agent at all.

But that’s the reality we deal with.

So, the job of your one-page single-spaced email letter is to win a response—best case scenario: an invitation to send more: a proposal or even the manuscript. 

Basically, you’re selling yourself and your work. Write a poor query letter and an agent will assume your book is also poorly written.

Without being gimmicky or cute, your letter must intrigue an agent. 

Your query letter should:

• Be addressed to a specific person (not to the staff of the agency or “To Whom It May Concern”)*
• Present your book idea simply
• Evidence your style
• Show you know who your readers are
• Clarify your qualifications
• Exhibit flexibility and professionalism

*If you see a list of agents in a firm, choose one from the middle or bottom of the list. It could be that they get less personal mail than the person whose name is on the door. Who knows? That you single them out may make them see your query in a more favorable light.

For some great advice on writing a query letter, check this out: https://janefriedman.com/query-letters/  

• You Have What It Takes to Write a Book

Writing a book is a herculean task, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

You can do this .

Take it one step at a time and vow to stay focused. And who knows, maybe by this time next year you’ll be holding a published copy of your book. :)

I’ve created an exclusive writing guide called How to Maximize Your Writing Time that will help you stay on track and finish writing your book.

Get your FREE copy by clicking the button below.

Faith-Based Words and Phrases

What You and I Can Learn From Patricia Raybon

A Guest Blog from Stephen King—Yes, that Stephen King

Before you go, be sure to grab my FREE guide:

How to Write a Book: Everything You Need to Know in 20 Steps

Just tell me where to send it:

Enter your email to instantly access the free PDF version of How to Write a Book: Everything You Need to Know in 20 Steps .

Enter your email to instantly access my ultimate guide: 

How to maximize your writing time.

Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Advice for Teachers Who Want to Write a Book

• Share article

(This is the first post in a three-part series.)

The new question-of-the-week is:

What is your advice for active K-12 educators who might be thinking about writing a book?

Many of us feel like we have books “in us.”

In theory, many educators (at least, those who don’t have little kids at home) might have a little more time over the next few months to devote to writing.

This series is designed to support teachers if that theory reflects reality.

Today, educators Sarah Cooper, Tom Rademacher, Rita Platt, and Pernille Ripp share their experiences writing books while teaching at the same time. In Part Two, editors from publishing houses will contribute their suggestions. Part Three will again feature active K-12 teachers writing about their very recent trials and tribulations.

You might also be interested in three previous posts that have appeared here on the same topic:

* ‘Write the Book You Wish You Had on Your Bookshelf’

This final post in a series on teachers writing books shares advice from Kimberly Carraway, Erik Palmer, Jeffrey Benson, and Cathie E. West. In addition, I share a few comments from readers.

* ‘Teachers Make Great Authors’

Allison Scott, Julia Thompson, and Vicki Davis share suggestions for teachers who would like to write a book and get it published. This is the second post in a three-part series.

* Educators Wanting to Write a Book ‘Must Go for It!’

Marjorie McAneny, Alan Sitomer, PJ Caposey, and Steven Anderson share their suggestions for educators who want to write a book.

In addition, here are some additional resources I’ve collected: So, You Want To Write A Book? Here’s The Best Advice...

Six tips for writing a book

Sarah Cooper teaches 8th grade U.S. history and is dean of studies at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Canada, Calif. She is the author of two books, Creating Citizens (Routledge, 2018) and Making History Mine (Stenhouse, 2009). Sarah speaks at conferences and writes for sites including Well-Schooled, Bookclique, MiddleWeb, CivXNow, iCivics, and the Modern Civics Project. All of her recent writing can be found at sarahjcooper.com :

Writing a book about teaching is not as hard as it seems. You don’t need an agent, and cold submissions can be very successful.

In 2007, I had been teaching for almost a decade, always fascinated by curriculum design, and wanted to put my history lesson plans to good use beyond the classroom.

First, I queried Heinemann, which had a temporary hiatus on publishing social studies books because they didn’t sell that well (still don’t, in general, compared with English and general literacy books). An editor there kindly directed me to Stenhouse Publishers.

My first book, Making History Mine: Meaningful Connections for Grades 5-9 , emerged after a Stenhouse submission which included an outline and sample chapter, followed by another sample chapter four months later, followed by an offer two months after that.

My second book, Creating Citizens: Teaching Civics and Current Events in the History Classroom , jump-started itself. An editor at Routledge’s Eye on Education, which partners with MiddleWeb on K-12 titles, wanted someone to write about teaching in a controversial political climate and had read my MiddleWeb blog posts about current events.

Here’s what I’ve learned from publishing two books nearly 10 years apart:

Write a pedagogy book because you know you have something to say - not because you’re hoping it will sell a ton of copies and help you quit your day job. This could be a happy consequence, but it shouldn’t be why you’re writing.

Survey the field before you query. Any proposal should address how your book would be different from what is already out there. If it’s not fresh, keep thinking.

Query committed educational publishing companies such as Stenhouse , Heinemann , Routledge , ASCD , and Corwin . They are actively looking for new voices and believe in supporting authors and teachers.

Listen to your editors. I don’t like admitting it, but every time I received substantial edits, I chafed. Inevitably, though, I realized my editor was right. Through the revision process, I grew as a writer and a teacher, as when my Stenhouse editor suggested that reading about the times I had failed as a teacher was more interesting than hearing about success. And I had renewed empathy for my students when they needed to revise their own drafts based on my comments!

Seize writing time when you can . Sometimes a 20-minute interval can be enough to get down a paragraph or a page. At other times, you may need an uninterrupted two or three hours to let ideas spool out. I wrote my first book while on a six-month maternity leave with my second son (born in March, with perfect “teacher baby” timing!) and my second book while getting a master’s degree through the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. I would not have chosen this timing for either book, but there will never be a perfect time, and sometimes you just have to get started.

• Realize that your writing will inform your teaching and vice versa. This symbiosis will keep you honest in your writing and with your students, and it has been perhaps the richest unexpected consequence of publishing. I’m a more creative teacher because writing regularly keeps me experimenting.

Seeing yourself as a researcher and author in addition to a teacher is thrilling - good luck!

“Write your book”

Tom Rademacher is an 8th grade English teacher in the Minneapolis area. His book, It Won’t Be Easy, An Exceedingly Honest (and slightly unprofessional) Love Letter to Teaching, was released in April 2017 and was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. His writing has also appeared in Education Post, City Pages, MinnPost, and Huffington Post. In 2014, he was honored as Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year. You can find him at www.mrtomrad.com:

For the first chunk of teaching, eight years or so, I knew that while I was a writer, and while I was a teacher, that I was not someone who wrote about teaching.

I tried. I was very, very bad at it. My attempts came off like a mixture between awful spoken word poetry, stand-up comedy, and the answers one would give when their grandma asked, “How’s school?” Somewhere during that eighth or ninth year, I finally had some teacher thoughts that maybe were good enough to write down. I was ready, at last, for my teacher book.

I had this grand unifying theory of teaching, or at least pieces of it that I was starting to draw lines between in my head. Questions I had about teaching had been answered, and a little digging would surely uncover the magical codex that made every nonsense moment make total sense. I worried about fitting the whole thing into just one book.

I started writing and couldn’t stop. I was a madman, possessed with the fury and fire of this missive, possessed with the need to transcribe everything I had come to understand about this profession during my near-decade. Then I stopped writing. I had written it all down. Every single thing. It was almost two whole pages and had taken me the better part of half an hour.

It was not a book. It was barely long enough to be a blog post.

A couple years later, I did end up writing a book, even publishing it and everything and having the truly and consistently stunning experience of having lots of people read and like it.

I dunno, it felt a little like working really hard to grow a new internal organ and then cutting it out for people to look at and pass around. But, you know, no big deal.

I’ve had a few other teacher friends who have published. The first teacher book I ever truly loved was Jose Vilson’s This is Not a Test. Shanna Peeple’s book Teach Like Socrates should be mandatory for everyone in the world. Megan Olivia Hall just released a book of cool science experiments for kids that includes all the awesome teachy stuff those experiments show. There are others, yes, and each book is the best teacher book I’ve ever read and also makes me feel jealous and bad about myself.

But I was asked for advice, and advice I shall give. There is much advice on publishing and stuff out there. I have found Google dot com to be a very helpful website for finding that sort of how to submit and contracts and self vs. small vs. large press stuff.

Instead, I’ll try to give you the best advice I can manage that is specific to writing teachery books about teachery stuff. Hopefully, that will help, and, if not, Google dot com is, really, a website I cannot recommend enough. Spelled just like it sounds, if you ever forget.

Write Easy:

Teaching is hard. We get used to it being hard. Writing is often no walk on the beach, either. So, yes, the combination can be a pain in the ass. But the problem with torturing yourself to write is that it will often feel like torture to read. So, yeah, give yourself permission not do that. “Write Easy” was my mantra while I finished up the first draft of my manuscript. Any time I got too furrow-browed about it, any time the words felt forced and the practice felt painful, I took a step back.

Write Simple:

Some of the most impactful parts of my book, the parts people have posted or written me letters about, are things that almost didn’t make it. I like to think I’m a pretty smart dude and I get really excited about the ideas I have that feel the most groundbreaking and out there. While editing my book, I had circled a few sections that felt a little too obvious, a little too simple, but ultimately decided to leave them in since it was directed at new teachers.

It turns out that the things that felt too simple to me were exactly what a whole lot of people felt they needed to hear. Readers needed a foundation of how my philosophy and practices evolved, and in different places and different departments, conversations that have been normal and old-hat in one place may not have ever happened in another. Good teacher books are silo-busters.

Write When You Can:

If there’s one thing about writing I know for sure, it is this: Every other writer writes more than you do.

I mean ... it certainly feels that way anyway. You see a tweet or Facebook post about someone maybe considering writing a book, and then two days later they share a picture of the finished manuscript. Writers celebrate daily word-count goals that you haven’t hit in the last three months combined.

It’s OK. Really. Write when you can.

Sometimes, I grab a little time and energy before school starts or during my lunch break. Often, I get an hour or two during a weekend when my kiddo is otherwise occupied and I have either gotten all the laundry, cleaning, and cooking done I had planned to do or, far more frequently, have decided to ignore the rest of my life because I feel compelled to write.

Whatever your schedule, whatever your timetable, whatever your practice, it is yours, and that’s OK. Some books take a few months, and some take many years. Neither path makes a book or a writer necessarily better or worse.

Write Your Book:

There is a method to book writing that involves surveying the market and looking for specific gaps in what is available or in groups that are targeted and then tailoring your book to fill that gap. It’s an OK way to get a book written but not a great way to write your book, the book you could and should write.

You are an expert in your own experience. Start there.

You are the most effective communicator of your own beliefs. Share them.

Your name will be on the front of this thing, whatever it turns out to be. Make sure it’s something that speaks for you, that speaks from you. Write your book.

“Get writing!”

Rita Platt (@ritaplatt) is a national-board-certified teacher and a proud #EduDork! Her experience includes teaching learners of all levels from kindergartner to graduate student. She is currently the principal of St. Croix Falls and Dresser Elementary Schools in Wisconsin, teaches graduate courses for the Professional Development Institute, and writes for MiddleWeb:

Last year, I wrote and published my first book, Working Hard, Working Happy: Cultivating a Climate of Effort and Joy in Your Classroom ! Thanks to the help of the amazing John Norton and Susan Curtis at MiddleWeb and the incredibly supportive Lauren Davis at Routledge Eye on Education , I was able to make a lifelong dream come true. Below are my best tips and hints on how to start down a road that will lead you to writing your own book.

Know What You Love: Teaching and learning is my passion. Education is my hobby, job, profession, and vocation. Before I wrote a book, I had spent thousands of hours thinking about my theories and philosophies and gaining a solid vision for what I wanted to say and why I needed to say it. Dave Burgess (you know the pirate guy) helped me to realize that when a writer plans to develop a book, the content should fill her/his heart and mind so completely that s/he HAS to share it! He advises that the writer think of her/his book as being a magnum opus. I love that advice because it was spot-on for me. When I wrote my book, it was filled to the brim with content that I believe every educator must be exposed to. Writing it was a work of passion, typing the pages was spilling my secrets with the hope that they would impact practice far and wide. I would suggest if you’re not feeling that strongly about the book you want to write, you might not be ready to write it.

Write, Write, and Then Write More : If you have the hope of writing a book, you need to feel like a writer, and for me, the only way to do that was to write and publish. A lot. Early in my career, I realized that it was important to write and share my ideas wherever I could (partial publication list with links is here .) Three opportunities really helped me operationalize my writing life. One, a friend had just started a teacher site, We Teach, We Learn , and he encouraged me to write and post pieces as often as I like. Two, I was lucky enough to cyber-meet Larry Ferlazzo and began writing short pieces for his Classroom Q & A column (this very one!). Three, I started reviewing books for MiddleWeb . Each of these low-pressure inroads to being a “real” writer helped me develop my writing skills, gain confidence, and build my professional network. You can do the same! Review for Middleweb, pitch a post to Edutopia , look for calls for short content on your favorite websites or journals. Even better, buy Jenny Rankin’s AMAZING book, Share Your Education Expertise With the World . It’s full of tips to get you started.

Build Your Knowledge Base and Your PLN : Not only is it important to write a ton, but reading and connecting a ton are, too. Do Google searches for the topics you’re interested in and read to get a feel for what’s already out there. Study the style of authors you like - even better, reach out to them, and pick their brains. If you’re not already on Twitter, that is a MUST! Get your handle and hop into weekly chats. Follow me (@ritaplatt) and ask for help, I’ll gladly show you around. On Twitter, you will grow your Professional Learning Network (PLN) in ways that will blow your mind! You will be amazed at how accessible your favorite edu-authors are. Through Twitter, I have met many of my heroes and found each to be open and willing to help me with my own professional writing goals.

To Sum It Up:

Before you write a book, know your message, your edu-passion, and your vision. Don’t write a book until you’re really ready (ask anyone, you’re probably not going to pay the rent from your sales, it can’t be about that).

Write and publish as much as you can and get your writing life in order.

Read everything and anything that will help you learn your craft, grow as a writer, and see what’s already out there.

• Build your PLN; you’ll need the feedback and support.

Thanks for reading. Now, get writing!

“Find your own voice”

Pernille Ripp (@pernilleripp) helps students discover their superpower as a former 4th and 5th, but now 7th grade English teacher in Oregon, Wis. She opens up her educational practices to the world on her blog www.pernillesripp.com and is also the creator of the Global Read Aloud Project , a global literacy initiative that has connected millions of students. She is an internationally known educational speaker and also the author of several education books, with her latest release titled Passionate Readers - The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child :

To write a book can often seem like a major “how dare I moment?”

After all, as educators, we are supposed to always think of others, not of ourselves, as we do everything we can to serve the children who are entrusted in our care. And yet, within this profession, the best learning that seems to happen comes from those who have walked this path before us, who took the time, worked through their imposter syndrome, and shared their stories with the world. Who brought their advice, their lessons learned, and their knowledge out to the world in such a way that it encouraged others to step onto their path, perhaps forge their own, and continue the tradition of sharing knowledge so that we all could learn.

So the first piece of advice I have to anyone considering writing a book is this: Find your own voice. What have you learned alongside your students that may be helpful to others? How have you made the messages that surround us all in the education community and made it uniquely your own? How will what you have learned boost the learning of others? My second piece of advice is know whose footsteps you walk in? Who has empowered you to do the work you do? Make sure you acknowledge the shoulders you stand on and give thanks to those who have paved the way. While we often think of original twists to ideas, it is rare that anything is truly unique to us, and so knowing your history of educational practices is important, much like citing research. Write for yourself first, then write for others second, share your work in order to fine tune before approaching a publisher, and also be aware of what is already out there.

My final piece of advice is to make it a priority. We balance a lot as educators, and often, writing a book is not at the top of our list of priorities. But it must be if we are to inspire the next generation of educators, if we are to grow as a collective. Find a routine, much like we would encourage our students to do, and stick to it. Believe in your own worth and write your truth. Invite others into your journey, not because you have the only right answer, but because your thoughts will add to the ongoing educational dialogue and your ideas may be exactly what someone else needs. Do not feel that putting your own words out there is something others need to give you permission for; give yourself permission to share your work and then stay true to the mission, bettering education for all.

Thanks to Tom, Sarah, Rita, and Pernille for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It’s titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching .

Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn’t include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the “answers” category found in the sidebar.

This Year’s Most Popular Q&A Posts

Race & Gender Challenges

Classroom-Management Advice

Best Ways to Begin the School Year

Best Ways to End the School Year

Implementing the Common Core

Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning

Teaching Social Studies

Cooperative & Collaborative Learning

Using Tech in the Classroom

Parent Engagement in Schools

Teaching English-Language Learners

Reading Instruction

Writing Instruction

Education Policy Issues

Differentiating Instruction

Math Instruction

Science Instruction

Advice for New Teachers

Author Interviews

Entering the Teaching Profession

The Inclusive Classroom

Learning & the Brain

Administrator Leadership

Teacher Leadership

Relationships in Schools

Professional Development

Instructional Strategies

Best of Classroom Q&A

Professional Collaboration

Classroom Organization

Mistakes in Education

Project-Based Learning

I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column .

Look for Part Two in a few days ...

The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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• Book Reviews / Writing Craft

Learn How to Write an Education Book

by MiddleWeb · Published 02/11/2016 · Updated 11/30/2019

The Educator’s Guide to Writing a Book: Practical Advice for Teachers and Leaders By Cathie E. West (Routledge/Eye on Education, 2016 – Learn more )

Who knew this slim, 140-page book would read more like a summer beach thriller than a didactic, pedantic education tome? With a title like The Educator’s Guide to Writing a Book , I thought the content would be interesting but dry, useful but not necessarily entertaining. However, once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down.

But after reading The Educator’s Guide to Writing a Book , I feel well equipped to do just that. Cathie West takes readers through all the steps of getting a book published: from developing an idea to marketing the finished product. The comprehensive information in this book will give you the confidence to take that idea you have and see it through to completion.

The first chapter is called “Why Write ?” and it hooked me on the second page by describing various reasons people write education books…and reasons why they shouldn’t. It then describes characteristics of successful authors and reminds educators that they already possess them: confidence, commitment, conscientiousness, and courage.

Other sections of the chapter include a discussion of goals for writing, how to create an optimum environment for writing, and an interview with a teacher who is in the process of writing a book. The chapter ends, as all the chapters in this book do, with “Take-Away Tips,” “Reflections—Connections,” “Best Practice” ideas, and a list of references.

The second chapter is about the different types of education books and what readers want from such books. A very helpful table on page 24 lists eight features of what West calls a “best-practice book” and describes each of them, cross-referencing each feature with the chapter in this book that discusses them in greater detail. Since every chapter includes an interview, in Chapter 2 the author talks with an administrator about what makes a book a must-read.

From Prospectus to Publication

The remaining chapters in The Educator’s Guide to Writing a Book cover the process involved in getting a book published. Chapter 3: Book Mechanics and Safeguards, was fascinating. The terms “front matter” and “back matter” are defined, and all the parts of a book are explained. Publishers’ guidelines are also addressed. Chapter 4: Titles, Topics, and Themes, is all about how to find the central idea for your book and how to write a book proposal for a publisher which, I discovered, is called a “prospectus” in the publishing industry.

In Chapter 5: Writing Style and Steps, the importance of finding your own writing style is discussed and tips for writing are provided. West herself writes in an engaging style that is clear and enjoyable to read. This chapter also includes the steps an author goes through when writing a book and the steps a book goes through as it is being readied for publication.

The roles and responsibilities of various people from the publishing company are described in Chapter 6: Publishing People and Processes. Information about contracts is also included. Chapter 7 is the conclusion and reiterates why educators can be successful authors.

Beyond the Text: Plentiful Appendices

Ten appendices offer readers worksheets to help them develop their ideas and writing schedules along with examples of a query letter, a prospectus, and a submission letter. The sample prospectus is for this very book, which is an inspired idea and very useful as readers can see how it was pitched to a publisher. All ten of these appendix resources are helpfully available as free downloads by accessing a URL provided at the beginning of the book.

In addition to the interviews, which also showcase a copy editor, an editor, a principal, and an associate marketing manager and consequently give readers insight into various aspects of the book publishing process, West includes excerpts from email exchanges she had with people from her publishing company to illustrate the points she makes. These are very helpful, too, as are the little tips presented in boxes that are scattered throughout the book.

The only quibble I have, and it is a very small one, is about the design of the boxes that surround the interviews and the three sections at the end of each chapter. The boxes are not enclosed on all four sides, and at first it was a little confusing because I thought the information continued on a following page. Once I realized it didn’t and that was the style for those sections, I got used to it.

The Educator’s Guide to Writing a Book makes the whole process of writing a book much less daunting, much more doable, and much less mysterious. As West writes on page 97, “The level of excitement that comes from signing a contract for a book will be exceeded only when you see your name on the front cover.”

This is an essential resource for any educator who has ever dreamed of seeing their name on the cover of a book they wrote themselves.

________________

Susan Schwartz taught EFL/ESL at universities in Asia and a public school in Massachusetts for 25 years and now creates digital education resources. She has written for TESOL International Administration’s New Ways series of books, English Teaching Forum , The Journal of the Imagination in Language Learning , and Pelangi: An Education Magazine about Indonesia , among other journals. Someday, she hopes to publish a book combining her interests in ESL, travel photography and social studies.

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Tags: Cathie E. West education book eye on education prospectus publisher contacts Routledge Susan Schwartz theme writing writing for publication

MiddleWeb is all about the middle grades, with great 4-8 resources, book reviews, and guest posts by educators who support the success of young adolescents. And be sure to subscribe to MiddleWeb SmartBrief for the latest middle grades news & commentary from around the USA.

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Your affirmative and well developed critique of The Educator’s Guide to Writing a Book is much appreciated. Every educator has stories to tell that will help others—teachers, school level leaders, and district administrators—perfect their performances. I hope that my book helps educators share their hard-won wisdom and experiences. — Cathie E. West, Author

I’m a true fan of great writing, however, I would like to know more about writing an educational book for a large university class etc. Thanks.

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Writing a Book

You are here

Are you interested in publishing a book with naeyc.

“I have an idea … an outline … a few chapters … a complete manuscript. Would NAEYC be interested in publishing it?”

NAEYC publishes books for early childhood professionals who work in diverse settings with different populations. We strive to publish books for those who have years of experience and those who are new to the field. NAEYC-published books are closely identified with the Association, and our members and other readers expect them to reflect NAEYC’s core  position statements  on practice and policy (such as developmentally appropriate practice and respect for all children and families.) This page includes information about

• Submitting an Inquiry and/or Proposal : the kinds of projects NAEYC might be interested in publishing, how to send an inquiry or proposal, and what you can expect if your project is accepted for publication.
• Writing a Manuscript : how to prepare your finished manuscript for editing and production, submit artwork and photography, and obtain permissions, as well as explains the various stages in the publications process.

Before you send us anything to review, please be sure to:

• Read  NAEYC’s Publishing FAQs  and browse our current print or online catalog to learn about the books that we publish. Compare NAEYC books to your book idea.
• Determine whether NAEYC or another early childhood publisher has published a similar book . If so, describe how your book would be different and offer another perspective.
• Download the guidelines for  Submitting a Proposal (PDF)  and  Writing a Manuscript (PDF) .
• Review the steps below  for streamlined instructions on how to successfully submit a book proposal. 

Steps to Submit a Book Proposal and Write a Manuscript that Follow Guidelines

Step 1: send us an inquiry first.

If your perspective reflects a niche in the marketplace that your book could fill, send an inquiry to the NAEYC Books Department at  [email protected]  with your plan for the book. Exploring topic, tone, and audience with us before you take your idea too far saves both of us time, and makes it more likely that you might develop a manuscript that NAEYC would publish.

In your inquiry, please provide:

• outline or table of contents
• narrative description of the project

Your description of the project will let us sample your writing. But if you have other writing samples available (e.g., a published article or book, link to a blog or forum you’ve posted to), you could send that along, too.

Give us a few weeks to respond. If the fit is promising, we will invite you to submit a formal proposal for review. The instructions below describe how to prepare such a proposal.  

Step 2: Send Us a Proposal

Send your Proposal Letter and Manuscript Sample to  [email protected] . Make sure you keep copies of everything for safety.

NAEYC offers detailed guidance on writing and formatting in our Style Guide. At minimum:

Please double-space everything, including any references, notes, and tables. Number all pages. In anticipation of the manuscript being sent for blind review, please use the names of the authors on the title page only, not anywhere else in the manuscript (e.g., not in headers or footers).

Proposal Letter

A Proposal Letter is your chance to show your enthusiasm for your book project! Tell us:

• What will this book be about? What will readers learn from it?
• Who are your potential readers (be as specific as you can)? How would this book meet their specific needs?
• Are there other books (by NAEYC or other early childhood publishers) already published that are similar to yours in both topic and approach? If so, what are those publications? How would your book be different or offer another perspective? Is there an NAEYC book on another topic that inspired your approach? 
• How will your project address NAEYC’s mission and the principles and practices we advocate in our position statements (e.g., developmentally appropriate practice)?
• What will your book be based on: the research literature? your own experience or direct observation? a combination?
• Have the suggestions, activities, or strategies you will propose been tested in the field? What evidence do you have of their effectiveness?
• What expertise or credentials do you and any coauthors bring to this specific project?
• How long will your manuscript be when it is finished? (Estimate total word count.) If you are submitting a complete manuscript now, what is its actual word count?
• What do you imagine the finished publication might look like? Would it have any special design features?
• Do you have video or other digital resources that could support and/or expand on the book?
• Are you planning to include material from published sources that will require permissions? If so, what? (If you’re not sure what permissions entail, consult our guide to Obtaining Permissions).
• ​We typically provide illustrations and/or photographs as needed from our extensive image library, but sometimes authors have their own photographs or children’s work available. Will your submitted manuscript include any illustrations, photographs, or figures? If so, will you be their creator, or are you planning to use images from another source (e.g., samples of children’s work, work by an artist or photographer, reprints from a book or website)? … For safety, do not enclose any original artwork or photographs now with your proposal; instead, just describe what you plan to include or send photocopies.
• Also, please provide contact information (mailing address, daytime phone, email) for the person(s) we should correspond with about this project.

Manuscript Sample

With your Proposal Letter, please also provide the following:

• Title you are proposing, and the names of all authors exactly as they should appear in the book (correct spelling, in order).
• An annotated table of contents—describe the topics that each chapter will cover. List the major subheads inside each chapter.
• A sample of the manuscript for a book. Three complete chapters. The chapters you send need not be the book’s first three (i.e., not Chapters 1, 2, and 3); instead, select chapters that collectively will give us a picture of what the whole book will be like (i.e., chapters that sample each major type of material in the book). If you have already written more than three chapters or even the entire manuscript, please go ahead and send us everything you have written.
• A sample of the manuscript for a booklet or brochure. A significant portion, sufficient for us to get a sense of the content and your writing.

Step 3: Proposal Review

As a small publisher, NAEYC cannot afford to invest staff time in reviewing a proposal that  at the same time  is being considered elsewhere. If your project is already under consideration by another publisher, please do not submit it to NAEYC unless you first withdraw it from consideration there or until the other publisher rejects it. While your proposal is being reviewed by NAEYC, please don’t submit it elsewhere.

NAEYC editors make the decision regarding review, revision, acceptance, and publication.

First, staff in the Books department will give your proposal a preliminary in-house review. This initial review typically takes several weeks. We will contact you as soon as we come to a decision about next steps.

A proposal that makes it through our initial staff review is sent for blind peer review to experts in the early childhood field. Because these reviewers are volunteers, it may take six weeks or longer for NAEYC to receive their feedback.

Sometimes It's Revise and Resubmit

Some proposals we accept or reject after peer review.

Others we encourage the author to revise, incorporating our feedback and the feedback of the outside reviewers. Such encouragement means that we believe the project has potential. However, an author who revises and resubmits is not guaranteed an acceptance. Some authors go through several rounds of review-revision-review before we can make a final decision.

Step 4: A Final Decision on your Proposal

If we accept your proposal, we will invite you to submit a complete Project Package (more on that below). Actual publication is always conditional on our (1) obtaining a final, editable manuscript that we judge to be complete and acceptable in form and content, and (2) receiving a signed Author Agreement from each author.

• Our standard Author Agreement grants to NAEYC the exclusive right to publish your manuscript and transfers all rights (including copyright) to the Association.

If we reject your proposal, we will send you a written confirmation.

If Your Proposal Is Accepted

If your proposal is accepted on the basis of a partial manuscript, then now will be the time to finish writing. If your manuscript is already complete, then the next step is to prepare your Project Package for submission to editing and production. 

Step 5: Accepted Proposal

Congratulations on having your proposal accepted for publication! The process from manuscript to book (or booklet or brochure) is a collaborative one between you as author and NAEYC as publisher.

In that process we each have tasks to perform, responsibilities to meet, and decisions to make.

NAEYC as publisher:

• Sets the target publication release date; develops and monitors the publication schedule; updates you if NAEYC changes that release date or schedule.
• Assigns your project an editor to be a consistent, primary point of contact for you throughout production.
• Gives you prompt and constructive feedback, as well as quick and honest answers to questions.
• Provides substantive/content editing, copyediting, and proofreading. Provides indexing as needed.
• Makes the edited version of the manuscript available for your review and approval.
• Provides design and layout, illustration and photography (as needed), manufacturing, marketing, sales, and distribution.
• Helps you obtain permissions for material you want to reprint from other sources, including paying reasonable reprint fees.
• In addition to the terms described in the agreement, provides you with complimentary copies of the finished publication and discounts on any future purchases of it (see your Author Agreement for details).
• If you transfer your copyright to NAEYC,  defends against copyright infringements, processes permission requests, and handles requests from international publishers interested in publishing your book.
• Makes final decisions about: title of the publication; titles of chapters, parts, and subheads; overall editorial style; schedule; format, layout, design, and manufacturing; marketing, promotion, pricing, and sales; distribution and fulfillment; and finances and costs.

You as author(s):

• Review NAEYC’s Guidelines for Writing a Manuscript , of which Being Accepted is one part (the other four are Style Guide, Sending Your Project Package, Stages in Writing, Editing, and Proofing, and Obtaining Permissions).
• Sign and return NAEYC’s Author Agreement.
• Submit a project package that is ready for editing and production.
• Obtain written permission from the owners of any material you want to reprint from other sources OR clearly mark in your manuscript what materials need permission for their use so that NAEYC can assist in requesting it.
• Collaborate in revisions and copyediting that NAEYC deems necessary.
• Review the edited version of the manuscript provided.
• Meet deadlines set for making revisions, answering queries, and reviewing/approving edited material.     
• If you do not transfer your copyright to NAEYC,  defend against copyright infringements and process permission requests .
• Enjoy the satisfaction and reward of wide professional recognition for having made a significant contribution to the study and practice of early childhood education.
• Work with NAEYC to promote and publicize your book, including speaking and presenting at local, state, and national conference, and writing in journals, blogs, and social media about the topic covered in your book.

Step 6: Writing your Manuscript

Style guide.

Over the years, NAEYC’s editors have developed a set of style rules and preferences we follow during the editing stages of production. Accommodating those preferences now, as you write, will simplify production and minimize the time and effort you may have to invest in reviewing edits and answering queries later.

NAEYC’s editorial style is based on  The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed.  NAEYC’s reference dictionary is  Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary .

Our Style Guide covers

• Writing style
• Special treatment of words and terms
• Endnotes or footnotes
• Document formatting 

Download all 5 of the  Guidelines for Writing a Manuscript (PDF) , including the Style Guide.

Step 7: Preparing your Project Package

If you submitted a partial manuscript during the proposal review stage, it is time to finish writing, incorporating any feedback we provided.

Even if you submitted an entire manuscript for review, the version of your manuscript that we accepted could still benefit from some reformatting (such as adding headings and subheadings) or minor rewriting to prepare it for editing and production.

Please review and follow the guidance below and in our Style Guide to prepare the  complete project package  that NAEYC needs to receive from you before production can begin.

What Constitutes a Complete Project Package?

We cannot begin the production of your project until we have a final, complete book package, which includes:

Manuscript:

• Front matter: table of contents, preface (if any), author bios, acknowledgments (if any)
• Main narrative,  all  chapters
• Back matter: appendixes (if any), complete and accurate references list, additional resources (if any)
• All collateral materials: text, graphics (if any)

Other required items:

• Permissions information
• Author Agreement signed by each author

Collateral materials

Collateral text  includes any sidebars, vignettes, checklists, tips, text charts, tables, text figures, etc., that are asides and expansions on your main narrative. In a typical book, such text appears in boxes or is set apart on a separate page from the main narrative.

Collateral graphics  includes any illustrations, diagrams, photographs, or children’s work. NAEYC can and often does provide its own illustrations and/or photographs from our extensive image library. Or you may submit appropriate photographs related to your book (please see the  Photograph Submission Guidelines ) or suggest a good source of appropriate artwork or photographs. As production proceeds, we can discuss options and ideas.

Permissions

Indicate text, tables, figures, images, or graphics that you yourself did not create or do not own, so we can sort out permissions issues in your manuscript. Obtaining permission from their owners to include such material in your book is your responsibility as author. This includes material whether published (e.g., from books, websites) or unpublished (e.g., from conference or workshop handouts, PowerPoint presentations, children’s activities). If NAEYC decides to include this content in your book, we can help request those permissions, and we will pay reasonable reprint fees.

The  what, why,  and  how  of permissions--Obtaining Permissions--is covered in part four of these Guidelines for Writing a Manuscript.

Each author must sign and return NAEYC’s Author Agreement before we can begin work on the manuscript. The Agreement is a legally binding contract between you as author and NAEYC as publisher. If you have any concerns or questions, please discuss them with us.

Author bios and photos

Your book will include a short biography of each author and his or her picture. One short paragraph usually is enough to tell readers what background and expertise an author has brought to a project. Please send us a high resolution image, such as a TIF or a GIF, if possible (JPEG is also acceptable), as a separate file.

Preparing Files

We do the bulk of our editorial work electronically. While a paper printout may be useful, we require electronic files containing your complete manuscript to begin editing and layout.

Preparing your main text

Save your main text narrative in one file (or a series of small files by chapter, if you prefer). Make sure all pages are numbered. If you are also sending a paper copy, make sure you include the filename(s) in the footer.

• If you are providing graphics with your manuscript, please send them as separate images.  Don't  incorporate or insert the images into your text file as “objects” or “pictures.” Also, please  don't  incorporate or insert collateral text items into your main text file as “text boxes.” Doing either makes the main text file unwieldy for us to open, edit, and save, and it can yield low-resolution images that reproduce poorly. Instead, follow the instructions in “Document Formatting” in our Style Guide.

Preparing your collateral text

Because they will be set apart in the layout, we need you to place the complete text of each sidebar, table, etc., in order of appearance at the end of the chapter in which it should appear. Label each item with a unique name (e.g., “Juan’s Story” or “Table_1_rev”) and flag where in the text you would like it to appear (e.g., [Insert Juan’s Story here]).

Preparing your graphics

If you are providing graphics, send us a digital graphics file (TIF, EPS, JPEG, GIF, PDF, etc.) of it. If you are going to submit graphics files, please first contact NAEYC for guidance on sizing, resolution, and preferred format. In general:

• A photocopy or output from a computer printer is not an “original” and will not reproduce well. Instead, send us the digital file (or photograph, if you used a film camera).
• For more about submitting photography, see NAEYC’s  Photograph Submission Guidelines .

See our Style Guide for how to indicate in your main text where these graphics items should be placed in the book’s layout.

Preparing for permissions

So we can sort out and evaluate permissions issues in your manuscript, make sure to indicate any material you personally did not create—i.e., any text you did not author, tables of data you did not compile, photographs you did not take, illustrations you did not draw. Review and follow the instructions in our guide "Obtaining Permissions".

Saving and printing

Keep one set of all the files for yourself, and send us your files on a thumb drive or as email attachments. Keep your copy handy in case we ask for a clarification during editing.

Before sending them, please scan all files using up-to-date virus protection software.

Step 8: Submitting Your Project Package & Next Steps

A complete project package includes the following:

• All manuscript files (text and graphics)—on a thumb drive or as email attachments
• Optional printouts—each labeled with the filename and its pages numbered
• Complete permissions information (see "Obtaining Permissions")
• An Author Agreement signed by each author

After you send your files, check in with us to make sure we received everything. We want to make sure it made it through! Scroll back to top

Writing a book is a major undertaking, and it’s natural to hope that once your manuscript is accepted, your work is done. Turning that manuscript into an NAEYC publication, however, is a collaboration between us that will require your time and attention through production.

After your project package arrives at NAEYC, we will examine it for completeness and ask you to address any gaps. We will read the entire manuscript closely to assess its readiness for editing. As editing progresses we may ask you to undertake some revisions, or NAEYC’s editors may undertake the revising themselves in coordination with you. We also will need you to review and approve proofs of various kinds as production proceeds.

For more about what you can expect during the stages of revision, copyediting, design/layout, proofreading, and printing, see "Stages in Writing, Editing & Proofing" below.

Stages in Writing, Editing & Proofing

Manuscript Development As part of submitting your  proposal , you will have written some significant portion, perhaps all, of the manuscript and sent it for review by NAEYC’s editors and outside experts and peer reviewers. If your experience is typical, your proposal/manuscript may have gone through one or more cycles of review-revision-review before being accepted. This stage ends when NAEYC accepts your proposal. . . . But that doesn’t mean that your manuscript is final. More editorial work is ahead.

Manuscript Package

Finishing Your Manuscript If you submitted a partial manuscript with your proposal, you will finish writing it now, incorporating any feedback we sent you. Review and follow the guidance in Style Guide.

If you submitted a complete manuscript with your proposal, we still would like you to follow the guidance in Style Guide, so please revisit your manuscript now and do any needed revising and/or reformatting.

We prefer Microsoft Word, but can handle other word processing software.

Send a Complete Project Package Follow the instructions in  Sending Your Project Package . Incomplete packages result in delays until missing elements arrive.

• We prefer to receive electronic files (additional paper printouts are beneficial but not necessary).
• Each author must sign and return an Author Agreement.

Editorial Work

Revisions Once it arrives in NAEYC’s Books Department, your manuscript is read closely to assess its readiness for production. We may have discussed with you ideas for enhancing the manuscript’s usefulness and impact, and there will be further discussion now—about what needs to be done and the schedule for completing the work.

• Revisions might include changes to the manuscript’s content, tone, or presentation; creation of some new text and/or vignettes, tables, charts, etc.; and/or inclusion of material from other sources.
• If we make substantial revisions, we will send you our revised version to review and approve. You might receive this version in sections as work progresses, or all at once.
• How long your manuscript is in this stage depends to a great degree on you or the maximum word count that your editor has shared with you.

Copyediting The manuscript is copyedited for format, factual accuracy, and writing style, including correct and consistent grammar and punctuation, clarity, active voice, and the like. NAEYC’s editorial style is based on  The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed.

Review of Editorial Work

Author Review How much and what kind of editorial work your manuscript requires will determine what kinds of edited material we ask you to review.

When we send you material to review:

• We will give you a heads-up before we send you materials so you can make time in your schedule to respond quickly.
• We will enclose instructions on how and by when to respond. If you have any questions about what we send you, please ask.
• Don’t just answer queries— read all of the text carefully  for errors we may have missed.
• Please respect deadlines.

A Word on Editing

As an advocacy organization, NAEYC takes positions on issues regarding the care and education of young children. Those positions are expressed explicitly in our position statements and are expected to inform all of the Association’s work, including the publications it publishes. Readers look to NAEYC for professional materials that reflect the best current knowledge in the early childhood field, and that support the principles and practices that NAEYC advocates—e.g., developmentally appropriate practice.

NAEYC publications need to be written a clear and accessible writing style to meet the reading needs of a diverse audience that includes university faculty members, classroom teachers, college students, child care administrators and staff, and families. NAEYC thoroughly edits every manuscript it publishes to meet all these expectations.

Actual publication of an accepted project is always conditional on a final, edited manuscript that NAEYC judges to be complete and acceptable in form and in content.

• Form: Edits for correctness, accuracy, consistency, style, and format are our prerogative as publisher. But we’re glad to discuss our rationale if you see something in this regard that you find problematic.
• Content: Substantive changes to content call for more collaboration with you. But we always edit with a purpose. If you disagree with an editorial change, work with us to find a better one. Together we’re sure to come up with a solution we’re all satisfied with.

Design and Page Layout While you and NAEYC’s editors are working on the text, NAEYC’s creative services staff are working on cover and interior design. Once editorial work is complete, the manuscript goes to page layout, to be formatted in the design NAEYC has developed. At this stage, any artwork, figures, tables, or other visual elements are incorporated into the layout. In planning the design, we may ask for your input and feedback.

• Material you wanted to to reprint from elsewhere will have to be omitted if written permission to reprint isn't in hand by this stage.
• In planning the design, we may ask for your input and feedback.

Page Proofs Page proofs are generated, and we check them carefully for problems or errors. We may also send you a set of page proofs to scrutinize. Typically, this is the last stage that might require your time and attention before the book is printed.

• Page proofs we send you may be accompanied by any remaining queries that we need you to answer. No rewriting can occur at this stage, only correction of errors.

Page Corrections We incorporate all corrections into the final layout.

Manufacturing

Printing The completed project is sent to the printer. The printer will send us a final printer's proof that NAEYC will check for errors.

Delivery When the printer sends us copies of the book, we send you your complimentary copies and begin shipping to waiting readers.

For information about Obtaining Permissions, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions  webpage. 

For help, please contact  [email protected]

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Recommendations For Authors & Photographers Catalog Webinars NAEYC Books List  

Permissions Desk Copies FAQ

Books NAEYC Books List   Catalog Quantity & Special Pricing

For Authors and Photographers

How to Write a Book: Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

You’re ready to learn how to write a book…

And as a first-time author, you’re nervous about this new journey because you want first-time success (who doesn’t?).

But today’s publishing industry has become noisy . There is endless information out there on how to write a book, and with the rise of self-publishing, it can be overwhelming, to say the least.

If you’re ready to take the leap, become an author , and learn how to write a book the right way, start with this resource to get your wheels in motion.

As a first-time bestselling author, I can tell you that writing my first book was one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences of my life.

I experienced a lot of growth and pushed through many hurdles, and being able to learn how to publish is something I am truly proud of.

And I’m ready to share the steps of how to write a book with you, so that you can go on to write a book of your own, and find success as a first-time author.

Ready to learn how to write a book? Let’s get to it!

Need A Nonfiction Book Outline?

Here’s how to write a book in 12 steps:

• Develop a writer’s mindset a. Hold yourself accountable to writing your book b. Give yourself permission to be a writer c. Announce your intention to write a book
• Create a book writing space
• Choose your book writing software a. Google Drive b. Grammarly c. Evernote d. A notebook & pen
• Determine your book’s topic a. Identify your target reader b. Write about something that intrigues you c. Research potential topics d. Choose a topic you can write about quickly
• Create a book outline a. Create a mindmap b. Write a purpose statement c. Create a working title d. Write an elevator pitch for your book e. Draft a working outline for your book f. Fill in the gaps with more research g. Frameworks on how to write your book
• Finish writing your manuscript a. Break your book writing into small chunks b. Build the momentum to finish writing your book c. Collaborate with others
• Include front & back matter a. Preface or introduction b. Foreward c. Testimonials d. Author Bio e. Glossary f. Notes g. Images
• Edit your book a. Self-edit your book b. Hire a professional book editor c. Re-write sections of your book’s draft using your editor’s feedback d. Finalize your book title
• Choose a compelling book cover
• Format your book
• Prepare to launch your book a. Build your book’s launch team b. Develop a marketing mindset c. Create a book launch strategy
• Publish your book
• How To Write A Book: FAQs

In this article, we’ll start with the basics. While the steps in this phase may seem to be unrelated to actually learning how to write a book, they are very important.

In fact, setting yourself up for success will help you build the foundation needed to start writing a book .

We’ll talk about developing a writer’s mindset to get you in a frame of mind that’s conducive to writing. Then, we’ll discuss how to create a writing space that will boost your writing productivity, and how to choose the best book writing software for your needs.

Here are some tips for success as you write a book:

• Develop a writer’s mindset . This is all about embracing a mentality that will inspire you to start (and finish) writing your book.
• Create a writing space . This is all about how to set up the ideal writing environment that fits your routine.
• Use a tool to write your book . This is all about deciding on what you will use to write your book.
• Get support . A strong support network, a community of peers, and a book writing coach could be the difference between a published book and an unfinished manuscript.
• Use templates where you can. We provide you with a proven book outline template in this post. But there are templates for cover layouts, formatting, and more. Don’t recreate the wheel! Use these and build upon them to make them your own.

1. Develop a Writer’s Mindset

Learning how to write a book takes time, work, and dedication. It’s easy to romanticize becoming a bestseller like J.K. Rowling or Octavia Butler. However, every author has a story on how they started out and overcame adversity to get where they are today.

For example, Rowling, who had no job and was on welfare at the time, would take her children to a coffee shop and write.

Butler, who was a dishwasher and potato chip inspector at the time, would wake up at two or three in the morning to write and wrote herself mantras to keep her focused on her goals.

The first steps in learning how to write a book are overcoming mindset blocks, dealing with self-doubt as a writer, and developing a healthy frame of mind that will help you with your writing goals .

Let’s review three things you can do to circumvent roadblocks and crush challenges to keep you focused on your goal.

Hold yourself accountable to writing your book

It’s not good enough to write only when inspiration strikes. There will be days when writing is the last thing you want to be doing.

But you have to treat your writing as if it were a job, or a duty. This means holding yourself accountable, taking action, and showing up every day.

Here’s how to hold yourself accountable to writing:

• Set a writing goal. If you don’t have a goal, procrastination will get the best of you. Determine a writing goal, including how many days a week you intend to set aside time to write, and set a deadline or due date for when you’d like to have parts of your book.
• Block off chunks of time to write every week.  If you’re looking for a place to start, consider one to two hours per day five days per week. The more often you write, the more you’ll develop a habit for it, and making time for writing won’t be that much of a struggle.
• Set a daily word count goal.  Consider how many words you want to write each week. Use a Word Count Calculator to determine the goal you should aim for, depending on the type of book you are writing. For example, if your goal is 3,000 words per week and you have five chunks of time blocked off to write per week, then you’d need to write 600 words per day to achieve your weekly goal.

I write early in the morning before I do anything else for 1-2 hours. I find that as I go throughout the day and work on other projects my mind isn’t as fresh or sharp by the end of the day. However, sometimes I have ideas throughout the day that I jot down in Evernote to jump-start the next morning with a working outline.

Give yourself permission to be a writer

This might sound silly, but it’s true: in order to learn how to write a book, you need to give yourself permission to be a writer. Many aspiring authors get stuck in their mindset, which prevents them from initiating and completing their writing projects.

Even successful authors feel like they aren’t good enough. Acknowledge your feelings, but then shake them off, and move on with your day.

Hear this : You don’t have to be an expert to learn how to write a book. You don’t have to feel 100% confident to be a good writer. You don’t even have to be all-knowing to teach others about your experiences or knowledge.

Here’s how to give yourself permission to be a writer:

• Get inspiration from other writers . When you’re just starting to learn how to write a book, you might feel alone in your journey. But take comfort in the fact that other successful writers all started at the bottom, just like you. Many of them overcame seemingly impossible hurdles, but persisted with their writing dreams, anyway. Research some of your favorite authors, and read up on their stories to discover the issues they overcame to find success.
• Accept where you are . Acknowledge your feelings of self-doubt, and then release them. It’s okay to experience moments of feeling discouraged, but it’s important that you don’t let those feelings hold you back. Accept that you are beginning your journey and that this is a learning process.
• Use positive affirmations . Your thoughts have a huge influence on your abilities. What you think starts to become your reality, so make your thoughts good. Use positive affirmations about yourself and your writing abilities to pump yourself up. You can even read inspirational writing quotes from famous authors for motivation.
• Overcome imposter syndrome . Even expert authors and writers feel like imposters every now and again. While it’s okay to experience feeling inferior, you have to eventually get over those thoughts and push on towards your goals. Connect with other aspiring writers, get yourself a mentor, and join writers conferences or writing communities.

Announce your intention to write a book

The best way to hold yourself accountable for your work is to let others know your goals. Is there someone you trust or a group of people in your network you can appoint to check in on your progress?

Perhaps there is someone who is a seasoned writer who can serve as a mentor. If so, try to have regular check-ins with this person.

One way to keep these meetings consistent is to schedule a lunch or coffee date. Talk about your progress and perhaps any challenges you’re facing. They may be able to bring a fresh perspective.

I told my wife, Ariele, and several of my closest teammates from work about my intentions to write my first book. We had regular check-ins to talk about progress. Everyone helped keep me motivated and had different feedback for me. Without them, it would have been a lot more difficult to write Inbound Content in the timeframe I did.

2. Create a Book Writing Space

The second step in how to write a book has to do with your environment. Where you choose to write will have a major impact on your writing productivity.

Find creative spaces where you can produce your best writing.

Sure, some might argue that they can write anywhere as long as they have the tools to write. But where we choose to write plays a huge role in our writing motivation and focus.

Questions to think about: Where do you work best? What surroundings inspire you most? Identify them and make it a best practice to work there consistently.

Here are creative writing spaces to write your book:

• Coffee shops (classic)
• Beautiful park or somewhere in nature
• A dedicated writing nook at home

My main writing location is the dinette in my Airstream. I do my best work when traveling; I wrote the manuscript for my book in six weeks as I traveled the U.S. and worked full time from the road.

3. Choose your Book-Writing Software

The next step in how to write a book has to do with writing tools.

In 1882, Mark Twain sent to a publisher the first manuscript to be written on a piece of technology that would transform the writing industry: the typewriter.

Nowadays, we have computers with word processing and the internet where you can find an endless assortment of useful book-writing software and apps that are meant to help you be an efficient and effective writer. If you’re writing a novel, check out this guide to novel writing software .

You may be tempted to overload on apps because you think it’ll help elevate your writing. But honestly, less is more . The truth is that the right tools and even self-publishing companies make writing and publishing easier and more enjoyable.

Instead of overwhelming you with all the possible apps in existence, below is a list of three tools I recommend adding to your writing toolkit today (and they’re free).

Google Drive

Google Drive is one of the most versatile cloud storage services available today. But Google Drive is so much more than cloud storage. Here’s a list of ways you can use Google Drive to help you write your book:

• You can organize all aspects of your project in folders (research, outline, manuscript drafts, etc.)
• You can host files for your projects like images, photos, etc.
• You can use Google Docs as a word processor. And we have a book writing template , specifically for Google Docs.
• You can enable offline access and work on your files even when you don’t have an internet connection, such as when you’re traveling.
• You can collaborate easily with others, avoiding version control issues.
• You can access it from just about any device (laptop, smartphone, tablet, you name it).

Plus, Google will give you 15GB of free storage just for signing up.

If you’re new to Google Drive, here’s a list of resources that can turn you into a pro. (FYI, if you have a Gmail account, you have a Google Drive account.)

Grammarly is an editing tool that helps you identify grammatical errors, typos, and incorrect sentence structure in your writing.

Download the web extension and Grammarly will edit most anything you type in a web browser (yes, it will work with Google Docs).

You can check out this Grammarly review if you’re on the fence about this one.

Inspiration can strike at any time. Capture those thoughts and ideas as they happen in Evernote . You can even sync Google Drive and Evernote. I recommend doing this, especially on your mobile device.

A Notebook & Pen

Don’t underestimate the power of good ole’ fashioned pen and paper when it comes to learning how to write a book, which is arguably the only essential writing tool out there.

Even if you write your entire manuscript on a trusty writing software program, you’ll still want to have a dedicated notebook available for the times when inspiration strikes and you can’t access a computer.

Every writer should have a notebook handy for random ideas and thoughts. You can jot these down in your notebook, then revisit them and digitally store them in your book-writing software when you’re back at the computer.

4. Determine Your Book Topic

Now we’ll move on to how to actually start writing a book. This is the part that seems simple, but can be more difficult than you realize.

However, once you get through the process of actually writing your book, you will gain momentum to finish it, and eventually publish it.

Learning how to write a book starts with an idea. What’s your book idea ?

Maybe you already know exactly what you want to write about. Or maybe you have a million ideas floating on in your head, but you don’t know exactly where to start.

One of the most common pieces of advice for aspiring first-time authors is: “Write what you know.” A simple phrase that’s meant to be helpful, yet it begs so many questions.

If you’re struggling with a book idea, try jumpstarting your creativity by experimenting with these writing prompts .

Whether you’re writing a non-fiction how-to guide or a fictional post-apocalyptic thriller, you need to form a connection with your audience — and you can do that through emotion. The best way to create emotion with your reader is to understand them.

Here’s how to determine what you want to write about and how to write it in a meaningful way.  

Identify your target reader

The key to producing meaningful content is understanding your reader. You can do this by creating a reader persona — a semi-fictional representation of your ideal audience.

To get started with your reader persona, consider answering the following questions:

• What’s the reader’s age? Are you writing a self-help book geared towards mature adults, or are you writing a guide for teenagers? The age of your reader will set the tone for your writing and book’s context.
• What’s the reader’s education level? Are you writing a book for PhD candidates, or for recent high school graduates? Depending on the answer, your writing style, verbiage, and word choice will vary.
• Does the reader prefer visuals? Think about your book’s potential topic and if visuals like charts, graphs, tables, illustrations, screenshots, or photographs will be expected.
• What is this reader interested in? When you write a book, it’s less about what you want to say, and more about what your reader needs to know. As you start to brainstorm a topic and write your book, always have a reader-centric approach.

The more you know about your reader, the better experience you can create for them.

When you start learning how to write a book, you have to make your book about the reader. What do they need to know in order to learn what you have to say?

My main audience is marketers and business owners at small-to-medium-sized businesses. They’re strapped for time and don’t need another theoretical resource. They value real-world examples to help visualize what tips and strategies look like in action.

Write about something that intrigues you

You need to write about something that spikes your curiosity, something that keeps you coming back day after day. Something that lights you up and that you’re invested in.

I can’t stress the importance of this enough. If you choose a topic to write about for the wrong reason, don’t expect to create something that people will love.

You need to be able to stick with it through dry spells and bouts of non-inspiration. Your own desire to hear the story will be what drives you through learning how to write a book.

Research potential topics

In our digital age, we can conveniently research topics from the comfort of our own homes.

Google makes it easy to research just about any topic.

Here’s a list of ways to research your book concept on Google:

• What content already exists? Are there already books written on this topic? If so, which ones performed well? Why did they perform well? Is there anything interesting about their content that enhances the reader’s experience? Is the market over-saturated on this topic?
• What influencers exist on the subject? Are there well-known authors on this topic? Who are they? What can you learn from them?
• What do you need to learn? Are there specific things you need to learn to create a rich, meaningful narrative (ex. geography, culture, time period, etc.)?

I performed extensive research before writing the manuscript for Inbound Content. It was important for me to understand what content was already out there, which content was performing well, and most importantly, how could I make my book unique. This is exactly why I included homework after each chapter to help my readers build an action plan that they could implement immediately, something I noticed wasn’t typical in other marketing books.

Choose a topic you can write about quickly

Writing your first book is invaluable because it’s a serious learning experience. The process of actually writing a book and completing it will make this book a personal success for you, because of how much you will learn about yourself and your craft in the process.

Don’t get hung up on a topic. If you’re struggling with deciding what to write about first, go with the topic that you know best. Choose a topic or experience that you can write about quickly, with limited resources.

Here’s how to find a topic you can write about quickly:

• Write what you can teach right now. If you had to teach a lesson on something right at this second, what could you confidently teach? This is a topic you know well, that requires limited additional research, and what you can quickly create content for.
• Write about a powerful experience. Each individual is unique in their experiences. Everyone has gone through something that changed them. Reflect on your life and think about one experience that sticks out about your life.
• Write about a life lesson. What has life taught you? What unique observations have you made about the world? You can use this information to learn how to write a memoir .

5. Write A Book Outline

Once you know what you want to write about, you’re probably eager to start writing. But you need a writing guide first.

Let’s review what you can do to create a clear book outline for your book that you can use as a roadmap.

Create a mindmap

You have an idea, now it’s time to hone in on just exactly what that idea is. With a mindmap , you can drill your topic down into sub-topics. It will help you get all of your ideas out and onto paper.

Here are the steps to mindmap your book’s topic:

• Get a blank piece of paper and pen.
• Set a timer for 10 minutes.
• Write your topic in the middle of the page.
• Jot down all of your ideas related to your book’s topic.
• Do not stop writing until the timer goes off.

Once you have mindmapped your idea, you should have a full page of brainstormed thoughts, ideas, and concepts. You can then review what you’ve written, and begin to organize them. This will come in handy when it comes time to actually start plugging in content for your book outline.

Write a purpose statement

In one sentence describe the purpose of your book. A strong purpose statement will explain to readers why they should consider reading your book. For me, I was writing a book to grow my business .

This will also help you stay focused as you begin drafting your outline and writing your book. When you have trouble solidifying what your book is about, review your purpose statement.

Inbound Content‘s purpose statement: People who read this book will learn a step-by-step process on how to do content marketing the inbound way.

Create a working title

A working title is a temporary title used during the production of your book. Identifying your book by giving it a name can help set the direction.

Once you finish your work you can revisit the title and update accordingly. Don’t get too hung up on this step; think of the title as a placeholder. It isn’t permanent, but it will be helpful to begin with one in mind.

If you need help thinking of a working title, use our Book Title Generator .

Write an elevator pitch for your book

An effective elevator pitch should last no longer than a short elevator ride of 30 seconds. For context, 30 seconds equals about 65-70 words.

Having a prepared elevator pitch will come in handy throughout your book-writing process. It will help you nail your book’s purpose and topic, and it will help the concept become crystal clear not only for yourself as the writer, but for your potential readers, too.

As you ask family and friends to hold you accountable to writing, and as you connect with fellow writers, authors, and mentors, you will be asked about your book. Having a prepared elevator pitch will help you nail the answer without hesitation, each and every time.

Draft a working outline for your book

The next step in learning how to write a book is drafting a working book outline. Just like the working title you created, this outline is a work in progress. The outline can change throughout your writing process, and that’s okay!

However, it’s super helpful to start with an outline so that you know where to begin, and have a general roadmap for where to go as you start writing.

Use the related concepts and sub-topics you organized in your mindmap, and start plugging in some content into your outline.

Your outline will do wonders for you once you start writing. It can help you avoid writer’s block , and increase your writing momentum and productivity. Instead of wondering what to write about in the next chapter of your book, you’ll already have an idea of where to start with your book’s outline.

Fill in the gaps with more research

After your working outline is completed, it’s important to do further research on your topic so that you can fill in any areas that you missed or forgot to include in your original outline.

Do not get too caught up in your research that it prevents you from writing your book. Take some time to research, but set a limit. Always go back to writing.

Here’s how to research when writing a book:

• Use online resources by doing a Google search on your topic.
• Read other books that have been written about your topic.
• Listen to expert interviews, podcasts, and audiobooks related to your topic.
• Read scholarly articles and academic journals within the subject or industry.
• Search archives, collections, historical journals, data records, and newspaper clippings to get clear on events, dates, and facts about your topic, especially if you’re writing about the past.

Frameworks on how to write your book

If your book can follow a framework, this will make it easier to keep your writing organized and relevant.

By choosing a format or structure for your book’s topic, you’ll be able to align your outline in a way that will be helpful when you start to write each chapter.

Most nonfiction books can fall into a specific framework, or a blend of frameworks. It’s better to start with a specific framework, then tweak it as needed as you continue writing.

Here are common nonfiction book frameworks to consider when writing a book:

• Modular: Use this framework if you have a lot of information or concepts that can be grouped into similar topics, but don’t need to be presented in a specific order.
• Reference: Use this framework if your book will be used as a reference that makes it easy for readers to quickly find the information they need.
• Three Act Structure: Use this framework if you plan to use storytelling in your book, where you have three main parts like a Set Up, Rising Action, and Resolution.
• Sequential: Use this framework if your book reads like a “how to” with a specific set of steps.
• Compare & Contrast: Use this framework if you need to show your reader how two or more ideas or concepts are similar to or different from one another.
• Problem & Solution: Use this framework if readers need to be able to clearly identify a problem and understand the solution.
• Chronological: Use this framework if each main section of your book represents a specific time or order of events.
• Combination: If your book will fall under two or more of the above frameworks, then you will need to use a combination framework that’s adjusted to your book’s specific topic.

6. Finish Writing Your Book Draft

For many, the hard part isn’t getting started with how to write a book… it’s in actually finishing it!

Commit to finishing your rough draft , and you’re already succeeding!

Here are our top tips to keep the momentum going as you start taking action after learning exactly how to write a book.

Break your book writing into small chunks

Now that you have your book’s outline and framework, it’s time to get started with writing.

Like a marathon, your manuscript is essentially a puzzle made up of many smaller like-themed pieces. Your finished book may be 262 pages long, but it’s written one word or thought at a time. Pace yourself and stick to your consistent writing schedule.

If you approach your book writing by focusing too much on the larger picture, you can get overwhelmed. Write chapter-by-chapter.

Start with baby steps by chunking your writing into small pieces. Set milestones, and celebrate the small wins.

Here are some tips for breaking your writing into small pieces:

• Write one chapter at a time . Focus on one piece at a time, not the entire puzzle!
• Set deadlines to complete each chunk of writing . Break your goal down into smaller sections, then set individual deadlines for each section.
• Structure your writing time. Follow a routine for writing that includes time for research (if needed) and review. For example, if you dedicate two hours each day towards your book, set 30 minutes aside to review your outline so you know what you’re writing about, then 30 minutes to research anything that you need to clarify, then one hour to actually write.
• Celebrate small goals. As you accomplish milestones towards your end goal, schedule and celebrate your small accomplishments. It can be something as simple as going out to dinner, buying yourself a small gift, or doing a little dance.

Build the momentum to finish writing your book

Learning how to write a book can be difficult.

When you’re in the weeds with writing your book, there will be days you want to give it all up.

There will also be times when you have writer’s block, and even though you know what you should be writing about, it all sounds wrong as you re-read what you’ve written in your head.

Here’s how to fight writer’s block and increase your writing momentum:

• Don’t edit as you write. Writing and editing require your brain to work in two very different ways, so don’t do it! It’ll slow you down, and keep you at a standstill. Keep writing, and save the editing for later.
• Switch up your scenery. If you usually write at home in your own writing space, maybe it’s time to freshen up your writing environment. Try writing in a public park, or at a coffee shop or library on the days when writing is the last thing you feel like doing.
• Take a break. It’s okay if you’re too mentally worn-out to write. Take a small break, and then get back to it. When we say small break, we mean take a day or two off from writing (not a month or two!).
• Get creative inspiration elsewhere. Binge-watch an exciting new show, read a novel, take a walk in nature, go to an art gallery, or be around people you love. While you aren’t writing when you do these things, it can help your brain reset and recharge so you can return to your book.
• Write about something else. Sometimes, when we’re so engulfed in our book’s topic, it can be self-limited. If you’re feeling less excited about writing when it comes to your book, maybe it’s time to flex your writing muscles in a different way. Try doing some creative writing exercises, journal, or write a poem.
• Supercharge your writing with AI . AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are here to empower your writing journey. They can help you generate ideas, overcome writer’s block, and streamline your writing process. By integrating AI into your writing workflow, you can access instant feedback and suggestions, helping you build momentum and stay focused on completing your book.

Collaborate with others

There’s strength in numbers when it comes to accomplishing a huge task.

And, more importantly, it can help you feel less isolated in what can be a very solitary act. Writing a book can be lonely!

Let’s review three things you can do to collaborate with others when writing your book.  

Connect with your original accountability partner or group

A great example of finding accountability partners is through a group or self-publishing company much like what Self-Publishing School does with their Mastermind Community on Facebook.

Attend a writer’s conference

Sharing space and networking with other writers can do wonders for your own writing habits and momentum. By attending writer’s conferences, you’ll be in a room full of people just like you.

Not only will you be able to network with and learn from expert authors who have been where you are, but you’ll also be able to meet fellow aspiring writers going through the same process as you.

Collaborate with thought leaders on your subject

Ideal for nonfiction writers, this collaboration could mean asking well-known people in your industry to write a quote that brings value to your content.

Pro tip: When promoting your book launch on social media, consider creating a buzzworthy piece of content like an engaging blog article and have your audience share it.

7. Include Front & Back Matter

Now it’s time to put on your marketing pants and spread the word about your book!

There are elements outside of your book’s content that you’ll need to write, such as a preface, foreword, notes, etc. I suggest waiting until after you’ve written your book. This way, not only can you better connect them to your story, but you won’t waste time editing them in case you make changes to your manuscript.

Let’s review eight final touches you may or may not need to wrap up your book.

Preface or Introduction

Draw in your readers with a compelling story. This could be a personal anecdote related to your topic. Tell them what the book is about and why it is relevant to them (think of your reader persona from earlier).

A foreword is typically written by another author or thought leader of your particular industry. Getting someone credible to write this can add a lot of value to your readers.

Testimonials

Just like with the foreword, try and find respected, well-known people in your space and have them write a review about your book. The best way to promote yourself is to have someone else speak on your behalf.  

How do you want to be portrayed to your audience? Readers love knowing personal details of an author’s life, such as your hobbies, where you live, or what inspired you to write this book.

Pro tip: The author bio on the flap of your book might be one of the first things people read when deciding whether or not to read our book. Keep it short, but make sure it packs a punch (just like your elevator pitch).

A glossary is an alphabetical list of terms or words relating to a specific subject, text, or dialect with corresponding explanations. If you are writing nonfiction, especially a topic that uses a lot of lingo or uncommon words, make sure to include a glossary to create a better experience for your readers.

If you are writing nonfiction, keep track of your sources as you research and write. A clear bibliography will only add to your value and credibility.

Being nonfiction that was based on a lot of research and experiments, I made sure to include a notes section in Inbound Content. It included citations, stats, image sources, etc.

Using images is a nice addition to your content. Images can create a more engaging experience for the reader while improving the communication of hard-to-grasp concepts.

8. Edit Your Book

The next step in learning how to write a book is editing. This involves self-editing first, then having a thorough professional edit done.

The success of your book will depend on its quality, and a thoroughly edited book is a solid way to increase your book’s quality.

Even the best writers require editing, so don’t feel discouraged by this process. In the end, you’ll be glad you followed the editing process, and will have a completed, error-free book that you can be proud of.

Self-edit your book

Remember when we told you not to edit your book as you wrote? Well, now’s your time to shine in the editing department.

Once your book is written, it’s time to go through and read it line-by-line.

We recommend printing your entire manuscript out on paper, then going through each page and making edits. This will make it easy to spot errors, and will help you easily implement these changes into your manuscript.

There’s a specific strategy to self-editing; if you start this process blindly, it can be overwhelming, so make sure you understand how it works before diving in.

Here are some tips to self-edit your book successfully:

• Read your manuscript aloud as you edit.
• Start with one chapter at a time.
• First, go through and edit the chapter for structure revisions.
• Second, find opportunities for improving the book’s readability.
• Third, make edits for grammar and word choice.

Once you complete your self-edit, you can make your revisions on your manuscript, then get ready for the next round of edits.

Hire a professional book editor

The next step in learning how to write a book is handing your book off to a professional book editor .

As meticulous as you may be, there are bound to be some grammatical or spelling errors that get overlooked. Also, a professional editor should be able to give you feedback on the structure of your writing so you can feel confident in your final published draft.

There are many different types of editing , so think carefully to determine who you should hire.

Re-write sections of your book’s draft using your editor’s feedback

Now it’s time to improve your book using your editor’s feedback. Don’t be discouraged when you get your manuscript back full of edits, comments, and identified errors.

Think of these edits as opportunities to improve your book. You want to give your reader a polished, well-written book, and to do this, you need to edit and re-write.

This doesn’t mean you have to re-write your entire book. You simply have to go through your editor’s feedback, and make any revisions you think are necessary.

If there is something you don’t agree with your editor on, that’s okay. In the end, it is your book, and you are in control of what you want to add or take out of the manuscript.

Just be sure your revisions are coming from a place of sound reasoning, and not pride.

Finalize your book title

If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to revisit the working title you created for your book earlier in the process.

You need to finalize your book’s title before you move on to the next steps!

If you need help deciding on a title, cast a vote with your target readers and mentors in your author network. Send an email out, post a social media announcement , or reach out through text with people that are considered your book’s ideal reader.

Get feedback on your title by asking people to vote for their favorite. Include the top three choices, then use the crowdsourced results to narrow it down even more.

Once you have a title selected, don’t worry too much if you’re not 100 percent sold on it yet. Even if the title turns out to not be effective, you can always change the title depending on the publishing platform you select.

9. Choose a Compelling Book Cover

Don’t judge a book by its cover? Please.  People are definitely judging your book by its cover. 

The book cover design is generally the first thing that will pique a reader’s interest.

You can find freelance graphic designers to create a compelling book cover for you on many online marketplace sites like Upwork, Reedsy , and Snappa . You can even check with a local graphic design artist for a more hands-on approach.

Tips for creating an effective book cover:

• Whitespace is your friend.  Make it a best practice to choose a design that pops, but doesn’t distract.
• Make it creative (non-fiction) or emotional (fiction).  Do your best to connect the art to the story or use it to enhance the title.
• Consider a subtitle.  Think if this as a one-sentence descriptor on what this book is about.
• Test two or three designs.  Send a few designs to your trusted accountability group to get their honest first impressions and feedback.

Keeping these best practices in mind, I chose a cover for Inbound Content that was simple but made the title pop and let the subtitle provide the promise to the reader.

10. Format Your Book

Now that you’ve written your manuscript, it’s time to format it so you can visualize the final product — your book!

Formatting your book is an important step in learning how to write a book, because it has to do with how your book will appear to the reader. A successfully formatted book will not cut off text, incorrect indentations, or typeset errors when printed or displayed on a digital device.

If you’ve already decided to go with self-publishing vs traditional publishing , this is all on you. But if you’re not tech-savvy and don’t have the time to learn how to format your own book, you can hire a professional to do this part for you.

If you know how to format a book correctly and to fit your book distributor’s specifications, you can do so in Word or Google Docs. You can also use a program like Vellum Software or Atticus .

Otherwise, we recommend hiring someone to do this professionally, as it’s one of the most important aspects to get right. Check out Formatted Books if that’s the case for you.

11. Prepare to Launch Your Book

Before you hit “Publish” it’s time to do the groundwork to start prepping for your book’s launch, and your ongoing book launch and book marketing strategy.

There are a few steps involved in this process, which we’ll outline below.

Build your book’s launch team

This is an ongoing step that you can start doing when you are finished with your rough draft. As you send your book to the editor, designer, and formatter, you can organize a launch team in the meantime.

Your book’s launch team is essentially a group of individuals who are considered your target readers. They will help you promote your book, and will be actively involved in the launch process of your book.

Develop a marketing mindset

It’s time to start shifting your mindset from writing to book marketing . Think about your strengths and areas of growth when it comes to sales and marketing.

Acknowledge any fears or self-limiting thoughts you have, then push past them by remembering your book’s purpose. Know that the power of sharing your knowledge and experience through your book is stronger than any fear that might hold you back.

It’s important to understand in the marketing phase that your mindset has a huge role in the success of your book. You can write the best book in the world, but if you don’t channel some energy towards marketing, no one will know it exists.

Here are six ways to market your book:

• Paid advertisements
• Free advertisement opportunities
• Local or in-person events
• Content marketing on Google and Amazon
• Be a guest on podcasts and websites
• Speaker opportunities

Create a book launch strategy

There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to your launch strategy, so it’s important to draft up a plan before you publish your book.

Your launch strategy is basically how you plan to create momentum with your book. Think of it like a business launch. There’s always a big celebration to announce the launch of the business. It’s the same for your book.

12. Publish Your Book

The self-publishing process steps will vary on whether you are publishing your book as an eBook only, or whether you plan to publish it as a print book.

It will also vary depending on which self-publishing companies you plan to work with. There are many self-publishing platforms to choose from, including KDP on Amazon and IngramSpark .

If you plan to work with a different book publisher , you’ll want to follow their guidelines. You should also learn how to copyright a book to protect yourself against plagiarism.

Once you’ve hit publish on your platform, you can start implementing your launch strategies and marketing strategies, which we’ll cover in the next section.

FAQs: How To Write A Book

If you read through this guide and have specific questions on how to write a book, here are some other questions we get often.

How long does it take to write a book?

How long it takes to write a book depends on a number of factors. on average, it takes self-published authors anywhere from 3-6 months, but that can be shorter or longer depending on your writing habits, work ethic, time available, and much more.

How much do authors make?

There is no set amount that an author can make. It depends on many factors, such as the book genre , topic, author’s readership and following, and marketing success.

For a full report on this, please read our report on Author Salary

Writing a book is not a get-rich-quick strategy by any means. While learning how to write a book can help you grow your business through techniques like a book funnel , unless you sell hundreds of thousands of copies of books, you likely will not earn six figures from book sales alone.

How much money does an author make per book?

The money an author makes per book sold is calculated by the royalty rate. The royalty rate varies depending on the publishing medium, and company.

Use this Book Royalty Calculator to get a better idea of your potential earnings.

How much does it cost to write and publish a book?

With Amazon self-publishing and other self-publishing platforms, the cost to publish is actually free. However, it costs money to hire professionals that actually produce a high-quality book that you will be proud of.

For full details, read this guide on Self-Publishing Costs .

Can anyone write a book?

Yes, anyone can learn how to write a book. And thanks to the rise of technology and self-publishing, anyone can publish a book as well!

Traditional publishers used to serve as the gatekeepers to publishing, holding the power to determine which books would be published. This prevented many stories from being shared, and many talented authors from being recognized.

Thankfully, this antiquated system is no longer the only option. This also means that because anyone can technically publish a book, it is extremely important that you create a quality, professional book that’s of the highest standard.

You Wrote A Book!

And that’s it! Those are the steps to take to learn how to write a book from start to finish.

You can and will write your first book if you put forth the effort. You’re going to crush this!

Trust the process, create a consistent writing schedule, and use this practical guide to help you through the journey of learning how to write a book.

Are you ready to write your book?

Join the community.

Join 100,000 other aspiring authors who receive weekly emails from us to help them reach their author dreams. Get the latest product updates, company news, and special offers delivered right to your inbox.

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Book Marketing for Self-Publishing Authors

Home / Book Writing / How to Write a Book: A Step-by-Step Bestselling Guide for Aspiring Authors

How to Write a Book: A Step-by-Step Bestselling Guide for Aspiring Authors

Embarking on how to write a book can be overwhelming – but it doesn’t have to be. This no-fluff guide outlines each critical step to take your book from a lingering idea to a published reality. 

From establishing your first draft to the final touches of publication, find clarity and direction, ensuring you’re equipped for every phase of your writing voyage. 

Dive in and discover how to turn your narrative vision into a bound manuscript ready for eager readers.

Table of contents

• Why am I Qualified to Cover How to Write a Book? 
• Cultivating the Mindset of a Writer
• Crafting Your Ideal Writing Space
• Establishing a Consistent Writing Schedule
• Step 2: Best Tool for Writing a Book

Mapping Out Key Points for Plot of Education (Fiction & Nonfiction)

• Designing Engaging Characters and Settings (Fiction)
• Step 4: Penning Your First Draft
• Self-Editing Techniques
• Seeking Professional Editor Expertise
• Crafting a Compelling Book Title
• Designing an Eye-Catching Book Cover
• Formatting Your Manuscript for Publication
• Digital Tools for Writers
• How important is it to have a consistent writing schedule?
• What should I look for in a writing software?
• Can a professional editor really make a difference in the quality of my book?
• Is self-publishing or traditional publishing better for a first-time author?
• What marketing strategies are essential for a successful book launch?

Before we get into the how, let’s start by asking a good question: What makes me qualified to write this?  

For starters, I’ve had the pleasure of writing 11 bestselling books in both nonfiction and fiction.  However, from that experience, I created this website, Kindlepreneur – which is one of the worlds largest resources on publishing, and book marketing. 

I’ve also been a paid consultant for major publishing companies, and NYT bestselling authors in many different genres and topics.  I’m also the creator Publisher Rocket , an award winning tool for self published authors and publishing companies that helps with book marketing and understanding the marketing trend.  

Based on this, I’ve been a part of the writing process, publishing, and marketing side of writing a book.  This wide swath of experiences is what’s allowed me to writing, and hopefully provide sound guidance as you start your journey.  

Step 1: Embarking on Your Writing Journey

The ambition to write a book is profound, offering an opportunity to broadcast your thoughts, tales, and concepts to the world. But before the actual writing begins, you must set the stage for success. Therefore, it is important that you get yourself in the right frame of mind, setting, and establish a consistent schedule so you build a strong habit.  Without these three, you will have a higher chance of failing to write your book. 

A critical internal shift must precede the physical act of writing, whether by pen on paper or fingers on keyboard. Identify yourself as a writer – your confidence as an author is your compass in the vast sea of words. Don’t think of it as a hobby, or a thing you do.  You are an author.  

The writing journey begins with self-belief and the willingness to embrace imperfections as part of the learning curve. To begin writing is not only about producing words; it’s about growth, embracing the process, and learning to string together words that will one day become your book.

So, say it with me, “I am an author!”

The environment you choose can significantly affect your productivity, so it’s vital to find a location that fosters focus and minimizes distractions. Whether it’s a quiet corner in your home, a local library, or a bustling coffee shop that somehow fuels your concentration, your writing space should cater to your specific needs.

I personally choose a room in my house where it is hard for my family to disturb, but also put things in it that make it inviting and conducive to writing.  So, make sure you look for ways to remove distraction, and help foster the desire to write.  

Most authors fail to finish their book because they tell themselves that they will write when they have time or when they feel like it.  However, consistency serves as the lifeblood of the writing process. 

A consistent writing schedule not only keeps your book at the forefront of your mind but also acts as a safeguard against abandoning the project. Therefore, the best thing an author can do is create a set schedule for them to write. 

When I wrote my first book, I set 5am-7:30am every day, Monday through Sunday as my writing time.  This way, I never scheduled anything during them, and I never got off task.  Now, you don’t have to choose those exact times (many would say I’m a bit too masochistic when they see those times).   But the point is, you need to set it in your schedule and make it repetitive.  Build the writing habit. 

For more information on how to improve your writing settings and thus your writing output, be sure to check the below out: 

• How to write faster

Before you get started crafting your novel, it’s best to take the time to consider what writing software you will use.  

And while you might be thinking that Word is sufficient, just remember that it was made for writing long for like novels and there are tools out there that do so much more.  

For book writing, you’re going to need things like plotting and organizing, and finally formatting (turning your written work into printable books or ebooks).  There are a couple of writing tools that can do this.  

But the best one is Atticus.io – it’s the only all in one writing program that allows you to organize your work, writing, and then format as effectively and beautifully as possible.  Plus, soon, it will have the ability for your collaborate with other authors and editors (which is an important step I’ll discuss later).  Also, unlike many others, it isn’t a subscription.  It’s a one time payment – that way your work is safe and not kept hostage to a monthly fee. So, check that out. 

Step 3: Structuring Your Book Idea

Before getting started, it is important that you work to plan and organize your writing.  Now, you will find that there are different ways, methods or tactics to doing this.  Some are incredibly organized and use tools, while others are considered Pantzers.  

If you’d like to learn more about those different processes, then you can check out my full guide on plotting a bestselling book .  However, in the meantime, here are two important aspects you should consider.  

Constructing a story or a narrative resembles tapestry weaving – each thread, irrespective of its color, contributes to the end picture. Mapping out key plot points is about striking the right balance between careful planning and the liberating spontaneity of organic writing. It’s a process that allows you to guide your narrative with purpose while giving your characters the freedom to grow and surprise you along the way.

Plot points serve as milestones in your story’s journey, ensuring that each twist and turn is well-directed but not so rigid as to stifle creativity. They are the cornerstones upon which your narrative is built, providing structure and direction to your storytelling. Take the time to map these out thoughtfully, and you’ll find that the rest of your narrative can flow more naturally from these pivotal moments.

To learn more about plotting and mapping your book, here is a great couple of guides that will help: 

• How to outline a novel
• Best software to plot or outline your novel

Characters are the soul of your story, and the settings are where their lives unfold. Creating a memorable main character is paramount – they are the lens through which your readers will experience the story. But don’t overlook your supporting cast; they must be just as distinctive and well-developed to bring out the best in your protagonist and enrich the narrative.

If you’d like to learn more about character building, here are some key articles that will help you: 

• How to write amazing characters
• Guide to character development in novels
• Writing exercises to help build your character
• How to craft a character’s motivations
• List of character quirks to use

Creating the first draft marks the commencement of transforming your vision into a tangible reality. It’s a raw expression of your story, a place where ideas take shape and the essence of your book starts to form. 

But don’t worry, you won’t get it right the first time.  Instead, embrace the imperfections of this initial stage; it is, after all, your first attempt at weaving your narrative into a cohesive whole. It’s during this part where authors can get most frustrated. 

In a desire for perfection, you try to make it perfect – instead of just writing. Learn to accept the balance of good enough…this is because in the next step, you’ll have “editing” which is where we’ll work to perfect.  So, don’t get caught up in this.  

Also, during this phase, you may encounter writer’s block and various challenges, but remember, these hurdles are part of every successful writer’s journey. 

Step 5: The Editing Process

Upon completing your first draft, the next step involves refining your narrative. Editing is where you increase the quality of your book, ensuring it’s polished and free from errors. 

The second draft is about revisions and edits, addressing larger questions about consistency, theme, and the finer details of your story’s opening and conclusion. With a variety of editing, and self-editing techniques at your disposal, you can apply these to improve your manuscript before it ever reaches professional hands.  

So, with that, let’s break down the two decisions here:  Self editing, and professional editing.  Not everyone can afford professional editing and so it is important to break the two apart.  

Let’s face it, hiring a professional editor can be both daunting and costly.  That’s why many opt to self-edit.  If you do this, you need to be even more vigilant in finding issues and mistakes before publishing or sending off your manuscript to a publisher.  

First thing is to find others to help you edit.  This could be your spouse or good friend. But the more people you get, the better chance you’ll find a mistake.  

Second, if you’re going to go the self-editing route, I highly recommend you look into a good proofreading software – something with a little more gusto than the likes of the native spell checker.  For those tricky grammatical mistakes and typos, tools like ProWritingAid and Grammarly can be lifesavers, helping you refine your prose and catch errors that might otherwise slip through the cracks. 

If you’d like to learn more about the self-editing process, there you should check these guides out: 

• How to self edit guide
• List of proofreading software to help

Even the most diligent self-editors can benefit from the fresh and objective eyes of a professional editor. Their expertise is not just about correcting grammar; they provide invaluable feedback on the structure, pacing, and clarity of your writing, identifying areas for improvement that you might have missed. Investing in a professional editor can save you time and frustration, allowing you to focus on broader aspects of your writing career or even start planning your next book.

However, if you are looking to hire an editor , you first need to understand the 4 different types of editors and ensure you fully comprehend what those types of edits entail: 

Developmental editing (may also be called structural or content) – looks at the book’s big picture and overall structure in nonfiction or plot and characters in fiction. Developmental editors may assess a book idea, outline, or early draft to tell authors what works and what could be better. 

Line editing (may also be called substantive or stylistic) – goes through each line refining the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences and smooth-transitioning paragraphs. Learn more about line editors .

Copyediting – corrects grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors and checks for internal consistency of facts and consistency with capitalization, hyphenation, and numerals. Learn more about copy editors .

Proofreading – a final check before publication to find missed typos, missing words, repeated words, spacing and formatting consistency. Proofreading should be the very last level of editing. 

If you’d like to learn more about finding and working with a professional book editor, then check these resources out: 

• List of professional editors

Step 6: Title, Cover, and Formatting

After refining and polishing your manuscript, the next step involves readying it for your readers. This preparation goes beyond the words on the page – it extends to the book’s title, the cover design, and the formatting, all of which play a significant role in attracting and retaining readers’ interest. 

Your book’s title is often the first interaction a reader has with your work, so it should be attention-grabbing, memorable, and informative. Originality is key here; your title needs to stand out from the sea of books vying for attention. Keep it concise – a title that’s too long can be forgettable, but a punchy, powerful few words can stick in a reader’s mind.

Now, there are a lot of ways in which you can brain-storm ideas, as well as use some key marketing data to help choose a bestselling title and fits your book.  So, when you get to the point where you need a title, be sure to check out my guide on how to choose a title . 

Key Resources: 

• How to choose a bestselling title
• Crafting a subtitle

The book cover is a powerful marketing tool that can instantly attract a reader’s attention and give them a glimpse into the essence of your story. To find the most effective design, test various options and evaluate which resonates best with your target audience. It’s not just about aesthetics; your cover should capture the spirit of your book and compel readers to pick it up or click on it.

Now, when it comes to designing your book cover, you can either do it yourself (DIY), hire a professional to make a unique cover, or buy a premade cover.  

Key Resources:

• How to design a book cover
• List of book cover designers, services and softwares

Once you’re happy with your cover and title, it’s time to format your manuscript for publication. If you’re going down the traditional publishing route, the publisher will typically handle formatting for you. However, if you’re self-publishing, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your manuscript looks professional in both digital and print formats. Proper formatting is essential; it makes your book easy to read and shows that you take your work seriously.

Again, like in book covers, you can either choose to do it yourself, or hire a professional book formatter.  However, I don’t recommend hiring .  

With softwares like Atticus.io, it's never been easier to build beautiful books in no time.  Furthermore, professional formatters and services are not only expensive, but also, if you ever need to make changes or edits after the fact (which happens more than you think), you have to pay them the full price again to do it.  But if you have software, it's quick and simple to do. 

• How to format a book
• Best book formatting software (recommended)
• List of book formatting services

Leveraging Tools and Technology

While writing a book is a monumental task, a wealth of tools and technology exist to make the process more seamless and manageable. Some useful tools for writers include:

• Atticus.io: offers a comprehensive system to organize your writing and format your book, providing an all-in-one solution for writers.
• Grammarly: editing tool that can assist in identifying and correcting grammatical errors, helping to polish your manuscript to perfection.
• Evernote: for capturing ideas and inspirations on the go, ensuring that no thought is lost. It’s a valuable resource for writers at all stages of the process.

These tools can greatly enhance your writing experience and help you create your own book, ensuring a successful outcome for successful writers.

Yet, it’s not just about the writing and editing tools. There’s cool stuff like Miro for interactive world-building and the Pomodoro Technique to enhance focus and productivity during writing sessions. These digital aids can transform a daunting task into a structured and enjoyable venture. Embrace these tools; they’re here to support your creative journey, enabling you to focus on what matters most – bringing your story to life.

The digital era has armed writers with a multitude of tools designed to simplify the writing process. Applications like Ulysses provide a distraction-free environment for Apple users, allowing you to focus solely on your writing. Text-to-speech software can be a valuable asset, offering a new perspective by letting you hear your manuscript read aloud, which can be especially helpful for catching awkward phrases.

For Windows users, some useful writing tools are:

• Evernote: offers organizational tools rivaling those of Scrivener and Ulysses, offering a versatile platform for managing your writing projects
• Miro: features an interactive whiteboard that can help you visualize timelines, family trees, and more for intricate world-building projects

By integrating these digital tools into your step-by-step process, you can simplify the journey from concept to final manuscript.

Writing a book is an extraordinary journey filled with highs and lows, triumphs and setbacks. From the initial spark of an idea to the meticulous process of editing, from the creative decisions around title and cover design to the strategic planning of marketing and launch, every step is part of a larger narrative – your narrative as an author. This guide has walked you through each stage, offering practical advice and insights to help you navigate the path to successful book writing and publishing.

Remember, writing a book is not just about stringing words together; it’s about sharing a part of yourself with the world. It’s a journey of personal growth, professional development, and creative fulfillment. With determination, the right tools, and a willingness to learn, you can turn your dream of writing a book into a reality. Keep writing, keep refining, and never lose sight of the joy that brought you to the page in the first place.

Frequently Asked Questions

It is important to have a consistent writing schedule as it helps keep your novel in mind, fosters efficiency, and prevents project abandonment.

Look for a writing software that helps you organize and format your writing, such as Atticus.io. This will make your writing process smoother and more efficient.

Yes, a professional editor can make a significant difference in the quality of your book by providing an objective perspective and suggesting improvements to enhance it.

The best choice between self-publishing and traditional publishing depends on your goals and preferences. Self-publishing offers more control and higher royalties, while traditional publishing provides professional support in editing, marketing, and distribution. Consider what matters most to you when making your decision.

To have a successful book launch, it's essential to build a launch team, secure reviews and testimonials, and make use of social media platforms. These strategies can help create buzz and visibility for your book.

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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3 thoughts on “ How to Write a Book: A Step-by-Step Bestselling Guide for Aspiring Authors ”

Loved this format, Dave – am currently editing my next book, so could skip right to that section for tips. The bloggers list will also come in handy for me very soon, so that’s much appreciated too!

I really enjoyed this article. There were many good points I never considered. I am a new writer. I self-published my first book in 2008, it is on Amazon. I am working on a second novel and it is in the revising stage. I cannot afford an editor, so I hope my editing will be enough. I plan to submit to Amazon.

Thank you so much for the hard work you put into making this information available for authors or soon to be authors, it was much needed.

I laughed over the idea of outlining software. Really? I do my initial outline in longhand in my plots notebook, where I also describe the characters. I wouldn’t feel connected to them if I did them onscreen. Then I outline 6 chapters ahead, on the end of my document, erasing or moving events around as I go with the chapters written. It sounds like someone has come up with a way to make authors spend more. If I want to write out of order, I add a scene or convo to the plot outline to slot in. Word is quite flexible enough! You don’t need any fancy software. Indeed, you can do it longhand with a separate notebook for outlines. And then edit the first time on transcription, which is more efficient than writing to screen. Only arthritis makes me abandon the habit.

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Table of Contents

• Ch. 1: Create Your Writing Plan
• Ch. 2: Write Your Book
• Ch. 3: Editing Your Book

How to Write a Book [Step-By-Step Guide] by a 4X New York Times Bestselling Author

This is the best, most comprehensive online guide to writing a non-fiction book in existence.

That’s not just my opinion; I can back this statement up.

I’ve personally written 4 New York Times bestselling books, 3 of which hit #1. Those books combined to sell 4 million+ copies. I’ve helped other major Authors with their books (Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin, Dave Asprey, Peter Thiel, etc), and I also co-founded Scribe , which has already helped 1,200 authors write and publish great books, including a dozen major bestsellers, including books by David Goggins ( Can’t Hurt Me ) and Tiffany Haddish ( The Last Black Unicorn ).

I wrote this piece to give you a detailed, step-by-step instructional that you can follow to actually finish your book .

I know of nothing better, or more well tested to work, on the internet.

But remember—this guide is ONLY for non-fiction authors. If you are looking for how to write fiction, I’d go here .

Create Your Writing Plan

Step 1: set proper expectations for yourself.

Most online guides to writing a new book begin with writing.

But that doesn’t work.

If you wanted to cook dinner, you wouldn’t start with the cooking, would you? No, of course not. You’d start by preparing your space and collecting the right ingredients. It seems obvious when it’s pointed out, but so many people miss this when writing a book.

At Scribe, we’ve helped over 1,200 authors write their books (as of summer 2019), and probably the #1 thing that separates those who finish their books from those who do not is having the proper expectations going in.

Because writing a book is hard , and if you’re not prepared for that fact, you’re far more likely to stall, and even quit. But if you know the difficulty of what’s coming, you can mentally prepare to get past those obstacles when they come (and they will ).

These are the major expectations you should have as you write your book:

Expect it to be hard.

Anyone who tells you the process of writing a book is easy is either trying to sell you something, has never written a book, or writes really bad books.

Books are hard to write.

And writing a good book is even harder.

If you want to write a good book, then expect that it will require hard work from you.

Expect to get tired.

Writing is tiring (especially if you do it correctly).

Expect to get tired when you write, and expect that it will drain you. Make sure to take the steps you need to be both rested and energized when you write.

Expect to be confused.

Writing a book is confusing. But what you’ll find as you work this method is that while some of the things we recommend might seem unusual, they actually WORK really well—which is ultimately what matters the most.

Expect to feel overwhelmed at times.

There is a lot coming. It will be like drinking from a firehose. You WILL feel overwhelmed at times.

But understand this: overwhelm is NOT KNOWING WHAT TO DO NEXT—which is exactly why you are reading this guide. We solve this for you.

If you follow along and do what we say, you will ALWAYS know what to do next. We’ve made this process so that there are no surprises.

Expect to be emotionally uncomfortable (and maybe afraid).

This is a big one. Writing a book will unquestionably push you emotionally and expose fears and anxieties.

That is never easy, and never fun, but if you want to write a book, it’s almost certainly going to be a necessity (don’t worry, I will tell you what fears are coming and how to deal with them).

Don’t worry too much about your fears right now, but if they come up later, you can always read our guide on book writing fears and how to beat them. It’s the best guide on the internet on how to deal with writing and book fears.

Step 2: Schedule a Time and Place to Write Each Day

Shouldn’t you just get inspired to write? If you wait until inspiration strikes, and then use that as fuel to write, you’ll be good, right?

If you rely on inspiration to write your own book, you will fail . There is one single thing that creates success with writing, and every single writer will tell you this:

Discipline.

It took me three years as a professional writer before I understood that I needed a writing plan for every book I wrote. Writing without a plan is like going cross country without a map. Yeah, you might get there, but it’ll take you at least twice as long.

You must sit your ass in the chair and write, just about every day, until the book is done.

It doesn’t need to be full-time, but you do need a writing plan. Because it defines exactly what you will do to finish your book.

Inspiration might be how you decide to start the book —and that’s fine—but discipline is how you’ll finish.

You are an author now, and what does an author do? They write. EVERY DAY.

A writing plan is nothing more than a specific writing schedule that lays out a writing time, where you’re going to write each day, how much you will write, when everything is due, and what your accountability is.

“When should I write?”

You must start by picking the exact time and writing space you will write each day. For example, you could write every day during free time from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. in your home office. Or from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Compass Coffee.

This is not negotiable. If you tell yourself that you’ll “write when you have time” then the book won’t ever get done. If you don’t think about the environment where you will do your writing, you may very well not make effective use of that time you’ve set aside.

With both of these elements, you want to be as specific as possible. The more you plan now, the less you have to think later.

If the book matters, then you figure out precisely when and where you will write it.

We recommend writing for at least one hour per day. If you only have 30 minutes per day to write, then do that. The optimal amount of time is two hours, but very few people can set aside that much time.

Also, be realistic. Most authors cannot write (effectively) for more than three hours a day.

“How consistently should I write?”

If you can, write every day. If seven days a week is too much, then take one day off and write for six. God rested on the seventh day and so can you.

The key thing to remember with a book is that you don’t stay where you are with a book; you either move forward or you move backward .

Momentum is a key element in seeing a book through from beginning to end. You will make that decision each and every day for the duration of the book-writing process. Your plan will help you stay accountable so you continue moving in the right direction.

“How do I pick my writing location?”

It’s very simple to pick where you should write: wherever you get writing done .

These are the general factors people consider when writing: ambient noise, temperature, view, comfort, and isolation. A universal “correct” place to write doesn’t exist. If you write well in coffee shops, do that. If you write well at a desk in your basement, do that. Wherever you are most creative, most functional, and most confident, write there.

Find the place and setting that works for you and then recreate that each day. If your initial location stops working for you after a while, acknowledge that, figure out what you need to change, and identify a new location.

“What book writing software do I use to write?”

It doesn’t matter what book writing software you use. Just don’t get fancy. Use what you know and what is easiest.

Step 3: Set a Specific Writing Goal (250 Words Per Day)

In addition to scheduling the time and place of each writing session, give yourself a specific writing goal for each session.

We recommend a goal of 250 words per hour of writing.

Why 250 words? It’s approximately the number of words per page in a printed book. So if you’re writing about 250 words, that’s about a page a day.

Yes, this is a very low goal. But a low goal is good. A low goal is not intimidating, so it will help you get started. It will also make you feel good when you surpass it, and that will entice you to keep writing.

This is a classic sales technique—lowering the quota to inspire action—that works wonderfully with writing. The best part is that it adds up quickly:

By writing just 250 words a day, you can get a 120-page (30,000-word) first draft done in about four months.

This also builds a writing habit. Humans are habitual creatures, and it’ll get easier as you go.

Step 4: Create Your Deadlines

Deadlines force action and demand accountability. Below is a rough outline of how to pace yourself, and you can adjust it to your schedule.

If you want to move fast, give yourself a deadline of about a chapter a week.

If you want to move at a reasonable speed, give yourself two weeks per chapter.

If you want to move slower, allow three weeks.

If you have a hectic life, do a chapter per month. And then question whether you have the time to even do this.

Step 5: Announce Your Book

To take accountability one step further: announce that you are starting your book .

Use whatever social media platform you prefer, but the point is to publicly claim your intention to people you care about. You’ll get a lot of positive feedback, which will help you start, and the fact that you have announced your intention will help you push through when you are wavering.

You can talk about what your book is about, who it will serve, what the working title is, what areas you plan to cover—it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that you tell the world this is coming.

Step 6: Give Yourself a New Identity: Author

As soon as you finish your writing plan, and announced your book, it’s time to consider yourself an “Author.”

Yes, this is getting a little ahead of the game. You haven’t published your book yet. Nor have you even officially started writing.

But that’s OK. You’ve made the commitment, and believe it or not, wearing the identity will help you get started and get through all the problems that will inevitably come up.

All you need to do is something as simple as writing your name and “Author” beneath it to make it real.

Write Your Book

Step 7: figure out your book objectives: why are you writing your book, and what do you want to get.

The first step in how to write a book is what is called “positioning” in the book industry . Positioning is the most crucial part of both writing (and marketing) your book. What is book positioning? Simply stated:

Book positioning is the place your book occupies in the mind of your reader, and how that reader perceives your book as fulfilling their needs.

That is the technical, industry definition of positioning. But really, positioning is about answering the question readers ask about every book:

“Why should I read this book?”

It’s important to understand that you can’t write or market yourself out of a positioning problem . If you get it right, positioning makes both the writing and marketing of the book easy, and ensures you get what you want from your book.

If you do not take this seriously—if you get your positioning wrong—then almost nothing you can do will save your book or make it successful.

The best place to start book positioning is your objectives. This is because once you know what you want to accomplish with your book, it allows you to figure out the correct book to write.

This basic question helps authors discern the proper objectives:

“Imagine it’s a few years after your book has been published. What has the book helped you accomplish that made the effort worthwhile?”

There are an almost infinite array of benefits a book can get for an author, but most of them fall into one of these six popular objectives:

• Raise Visibility/Profile: Books can increase visibility in any number of ways, like making it easier to gain media exposure or raise your profile in your niche.
• Increase Authority/Credibility: Books help an author establish authority and gain credibility within their field.
• Get New Clients/Opportunities: Books can easily help generate new business and other opportunities, across a variety of platforms and venues, in multiple ways.
• Speaking Engagements: A book is almost a necessity for becoming a paid speaker, or often getting booked for any public speaking at all.
• Leave a Legacy: A book can help establish a legacy and pass your story onto others.
• Impact Others: There are a lot of ways to impact people , and for some authors, this is often the main benefit to them. They either do not care about what they’ll get from their book, or they care about that only as a secondary benefit.

Obviously, the details of each of these depend on your specific field and profession, but any of those objectives can be very realistic.

Examples of Book Objectives

From a book about learning faster and more effectively:

1. We have built our B2C business to over $10M a year, in large part by leveraging the free book funnel and the exposure of the book, despite the fact that I’m less involved in the business than ever

2. We’re doing over $1M a year in corporate and enterprise subscriptions, because of the exposure and credibility of the book and the event

3. We have sparked research, conversation, and debate about education reform, and are working on a few not-for-profit pilot initiatives to improve education

From a book that teaches women how to sell like men, but ethically and with heart:

1. I have a large following of female entrepreneurs and my brand is recognized and well-respected

2. I’m a sought-out speaker on the topic of sales and female empowerment. I have done a TEDx talk and been asked to speak at large, recognizable conferences like SXSW and Traffic & Conversion Summit.

3. I frequently get messages from people (women and men) who thank me for writing this book because it genuinely helped them

What Are Unrealistic Book Objectives?

Of course everyone secretly hopes their book will sell millions of copies and be a breakout success—but if you make that your objective, you are setting yourself up for failure. Those are not realistic goals. If you set realistic goals, you give your book a chance to actually succeed.

In fact, the most important thing you can do with this question is kill your fantasies and set objectives that are achievable. These are unrealistic objectives for most authors:

• Sell a million copies the first year
• Be asked to do a mainstage TED talk
• Become a famous author
• Be a New York Times bestselling author
• Get on Oprah/Ellen
• Fill an ill-defined emotional void

Here’s the thing about these objectives: they are not literally impossible. People have accomplished them all. We’ve had a few of our authors do them.

But they are exceedingly rare, and most books have no shot at these objectives. The more you focus on realistic objectives, the better your book will be at hitting the audience you need to hit in order to succeed.

Step 8: Figure Out Your Book Audience: Who Is Your Book for, and Why Will They Care?

You can absolutely write a book without caring who your audience is. But don’t expect it to do well.

In fact, if you’re looking for how to write a book without an audience in mind, there’s a name for that— it’s called a diary .

If you want your book to be successful and reach the objectives you set out for it, you need an audience, and you need to think about and define that audience beforehand.

Let’s start with a definition of what an audience is (for the purposes of a book):

An audience is a single group of people who share the specific problem your book solves.

Why does this matter? Because the key to writing a good book is actually narrowing your audience down as much as possible to only the people your book is intended to help.

Some authors start by thinking their book can potentially reach everyone. They dream about the millions of people that “could possibly” find their book appealing.

Don’t do that. There is literally no book ever written with an audience of everyone.

Not the Bible. Not the Koran. Not Stephen King’s The Shining . Not 50 Shades or Harry Potter , or any other book.

If you think your book is for everyone, you are flat wrong. The fact is, the large majority of books are completely unappealing to most people.

And that’s perfectly okay.

Here’s exactly how to figure out who the audience for your book is:

Audience Question #1: Who is your Primary Audience?

We recommend starting with the smallest possible audience you must reach to make your book successful. For most authors, the smaller the better. Your total audience is a series of concentric circles; the primary audience is the bullseye.

By starting small, you can ensure that your book will definitely reach SOMEONE. This niche focus ensures that your audience will get excited about your ideas, they will implement your ideas, and they will share your ideas with their peers. This process is no more complicated than asking yourself a very basic question:

“Who MUST know about my book in order for it to get the results I want?”

This includes results for the reader and for you.

For example, if your objective is to help oil and gas executives make better decisions about where to drill, and you want to speak at a major oil and gas conferences and become the expert in this space, then your audience is the people who book the speakers for that specific conference (and the executives who attend).

If your objective is to help CTOs recruit engineers better and raise your authority in the CTO space to get clients for your CTO recruiting business that caters to small-to-midsize companies, then chief technology officers from SMBs are your primary audience.

If you want to help people deal with their back pain and get visibility in your community to drive clients to your chiropractic practice, then your audience includes the people in your community with the health problems that you can address.

Pretty simple.

GOOD EXAMPLES

• “Chiropractors who own their own practices, looking for better ways to market their business.”
• “Accredited investors looking for how to get into wine as an investment.”
• “Women executives, aged 30-45, who want to have kids but don’t want to compromise their career.”

BAD EXAMPLES

• “Women 20-70, suffering, who want to feel better.”
• “Any executive who wants to be a better leader.”
• “Young men and women looking for something more in life.”

Audience Question #2: Describe a typical person in your Primary Audience (an avatar). What are they like?

This person is literally who you’re writing the book for. They are your perfect reader.

This should be a description of a specific person in your primary audience. It can be a real person who is representative of your audience, or it can be a made-up composite of several different people.

It’s essential that you describe a specific person, as it makes positioning your book more real. Don’t describe a group or a type or a set of characteristics: create an individual with a name and a story.

The point of doing it this way is to set you up for the next two questions, which are about digging into your audience’s pain and the benefits they will get from reading your book. Clearly understanding both serves as a yardstick against which you can measure the value of your content when you begin writing.

If possible, pick someone who energizes you—either a real person or a composite of real people. Someone you really want to help, maybe someone who reminds you of yourself before you knew everything you know now (the “younger you” can be a great ideal reader). The more you envision a real person who you can help, the more excited you will be about writing this book for them.

Audience Question #3: What pain is this person experiencing because they have not read your book?

This step is about expressing your reader’s pain. How are they suffering, what are they missing out on, what do they not have that they want? They are depressed and suffering—how, specifically, and why?

Your answer should only be about the problems they currently have, not the solutions. Your book is the cure, but we first have to know what ails them.

Sometimes Questions 3 and 4 overlap a little, and that is fine. In fact, you might have written the pain in the description of the person. If so, just cut and paste and move it here.

Audience Question #4: What transformation will occur because they read and implement your book?

Once this person reads your book and implements your ideas, what happens? Do they only stop experiencing the pain described above? Do they get more benefits, or both? What good things will happen as a result of reading your book and implementing your ideas?

Most importantly, what changes or transformation occur in their life? What is their new life like?

Example of an Audience Avatar

Who Is Your Primary Audience? An advanced practice nurse who is interested in starting a healthcare practice

Describe a typical person in your Primary Audience (an avatar). What are they like? Jennifer is an advanced practice nurse who currently works for a physician, hospital, or large practice. She doesn’t make as much money as she feels that she should, and she works long hours that take her away from her family.

In order to meet volume quotas and stay on schedule, Jennifer isn’t able to spend much time with her patients. This makes her feel rushed and stressed. She worries that she may be missing things or not providing the quality of care that would be possible if she had more time. Further, she’s not able to practice the type of preventative, relationship-based care that fuels her soul.

She is afraid of leaving the security of her current position, but isn’t sure she wants to keep practicing nursing if she doesn’t make a change. She wants to start her own practice, but doesn’t know where to start or what to do. She is looking for guidance and permission, but hasn’t found a book, resource, or mentor to help her.

What pain are they experiencing because they’ve not read your book? Jennifer feels stressed and rushed at her current job. She is unhappy, unfulfilled, and has considered leaving nursing completely.

She is afraid of starting her own practice because she doesn’t know where to start or what to do. She’s afraid she’ll fail. She’s afraid she won’t make any money. She’s a nurse, not an entrepreneur! She isn’t sure if she’s doing things right, which is scary because she likes to follow the rules. All of this uncertainty means it’s taking Jennifer a lot longer than it should to start her practice, leaving her in her current job where she is unhappy.

What benefit will they get because they read and implement your book? Jennifer will get a step-by-step guide to start her own practice. The process is no longer mysterious. It now seems achievable. She now knows the applicable laws and regulations, so she has peace of mind knowing she won’t be breaking any rules.

With a roadmap and examples of other APNs who have succeeded, Jennifer now has the confidence and permission to start her own practice.

Jennifer is less afraid of failure by she has strategies to mitigate the risk of starting a business.

Jennifer is now fast-tracked to get what she really wants—a better lifestyle (more time to take care of herself, flexibility to be available for family and/or friends); the freedom and autonomy to practice the type of medicine she loves, the ability to benefit from the fruits of her hard labor, and recognition as a leader in her community.

Step 9: Lock In Your Book Idea

Now it’s time for the fun part: nailing down your book idea .

Book ideas often shift once the objectives and audience become clear, so we leave this task for the end of the positioning process. It’s much easier now to get your idea right, because you know exactly what you want to accomplish and what audience you must attract with your book to reach your objectives.

Before you write down your book idea, be sure to avoid the biggest mistake that authors make:

Don’t write the book you think your audience “should” read. Instead, write the book your audience wants to read.

This is a subtle yet very important distinction. If you can answer the next two questions well, then it should be positioned properly.

In 200 words or less, describe your book.

Write a one-paragraph description of exactly what the book is about.

DO NOT worry about writing the perfect book description (that comes later in the publishing process). Just get something down in less than 200 words that answers these three questions:

• What is the book about?
• Who is the ideal reader for the book?
• What will the ideal reader get?

You don’t have to get it perfect at first; you just need to get something down that gets you pointed in the right direction. You will have plenty of time to get it perfect later on.

For now, distill the book idea into 200 words or, better yet, less. If you can’t do it in 200 words, you don’t actually know what your book is about, who it’s for, or why they will care.

If you are struggling with this, then think about your favorite book. Tell me in a few sentences what your favorite book is about. Now, what would that be for your book?

Don’t fall victim to the classic trap of trying to combine two or three books into one. A book should be one idea only, not all your ideas.

Also remember that putting your story in your book is fine, but only the parts that are interesting or relevant to the reader.

Examples of Solid Book Ideas

Example 1: This book will be an informative, easy-to-digest guide to hand safety in construction and manufacturing workplaces. The author will share what companies can do to educate their teams on hand safety and how to reduce hand injuries amongst their employees outside of just purchasing gloves. He will explain the methodology and safety tips needed to prevent hand injuries before they happen, and what to do if they do happen to prevent them from coming up again. He will include case studies, helpful tips, and practical applications that safety managers can use to prevent the majority of hand injuries in these companies, which is a huge risk each day.

Example 2: This book explores a series of critical flaws that represent the most common root causes of poor performance in organizations and are the primary reasons why organizations fail to achieve peak performance. What’s challenging about these flaws is that they lie underneath the surface of poor performance, so many organizations are not aware of them. Even when people may be somewhat aware, they may not realize how deep they go. And if/when they realize, they may not want or be able to treat them—especially alone. This book is for C-Suite executives who lead organizations that aren’t performing as well as they need to or could. It will help them diagnose and cure these flaws in their organizations, thus positioning their organizations for optimal business results; scalable, sustainable growth; efficient and effective operations; happy and engaged employees; and satisfied customers. On a personal level, this book will help these executives become more effective, less stressed, and happier in their professional and personal lives.

After you read the examples above, you could explain to someone else what the book is about, who it is for, and what they will get out of it.

Example of a Poorly Written Book Idea

Jim Smith is known as the “Deal Maker of Business.” He got his start at the age of eighteen and hasn’t stopped since. Now, with seven bestsellers and a reputation for his success as a digital nomad, Jim is looking to become a big deal with entrepreneurs.

In his book, Jim will reveal his country roots and his struggle with education as a high school student to set the stage for his readers to understand that the only thing holding them back is their mindset. Though he is known as a real estate success and has written extensively about cornering that market, this book will pull back the curtain to reveal that Jim’s success isn’t about real estate alone—it’s about the self-awareness required to do well in all areas of life, not just business.

Jim will challenge his readers to give up their throne as the King of Dipshits, to surround themselves with people who challenge them, to identify and own the things they are not great at, and to stop working like $10/hour employees when they are running a million-dollar business. Most of all, Jim will use his experiences and his humor to bring fresh insight to entrepreneurs who want a life like his, but aren’t sure how to get it.

What’s this book about? Who is it for? What will they get? I couldn’t say with confidence, and I doubt you can, either.

Step 10: Outline Your Chapters

Your outline is the structure of your book, and thus an incredibly important key to how to write a book. If you start writing without a structure, the process will take forever and the product will be haphazard and incomplete.

Worse, having no outline often leads to not finishing your book at all .

The outline is also your best defense against fear, anxiety, procrastination, and writer’s block. With good positioning and a good outline, the actual writing of the book becomes fairly easy.

At Scribe, we have a complete outlining process that is very different than what most people teach. What makes our outline different is we only intend it to trigger the proper ideas and concepts for each chapter, so when you sit down to write, you know what to focus on.

You can download the full book outline template here.

Step 11: How to Start Your Book: Outlining the Introduction

You know why most readers—probably including you—skip book introductions?

Because most authors think the purpose of the introduction is to explain everything they will talk about in the book.

That is boring and wrong.

The purpose of a good book introduction is to engage the reader and get them to read the book.

Just because someone is reading an introduction does not mean they are going to finish the book. The thing that scares people off of books is NOT the price—it’s the commitment of time.

People don’t care about $10. They care about spending their time on something that is interesting and engaging to them.

That is the job of the introduction: prove to the reader this book is worth reading. A well-done introduction grabs the reader and compels them to keep reading. It pulls them through, and makes them excited to start the content, because the introduction has answered the most important question the reader has:

An Introduction Should:

• Get the reader immediately interested in the book
• Clearly lay out the pain the reader is facing
• Paint a picture of a better future, or a benefit the reader can get
• Outline briefly what the reader will learn in the book
• Explain why the author is the expert and authority on this subject
• Get the reader committed to reading the book

An Introduction Should Not:

• Be a summary of the book
• Try to tell the whole story of something that is already in the book
• Tell the author’s whole life story
• Tediously explain exactly what is coming in the book
• Have a meandering story that the reader doesn’t care about
• Have too much background
• Be too long
• Start at the beginning of the author’s life
• Have too much autobiography
• Be entirely about the author and what they want to talk about

Step 12: How to Finish Your Book: Outlining the Conclusion

Here’s the thing with book conclusions: if the reader got all the way to the conclusion, then it means they read the whole book, they liked it, and now they want to wrap this up.

So don’t ramble on and on. Give them what they want.

The goal of the conclusion is to tie everything together, neatly summarize your book, and then provide a specific call or calls to action for your reader.

Don’t overcomplicate the book conclusion —just let it do its job, and it’ll work great.

What a Conclusion Should Do:

• A conclusion should clearly summarize the book. That’s the best thing you can do, not only to deliver value to the reader, but also to make the book memorable (and recommendable).
• A conclusion should address any lingering issues, and close any open loops. The reader should feel like everything is wrapped up in a bow.
• A conclusion should have a call to action of some sort. In essence, tell the reader what to do.
• A conclusion should point them to any additional resources you have for them that could help them.

What a Conclusion Should Not Do:

• A conclusion should NOT introduce any new content. This should only be summarization of what is in the book. You can have new stories or anecdotes, of course.
• A conclusion should not be too long. The rule of thumb is that it should be the shortest chapter in your book.
• A conclusion should not break faith with the reader. Don’t tell them “operators are standing by” or try to sell them in a preposterous way that turns them off.

Step 13: Get a Working Title

You do NOT need to know your book title at this stage, but I like to start thinking about my title at the latest when I am finishing my outline.

All you need to do now is come up with a “working” book title. That basically just means a temporary title. That’s it.

Even if you hate it, a working title is necessary.

A bad title will help you get to a good title, but having no title keeps you stuck.

So just put down whatever you have, and then move to the next step.

Step 14: Write the Vomit Draft of Your Book

What we’ve found working with thousands of authors is that almost all of them know how to write out their ideas. What they need most is what we’ve already gone over: defined book positioning and a clear book plan. From there, the writing itself is easy.

Where problems arise is in the mindset around writing . What happens in this stage is that authors get stuck.

But I can tell you how to avoid this very simply:

Give yourself permission to write a mediocre first draft.

Most beginning authors have this notion that professional writers put out amazing first drafts, or that their first draft has to be really good.

That is nonsense.

I can tell you, as a professional writer who has written four New York Times bestsellers, my first drafts are utter garbage. Worse than mediocre. They are terrible.

But that doesn’t bother me because I know I can edit them until they are not terrible. The Barbara Kingsolver quote tells it all:

“1. To begin, give yourself permission to write a bad book. 2. Revise until it’s not a bad book.”

Many people struggle with giving themselves permission to write a mediocre first draft, so we developed a concept called the “ vomit draft .”

We literally call the first draft the “vomit draft.”

This is because when you’re vomiting, you don’t care about looking beautiful. When you’re vomiting, you just want to get it all out, because that’s the only way to get it over with.

What’s cool about the vomit draft is, unlike vomiting in front of people, your vomit draft is ONLY for you. You are the only person who will ever see it, and you will edit this before even your editor sees it.

By focusing on just getting it out, it stops you from reading and editing as you go, which inevitably slows you down and stalls you.

When you write something you think is garbage, just say, “That’s a problem for Future Me!” and keep moving.

This might be the most important advice in this book, so pay attention:

Write your vomit draft as quickly as possible. Don’t stop. Don’t edit. Move forward without looking back until your vomit draft is done.

Let me repeat that and break it down to be very clear and to be sure you got it:

Write your vomit draft as quickly as possible.

DO NOT STOP TO READ IT.

DO NOT EDIT.

MOVE FORWARD UNTIL YOUR VOMIT DRAFT IS DONE.

I cannot be more serious or literal about this.

The quickest way to derail a vomit draft is to start editing before you finish. I don’t care who you are—if you start editing your vomit draft, you WILL get stuck.

If you edit during the vomit draft stage, the best case scenario is you double the amount of time it takes to write the book.

Using the Vomit Draft Method does two things:

1. It suspends your self-judgment. 2. It creates momentum through daily victories (getting 250 words per day and celebrating that adds up and reframes how you see yourself)

If you edit as you write, it totally derails your book. The bully in your brain, the part of you that is ridiculously hard on yourself, will start to second-guess you and shame you and will, at best, slow you down—if not kill your motivation altogether.

How long should your book be?

When our authors ask us about book length , we tell them it should be as short as possible, without leaving anything out.

You should not write thinking about length, but you should remember to keep your book as short and focused as possible. Shorter books are much better. They sell better, and they are more read, more engaged, and more impactful.

The data we have on this is very clear: books under 100 pages don’t sell as well (lower perception of value), books between 100 and 199 pages sell the best, books between 200 and 299 pages sell almost as well as the ones in the hundreds, and books over 300 pages sell the least (that length is a big investment of time).

As a rule of thumb, you can assume about 200 words per printed page, so 100-199 pages is 20k-40k words. And 5-20 chapters is usually what works best.

Step 15: Find Your Voice

For some reason, when it comes time to writing, lots of authors become obsessed with “finding their voice.”

I’ll often tease authors and ask them things like, “Hey, did you look behind your sofa? Your voice might be there.”

The joke is silly but the point is right—you don’t “find” your voice outside of yourself. Your voice is already a part of who you are. Your job as an author is to get out of the way and let it out.

The second thing authors do wrong, is try to mimic a voice. You can’t be Malcolm Gladwell. You can only be you, so don’t try to be anything else.

So how to do make sure it’s your voice in your book? There are two frames we recommend authors take:

Voice Frame #1: Conversation with a friend.

This is the most common mental frame that our authors use. When they sit down to write, they envision themselves talking to a friend.

This is literally the frame that I used to write this section—I pretended to explain this to a friend of mine.

Getting in that state of mind does several things:

• It relieves any anxiety, because this is just a conversation with friends.
• It helps keep my focus on the listener, because they’re a friend and I want to be attentive to them.
• It helps me stay centered on providing value to the listener, because in a teaching-style conversation, I am only thinking about what the other person is learning and taking in.
• It helps me keep momentum and motivation, because I want to make sure I am always helpful to my friend.

John Steinbeck says it best:

“Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death, and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person — a real person you know, or an imagined person, and write to that one.”

Voice Frame #2: Help a stranger heal the same pain you had.

This is very similar to the “conversation with a friend” frame, but it is also different in a few ways. If you envision yourself helping a stranger solve a painful problem, you do these things:

• You make it much easier to be brave in your writing and get past any fear or anxiety, because you are focused on their pain.
• You focus on specific and actionable information, which will make your book better and more meaningful to your readers.
• It helps you keep momentum and motivation, because you are focused on alleviating their pain.

Uber Cool Trick: Combine the two. If you envision yourself talking to a friend AND helping them through something difficult you’ve already done, that might be the best of both worlds.

Both of these methods allow you to get out of your own way and let your voice come through naturally.

Because you aren’t actually thinking about voice. You are focused on the reader. Focusing on the reader, rather than on yourself, is a superpower technique you can use at every stage to create an effective, successful book.

Don’t worry about being a writer. Just help people, and your voice will take care of itself.

Step 16: Use Good Writing Principles

Remember writing essays in school with a minimum word count?

If you were like me, you were guilty of turning “ they said ” into “ they then proceeded to vocally exclaim …”

I can’t think of a worse way to learn to write.

I didn’t have five pages of thoughts about Paul Revere’s ride, but being forced to write that much forced me to write convoluted sentences packed with unnecessary words to pad my essay and hit the space requirement.

What I didn’t learn in school is how to write something people want to read . That is the key to non-fiction, and it’s never covered in school.

Great non-fiction is short, simple, direct, and about the reader. Follow these principles and you’ll be writing very solid prose.

Also, check out our post on writing tips for authors .

1. Make it short.

This is the most important principle. If you get this one right, the rest (usually) take care of themselves.

Keep your writing short on all levels. Short chapters (usually no more than 4k words). Short paragraphs (2-3 sentences). Short sentences (5-20 words). Even shorter words (less than 12 characters).

Brevity forces economy and effectiveness. When you put a space constraint on your writing, it compels you to focus on the essential and cut the rest.

One key point: make it as short as possible without leaving anything out . Short does not mean missing essential content.

2. Make it simple.

Simple is very similar to short, but not the same thing. You can write something that’s short but complex. That doesn’t work well.

Simple words and sentences force you to write in plain English. Even difficult and complex ideas can be broken down into small words and short sentences. As Richard Feynman said, if you cannot explain your idea simply, it probably means you don’t fully understand it (which is bad, if you’re writing a book).

3. Make it direct.

Most non-fiction writing is indirect in some way— passive voice , jargon, multiple clauses, heavy use of adjectives and adverbs.

Don’t do these things. If you’re doing them, stop. If you aren’t sure what they are, then do this:

Make each sentence a single, clear statement. Connect it to the sentence before and the sentence after. Do not put multiple thoughts in one sentence.

Make your writing as direct as it can be.

I have to explain passive and active voice, because most people don’t know what it is. Active voice means the subject of the sentence is performing the verb. Passive voice means the subject of the sentence receives the action. Even though they mean the same thing, the effect is very different. Example:

Active: Tucker wrote the book. Passive: The book was written by Tucker.

Active voice is much easier for people to read because they can picture the sentence. You can see Tucker writing a book.

But in the passive voice, there is another cognitive step. You have to first imagine a book, then think about Tucker writing that book.

This small cognitive step makes a huge difference in how people respond to your writing.

4. Make it about the reader.

Ask yourself this question about everything you write:

“Why does the reader care?”

This is the hardest principle to apply, because when you do this, you realize that most of your writing is for yourself—not the reader. You see your writing for what it probably is: selfish, indulgent, and grandiose.

If that happens, don’t get down on yourself. That is common. Only every author ever has had that problem. All you have to do is stop writing about things the reader doesn’t care about and focus on what they do.

Step 17: Beat Procrastination & Writer’s Block

Like almost everything that stops you from sitting down and writing, procrastination is a symptom of fear in another form.

If you find yourself procrastinating, then ask yourself if you believe in your plan and your outline. Sometimes procrastination is your subconscious telling you that something is wrong with your plan.

Look at your outline for your book again. Examine it, and ask yourself if you believe in each section. If you don’t, then fix wherever you see a problem and you should be good.

Also, another great way to beat procrastination is to use public accountability. When you are lagging on your book, post about it, and that will help you get support and make sure you find the will to keep going.

Every writer I’ve ever talked to or worked with (including myself) has dealt with writer’s block. In fact, some of the greatest writers of all time—Ralph Ellison, Harper Lee—battled with it for decades, and had it crush their careers (neither wrote a book other than their first).

After decades of writing books professionally, and working with thousands of authors to help them through these issues, I have developed an approach to writer’s block that is different than most, and—if applied correctly—almost always works.

When I am stuck, I ask myself the question: What am I afraid of?

Hint: it’s pretty much always some fear you don’t want to face.

Here’s the thing though—this won’t work if you aren’t honest with yourself. And of course, you have to be self-aware enough to know when you’re not being honest.

This works for me (most of the time), because I’ve spent many years in different forms of therapy, and I have gotten pretty decent at seeing my own head garbage (again, most of the time, not always).

If you’re not like that—and most people are not—this strategy won’t work. You’ll just spin up elaborate rationalizations to convince yourself that there is a REAL reason, and it’s not some fear you aren’t facing .

But if you do this, if you can actually understand the fear that driving your block, then you can solve it. I walk you through exactly how to beat your book writing fears in this piece .

There are absolutely times when writer’s block is not fear. Sometimes you’re just having a hard time, for other reasons, and for those times, these are the strategies I’ve found that work (both with me, and the thousands of authors we’ve helped write their books).

1. Talk it out: Writer’s block exists. There is no such thing as speaker’s block. You can always talk. If you really feel stuck, get someone to interview you on the thing you’re stuck about. Once you have to talk about it, the ideas and words flow.

2. Do something else: You know the saying about how “the phone only rings when you’re in the shower”? Well…go get in the shower. Metaphorically. Going for a walk works really well for me. As does playing with my kids. Basically taking your mind off of it allows your subconscious to work on the issue, and you can come back to it fresh later on.

3. Context switching: This has helped me before—I will change where I am writing. I’ll go to a coffee shop or a restaurant or anywhere else. It doesn’t matter where I go, as long as I change the context I am in.

4. Keep writing: I hate this, but sometimes it works. Many times I’ve been stuck, and I would keep writing, even if it was useless, and that got me going. Lack of momentum almost always has fear underneath it, but sometimes just getting moving is enough to get to something good.

These are the strategies I’ve seen work for myself and others.

But again, do what works for you. That’s the only rule for writing.

Editing Your Book

Step 18: celebrate finishing your vomit draft.

No seriously—once you finish your vomit draft, you need to stop and celebrate. This is a big deal.

Congratulations!

It feels amazing to get through the first draft. Reward yourself with some time to rest and relax. The hardest part is over. You now have a real book in your hands, even if it is rough.

When I say take some time to rest and relax, I’m very serious. Set the entire thing aside for at least a week, ideally two. This will give you a valuable fresh perspective when you come back and begin editing.

It’s possible to begin editing immediately, but the result won’t be as good. This is part of why we tell you to schedule two months for your editing—to give you a buffer to rest your mind and come back at your manuscript fresh.

Step 19: Before You Edit, Remember Who the Book Is For

Yes of course the book is yours. Yes, it probably has a lot of your stories in it, in fact it should. Yes, the book is going to create benefits for you.

But as we discussed, if you want the book to help you, then the book has to provide value to the reader. In essence, to get what you want, you must give them what they want.

That is much easier said than done. Here are some facts about readers.

• Ignorant (about your subject)

I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just how all readers are (including you and me).

The reality is that, in a book, you are buying the attention of the reader ONE PARAGRAPH AT A TIME.

You can write the book without worrying about that fact, but once you start editing, it becomes very important.

The point is that as you write, you can think of yourself, but as you edit, you need to be thinking about your reader.

Step 20: Do the “Make It Right” Edit

We have three editing phases we recommend, and this should be the easiest and most simple editing pass. There are three goals to the “make it right” edit. You want to ensure that:

• All content is in the book
• In the right order
• The structure and positioning all make sense

This is basically just making sure the book has everything in it so you can actually begin the deep editing. All the writing and stories that need to be in, are in, and they are in the right order, and it all makes sense.

That’s pretty much it. Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be.

Step 21: Do the “Line-by-Line” Edit

This is the framework we use for our line-by-line editing. It’s simple to understand, but powerful if you do it right. It gives you the exact questions to ask yourself at each level of editing:

As you read every chapter , ask yourself these six questions:

• What point am I making?
• Is it necessary?
• Is it as short as possible?
• Is it as simple as possible?
• Is it as direct as possible?

We mean this literally—ask yourself these questions, each time.

Yes, this is tedious. But if you do this exercise consistently, it becomes second nature. Once that happens, you’ll find that you can not only cut the fluff out of your book, you can also make your book sharper and more refined, and you’ll be able to hone in on what you are trying to say, and nail it.

Do it for each paragraph, then do it for each sentence. If you do this, you’ll have an excellent book.

Step 22: Do the “Read Aloud” Edit

This is an editing process that’s not commonly taught, but is a secret trick of numerous bestselling authors. Brené Brown, Neil Strauss, myself—we all do this.

When I wrote my first book, I had teams of proofreaders working through the book. I did not think that a single mistake would sneak by, and happily locked in the manuscript.

A few months later, I recorded my audiobook , and as I read through the manuscript out loud, I was horrified.

There were 100 tiny little mistakes and changes I only heard once I said them out loud. Not just spelling—there were very few of those. They were more word choice or phrasing mistakes.

It drove me NUTS.

Don’t make the mistake I made. Read your manuscript out loud and mark changes as you go.

If the words roll off your tongue, they’ll also flow smoothly in readers’ heads. Because I waited until so late in the process to read it out loud, it was too late to make edits to the book.

Learn from my mistake and read your manuscript out loud and make your changes before you start the publishing process.

If you find taking the time to sit and read out loud difficult (and a lot of authors do), we recommend having a friend help you out. If someone is sitting in the room with you, listening as you read through the manuscript, it’ll create the social pressure you need to actually do it.

If it’s something you would say out loud, then it reads clearly on the page. If it’s something you would never say to another person, it won’t read as clearly.

The reason reading your manuscript out loud works so well is because you will catch dozens of things you would have otherwise missed. Like Paul says, hearing yourself speak forces you to notice bad or strange phrasings—even if you don’t know why it’s off, you know it’s off.

If possible, read each chapter to a person. I know, that sounds awful and tedious, but reading to actual people forces you to really hear what is and is not working. It’s an incredible forcing function.

If you can’t do that, then set-up a microphone and record yourself as you read aloud.

You can delete the recording afterward. All that matters is that you are reading it OUT LOUD.

This is KEY to making this process work.

You have to read it to a real person, though. It doesn’t really work any other way.

Then you listen to what your words are saying—you’ll hear the errors.

Step 23: Stop Editing

Most first time authors fall into the “editing death spiral.” This is when they keep editing the same thing over and over, and cannot stop.

We see this all the time. They will do the first three rounds of edits fine, then they spend six months tinkering with it.

Not because they are making substantive changes. Instead they get lost in details, fretting over small word choices, making tiny edits and obsessing over obscure details. We almost have to pry the book out of their hands so we can finish it, even though they don’t really have anything left to change.

If you need a frame to help you decide when and if you are done editing, you can use what we call the Edit Stop Quiz . It’s two questions, and you can use it over and over again until you are done.

Edit Stop Quiz

Question #1: Is this the best book you can write, RIGHT NOW?

If the answer is yes, then send to publish.

If the answer is no, then go to question #2.

Question #2: What can you do RIGHT NOW to make it better?

If there is an answer, something you can do now, do it.

If there is nothing you can do now—if the answer is something like, “Become a better writer”—then send to publish.

The point of this is to get you out of your spiral of “Well, if I did a little more research …” and then two years later your book is still stuck. That is bullshit, and just procrastination to stop you from finishing your book.

This can be driven by many different forces, such as perfectionism, fear of publishing, fear of success, or fear of failure. There will always be more to work on, more to change, more to improve. That will kill your book.

There are two aphorisms we use to help get authors past this point:

“Perfect is the enemy of good, shipped is better than perfect.” —Seth Godin

“[Books] are never truly finished, only abandoned.” —Leonardo Da Vinci

Final Thoughts

This should be more than enough to help you not only get started, but actually finish your book.

Here’s the thing though: writing the book is only the first step (even though it’s a major one).

The next step is to actually publish your book and decide if you are going to go the self-publishing or traditional publishing route.

Please don’t be the person who writes 80% of the book and quits. Remember that at least one person, and probably many more, want to learn what your book will teach them. You have an obligation to yourself and to your audience to stop editing and put the book out.

Write up and publish your knowledge, even if it’s not perfect. They want and need it.

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Is there a message, story, or idea that you deeply want to share with the world? APA wants to help! This beginner-level webinar is designed to help first-time authors get through the nitty-gritty of writing their first book.

In this presentation you will learn:

• The practical steps of book-writing.
• Ways of identifying your core message.
• Tips for building content structure.
• Dealing with writer's block and imposter syndrome.
• The habits of highly effective writers.

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Kyler Shumway, PsyD

President and chief clinical officer of Deep Eddy Psychotherapy , one of the leading outpatient mental health practices in Texas. He is also a bestselling author with his fourth book, Neurodiversity and the Myth of Normal , being released soon as an Amazon Audible Original. He has been featured by Forbes , The New York Times , CNN, and more for his work in combatting the loneliness epidemic. As a licensed psychologist, thought leader, and TEDx speaker who has spoken to audiences across the nation (as well as internationally), his mission is to help people learn to love themselves and others, build satisfying and meaningful relationships, and find their place to belong.

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Writing in Education: The Art of Writing for Educators (Teaching Writing)

• ISBN-10 900443724X
• ISBN-13 978-9004437241
• Publisher Brill | Sense
• Publication date August 15, 2020
• Language English
• Dimensions 6.14 x 0.31 x 9.21 inches
• Print length 129 pages
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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brill | Sense (August 15, 2020)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 129 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 900443724X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9004437241
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.31 x 9.21 inches
• #313 in Education Research (Books)
• #2,701 in Education (Books)
• #4,157 in Instruction Methods

About the author

Sandra schamroth abrams.

Sandra Schamroth Abrams is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at St. John's University in New York. Her research of digital literacies and videogaming provides insight into agentive learning, layered meaning making, and pedagogical discovery located at the intersection of online and offline experiences.

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Writing about Writing

Psychology in Everyday Life

Fifth edition | ©2023 elizabeth wardle; doug downs.

ISBN:9781319332358

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Since its initial publication, Writing about Writing has empowered tens of thousands of students to investigate assumptions about writing and to explore how writing works.  It does so by making writing itself the subject of inquiry. Unique to Wardle and Downs’ approach, the text presents “threshold concepts” about writing—central ideas that writers need to understand in order to progress. As they come to a deeper understanding of these threshold concepts, students are able to transfer their understanding to any writing situation they encounter.  Students are prepared in Part One to engage with the readings in Part Two. The Part One chapters explain the value of investigating writing, introduce threshold concepts and the notion of transfer, detail the elements of genre and rhetorical reading, and offer a guide for conducting writing studies research at a level appropriate for undergraduates. A new threshold concept, “Rhetorical choices shape worlds,” is supported by a new, more diverse and inclusive set of readings in Part Two. Writing about Writing is paired with Achieve, a powerful suite of tools that facilitate revision, reflection, and peer review and personalizes student progress.

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Fifth Edition | ©2023

Elizabeth Wardle; Doug Downs

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Fifth Edition | 2023

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Elizabeth Wardle

Elizabeth Wardle is the Roger and Joyce Howe Distinguished Professor of Written Communication and Director of the Roger and Joyce Howe Center for Writing Excellence at Miami University. She was Chair of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Central Florida (UCF), and Director of Writing Programs at UCF and University of Dayton. These experiences fed her interest in how students learn and repurpose what they know in new settings. With Linda Adler-Kassner, she is co-editor of Naming  What  We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies (2015), winner of the WPA Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Discipline (2016), and of (Re)Considering What We Know: Learning Thresholds in Writing, Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy ; with Rita Malenczyk, Susan Miller-Cochran, and Kathleen Blake Yancey, she is co-editor of Composition, Rhetoric, and Disciplinarity (2018). Her current research focuses on how to enact grassroots change via writing across the curriculum programs, and her forthcoming co-edited collection with faculty from across disciplines is Changing Conceptions, Changing Practices: Innovating Teaching and Learning Across Disciplines (2022).

Doug Downs is Associate Professor of  Rhetoric and Writing Studies and former Director of the Core Writing Program in the Department of English at Montana State University (Bozeman). His interests are in college-level writing, research, and reading pedagogy, especially as these intersect in first-year composition courses and in undergraduate research. He served as editor of Young Scholars in Writing , the national peer-reviewed journal of undergraduate research on writing and rhetoric, from 2015 to 2020. His current research projects involve methods of mentoring undergraduate research, inclusive writing pedagogies that help students grow as writers, and how we can teach rhetorics that foster constructive and cooperative public discourse.

Fifth Edition | 2023

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23 Books for Teaching Writing

• Kristin Halverson
• August 13, 2021
• No Comments

When it comes to teaching writing, I didn’t learn a whole lot in my teacher prep program. It is a skill I have honed over time. I was also fortunate enough to observe some master teachers who excel at their craft and learn from them.

Throughout the years, I’ve amassed a collection of mentor texts for teaching writing – books that I love, the kids love, and also perfectly match the skills I want to teach. Whenever I discover a new picture book, I love to share it with others.

So… here’s my list of 23 books for teaching writing!

General writing, 1 – one day, the end: short, very short, shorter-than-ever stories by rebecca kai dotlich.

Theme: Adding Details

I absolutely adore this story and it is one of my favorite books for teaching writing. I play it up like I have the BEST new book for the students to hear – they’re going to loooove this story. It is so in-depth and there is so much going on in each of the stories – they’ll never believe it is all in one book. And then I start reading. And they crack up because they know how ridiculous the stories sound when they have few to no details. A must-read for all primary grades!

Writing Book 2 –  Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon

Theme: Finding Inspiration

Secondary Skill: Speech Bubbles/Dialogue

Ralph can’t write a story because nothing ever happens to him…or so he thinks. Ralph avoids writing like the plague because he thinks he has nothing to say, until one day, his classmates help him discover that maybe he does have stories to tell.

3 –  A Squiggly Story by Andrew Larsen

Theme: How To Start Writing/Adding Details (for early writers)

How do you write a story when you don’t know any words, only letters? The little boy in this story discovers the answer from his sister. As she prompts him to add details and move the story along, the little boy realizes that even he can write a story. This is great for emergent writers and has an emphasis on oral storytelling from the few symbols that the boy puts on paper. I love how the teacher and classmates help the little boy continue to develop his story by suggesting ideas – just like we do at school!

4 –  The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli

Theme: Writing from the Heart

This is one of the first books I get out each year from my set of books for teaching writing. I follow it up with a heart map graphic organizer. The main character in this book enters a contest at the library, trying to win for having the best story. The problem is, she keeps getting conflicting information on what makes ‘the best story’ from her family. As she tries to add all these elements to her story, she discovers that the best story is the one that is your own.

Writing Book 5 –  Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills

Theme: Finding Inspiration/The Magic of Words

Rocket wants to write his very own story. He starts by collecting words. Then, he decides to use his words to write a story but doesn’t know what to write. As Rocket is guided by the little yellow bird, he slowly develops his story, which he shares with Owl, his newly discovered and eventual friend.

6 –  Author: A True Story by Helen Lester

Theme: The Writing Process/Finding Inspiration

The author tells the story of her life – how she became a writer. I love how she explains the process of becoming a published author and how it takes persistence and practice (as everything does to be good at it!) and she experiences the same things that our students do as they are writing. It demystifies the process of becoming an author, which seems so elusive to children, when they are, in fact, authors themselves!

Writing Book 7 –  Little Red Writing by Joan Holub

Theme: Writing, Words (Grammar), and the Mechanics of a Story

Little Red Writing’s teacher (Mrs. 2 at pencil school) tells the students they will be writing a story. While she gives the basic elements of a story, Little Red sets off to write her story. She encounters a variety of situations that might try to deter her from sticking to the plot – including an adjective forest but also has other problems arise such as a run-on sentence with the help of conjunction glue and all capitals and large punctuation with adverbs. As the author introduces each element, she includes it in the story of Little Red Writing in a comical way. There’s a lot going on with this story, but you can take it one step at a time if you want.

Writing Book 8 –  The Word Collector by Peter H. Reynolds

Theme: The Magic of Words

Secondary Theme: Helping Others

Anything Peter H. Reynolds writes is gold in my opinion. This is one of my favorite books for teaching writing. Jerome (the main character) collects words in this book. He drops his collection one day and the words combine in ways he had never thought possible. As Jerome begins to share his words with others, he learns that you never know what words will help someone’s day be a little bit brighter. This is a must-read!

9 –  Max’s Words by Kate Banks

Theme: The Magic of Words/Creating Descriptive Sentences

Max wants to be like his brothers who each collect things, so he decides to collect words. His collection grows and grows and Max realizes that while his brothers may have large collections, their collections aren’t worth much – just money, but he can create incredible sentences and stories. The illustrations in this one are fantastic!

Writing Book 10 –  What Do Authors Do? by Eileen Christelow

Theme: The Writing Process

The author based this book on questions children ask her as she does presentations around the country. It is one of a handful of books I’ve got on this list of books for teaching writing that shows the entire process – idea through publishing – for how a book is made (technically two books – a picture book and a chapter book). This book has comic-book style illustrations and has just the right touch of fun and whimsy added to the details of writing.

Writing Book 11 –  The Plot Chickens by Mary Jane Auch

If you like puns, you’ll love this book. It is FULL of them as Henrietta decides to write her own book. She gets advice about ‘hatching a plot,’ creating suspense, having the main character solve their problem, and using the five senses to describe in vivid detail for the reader. Not only does Henrietta write her own book, but she also self-publishes after she is turned down so the reader sees the publishing process as well!

12 –  How This Book Was Made by Mac Barnett

Mac Barnett is another favorite author and does a fabulous job with this piece – especially when you’re looking for books to teach writing. Barnett relays the story of how a book is written and published – with a few interesting side steps along the way from a tiger and pirates. I use this when I introduce sharing as a part of the writing process (in particular) because the book ends with the idea that a book isn’t complete until it has a reader.

13 –  A Perfectly Messed Up Story by Patrick McDonnell

Theme: Your Story (and Life) Aren’t Always Perfect

This story starts out perfectly mundane until a drop of PB and J falls on the page…and the story must adjust. With continued unexpected difficulties from an invisible, perceived reader who isn’t taking very good care of the book, the character and story adjust. This is a great fit for teaching kids that life isn’t always perfect – and we can adjust to continue on.

Writing Book 14 –  The Panda Problem by Deborah Underwood

Theme: Fiction Story Elements

15 –  Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

Theme: Strategies for Getting Unstuck

Secondary Theme: Perseverance, Creativity

Writers get stuck. It happens to everyone. But what do you do when you are stuck? Oliver Jeffers is one of my favorite authors and I love how this book (a pretty quick read) can lead into a conversation of what authors should do when they get stuck. We create an anchor chart and leave it up for reference as long as it is needed!

16 –  Chalk by Bill Thomson, I Walk With Vanessa by Kerascoët, or Any Other Wordless Picture Book

Theme: Illustrations Tell a Story

Illustrations are an important part (if not a critical part, depending on the book) of any picture book. By showing my students one or a few wordless picture books and discussing how we can ‘read’ the story through all the amazing illustrations, they understand that their illustrations are just as important and should a) match the story, b) be detailed, and c) help the reader understand what is going on.

Writing Book 17 –  Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor

Theme: Writers Edit and Revise

Students love to be fancy – so I use Fancy Nancy to encourage them to make their writing ‘fancy’ after the draft! We don’t always do this, but when we take a piece through the entire writing process, this is a great text to refer to for getting them to edit and revise their work.

Genre-Specific Writing

18 –  jabari jumps by gaia cornwall.

Theme: Perseverance, Overcoming Your Fears

Jabari is ready to jump off the high dive – he has done everything he needs to do to be ready. But when the time arrives, he isn’t quite sure, although he won’t admit that. He does his warm-up stretches and lets the other kids go first, but eventually, makes the climb up the ladder and takes his dad’s advice to reach his goal.

Potential Writing Prompts:

• Jabari gets nervous to jump off the high dive. Everyone gets nervous. Think of a time you were nervous and write about what made you nervous and how you calmed down.
• Jumping off the high dive for the first time can be scary. Think of a time you did something that scared you. How did you feel when you did the thing that was scary before you did it?
• Jabari perseveres in the story – he doesn’t give up on his goal of jumping off the high dive. Write about a time you persevered – a time when you overcame obstacles to achieve a goal.
• Jabari’s dad supports him in achieving his goal. Think of someone who supports you in achieving your goals. Write about them, what qualities they exhibit that make them so supportive, a time when they supported you, and how they did it.

19 –  A Hat for Mrs. Goldman by Michelle Edwards

Theme: Compassion

Mrs. Goldman knits hats for everyone, with the help of Sophia, who makes the pom-poms. Mrs. Goldman is too busy taking care of everyone else though and doesn’t have a hat for herself so Sophia decides to knit her one. She tries and tries, but the hat is full of mistakes. Sophia comes up with a creative solution to her problem to make a one-of-a-kind hat for Mrs. Goldman.

• Mrs. Goldman shows compassion for others by knitting them hats. How do you show compassion for others? Write about a time you showed someone or something compassion.
• Sophia is a child, but notices a need in her neighbor and shows her compassion by knitting her a hat. What is something that your class could do to show compassion? Think about where there might be a need in your community and write about how you could help!
• Sophia’s hat is full of holes, but she comes up with a creative solution to the problem. Think about a time you solved a problem. Write about the problem and how you solved it.

Argumentative:

Writing book 20 –  can i be your dog by troy cummings.

Theme: Compassion, Empathy

Arfy is a homeless mutt living in a box in the alley – he needs a home. So, he writes a series of letters to all the residents of Butternut Street (starting with the nicest looking house and ending with the one that is kind of scary looking, but he is so desperate he would take anything), and one by one they turn him down. Just when he thinks all hope is lost, a solution presents itself. I cried the first time I read this one – it is a winner in my book!

• Arfy gets many rejection letters, but he keeps trying to find a loving home and family because it is so important to him. Why is it important to not give up when something is very important to us? Write about this and share a time when something was very important to you.
• Think about something you want to change at home. Write a persuasive letter to your adults and convince them to make the change.
• Write a letter to your teacher about something you would like to change about your classroom. Think about how you could best persuade him/her.
• Consider your community. How could it be a better place for everyone? Write a letter to your town board, city officials, mayor, or other people in charge of your community. Convince them to make the change.

21 –  A Pet for Petunia by Paul Schmid

Petunia wants a pet – and has to convince her family to let her get one. The pet that Petunia wants though? A little less than conventional. Petunia ends up loving the animals that others may not like (even remotely).

Possible Writing Prompts:

• Petunia tries to convince her parents to let her get a pet skunk. Make a list of reasons your adults should let you get the pet you want.
• Petunia changes her mind about have a skunk for a pet when she learns how much they smell. Think of a time when you changed your mind about something. What was it? What made you change your mind?
• Petunia sees a porcupine at the end of the book. Write a prediction for what you think will happen next with Petunia. Give evidence to support your prediction.

Informative:

Writing book 22 –  facts vs. opinions vs. robots by michael rex.

Theme: All About Facts and Opinions

Secondary Theme: Getting Along with Others

In a playful, engaging, and interactive manner, the author takes the reader through the differences between facts and opinions. There are questions asked of the reader to discern between fact and opinion and the author incorporates the theme of getting along with others, even when our opinions differ.

• Select the topic of your choice. Make a list of facts about the topic and a list of opinions about the topic.
• Write some facts and opinions about your teacher.
• Think of an opinion you agree or disagree with. Write why you agree/disagree with that opinion.
• Make a modified t-chart with you on the left and your friend on the right. Write a fact about yourself and a fact about your friend. Then, write an opinion about yourself and an opinion about your friend. Exchange papers with your friend and add a fact and opinion to each column on their paper while they add to yours.

23 – Any of the National Geographic Early Readers (like Sea Otters , Planets , or Pyramids )

Theme: All About (Topic)

National Geographic does a top-notch job with books for kids (just as they do for adults!). The photographs and content are super engaging and give just the right amount of content information on a topic. These books are a hot item in my classroom library – so much so that I’ve had to get multiple copies of some!

• Use the topic from your book and write a brochure or book of your own ‘All About (Topic).”
• Create a “Did You Know?” poster of things you learned on your book’s topic.
• Create a 3D model of your book’s topic. Write an informational description of the topic, as if your piece were to be displayed at a museum.
• Write a newspaper or magazine article on your topic.
• Make a list of questions you still have about your topic after reading. (Then, see if you can find the answers!)

What are the books for teaching writing that you treasure? Have you used any of those listed above? Share your favorites below! I always find that linking these books with targeted Writing Mini-Lessons really helps cement the concepts for my students. It also greatly improves the content of their writing and allows each one of them to develop their own unique voice. ?

WRITTEN BY: KRISTIN HALVERSON, NBCT

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APA Style is the most common writing style used in college and career. Its purpose is to promote excellence in communication by helping writers create clear, precise, and inclusive sentences with a straightforward scholarly tone. It addresses areas of writing such as how to

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High school students need to learn how to write concisely, precisely, and inclusively so that they are best prepared for college and career. Here are some of the reasons educators have chosen APA Style:

• APA Style is the style of choice for the AP Capstone program, the fastest growing AP course, which requires students to conduct and report independent research.
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High school students may also be interested in the TOPSS Competition for High School Psychology Students , an annual competition from the APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools for high school students to create a short video demonstrating how a psychological topic has the potential to benefit their school and/or local community and improve people’s lives.

Most people are first introduced to APA Style by reading works written in APA Style. The following guides will help with that:

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Writing for Success

(52 reviews)

Copyright Year: 2015

ISBN 13: 9781946135285

Publisher: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing

Language: English

Formats Available

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Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Tracy Peterson, Adjunct Writing Instructor, Southwestern Oregon Community College on 8/16/23

Index is highly comprehensive. It includes the title of chapters as well as each subsection that can be linked directly from the index to the page within the document itself. Chapters include all major areas of study within my WR90 course. read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Index is highly comprehensive. It includes the title of chapters as well as each subsection that can be linked directly from the index to the page within the document itself. Chapters include all major areas of study within my WR90 course.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Information is accurate and well thought out. It would be great to have PDFs of exercises given in the book. As it is, I’m not sure how usable the exercises are in the digital only format. I do, however, appreciate the focus on sentence skills. These are greatly needed among my Wr 090 students.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Content is pretty timeless, and I don’t believe updates will need to be made often.

Clarity rating: 4

Text is clear, though perhaps a bit hard to access for many of my Writing 090 students. Terms such as “Rhetorical Modes”, for example, would not be understood. Simpler language would be more useful in a lower-level course. The occasional flowchart is useful; I would love to see more diagrams and/or images and less heavy text. While examples are given (generally one or two per concept), more would always be helpful.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is very consistent with the way ideas are presented, giving tips and highlights, key factors, examples, exercises, learning objectives, etc. All of these things are reproduced in each section and within each chapter in the same way, making them easy to find and identify.

Modularity rating: 5

Chapters may be easily separated and rearranged according to the needs of the instructor. Subsections within each chapter are able to be completed independently.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The organization of the text is logical and rational. It begins with an introduction to writing, moves on to sentence skills, refining writing technique, the writing process, writing an essay, different rhetorical modes of essay writing, research and citations, presentations, and example essays.

Interface rating: 3

Title page could be a little more appealing. There are quite a lot of formatting issues, large oversized text boxes with writing in bottom quarter only throughout the entire text (Ex: pg 5), strange front sizes, and too much space on page (Ex: pg 72).

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text contains no grammatical errors. It was well worded and well written.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The text is pretty neutral. I would appreciate bringing in a little more cultural relevance into the text: images of multi-racial students, etc. However, the text does includes a section for English Language Learners which I greatly appreciate. These subsections could be added throughout the course, or done as a single unit.

Overall it is a well-made text. I personally would rather see a more project based textbook, but not finding any like that, I think this text creates a good jumping off point, from which the instructor can create and deliver more project based assignments.

Reviewed by Tonya Rickman, Adjunct Instructor English Department, Old Dominion University on 7/25/23

The content presented in this book is quite appropriate for college students, especially those students who are new to college and/or struggling with the rigors of reading and writing assignments required at the post-secondary level. The text is... read more

The content presented in this book is quite appropriate for college students, especially those students who are new to college and/or struggling with the rigors of reading and writing assignments required at the post-secondary level. The text is comprehensive as it encompasses a wide range of topics and strategies related to reading, writing, and academic work at the post-secondary level, making it a valuable resource for students and instructors alike. There is a glossary that includes key terminology – much of the language included in the book is straightforward (one does not need an extensive knowledge of English terminology to understand this book).

The text appears to be error free. There were a few examples provided in the grammar section (beginning on page 51), where the author discusses editing fragments that begin with prepositions. In those examples there appears to be a word repeated (e.g., when, When). However, it quickly becomes apparent to the reader that the repeated word “when” is not a typo, but it’s the format used to demonstrate a common error.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Even though the text was published in 2015 the information is still relevant and aligned with most of the reading and writing learning outcomes expected in a freshman and/or sophomore English course as well as other disciplines. Based on the current cultural climate in academia and shifting cultural norms in the broader society, the author might update examples in the book to convey a bit more of a feel of cultural inclusivity as well as a broader sense of technological advances (AI). That said, the systematic academic styles and simplistic tone certainly puts the reader at ease, especially when reading grammar rules that students might find confusing when presented in a more complex resource. Additionally, the exercises used to provide the reader with practice (i.e., Writing at Work) are not only a thoughtful way to help the reader make connections with the content of the text, but also useful in expanding the reader’s thinking beyond the use of a particular skill for academic purpose to a real-world application (i.e., the workplace).

Clarity rating: 5

Readers of this book have likely encountered the vast majority of terms used in the book at other times throughout their time in academia. The author actually described grammar and punctuation in a way that is understandable (i.e., short descriptions, rudimentary examples).

The format pretty much remains the same throughout the text – the author consistently articulates learning objectives, concepts, strategies, practice, and key takeaways. Additionally, visuals and links to external resources are regularly available to aid readers in gaining a deeper understanding of ideas. There is a logical progression of ideas as the reader moves forward in the text. For example, the reader is introduced to strategies for time management and study skills before learning strategies for conducting research.

Absolutely, this text can be read in sequential order (i.e., chapter one, two, three…), or the reader could refer to any chapter of interest based on his/her learning needs. As an English instructor, who has directed students to a variety of grammar resources online, I could see the benefit of directing students to a page in this text instead of several different online resources. Based on the quality of content in this text, it’s an efficient and effective way put a useful resource in the hands of students.

The sequential order of topics in the text is sensible – the structure enables the reader to know what’s coming next. The concepts in the text become increasingly complex as the reader progresses through each section of the text. The end of the text gives the reader the opportunity to apply understanding of concepts discussed earlier in the text. The progression in the complexity of skills is most notable in the steps for completion of a research paper – here the reader is challenged to apply several skills discussed earlier in the text (e.g., identifying the scope and sequence, considering steps in writing process, managing time).

Interface rating: 4

The majority of hypertext links are useful in navigating to other sections of the text and many of the links to external sources are still active (e.g., Library of Congress Subject Headings link). After visiting the external website, the reader is able to easily navigate back to the original text. The actual images (e.g., charts and tables) in the text are appropriately displayed – the color, spacing, and fonts are visually pleasing.

A huge part of the text is dedicated to the use of grammar – there don’t seem to be issues with grammar.

The text feels a bit culturally neutral - most of the examples are pretty generic. The reader likely feels the author is most concerned with providing examples for the purpose of highlighting development of essential skills that are part of the reading and writing process. For example, while there are multiple examples that spotlight contemporary issues (e.g., mortgage crisis, low-carb diets), the style and tone of writing feel appropriate for an academic text – you feel the examples are provide for academic purposes not to convey any views or positions on any of the issues.

I would recommend this book to English teachers for use with secondary and post-secondary students.

Reviewed by Alicia Andre, Faculty, Century College on 3/8/23

Writing for Success is a good text for an intro-college writing and grammar text. There are 15 chapters, and each chapter is well-organized and includes some sample essays and grammar exercises. What I like about this text, is that you can pick... read more

Writing for Success is a good text for an intro-college writing and grammar text. There are 15 chapters, and each chapter is well-organized and includes some sample essays and grammar exercises. What I like about this text, is that you can pick which topics will fit your course design. The beginning of the book has a comparison/contrast on the expectations of high school and college. This is a good way to start a college composition course because students often do not understand the demands of college writing. It also starts with reading strategies, and this is also helpful because many students today do not read carefully, and this can be a problem when they start to write a paper that asks them to analyze a reading. There is a lot to pick and choose from in this 600-page book.

The authors did an excellent job in this area as there were not any errors that I could see.

The chapters are relevant for any college composition course. The only concern is that the MLA/APA chapter may need to be updated. It might be a good idea to have a link to the Purdue Owl English web page in this chapter as the rules of MLA and APA often change over the years. Some of the readings and links might need to be updated as well.

I thought the organization and content were clear and easy to follow. I like that the “objectives” are included at the top of each chapter as this can be a nice way to see how course objectives link to the textbook chapters. Also, there are “tips” to help learners along the way.

There is clear consistency and it is easy to follow. The terminology seems accurate as well.

The modules are comprehensive and topics that I use in my college composition courses. The writing text that I am using now, has these topics embedded in units, but this text has similar topics in separate chapters which can be easy for the instructor and the student to locate. For instance, if I want to go over “understanding purpose in writing”, I can find information in the introduction. If I want to go over sentence boundaries, I can go to Chapter 2 or Chapter 6 depending on which one is a better way to explain the importance of using cohesive devices in writing. There is also a chapter on study skills that I would use at the start of the semester.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

I suppose it isn’t easy to decide which chapter should go first to last. I looked at the organization of chapters and I would say Chapter 8 on “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin” should be after “Chapter 1: Introduction to Writing”, but since many teachers will simply assign certain chapters at different times, this isn’t a big problem. I like that the textbook included a chapter specifically designed for English Language Learners (ELL) since that is my subject area.

I think it is good, but I would like to see more visuals like graphs, pictures, and sample essays with edits. There are some good aspects though as the text has boxed information with samples. For instance, in the chapter on punctuation, the boxed information shows how the punctuation is used in the sentence. The text also includes some practice exercises in “blue” boxes. This is helpful because I can scan for those exercises and have students do those as homework. One concern I have is that some of the sample essays (i.e., Page 235) have small print and is difficult to read.

No errors that I can tell.

I think for the most part it is good in terms of being inclusive. The readings in the unit on narration included readings from Sandra Cisneros and Sherman Alexie. Some of the readings might include some sensitive topics related to race and abortion that could be problematic. However, I think that if I use this textbook, I can just pick and choose which topic best fits my students' needs.

I think this is an excellent book for a college composition course.

Reviewed by Jiale Hu, Assistant Professor｜Director of Research and Global Outreach, Virginia Commonwealth University on 8/10/22

It is a comprehensive book introducing writing skills. This book covers all the necessary writing basics, from words, sentences, and paragraphs to the whole essay. The authors also provide detailed instructions on the steps of writing. read more

It is a comprehensive book introducing writing skills. This book covers all the necessary writing basics, from words, sentences, and paragraphs to the whole essay. The authors also provide detailed instructions on the steps of writing.

Although some references need to be updated, the contents are accurate. The book provides error-free and unbiased content on writing.

This book is very helpful for students or even junior faculty who want to improve their writing skills.

As it is a book introducing academic writing skills, the authors did a fantastic job of writing this book in a clear way.

I appreciate that the authors structure all the chapters and sections in a consistent way. It makes reading and navigation more efficiently.

The book uses multiple strategies to break the contents into smaller reading sections. There are no enormous blocks of text without subheadings.

The contents of this book are well organized. Each chapter has multiple subchapters. Each subchapter has multiple sections to present the contents and topics in a logical, clear fashion. The authors have learning objectives at the beginning of each subchapter and key takeaways at the end of each subchapter. Major headings and subheadings are clear. All the further explanations or clarifications and examples or exercises have been put in the boxes for easy navigation.

Interface rating: 5

This book provides five formats, including online, pdf, ebook, XML, and ODF. Each format looks great! I did not experience any interface issues. I did not find any navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse readers.

After I read the book thoroughly, I did not notice any grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book has a chapter for English language learners. This is greatly appreciated. I did not see any text culturally insensitive or offensive. The essays in the final chapter also include a variety of examples.

My favorite chapter is Chapter 8: The Writing Process: How Do I Begin? This chapter provides detailed steps of the writing process: Prewriting, Outlining the structure of ideas, Writing a rough draft, Revising, and Editing. Especially in the chapter on outlining, the authors provide great examples showing different ways of organizing ideas and constructing outlines.

Reviewed by Seo Lee, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin - Superior on 8/21/21

comprehensive book to adopt effective writing strategies for college students read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

comprehensive book to adopt effective writing strategies for college students

it was very accurate and clear, such as the basics of vocabulary, paragraph development, and introduction of essay paper.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

since I do not have a lot of writing assignments for the class, this book is not relevant to my course work

this book is very easy to follow through the context of book, very organized that need to college students

Consistency rating: 4

very structured and well-organized content

Modularity rating: 4

Yes. it help to write essay paper, the learn the process of writing

well-organized content

easy to follow, introduce the basic elements of writing for college students

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

I do not see grammatical errors

Cultural Relevance rating: 2

did not involve the cultural contexts.

Reviewed by Pam Whitfield, English faculty, Rochester Community & Technical College on 12/21/20

Pretty accessible for students. Maybe a bit simple for freshman writing, but I would consider using it in a comp 101 course and supplementing with my own materials. I am most likely to use it for a “higher level” developmental writing... read more

Pretty accessible for students. Maybe a bit simple for freshman writing, but I would consider using it in a comp 101 course and supplementing with my own materials. I am most likely to use it for a “higher level” developmental writing course. Grammar comes first in the table of contents. That’s fine with me as it makes accessing those sections easy, but I would not teach these chapters chronologically. I would pick and choose, reordering chapters for my students to teach more holistically, so comp methodology has grammar embedded in it.

No glossary or index. This is a large omission and could be easily corrected: hire a grad student to do it as a summer project.

The content and examples are accurate overall. Ch 6 replaces persona/speaker/writer with tone in the rhetorical triangle. I find that reductionist or overly simplistic. But the chapter as a whole is superbly geared toward the dev ed writers I typically teach. I would use it in a class for students who missed the testing placement cut off for freshman composition.

I'd call its approach pretty classic in terms of comp pedagogy. It will not become obsolete in the near future. Updates should focus on new media and digital sources/examples.

Highly readable for students.

Yes, it's a text that provides a great overview but does not go deep into any one area or skill set. For ex, Chapter 5 for ELL students is just a start. Or perhaps it’s a jumping off place for teacher’s own pedagogy and materials. The slang and idioms lists are very short, for instance. They are just a starting point. This chapter could be an effective review for a competent ELL student or allow the instructor to assign one section/topic as needed to individual students.

I like the amount of sectioning; it reads in bite sized pieces for students. This is a long book—over 600 pages. It could be intimidating to dev ed and ELL students.

What helps make this text more organized and user friendly: key takeaways list at end of each chapter. charts and lists for quick reference by students. quick tips in text boxes. “writing at work” tips that help students connect the usefulness of what they’re learning in the classroom to the workplace.

There are a few poor design choices. For ex, student examples are displayed in italic font (as if the student were writing cursive). Italic font slows reading speed on the page and increases eye fatigue. Never put more than one sentence total into italics. The PDF version really needs a way to "tag" or jump to each chapter directly. Better yet, to jump to each section in the chapter by using a hyperlink or similar tool in the table of contents.

Everything I read was clean.

There is some variety. I would not term this a standout or obvious strength of the text.

I would test drive it for one semester in dev ed first, then consider adapting and supplementing it for my first year comp students.

Reviewed by Christian Aguiar, Asst Professor of English, The University of the District of Columbia on 12/21/20

This text provides extensive coverage of all of the content areas typically covered in first-year composition courses at community colleges. It includes chapters on paragraph structure, the writing process, rhetorical modes, research, MLA and APA... read more

This text provides extensive coverage of all of the content areas typically covered in first-year composition courses at community colleges. It includes chapters on paragraph structure, the writing process, rhetorical modes, research, MLA and APA documentation, sentence structure, punctuation, mechanics, revision, and even designing presentations. Individual chapters include check-in questions and, in most cases, suggested activities for students to complete as they read. There is also a selection of sample essays that follow the rhetorical modes. Finally, hyperlinks have been strategically placed to help students review important concepts by referring them back directly to the chapter where that concept was first introduced. This makes for a richly layered reading experience while also facilitating modular usage of the text.

The text generally follows the established approach to teaching writing, so its discussion of research writing, for example, includes sections on topic selection, planning, conducting research, organizing ideas, drafting and revising.

Wisely, the authors have avoided over-embellishing their work with examples that might become dated. Those examples critical to student learning tend to focus on general, enduring topics. Some of the suggested topics and activities may not age quite as well - for example, one activity asks students to complete an idea map to analyze the impact of “social networking,” which may already be a somewhat dated concept for students. Since the activities are clearly set apart in lightly-shaded boxes, it’s easy for users to update these activities as needed. It must be said that the included student examples are pretty generic; I’ve never used them.

In a nod to digital reading habits, the authors have kept paragraphs mercifully short - typically 2-3 sentences, rarely any more. Sub-headings are used judiciously. Each chapter section introduces learning objectives at the top of the page and “takeaways” at the bottom. The authors don’t attempt to over-simplify the writing styles, so the readability score is relatively high, in the 10th-12th grade or college range. This makes the text ideal for a first-year writing course, though it may prove somewhat challenging when used as part of development coursework, such as in a corequisite course.

The design of the text is clear and lucid. There are fifteen chapters, each divided into several sections covering individual topics. Each topic begins with clear learning objectives and concludes with one or more key points. All chapters feature built-in comprehension questions, short writing activities, and/or writing tips. The visual design is crisp; it makes use of white space and a consistent color palette to improve readability.

The organization of the text makes it very easy to assign a single chapter, or section of a chapter, at a time. Each section has its own URL that can be embedded in an LMS to bring students directly to the desired reading. The use of hyperlinks to refer back to ideas covered in “previous” chapters makes it easier to take the text out of order, as students are able to readily access concepts.

See consistency

The digital interface is clean, consistent, and easy to navigate. The text does not generally make use of images, though there are frequent tables, charts and organizers that read clearly on Chrome and Firefox.

In two years of teaching with the text, I have found no grammatical errors.

The text is culturally competent in the sense of being quite generic and inoffensive; it does not necessarily engage a range of experiences or voices. I haven't found this a problem because the text does not include any embedded readings - it is strictly focused on writing content, so I supplement it with short stories, essays, and films that I have selected. This makes the text readily adaptable to varied cultural contexts. The student sample essays included at the end of the text do embody a white, middle-class aesthetic, though: one describes baseball, “America’ pastime,” while another compares London and Washington, D.C.

I’ve used this book as a core text for my first-year writing course for two years, and I find it generally does everything the standard first-year writing textbook does with the added benefits of being clearer, more concise, editable and, of course, free. It is designed to support process- or modes-based courses, but it can also be easily used in smaller chunks to support other approaches to first-year writing.

Reviewed by Holly Armstrong, Instructor, Middlesex Community College on 6/30/20

Writing for Success thoroughly covers all aspects of writing. Beginning with the basics of vocabulary, the text progresses through word order, paragraph development, sentence variety and clarity, then moves on to beginning an essay through to... read more

Writing for Success thoroughly covers all aspects of writing. Beginning with the basics of vocabulary, the text progresses through word order, paragraph development, sentence variety and clarity, then moves on to beginning an essay through to research writing. For first year students, including English language learners, the textbook provides clear and thorough descriptions of the writing process and provides examples of completed essays for review as well.

The content of the text is accurate and error-free. While the text covers more topics than I would use in my Reading, Writing, and Reasoning course, the review of vocabulary development, word order, sentence variety, grammar, and paragraph writing are crucial for my students.

Instructional material in Writing for Success is up-to-date and not likely to go out of date since the focus is on the very basics of introductory writing through to essay formats.

Writing for Success is easy to read and appropriate for first year students. While lengthy, the overall review of vocabulary, word order, sentence writing, paragraph development, including help for English learners especially regarding word choice and sentence order, provide clear and concise information.

Tone used is consistent throughout the text. Examples and exercises for each covered topic are easily found and clearly labeled.

Writing for Success covers all aspects of reading and writing, while also incorporating grammar review, and providing help for English learners. While the text is long, instructors can pick relevant material to use and students have a resource that can be used as a reference tool for later courses as well.

Writing for Success follows a logical flow for introducing writing to first year students. The text has a detailed table of contents and each section is clearly labeled and easy to follow. However, there is no index or glossary as part of the text, and this feature is one that could be added for greater ease of use.

I read Writing for Success online and did not have any issues. I was able to navigate the text easily.

The text contained no grammatical errors.

The text was not culturally insensitive. Perhaps the readings included can be updated to include more relevant and timely topics.

Writing for Success is a thorough text encompassing all aspects of the writing process. For first year students, it provides a complete grammar review as well as clearly organized and detailed instruction for essay writing, including model essays. Throughout the text, clear and thorough explanations of concepts are given. Although the text contains limited images, it is well organized and easy to follow. While some students may not need such a thorough review before beginning essay writing, a text that can meet the needs of all learners in my introductory course is welcome.

Reviewed by Brenda Williams, Faculty, Lane Community College on 6/23/20

It is complete and accurate. It covers a lot of material. read more

It is complete and accurate. It covers a lot of material.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

No errors and it is unbiased.

It is very relevant. It will help college students adjust to the college environment and expectations.

The text is direct and clear. An easy read.

It is consistent throughout each chapter and easy to navigate.

It does cover alot of material but that could make it easier to break up into smaller assignments.

It flows and is organized. It can be taught in a different order though which can be helpful.

I had no issues. Things were easy to find and navigate.

I didn't find anything insensitive or offensive.

It was written well.

Reviewed by Dr. Deborah Bradford, Part-time Professor, Bridgewater State University on 6/11/20

This book is very complete, but does not have an index or glossary. It does have a Table of Contents. It might be the most extensive book I have encountered for the topics that are covered. read more

This book is very complete, but does not have an index or glossary. It does have a Table of Contents. It might be the most extensive book I have encountered for the topics that are covered.

This book is accurate and unbiased with no errors.

Writing for Success is timeless in its content. I don't see anything that would make it obsolete. If any updates were needed, I'm sure they could be made easily.

Writing for Success is very clearly written which is especially helpful for beginning writers. The examples given are also very clear followed by exercises that reinforce the material. I did not find any outstanding (in a negative way) technical terminology.

The text is very consistent regarding terminology and framework. One can expect to always find the same headings/subheadings in each chapter such as Learning Objectives, Exercises, Tips, Writing at Work, Key Takeaways, etc. My additional comments about organization (which is very close to the meaning of framework) are below.

Writing for Success is a huge book that covers just about everything a professor would want for any level writer. There really is no way the book could or should be used in its entirety during one semester. It definitely can be easily broken up and reorganized into smaller sections according to what is needed at different points in the semester.

This book is very well-organized. When one becomes familiar with how the material is presented after the first chapter or so, it is comforting to see this same format followed throughout, making the information easier to read and comprehend. The headings and subheadings are clearly marked and bolded and the information that is in a box (Learning Objectives, Tips, etc.) in one chapter is consistently in a box in the other chapters. However, chapters 2-5 (or at least chapters 2-3) might be better placed nearer the end of the book, after the rhetorical mode essay examples or in an appendix. After reading chapter 1, I was surprised to suddenly be thrust into chapters on grammar and punctuation when I would have preferred continuing to read about the elements of writing that are discussed after chapter 5. However, the sequence of chapters can be changed according to the needs of the particular class (as noted in the Modularity section above).

I did not encounter any interface issues.

I did not find any grammatical errors.

I did not find the book to be culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.

This book is great and I would recommend it to any professor who is teaching a beginning or even intermediate writing course. I especially like the sections entitled Tips and Key Takeaways which serve as very helpful and concise information/reminders of what to keep in mind for good writing. I was so happy to also see the section entitled Writing at Work included, as I have not seen similar content in many writing books. It is so important to include, as I always want to have my students make a connection between their school work and the outside world, i.e. their real world professional work -- a connection that is sometimes difficult for them to make, especially for the traditional college-aged students.

Reviewed by Eileen Feldman, Instructor, Bunker Hill Community College on 6/4/20

This book presents traditional aspect of writing: grammar, sentence construction, paragraph development, essays, research. It raises the bar by adding chapters directed to novices transitioning into college, to English Language Learners, and to... read more

This book presents traditional aspect of writing: grammar, sentence construction, paragraph development, essays, research. It raises the bar by adding chapters directed to novices transitioning into college, to English Language Learners, and to making oral presentations. There is a Table of Contents but no index

The material and grammar/spelling showed no errors

The relevance is written for longevity. Contemporary technology is referred to and can be added to by interested readers. The topics suggested for writing exercises are timeless but could also be expanded by the Creative Commons agreement.

The text is clear in language, font, and format. There are so graphics , but charts and blue shading for tips help focus attention.

The framework of this book is consistent. Each chapter contains purpose statements, tips to help students, workplace writing situations, key takeaway summaries, and end of chapter quizzes. There are student paragraphs and essay to demonstrate each concept.

Each section can be separated and used as students' needs are assessed. The order of chapters can be changed at teacher's discretion.

The text is clear and logical. The entire Appendix of student sample essays of each rhetorical style appeared rather surprisingly and could be incorporated with those preceding sections.

There are no interface problems, but neither are there many charts or images.

THere are no glaring grammatical errors.

The topics suggested are of American interest and might not resonate with a variety of cultures in the class. Likewise the sample student essay might be intimidating or irrelevant to some readers.

The two outstanding contributions added to this rhetoric are1) the lengthy socioemotional introduction to college level work and challenges and 2)the concern with incorporation of these wkills into workplace environment.

Reviewed by Christy Moore, Associate Professor, Marian University on 3/27/20

The text is VERY comprehensive. I believe it would be difficult to get all the way through the text in one semester. It covers the most basic writing processes early and then eases the student into a more complex understanding of what he/she needs... read more

The text is VERY comprehensive. I believe it would be difficult to get all the way through the text in one semester. It covers the most basic writing processes early and then eases the student into a more complex understanding of what he/she needs to know to write effectively for the assignments normally given at the college level. The Key Takeaways sections and End of the Chapter exercises really provide teachers a way to continuously assess student understanding throughout the semester.

The content is accurate and all of the exercises that I tried, that are provided to test student understanding, were written correctly as well. Each section is very specific and accurately instructs on certain skills and topics essential for quality writing.

Based on the fact that this text covers English grammar and writing at an acceptable level for a college student, the material is very relevant and should remain that way quite easily. Any student that did not have the opportunity to have a strong grammar/writing class in high school will learn so much from the material provided in the text. As technology grows and changes, there may be a place for additions to different formats for student writing.

I believe the text to be clear, concise and to the point. All of the exercises provided throughout the text allow for students to check their own clarity and understanding of the material as well. The writing and grammar terminology used in the text is clear and specific in both definition and organization.

The consistency of the terminology and framework is more than adequate. One thing that this text provides that I think is essential for the student just entering college is predictability. All of the chapters follow a similar framework that can really provide much needed continuity for a student just getting started a college level reader and writer.

Depending on pre-assessment of students in the course, I believe that this text is set up for easy reorganization of material. There will be some sections that students should be able to test out of due to more than adequate prior knowledge. For those though that need a more step by step approach to topics, the content is divided into very manageable sections that will not be overwhelming to a novice to the writing process.

The structure of the text is logical and clear. The text is formatted in a way where an instructor can jump back and forth to meet the needs of specific students for the writing assignment at hand. I would like to see some writing assignments earlier in the text which could help incorporate a student's understanding of the grammar and mechanics that he/she just learned.

The book's interface had no issues. I navigated the chapters and sub-sections very easily and viewed many of the quality charts, graphs and examples provided throughout the text. I liked the bolded vocabulary terms and links provided that take you back and forth to chapters that supplement one another.

I found no grammatical errors.

I did not find the text to be culturally insensitive or offensive.

I wish all of the students that I have in my Reading and Writing in the Content Areas course would have the opportunity to utilize this book in an entry level writing class on campus. It would give me the peace of mind that they have all been introduced to the material that is essential to develop good writers and that they can move on to teach writing appropriately in their future secondary classrooms.

Reviewed by Joseph Amdahl, Adjunct, Chemeketa Community College on 5/21/19

This category might indicate one of the downsides of this particular textbook -- the text covers quite a bit of ground, coming in at a mere 645 pages. Having said that, a lot of the page includes examples, exercises, and their "Key Takeaways"... read more

This category might indicate one of the downsides of this particular textbook -- the text covers quite a bit of ground, coming in at a mere 645 pages. Having said that, a lot of the page includes examples, exercises, and their "Key Takeaways" section -- so the page count doesn't come across as overwhelming as it might seem. Overall, thorough/useful text that would work well for a composition course.

There were no glaring issues with the book regarding accuracy. Writing comes across as objective. A few minor aspects -- for example, the author writes: "A good paragraph contains three distinct components: a topic sentence, body, and concluding sentence." Would have liked more regarding paragraph transitions and implementation of both topic sentence and paragraph transition sentences for students. Overall, book seems accurate and with low bias.

The first half of the text will hold up well, -given that it covers less malleable material like grammar/usage/etc. The essay/writing exercises could be useful in the second half - though not totally inspiring. Given that MLA/APA format evolves/changes, the last section of the textbook will probably go out of date within the next few years.

The material in the textbook is fairly clear. One of the downsides of this text is how much ground is covered. Would probably be more clear if the book was split into two books -- one on grammar/usage and one on the writing process and the elements of an essay.

The text seems consistent regarding both terminology and framework.

Given the page count of this textbook, it might be difficult to cover this much material in a 10-week term. The "Key Takeaways" sections of the chapters were useful and a neat way to add clarity to the intention of each section. Again, given the white space on the page, the text doesn't come across as overwhelming -- though it could have been split into two books in order to add clarity. Would be easy for an instructor to assign sections here (one per week might be manageable).

The layout of the textbook makes sense. From the building blocks of language/grammar/usage to the writing process, essay assignments, editing, and finally formatting. Again, could probably split into two textbooks -- one that covers grammar/usage/format and one that covers the writing process & essay assignments.

The text has no glaring interface issues; however, a few of the pages had quite a bit of white space. For example, page 460 ends after a short paragraph, followed by mostly white space, and then some boxes containing information on pg. 461. Organization like this was probably an attempt to make the content as clear as possible.

There were no glaring grammatical errors.

I didn't notice anything offensive or culturally insensitive within the textbook.

This textbook would be useful to a range of students. The exercises, on a variety of grammar/usage topics, are clear and thorough. The one downside is just that this textbook covers quite a bit of ground.

Reviewed by Candace Hoes, Adjunct Lecturer, LAGCC on 5/17/19

The textbook begins at the basics of writing, such as grammar, word choice, and constructing sentences, and then builds to more complex concepts such as creating a thesis in a research paper. There are adequate stepping stones along the way, with... read more

The textbook begins at the basics of writing, such as grammar, word choice, and constructing sentences, and then builds to more complex concepts such as creating a thesis in a research paper. There are adequate stepping stones along the way, with examples of strong and weak theses that gradually build upon each other. I could see using this textbook for both an intro composition course and several building levels. There are examples of several types of essays both within the text itself and hyperlinked to outside websites.

The instructional matter of this textbook seems consistent with basic composition courses.

I wish that instead of links, the textbook provided a few examples of parenthetical citations of commonly used types of sources. I can see the advantage to providing links is that it more or less places the burden on those websites to stay up to date with the MLA's stipulations instead of updating the textbook itself. However, in my experience, students don't always follow links and would probably ask the professor directly instead. The websites that are linked, such as Purdue Owl, are very robust, but beginning composition students have difficulty navigating those websites to find their answers.

This textbook avoids jargon when explaining concepts and breaks down concepts that can easily confuse a beginning composition student, such as the main idea versus a controlling idea.

This textbook uses the same terminology throughout.

The textbook is highly modular. For example, in my composition course, I would assign brief, five-minute presentations to the students on grammar and punctuation as a review. The sections on word choice and additional help for English language learners would be good as individual readings or to refer students to on a case by case basis if I noticed errors in their essays. The sections that discuss essay types are very in-depth, so I would use them as the backbone for a lesson delivered during the class and assign them as reading as reinforcement. They could be used to open up a unit that culminates in that type of essay. I would focus on one skill in particular in each unit, such as a strong thesis, body paragraphs, introductions and conclusions, etc.

However, the example I gave drew from several different areas of the textbook. It's designed in such a way that it's easy to pick and choose what you need. You wouldn't have to adhere to their organization or go "straight down the list" in order to make sense and use of the textbook.

I appreciate that the learning objectives are separated out into boxes at the beginning of each sub-unit to make it easier for the instructor to scan for individual lessons. The organization of subjects are designed build upon each other from the smallest building blocks of writing to more complex assignments. Key takeaways and exercises are included at the close of each section as well.

The text itself is well formatted in an easy to read typeface and font.

The table of contents on the PDF is easy to use and has internal links to pages, which eliminates the need for searching for page numbers. Each subsection is also linked, which comes in hand because the chapters themselves have been broken down into such discreet sections that it's easy to find just the lesson that's needed rather than search an entire chapter.

Some of the external hyperlinks are no longer working.

I wish that some of the images and charts were easier to read in the PDF, but they can be clicked on and printed for handouts.

I did not find any glaring grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

In the lesson on developing a thesis, the textbook asks students to write a thesis on, "Texting while driving; The legal drinking age in the United States; Steroid use among professional athletes; Abortion; Racism." While these are topics that students are likely to have strong opinions on and therefore it's easy for them to create an "argument," I do not find that beginning compositions students have the finesse to address abortion and racism delicately. That could easily spiral into a hurtful and insensitive writing exercise. The examples of essays included in the textbook themselves seem pretty homogeneous from a cultural perspective. There are external links to essays from more culturally diverse perspectives, but unfortunately some of them are no longer active.

Overall this is a very robust and useful textbook.

Reviewed by Bradley Hartsell, Adjunct English Instructor, Emory & Henry College on 3/13/19

With 600+ pages, this textbook really builds college writing from the ground up, starting with 'sentence writing' and 'subject-verb agreement' all the way up to writing a research paper and examples of 10 different kinds of essay. In between, the... read more

With 600+ pages, this textbook really builds college writing from the ground up, starting with 'sentence writing' and 'subject-verb agreement' all the way up to writing a research paper and examples of 10 different kinds of essay. In between, the textbook is thorough in its explanations and rife with exercises concerning grammar-related instruction and essay construction. I'm not left feeling an aspect I teach in my courses is ignored or goes underserved.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

The textbook's explanation of grammar and sentence construction certainly seem correct, as does their advanced lessons such as developing and revising a thesis statement. However, I did errors on pg. 44 and pg. 49 ("Computers are tool" has a missing word; "The entire family overslept Because because we lost power" and "He has been seeing a physical therapist Since since his accident" seem indicate that those are correct sentences as written, failing to account for the repeated and incorrectly capitalized word). Regarding biases, on pg. 359, in strengthening a working thesis about teenage girls becoming too sexualized, the authors take some editorial liberties asserting that "It is true that some young women in today's society are more sexualized..."; it seems distracting for them to comment on this topic at all, at least without any providing any couched language, like "While the writer of this thesis may feel this way, he or she should also consider X, Y, and Z..."; for example, the authors suggest this 'student' should ask themselves the following questions, including "What constitutes 'too sexualized?'" which is an instructive question for the 'student' to ask themselves but the authors should also be operating within those same parameters, or better yet, abstaining from any comment on female sexuality at all. Also, their example sentences/questions seem conspicuously politically-charged (e.g. "The welfare system is a joke" pg. 358; "Despite his promises during his campaign, President Kennedy took few executive measures to support civil rights legislation." pg. 357; "Closing all American borders for a period of five years is one solution that will tackle illegal immigration." pg. 355). And lastly, there are unnecessary editorial uses (i.e. not instruction sentences, examples, etc.) of gendered pronouns ('He' being a bad storyteller, pg. 353).

English grammar and college writing have the convenience of not really going out of date; APA/MLA formatting can easily be updated accordingly.

This textbook does a good job of putting grammatical jargon, like independent clauses, in plain terms so that anyone can understand it. Even as an English instructor, I don't always readily recall the correct terms and exact definitions, even if I know how to use them in practice, so Writing for Success does a nice job of stripping away heightened language and providing plenty of right/wrong examples, therefore making something otherwise pedantic fairly accessible.

Throughout the comprehensive span of the textbook, I see no departure in the terminology or the fairly conversational style of communicating information.

This textbook is formatted and coherently layered in a way that is easy to visualize and process, with properly sectioned-off section introductions, lesson 'tips,' examples, and exercises.

The textbook flows in a logical, linear fashion, beginning with simple 'subject-verb agreement' and each section linearly building from the one that came before it, until now-grammatically correct sentence structure can be built into more complex sentences, and thus drafting a college essay (and so on).

The interface is fluid; it's convenient that it goes to desired page upon click in the table of contents; places to enter answers prompt a text bar to allow you to write into.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

See above--there are no major errors that I can tell, but I did see careless mistakes on pg. 44 and pg. 49.

I find this textbook greatly lacking here. Exercise 1 on pg. 355 asks students to make a student for, in part, 'abortion' and 'racism.' Why? The former is especially charged. Elsewhere, the authors can be clumsy when addressing femininity, race, and politics. Again, why include charged examples? Yes, most language is mostly inoffensive (e.g. "My mother freezed the remaining tomatoes from her garden so that she could use them during the winter), but be it editorial or 'student' examples, they needlessly make allusions to divisive topics. Allow me to restate from above: on pg. 359, in strengthening a working thesis about teenage girls becoming too sexualized, the authors take some editorial liberties asserting that "It is true that some young women in today's society are more sexualized..."; it seems distracting for them to comment on this topic at all, at least without any providing any couched language, like "While the writer of this thesis may feel this way, he or she should also consider X, Y, and Z..."; for example, the authors suggest this 'student' should ask themselves the following questions, including "What constitutes 'too sexualized?'" which is an instructive question for the 'student' to ask themselves but the authors should also be operating within those same parameters, or better yet, abstaining from any comment on female sexuality at all. Also, their example sentences/questions seem conspicuously politically-charged (e.g. "The welfare system is a joke" pg. 358; "Despite his promises during his campaign, President Kennedy took few executive measures to support civil rights legislation." pg. 357; "Closing all American borders for a period of five years is one solution that will tackle illegal immigration." pg. 355). And lastly, there are unnecessary editorial uses (i.e. not instruction sentences, examples, etc.) of gendered pronouns ('He' being a bad storyteller, pg. 353). Regardless of the authors' politics, left or right, it seems relatively easy to use language and examples without allusions to politics--socially, bodily, or otherwise.

The idea and general execution of this textbook is everything I want in an English textbook--free for my students to use and comprehensive enough to cover any reasonable topic to expect in my composition classes. For me, the variety in my class calls for some students needing very basic attention paid to grammar (check), while others ace grammar and need thesis strengthening or outlining of research topics (check). There are a couple of grammar mistakes I've noted (which suggests there could be more that I've missed), and I strongly believe some (many?) editorial decisions need to be shelved, namely that of the authors' inclusion of politically-adjacent (or even politically-charged) language and examples. Students in a first-year writing course shouldn't be asked to develop a thesis statement about abortion, or read the authors imply something of a referendum on an assassinated president.

Reviewed by James Gapinski, Instructional Specialist, Chemeketa Community College on 3/8/19

WRITING FOR SUCCESS has extensive depth and breadth. It is over 600 pages in the PDF format, but it doesn’t contain much redundant or extraneous information. The book starts with some discussion of how college writing is different from other forms... read more

WRITING FOR SUCCESS has extensive depth and breadth. It is over 600 pages in the PDF format, but it doesn’t contain much redundant or extraneous information. The book starts with some discussion of how college writing is different from other forms of writing—setting up that distinction provides realistic expectations and contextualization for beginning college-level writers. The book moves into a discussion of reading strategies, emphasizing the importance of comprehending and exploring college readings before diving into writing assignments. I like how these pre-writing discussions frame the entire book, moving naturally toward more technical chapters on grammar and usage, revision, research, and documentation styles. This book is a beast, containing just about anything a writing teacher might need for introductory composition students.

This book is accurate and thorough. I do not notice errors in fact.

WRITING FOR SUCCESS contains useful information that is likely relevant on many college campuses. It is current, but it is not necessarily forward-thinking in its scope. Within the state of Oregon—and more broadly on the national stage—college-level writing is moving toward multimodal composition. This book covers the classic writing assignments found in a typical college classroom, but it does not dive as explicitly into emerging forms of writing. In coming years, outcomes and assessments will likely focus on multiple expressive modes within the composition process. Shifts toward new modes of writing will render the book obsolete if it is not amended or updated. Moreover, there are some missed opportunities in this book for embedding more URLs that prompt additional research and intertextual learning. There are some chapters that incorporate links to online writings by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., links to online library resources, and so on, but these are few and far between in WRITING FOR SUCCESS. A broader focus on new media could greatly improve this book’s long-term relevance.

This textbook is clear and accessible. Whenever new terminology is introduced, definitions are readily provided and explained. It scaffolds information meaningfully and thoughtfully.

This book features consistent formatting and organization. After students have read one or two chapters, they will expect some charts and tables that help define concepts, quick tips in each chapter, and regular exercises to practice what they’ve learned. These learning tools are provided in predictable ways, so students are not caught off-guard by new content.

WRITING FOR SUCCESS breaks information into recognizable modules. Chapters are clearly organized around core themes, and they could be easily assigned piecemeal or out-of-sequence. Additionally, within each chapter, information is presented in bite-sized pieces, with clear headings for navigation and reference. Overall, navigation is clear, and this textbook’s format allows instructors to pick and choose which topics they want students to read.

Topics follow a logical order. The book starts with an introduction to college writing, moves into writing basics, and ends with discussion of formal research writing. The section on English Language Learners felt out of sequence, as if it were placed into the book at random. The ELL chapter is extremely valuable and should remain in the book, but on a macro level, it does not flow with the surrounding chapters. Still, that is only one hiccup in an otherwise well-organized book.

The interface is clean, and this book is offered in multiple formats for ease of access. I personally read the PDF format, and it was easy to navigate. The informational boxes with tips and exercises were eye-catching, and the text itself is formatted well.

I did not notice any glaring grammatical problems.

WRITING FOR SUCCESS draws from examples and recommends additional readings across several cultural contexts, so it earns some kudos for that. Moreover, the book is aware of its own textual inferences; when the book presents students with hypothetical examples, the fictitious students are not exclusively given Indo-European names. However, some problems arise elsewhere in the text. For example, there is a sample exercise that talks about “gay marriage” being legal in six states. Not only is “marriage equality” a more inclusive term, but the exercise itself is outdated and does not reflect the fact that marriage equality is now recognized on the federal level. In another example, the narrative essay section directs students to several pieces written by Sherman Alexie. While its important to include native authors in textbooks, Sherman Alexie has been publicly accused of sexual misconduct. In the #MeToo era, perhaps Natalie Diaz or Louise Erdrich are more appropriate native writers to highlight. While these are just two isolated examples, I found several other microaggressions and culturally insensitive missteps in this book. It feels out-of-touch in key moments. These problems could be addressed through some surgical revisions, but this aspect of the text is problematic in its current form.

Overall, this is a comprehensive book with many valuable chapters. It has some shortcomings, and I would be hesitant to adopt the book in its entirety. However, its incredible breadth and thoughtful modularity allows instructors to pick and choose which chapters best fit their learning goals.

Reviewed by Dhipinder Walia, Lecturer, Lehman College on 5/21/18

This text covers all structural and technical concepts in Standard American English using succinct tutorials and relevant examples. Additionally, there are several sections that may guide student writers towards major writing assignments like the... read more

This text covers all structural and technical concepts in Standard American English using succinct tutorials and relevant examples. Additionally, there are several sections that may guide student writers towards major writing assignments like the research paper, the narrative essay, and the expository essay.

The content is accurate and error-free.

The instructional material is up to date and will not easily become out of date. The only portion that I found less than timely is the APA/MLA portion as well as the visual chapter. The aesthetics of charting and presentations has already changed since this publication.

There is no jargon here. Everything is intended for a beginner writer. It is also easy for instructors to layer on difficult concepts during lecture if students are up for it.

The tone is consistent as is the emphasis on the writer and their process.

Modularity rating: 3

I didn't find the organization to be effective. Traditionally, in a composition course, I am not going to assign a student to read chapters on mechanics. Rather, I would assign a type of writing alongside a reading alongside a particular concept. It might be interesting to readjust the organization to show the way grammar, structure, and content work together rather than apart.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

As mentioned above, I don't think the flow works as an instructional tool for a first year writing course. I think it works better as a supplementary resource for a student writer.

There were no interface issues.

This text contained no grammatical errors

The text is not insensitive though the readings are political in nature.

This is a useful text for composition instructors to have, particularly when teaching an online course. I could easily copy and paste tutorials into my feedback for students. Should the structure of this text change, I may consider using it as a text.

Reviewed by Catherine Batsche, Associate Dean, University of South Florida on 3/27/18

This text provides a comprehensive overview of writing. The text covers basic writing skills, organizational skills, and the writing process. There are even chapters on writing research papers and various types of essays. It could be used as a... read more

This text provides a comprehensive overview of writing. The text covers basic writing skills, organizational skills, and the writing process. There are even chapters on writing research papers and various types of essays. It could be used as a text for a writing course or as a reference book for students who need to work on selected problem areas to improve their writing.

The text provided accurate information, good examples, and several activities to reinforce the major points in each chapter.

The book contains basic information about writing that should continue to be relevant over time.

Clarity rating: 3

The writing style of the book is extremely clear and easy to follow.

The framework for this book is applied consistently across chapters and sections. Each chapter begins with clearly stated learning objectives, exercises, learning tips, and key takeaways.

The book can easily be used as stand-alone chapters, entire sections, or the book as a whole. I plan to use several chapters in workshops to train teaching assistants who will grade assignments in writing-intensive courses. The teaching assistants will then use the entire book as a reference book when providing feedback to students.

The text is well organized and flows in a clear, logical fashion. Some chapters may be less useful for some classes depending on the purpose of the class. For example, the first few chapters on study skills seems out of place in relation to the remainder of the text. Likewise, the chapters on APA and MLA style are too condensed to provide more than an overview and will need to be supplemented with other material. However, these chapters do not detract from the overall quality of the book.

The presentation of the book does not have as much visual appeal as some other online books. It is text-heavy but well organized. I had no problem navigating the book.

I have not found any grammatical errors.

I have not found any examples that might be offensive. However, I have not yet used the book in its entirety so I will learn more about this aspect as I begin to use it with students.

Many undergraduate students need to improve their writing skills but don't know how to get the help they need. This book provides a valuable resource for students who need to learn more about the writing process as well as those who need to improve in specific areas such as grammar and punctuation. I plan to use the text to train teaching assistants how to provide feedback to students who are taking courses that have major writing assignments. This is an excellent book that can be used as a stand-alone text or as a supplemental reference in any course that has major writing assignments.

Reviewed by Davida Jordan, Adjunct Instructor, Portland Community College on 8/15/17

Extremely comprehensive, clocking in at over 600 pages, this book is an excellent grammar reference for writing students. It includes practical exercises that can be used to strengthen work writing or academic writing. It would appeal to a wide... read more

Extremely comprehensive, clocking in at over 600 pages, this book is an excellent grammar reference for writing students. It includes practical exercises that can be used to strengthen work writing or academic writing. It would appeal to a wide variety of students, from beginning to advanced and is arranged in order of increasing difficulty. Besides giving practical information about grammar and writing, the text includes helpful suggestions on organization, time management, and study skills.

There are some small typos such as missing letters or words. Overall, the book is mainly error-free, but for a good grammar and writing textbook, it really should be 100% accurate. The tone is unbiased and in fact is encouraging and fair.

The book addresses the complexities of writing in the twenty-first century and guides students through carefully choosing their online resources and verifying their validity.

I appreciated the additional examples of different rhetorical styles at the very end of the book; however, many of the links were broken. This is an easy-to-remedy problem, though.

The text uses encouraging languages and easy-to-understand metaphors to illustrate abstract concepts.

The text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework from chapter to chapter. There is a reliable pattern that each chapter follows.

Most of the time, it's easy to pick out the different sections of the book because they are color-coded or similarly marked. For example, nearly all of the Key Takeaways are in a green box. All of the Tips for Writing at Work are in a grey box. All of the Learning Objectives are in a black box.

It's possible to click on writing examples and view them in a larger version in a new window.

Although the book builds in terms of levels of difficulty, it would be very easy to use a chapter out of order to suit the instructor's needs. Each chapter can stand alone even though some pieces of writing are carried through as examples from chapter to chapter. This gives the book cohesiveness but doesn't impede its modularity.

The text is logical and clear. Grammatical concepts are explained thoroughly, and the writing process is taken apart step-by-step for the students.

There are several parts where an underlined sentence is referred to, but it's not actually underlined in the text. It's possible this is only a problem in the PDF version. Overall, the formatting is clear and easy to follow.

Seeing as it's a grammar and writing textbook, the grammatical errors are minimal.

The text includes great excerpts from diverse authors such as Amy Tan, Sherman Alexie, Sandra Cisneros, Gary Shteyngart, and MLK.

In the opening chapters, some grammatical concepts were addressed superficially but then were returned to in more detail in later chapters, which was reassuring. Chapter 5 focuses on English language learners, the students I teach. However, the entire book could be useful to both native and non-native English speakers.

Reviewed by Rachel Wilson, Adult Education Instructor, Bossier Parish Community College on 6/20/17

The text covers all its bases, from success and study skills for new college students to draft, revising, writing, and presenting a research paper. Chapters 1 through 5 cover the basics of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and word choice,... read more

The text covers all its bases, from success and study skills for new college students to draft, revising, writing, and presenting a research paper. Chapters 1 through 5 cover the basics of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and word choice, and these chapters cover only that which is most important to writing without getting into unnecessary grammar review. The text provides relevant exercises to go along with each chapter and its individual sections. In chapter 6, the author discusses paragraphing, while in chapter 7, he provides the student tips on improving writing at a sentence level. Chapter 8 covers the writing process, providing ample information on pre-writing strategies and revision and editing techniques. The text also effectively walks the student through the process of writing an essay in chapter 9 and discusses the rhetorical modes in depth in chapter 10. The last chapters (11-15) are dedicated to researching, writing research papers, presenting those papers,0 documenting sources, and providing sample essays in the different rhetorical modes. While the author does a good job covering the basics of documenting sources, I would still have to send my students to their writing handbook or the OWL at Purdue for comprehensive coverage of the source citation formats.

This text is, as far as I can see, both accurate and error-free, though, as stated above, there are a few sections (mostly with documentation) where outside sources would have to be consulted for in depth discussions of the topics.

The only area I feel could use a little updating would be the documentation chapter, though for just an overview, it does its job adequately. The text is set up in a way that seems to allow for easy updates as necessary, and the information contained within is timeless enough to withstand possible changes in writing instruction.

The text is written in easily understandable prose and defines its particular terms in an accessible way for students.

Consistency rating: 2

The text maintains consistency and follows a well-organized framework.

This text is organized in such a way that makes it easy to assign small readings to students without having to jump back and forth between chapters or different parts of the book in general.

The text builds on itself, from having the necessary study skills to understanding basic grammar and sentence structure to navigating the writing process. It then transitions from the writing process to the essay, the types of essays, and research papers. It ends with documentation and presentation of research. I would suggest, though, including chapter 15 (readings on the rhetorical modes) in the chapter on rhetorical modes (chapter 10) or distinguishing it as an appendix rather than a chapter of its own at the end.

The features of the textbook within the text itself are easily navigated, especially with hyperlinks to jump to specific parts of the book. However, while the book does have a short section index at the beginning of each chapter, a comprehensive table of contents at the beginning, or even an index at the end, of the book would go a long way in making this work more easily accessible to the everyday user. As it currently stands, a user must scroll through the entire document to find what the book covers. While an instructor can direct his or her students to specific sections with the appropriate PDF page number, the student user would not be able to discover specific information in the text efficiently right off hand.

With having read through the text, and to the best of my grammar knowledge, I see no major errors or typos.

The text is appropriately inclusive and culturally sensitive.

As an Adult Education Instructor without access to textbooks in the classroom for my students, it is especially helpful to have access to a college level textbook that discusses the basics of grammar and writing my students will need very soon. Instead of having to make copies that will get thrown away or lost, I can give my students the link to this text and assign them specific sections to read before each lesson. As I will soon be teaching a college-level English 101 as well, I am excited to have this text as a supplement to the department-required text.

Reviewed by R.A.Q. Jenkins, Assistant Professor, Southern University and A&M College on 6/20/17

One of this text's advantages is its comprehensiveness. However, I find that too much emphasis was placed on writing basics, which in fact, comprises the bulk of the text. While this portion is extensive, I found the chapter on rhetorical modes... read more

One of this text's advantages is its comprehensiveness. However, I find that too much emphasis was placed on writing basics, which in fact, comprises the bulk of the text. While this portion is extensive, I found the chapter on rhetorical modes lacking. For example, Narration was covered in four pages. I would have preferred more emphasis on basic features of each mode, guided writing practice, and illustrations/visuals (annotated sample essays). The text does not include a glossary or index, which are additional disadvantages. Overall, however, I find this text effective.

The content appears accurate and error-free.

The overall content is foundational, so relevance is not an issue. Formatting and style guides, URLs, and sample essays can be readily updated as needed.

Besides its comprehensiveness, a highlight of the text is its clarity. The writing directly addresses the student much more so than other texts I have used. The conversational tone, especially in the early chapters, should engage even the most reluctant writer. Many of the tips and advice provided serve to assist students beyond the composition course into the whole of their academic career and the workplace. This is definitely a student-friendly text.

Chapters are consistently organized throughout and feature learning objectives, exercises, collaborative activities, and key takeaways, which should be particularly helpful for students. Several of the exercises require students to revisit and revise a previous exercise, as new skills and knowledge are acquired.

This text is suitable for modules, which would allow instructors to organize chapters according to the demands of the course and student's needs. Much of this text's early chapters would serve as much needed review and guided practice for students, since more so than other texts I have used, this one provides in-depth coverage of basic writing skills. Chapters 10-15 should meet the needs of most first year writing programs.

The text is well-organized. However, the sample essays (ch. 15) would have been better placed after the rhetorical modes chapter (ch. 10). The strength of the text's organization are the chapters on writing a research paper and visual presentations.

I downloaded the PDF version and had no significant problems with the interface. The only issue I did have was after clicking a hyperlink then attempting to return to the text, I was redirected to the beginning. This may be an inconvenience for some.

I did not notice any grammatical errors.

The text refrains from cultural insensitivity. Several of the examples, grammar exercises, and sample readings were inclusive of various kinds of diversity. In particular, a text's sample essays plays a crucial role in my overall satisfaction, as I expect to see culturally relevant essays that may resonate with my students. This text included commonly used standbys, such as King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail and Alexie's Indian Education.

Reviewed by William Broussard, Assistant Professor, English, Southern University on 6/20/17

The book covers the writing process, several essay styles, as well as grammar and syntax exercises thoroughly without being intimidating, and is excellently paced. Particularly impressive is the amount of detail given to the sentence, paragraph,... read more

The book covers the writing process, several essay styles, as well as grammar and syntax exercises thoroughly without being intimidating, and is excellently paced. Particularly impressive is the amount of detail given to the sentence, paragraph, punctuation, and the particulars of the writing process.

The book accurately describes, in great detail, all elements of the writing process. Combines all elements of a traditional handbook with specific reference to the rhetorics of several essay styles, and does so in an encouraging manner. Aim is clearly to encourage non-English/Writing majors.

Content appears up-to-date, and of note is a section on presentations and visual rhetorics which will be useful and likely interesting to contemporary students. Book is light on visual imagery, making it less appealing to contemporary/millennial students, but its structure seems amenable to relatively easy updating, and all links were accurate.

The book is clear and provides many examples of student writing to explain the application of material discussed in each chapter.

The book moves along at a predictable pace and begins with building blocks of writing (sentence and paragraph style, punctuation, process) before moving on to more complex assignments. By Chapter 15, which focuses on a number of essay styles, the student has had individual chapters to prepare each step of building an essay, ensuring mastery before taking on more complex projects.

It is simple to imagine this textbook divided into two parts so as to encompass an English 1 and English 2 textbook, and to imagine teaching the introductory elements while interspersing major assignments from Chapter 15 alternatingly.

Well-organized, and as mentioned previously, it is excellently paced with each ensuing chapter building logically upon the previous one.

The book is lacking only in this area. The pdf version features noticeably few visual images and pictures, and very few links for students to interact with supplementary materials to the text. However, the author provides a link for the submission materials which shows an openness to addressing it. However, what is included is accurate and appropriate.

No perceived grammatical or spelling errors. Simple and clear writing style.

Text is inoffensive, but lack of visual texts or discussion of more challenging contemporary topics (the book does not include any sample texts by contemporary authors on challenging issues).

An excellent choice for introductory writing courses.

Reviewed by Emily Aucoin, Assistant Professor, River Parishes Community College on 6/20/17

The textbook effectively covers the writing process and addresses mechanical and grammatical concerns. While the chapter devoted to rhetorical modes is not terribly in depth, it does an adequate job of introducing and explaining each type of... read more

The textbook effectively covers the writing process and addresses mechanical and grammatical concerns. While the chapter devoted to rhetorical modes is not terribly in depth, it does an adequate job of introducing and explaining each type of writing assignment. The research section of the text is effective, but the MLA references are dated. There also is a detailed table of contents but no glossary.

The textbook's content seems accurate, error-free, and unbiased.

For the most part, the content seems relevant and long-standing. The main area in need of updating is MLA, but linking to an outside website could quickly remedy this problem.

The book is written in a straight-forward, clear manner that should be readily understood by most freshmen-level students. The embedded exercises and tips also are accessible.

The included terminology is clear and consistent, as well as appropriate for the subject matter. The chapters also follow a logical framework and reinforce material through exercises and relevant examples.

The textbook easily can be divided into smaller, stand-alone reading sections. Instructors should be able to readily assign portions of the text to meet their course learning outcomes and objectives.

Overall, the textbook is well organized; it effectively addresses key elements of grammar and mechanics, walks students through the writing process, and details various types of writing. While I would like to see Chapter 10 (Rhetorical Modes) divided into separate, better detailed chapters, on the whole, the textbook's organization is logical.

The textbook was easy to follow, particularly because of the detailed table of contents and chapter outlines. Some links also were included throughout to help readers more easily navigate the text.

The text seems free of grammatical errors.

The text does not seem culturally insensitive or offensive. Some of the linked essays in Chapter 15, for example, provide students with readings that are culturally diverse.

On the whole, this is an effective, comprehensive resource that could be of use in any freshman-level composition course.

Reviewed by Genevieve Halkett, Instructor, Chemeketa Community College on 4/11/17

The book is extremely comprehensive, beginning with the concept of college writing, moving on to writing basics such as sentence structure, punctuation, and paragraph structure. it provides a good guide to essays; it includes basic structure,... read more

The book is extremely comprehensive, beginning with the concept of college writing, moving on to writing basics such as sentence structure, punctuation, and paragraph structure. it provides a good guide to essays; it includes basic structure, rhetorical modes, research and documentation and ten different types of model essays.

The index is complete and easy to follow.

There are a few typographical errors but the majority of the 607-page resource was accurate.

There was no real bias though I would like to see more cultural variety in the literary excerpts and situations used in the exercises.

Most of the resource focuses on writing and grammatical structure; there may be small changes that need to be made as the use of the English language evolves; however, this will be negligible. I anticipate this text requiring very few changes in years to come.

it is well laid-out and easy to follow. The explanations, examples, and directions are clear and concise. It is also written with both native and English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) speakers in mind; the word choice and structure reflect this.

The text's framework and terminology are consistent; I did not see any examples of inconsistency.

This resource lends itself to a modular approach; it would be easy for an instructor to relevant chapters that reflect student needs, course time constraints, or changes within a curriculum.

The resource's is consistent overall; each chapter begins with learning objectives, explanation, examples, exercises, and key takeaways. It is a good resource for students since they are quickly able to anticipate and follow each chapter.

This resource was quite simply designed; there are no charts or images that would lead to confusion. Enough space is given so that blocks of text are read without difficulty and it is free of distraction.

Since it is a writing textbook, I was gratified to find that the grammatical structure and use was very accurate.

I would definitely have like to have seen more examples of the races, ethnicities, and backgrounds I encounter in class; most of the examples used were extremely neutral and reflected a very narrow strata of society. For me, this was the weakest part of the text.

This is an excellent resource-well structured, user friendly and easily adaptable. My main concern-the lack of cultural relevance- can be balanced by providing supplementary materials reflective of the learners' cultures and backgrounds.

Reviewed by Elizabeth Sandell, Professor, Minnesota State University, Mankato on 4/11/17

Provides instruction in steps and sections; builds writing, reading, and critical thinking; and combines comprehensive grammar review with paragraph writing and composition. Provides a range of discussion ideas, examples, and exercises. Serves... read more

Provides instruction in steps and sections; builds writing, reading, and critical thinking; and combines comprehensive grammar review with paragraph writing and composition. Provides a range of discussion ideas, examples, and exercises. Serves both students and instructors. 600+ pages -- very comprehensive.

Quite accurate in terms of the information provided. Uses sources that we use in my writing-intensive classes, so the book is addressing real needs in the classroom. Suggestions reinforce the concepts and practices that our librarians share with students and instructors.

Thought-provoking scenarios provides opportunities for collaboration and interaction. The exercises are especially useful for working with groups of students, which is how I organize workshops and discussions in my classes. Tips for effective writing are included in every chapter. It's nice to have positive examples of how to write, rather than dwelling on negative examples of how not to write. Addresses each concept with clear, concise,and effective examples that are reinforced with opportunities to demonstrate learning. This textbook will be useful for students throughout their academic studies.

Very clear. Clear exercises teach sentence and paragraph writing skills that I already try to emphasize in my classes. I will use many of the exercises, but base them on the content of my course curriculum, instead of generic assignments.

Provides consistent and constant reinforcement through examples and exercises about writing. Involves students in the learning process through reading, problem-solving, practicing, and experiences in the processes of writing.

Modularity rating: 2

Each chapter is stand-alone and easy to read on-line or to print and read off-line. Each chapter has examples that organize the discussion and form a common basis for learning.

Overall, the organization, structure, and flow is fine. Textbook is more than 600 pages, which makes it more of a reference / resource book. I will pull materials that I need for my specific writing-intensive course.

Presents comfortable, easy-to-read material with simple graphics and helpful charts. The Table of Contents does not allow the reader to jump directly to the chapter or section.

The text contains no grammatical errors that I found... If there had been a few mistakes, I would still use the text as a resource.

I am starting to use the idea of the academy as a culture. So, in the writing-intensive course I teach about human relations in a multicultural society, I emphasize how student writing in college must be qualitatively different than writing in secondary schools. I am delighted that this text begins with an introduction to that very idea. Word choices in the text imply inclusion of a variety of ethnic groups and audience backgrounds (e.g., Malik, Miguel, Elizabeth).

I will use this book in a second-year general education writing-intensive course. This resource is useful and friendly, although it is very long. With its incremental approach, the text addresses a wide range of writing levels and abilities. I think students will appreciate it as a resource that they can use throughout their academic life.

The text would also be valuable in a first-year intro-to-college course (we call it First Year Experience), because it teaches many useful academic study practices. For first-generation college students, this text introduces many strategies about how to "do college" with which their families may not be familiar.

Reviewed by Leann Gertsma, Adjunct English Instructor, Minnesota West Community & Technical College on 2/8/17

I was surprised to find this textbook to be a very comprehensive writing handbook. It not only covers grammar and sentence structure, but also devotes a lot of time to the topics of college writing, the writing process, writing techniques, and... read more

I was surprised to find this textbook to be a very comprehensive writing handbook. It not only covers grammar and sentence structure, but also devotes a lot of time to the topics of college writing, the writing process, writing techniques, and essay types. All the sections are clearly labeled with useful exercises to guide students through the material. I appreciated the hyperlinks throughout to navigate to other related sections. One area that seemed to be lacking was the table of contents in each new chapter. These pages were not enabled with hyperlinks and failed to have page numbers associated with them.

I felt this text was accurate. It contains good information for first year writing students. I did not see any bias or errors throughout.

While I did find most of the information current and very relevant to writing students, some of the links in the last chapter did not work. As websites continually change, these would need to be updated on a regular basis. The research chapters would also need to be updated on a regular basis as these materials change frequently.

I found the textbook to be clear. The prose was adequate for first year composition students. There are many examples in the chapters that are relevant to the readers and help put the concepts into practical application.

This textbook is consistent in language, tone, and structure.

The textbook is arranged in an easy to use fashion. The chapters have easy to follow headings, and the key concepts are highlighted. All the chapters are arranged in a similar manner with objectives, lessons, examples, exercises, and key takeaways. Instructors can easily assign specific sections or chapters, while skipping others without confusion. I think the APA and MLA chapter should be split into two chapters to avoid confusion.

The topics are arranged in a clear structure throughout the text. I would have liked to see the chapters arranged in a different format, but this is a minor problem as the instructor can assign the chapters in a different order than they are presented.

This textbook was easy to navigate. The only concern I saw with this was the several of hyperlinks in the final chapter did not work anymore.

I did not find any errors in the text.

I did not see any insensitive or offensive language in the text.

I liked the example papers in the text. However, I wish there were more of them. I also found the chapter on APA and MLA a bit confusing. Students often struggle with these concepts so I think they should have been presented differently. The two styles should not be lumped together in one chapter. They should be separated.

Reviewed by Timothy VanSlyke, Instructor, Chemeketa Community College on 2/8/17

Although there is no index or glossary, I feel that the text is very comprehensive in its coverage of developmental writing. The text clearly walks the student through the writing process and introduces the major rhetorical styles students will... read more

Although there is no index or glossary, I feel that the text is very comprehensive in its coverage of developmental writing. The text clearly walks the student through the writing process and introduces the major rhetorical styles students will face in college. It is clear that the author has worked extensively with the population(s) likely to have need of this course and has planned a comprehensive curriculum to serve them. Having worked extensively with students needing to develop their academic writing skills, I found it very straightforward to adopt the text and align it with my course outcomes.

Content is definitely error free and unbiased. I haven't found any errors or content that struck me as biased or inaccurate.

I think this book will be relevant for quite some time as the need for students to communicate effectively in writing is not going to change. The organization of the text lends itself to updating quite well. For example, the sections devoted to grammar and mechanics, the writing process, and rhetorical styles may need little or no updating, while over time, the sections devoted to research writing (e.g. MLA style) might need more revision.

Given that this book is intended for developing writers, I feel clarity is essential. Too much jargon would scare away students who may already feel overwhelmed. This book strikes an excellent balance between communicating important concepts and terms without being overly technical. Good examples of this can be found in the sections on grammar and mechanics as well as in the rhetorical modes section.

The organization of the book easily lends itself to easy navigation, chapters are divided into logical sections (e.g. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3) and each section follows a consistent format. There are recurring sections that are color coded (exercises in blue boxes, "key takeaways" in green boxes) and the numbering system is clear and logical. The only downside is that the downloadable PDF version of the book doesn't have a table of contents, but I found that if your pdf reader can show bookmarks, there are bookmarks to each of the sections.

This book is very modular. Each chapter is divided into sub-sections (chapter 1.1, 1.2, etc) and the sections are logically divided and lend themselves to easy be assigned as separate readings.

The structure of the text is logical and clear, but what I like most is that the chapters are not overly dependent on a linear flow, which allows me to assign chapters out of sequence without worrying that it will be disruptive to students.

I would describe the interface as quite user friendly. A quick skim of the online Table of Contents is all that is needed to understand the organization of the text and its major sections. Accessing each section is quite easy with the links provided.

One standout in this area is a complete chapter devoted to second language learners, which is quite useful for this population. Otherwise, I have found this to be an excellent resource that introduced students to the academic culture.

Overall I am very pleased with this text, and excited that I can offer my students a book of this quality completely for free!

Reviewed by Jennie Harrop, Chair, Department of Professional Studies, George Fox University on 2/8/17

Writing for Success is admirably comprehensive, but maybe a little too much so. While some professors will find the one-source stop helpful in reducing textbook costs, many students will be overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of information. Because... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

Writing for Success is admirably comprehensive, but maybe a little too much so. While some professors will find the one-source stop helpful in reducing textbook costs, many students will be overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of information. Because the text attempts to cover so much in a single volume, much of the information is offered at a surface level without the depth necessary for the content to become memorable and meaningful. Two key components that are missing in this text because of its surface-level scope are the WHY (why is this information relevant?) and the HOW (how do I apply this?).

Most information is accurate, although some is not thorough enough. When explaining the dash or parentheses, for example, it might be helpful for students to hear when and why these punctuation marks are most effectively used. If a student masters the use of parentheses as described in section 3.6, should he or she pepper an essay with lots of parenthetical asides? If not, why not?

In the section on APA formatting, the title page running heads are not correct.

The key information in the text will not become outdated, although the examples and the sample texts will. The book would benefit from consistent updates to ensure that the examples are culturally sensitive and generationally appropriate. The APA and MLA sections will also need consistent updates.

The prose is clear, but the information covered is not always. In section 5.2 titled "Negative Statements," for example, students are told that negative statements are the opposite of positive statements, but the text does not explain why this information is worth considering. In section 5.6 titled "Modal Auxiliaries," the text moves immediately to examples and exercises without an explanation of why this information might be pertinent or useful.

The terminology and framework presented are consistent throughout.

The text is consistently broken into individual chunks of information rather than meandering prose, which can be enormously helpful for students. Some sections jump directly into the modular chunks of examples and exercises without bothering with any explanatory sections at all, however. In those cases, students need some kind of explanation of why the information presented is important and relevant.

The text's organization is consistent and easy to navigate. The information is presented in divisions familiar to most writing texts: (1) mechanics, (2) writing process, and (3) sample essays.

The Table of Contents is a helpful feature, allowing one to skip through topics easily. I was unable to download this text in a way that would allow me to highlight or make notes.

The grammar is correct throughout.

The examples used are culturally sensitive but mostly bland in a way that makes them forgettable and unimpactful. If cultural relevance means that we whitewash, this text is successful; if it means that we step into the controversy, then the examples in this book need to be more forthright and genuine.

I have used this book in a basic writing course, and I found the students informed but uninspired. I will continue to require this text as a reference books for all students in our program, but I will seek a more lively text for future writing courses in order to keep students engaged, enthusiastic, and forward-thinking.

Reviewed by Sherri Kurczewski, Instructor , Portland Community College on 12/5/16

This book has sections that I would cover in my class. It is a basic writing tool for beginner writers in college. read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 1 see less

This book has sections that I would cover in my class. It is a basic writing tool for beginner writers in college.

Overall the book is accurate. It goes over the basic differences of high school vs. college writing with additional grammar explanations and exercises.

This book is for a basic writing class for students who are underprepared for college level writing.

The book was written very direct to the beginning college writer. The tables help explain the differences in high school vs. college writing.

The consistency of the book was good. There was not a lot of terminology that would be over the students understanding.

The book is good at putting each section together. There are small, yet informative grammar sections. An instructor may skip over some chapters without confusing the student.

The organization of the book seems fine. It has the basic ideas of writing and then leads to grammar.

There were no issues with navigation of this file.

I did not see any errors in grammar.

This is a straightforward book without many examples. I did not see any issues.

I would definitely use this book in my basic writing class. It is a quick read and I could easily pull out sections to use and compare.

Reviewed by Anna Erwert, Adjunct faculty, Portland Community College on 8/21/16

The book is extremely comprehensive. If a college works on a 10-week quarter, it's unlikely a student would use the whole book. However, I personally like this completeness because it allows flexibility. Whole class, we could use the chapter on... read more

The book is extremely comprehensive. If a college works on a 10-week quarter, it's unlikely a student would use the whole book. However, I personally like this completeness because it allows flexibility. Whole class, we could use the chapter on the writing process, and then after essay 1, I could assess writers and assign them portions of the sentence level and grammar sections as needed. Also the most common writing errors, like comma splices and frags, are covered and include exercises.

With a decade plus teaching college Writing and Reading, I feel the book is accurate in the sense that it covers what students actually need. I did not see bias. It is very concise and matter-of-fact.

It's relevant eternally, but one caveat: most colleges are moving toward supporting Reading and Writing in one class. Integration of reading skills would be a way to keep this book fresh.

Very little jargon. Everything is well defined, though I do think more examples and samples would be nice. However: this is an easy section for the individual instructor to augment.

Very consistent.

This is my favorite part of the book. It is way more inclusive than we could use in one quarter, but I could assign grammar or sentence level stuff with flexibility, as needed. I could also do the whole book in reverse (sometimes I like to start big, then move to smaller concerns)or present only the Research section for a Reading class.

Very logical but also easy to manipulate logically

There isn't anything confusing about it. I don't think it is the most engaging, exciting design in the world, but perhaps that is not the goal here. More pictures though, sorry- it is a visual age- would be welcome. Still, instructors could add in pics, slides, video, etc.

I saw no errors

The book is geared more to the college student, not the particular culture or gender. In some ways this is a relief to me, as I am trying to work with topics that bring us together, like say, the cost of college, as opposed to those that fragment us, like racial profiling. In a ten week course in one of the most diverse campuses in the PCC system, this is becoming very important. In this sense, the book fits.

Super useful framework. Teachers will augment with samples, interactive activities, visual aids, etc., but that makes it better for your specific audience anyway.

Reviewed by Olga Filatova, Visiting Assistant Professor, Miami University on 8/21/16

I was surprised by how much useful content the book has. It covers everything I would need to teach in a first year college composition writing class. The text gives overview of reading and writing strategies, and covers everything from grammar,... read more

I was surprised by how much useful content the book has. It covers everything I would need to teach in a first year college composition writing class. The text gives overview of reading and writing strategies, and covers everything from grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, sentence structure, elements of composition and writing process, to rhetorical modes and elements of research. It has so much material, that it can be adjusted to a wide range of students' needs and writing abilities. Parts of the book can be used as a reference. The book is very much in line with my course goals, and is particularly effective in helping students with writing in a variety of genres, introducing a clear thesis statement and sustaining it throughout the paper with support and evidence. It also has good tips for reading, writing and editing. However, I didn't find the section for language learners helpful. I teach composition to international students, and would definitely skip the chapter. The concepts in the chapter are not well-explained and application exercises are insufficient. This chapter can be used as a reference for instructors who don't usually work with LLs.

The content is accurate. I didn't find the readings particularly engaging, but they are good for structure analysis. The links to additional essays provide opportunities to choose more engaging reading material.

Writing foundation principles are solid. MLA and APA citation and formatting would need most often updates. The link to Purdue OWL solves this problem.

The book is written in a very clear manner. However, some of the explanation might be too long and lack sufficient examples.

The book is very consistent. I would rearrange the chapters and start with the writing process. Grammar, vocabulary and punctuation can be in a reference section of the book.

The text is divided into chapters and sections. Each of the chapters follows the same structure. The chapters have clear learning objectives, subtitles and exercises for practical application. The main points are summarized at the end. Students would have no trouble navigating the content.

The topics are presented in a logical way. As I mentioned above, I would rearrange the chapters in the book. The way the chapters are arranged now puts the emphasis on developmental writing vs rhetorical practices.

The books interface is very good.

The book is excellently written. I didn't see any grammar errors.

The book is culturally relevant. It focuses on American culture. It lacks elements of global cultural awareness, but it is good enough for the purposes.

Thank you for the book. It is very good. I will use it with my students next semester!

Reviewed by Laura Funke, Instructor, Inver Hills Community College on 8/21/16

The text is almost too comprehensive—trying to cover writing, reading, and study skills strategies. Within writing, it covers grammar, mechanics, paragraph writing, essay writing, ELL troublespots, and even documentation. Although an instructor... read more

The text is almost too comprehensive—trying to cover writing, reading, and study skills strategies. Within writing, it covers grammar, mechanics, paragraph writing, essay writing, ELL troublespots, and even documentation. Although an instructor could easily focus on specific chapters based on the level of the class and needs of the students, the effort to be comprehensive led some areas to be overly simplistic and basic. For example, in the section on writing introductions, there is a list of strategies for starting the essay (the hook or attention grabber) but not much direct instruction or modeling. In other words, quality was sometimes sacrificed for quantity.

From my experience, the content of the book was accurate in most areas, but some advice was simplistic. For example, telling English language learners to avoid slang and idioms is wrong. What often makes ELLs’ writing awkward is the lack of idioms. The advice to avoid slang might be better for a chapter for native English speakers. In the same ELL section, the author stated that simple present is used “when actions take place now” but that is not the case. Present progressive verbs are used for the current moment (“Right now, I am writing a review.”) These inaccuracies happened on occasion, but in general, the advice and information given by the writer was accurate.

The text can be easily updated because of the modular organization. The topics used for examples or exercises would benefit from regular updating. Some topics are engaging for students, but others would not be for most students (such as ‘the hardiness of the kangaroo rat’).

The text is written in using clear, accessible language that is appropriate to first year college students. New terms are explained clearly and put in bold letters. It might be helpful to put key terms and definitions in margins, as many textbooks do, or at least consider an index and glossary at the end of the book.

I didn’t notice any inconsistencies in framework or terminology.

The text is structured in such a way that instructors and students can pick and choose among relevant chapters. There are references to prior chapters, but the text doesn't assume that students have read the text from front to back. Students can easily refer back to prior chapters when more background is needed or if additional follow-up instruction is needed. One recommendation would be to include the chapter and section number on each page in a footer or header.

The information flows logically for the most part. The book begins with a broad overview of writing and student success strategies. Then it moves from sentences, to paragraphs, to essays, to research papers. One section that seemed out of place was to include 'purpose, audience, and tone' in the chapter on paragraph writing. It would seem to be a topic that could use its own chapter. I also felt that chapter 7 on sentence variety was misplaced after paragraph writing. Still, I appreciated that the author circled back to some topics briefly even if they were covered in more detail in another chapter. For example, the author discusses wordiness and word choice in the chapter on revision even though those topics were discussed in an earlier chapter. Imbedding some sentence-level concerns into the chapters on paragraph or essay writing helps students to see the relevance of the sentence-level instruction.

Occasionally an informal font is used to show student examples of writing. This playful font is difficult to read (see p. 233). It would be better to use a standard font like Times New Roman to make the text easier to read. Also, the book is very text-heavy. There are few to no engaging photographs or images for readers. Even though it is clearly organized with headings, subheadings, bold words, and other organizational devices which are very helpful, it is not visually engaging. There is a nice use of internal links. In one section, chapter 6.2 p. 247-248), the directions prior to three model paragraphs said “The topic sentence is underlined for you” but I didn’t see any underlining. I don’t know if that is an error in the text or a problem with my own computer.

I noticed no grammatical errors when reviewing the text.

The text is not culturally insensitive. However, I wouldn’t say that the writing samples are particularly engaging or daring in terms of challenging the status quo. Most of the topics are standard examples: “How to grow tomatoes from a Seedling,” “Effects of Video Game Addiction” and “Comparing and Contrasting London and Washington D.C.” I would like to see more creative and engaging course readings in the text, readings that address the interests and backgrounds of culturally- and linguistically-diverse students.

The practice exercises are often very engaging and creative. For example, p. 287 the author explains an exercise in which students rewrite children stories (written using simple prose) with more complex syntactical structures to practice sentence complexity and variety. Most all exercises are practical and student-friendly. The text doesn’t get bogged down with excessive use of exercises; instead, students’ own writing is often the basis of the exercises, making them relevant to developing their own writing skills.

Though I appreciate the author’s efforts at comprehensiveness and detail, I found the text quite dry. With more visuals, updated course readings, and perhaps an updated format that isn’t so text-heavy, the text would be more engaging for students.

Reviewed by Jennifer von Ammon, Full-time faculty, Lane Community College on 8/21/16

The text is primarily focused on grammar review and would be an appropriate text for a development writing course. Although there are several chapters dedicated to mechanics, there are limited essay assignment options, so an instructor would need... read more

The text is primarily focused on grammar review and would be an appropriate text for a development writing course. Although there are several chapters dedicated to mechanics, there are limited essay assignment options, so an instructor would need to craft engaging essay assignments to supplement the lessons.

The book appears accurate and unbiased.

Content seems fairly up-to-date though some of the suggested topics were somewhat overused (abortion, legal drinking age). Inclusion of different learning styles (visual, verbal, auditory, kinesthetic) is relevant.

The text is written clearly and has helpful headings/subheadings to organize material. Incorporating more images/illustrations could have enhanced the text.

The book is consistent in tone and structure.

The text could be assigned into smaller reading sections. I appreciated the "key takeaways" at the close of each chapter.

Though I appreciated the comprehensive coverage of grammar/sentence structure/mechanics, I would have liked to have seen the text incorporate writing assignments earlier in the text.

The text is clearly presented with headings/subheadings, but including more images may make the text more engaging for students.

The text appears to have no grammatical errors.

I did not find the text insensitive or offensive though some of the topics and references seemed somewhat outdated (MTV).

Reviewed by Paul Carney, English Instructor, Minnesota State Community and Technical College on 8/21/16

The text covers all the essentials of college composition, from the writing process and mechanics to rhetorical modes and the research paper. The material devoted to grammar, punctuation and usage is well organized and fairly thorough. While very... read more

The text covers all the essentials of college composition, from the writing process and mechanics to rhetorical modes and the research paper. The material devoted to grammar, punctuation and usage is well organized and fairly thorough. While very brief, the sub-divided units on punctuation could be more developed. That said, too much textual explanation and not enough modeling can be a real turn off for students struggling with these mechanical issues. One cannot defer to the text for teaching. The rhetorical modes are equitably covered, though persuasion might welcome more attention and development. For a basic college composition text, this text certainly suffices.

The information is accurate and consistent with language arts standards for bias and equity. However, the example essays in the back could be more reflective of cultural and class diversity.

The writer does a fine job of using examples (exercises, models, examples, etc.) relevant to students in the near future. With supplemental readings and other OERs, this text will withstand expiration of content for at least three years.

The book's clarity is, perhaps, its greatest strength. The writer is keenly aware of his/her audience, college students who approach writing with an array of aptitudes and attitudes. Chapter 1, for instance, "Introduction to Writing," begins a foundational conversation with the reader, a conversation suitable to and supportive of most college students. The sentence complexity is appropriate for the audience. Also, student readers will appreciate the inclusion of "Tips" for building clarity.

The text is consistent in terms of utilizing and referencing terminology and other sections of the book.. The writer consistently uses and revisits key concepts and terminology (grammar, sentence structure, paragraph development, unity, etc.), reminding the reader that writing is a recursive process involving strategic "layering" of ideas and skills.

Each chapter in Writing for Success can "stand alone" if necessary. Oftentimes, in the interest of responding to differentiated learning styles, instructors must isolate and prescribe content for students' individual writing challenges. This text lends itself to easy access to subheadings for particular reference and reinforcement.

I do appreciate the inclusion of exercises at the end of chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5.

The text's organizational format may be its greatest and only notable weakness. The book begins with a thorough, thoughtful introduction to the writing process by citing fears and misconceptions commonly held by college students. This section of the book is critical to establishing a casual but accurate understanding of the writing process. Then, rather abruptly, succeeding chapters shift to local writing issues relating to writing basics - fragments, punctuation, sentence fluency. Typically, and I would argue more logically and appropriately, these localized writing matters should appear in the back of the text for easy access and reference. Logically, the chapter(s) following the discussion of the writing process should launch the student into the writing process itself.

I had initially downloaded the pdf version of the text, thinking that was the one and only interface for accessing, reading and utilizing the text. However, in a later attempt I was able to access a digital version that is quite easy to navigate. I like the ever-present position of the table of contents for easy point-and-click navigation. The chapters line up sequentially and the display is reader-friendly.

The style and mechanics reflect mastery of grammar and usage.

Again, I would point to the example essays as evidence of shallow (not necessarily insensitive) attention to cultural and class diversity. Were I to use this text, I would supplement the example essays with models reflective of wider cultural experiences (class, gender, race, LGBT).

Writing for Success is what it says it is, a book that provides essential instruction in how to approach and embark on the writing process. It provides a basic review of grammar and usage that probably would require additional instruction and opportunities for practice. A college writing instructor who usually defaults to his or her favorite and reliable "bag of tricks" would find this open text very useful for foundational instruction.

Thanks for this opportunity to review an open text in the Creative Commons.

Paul Carney

Reviewed by William Wells, Instructor, Metropolitan State University on 8/21/16

This book covers all the topics I would normally cover in a first year composition course and more. I would like to see an effective, preferably interactive, Table of Contents and a glossary. read more

This book covers all the topics I would normally cover in a first year composition course and more. I would like to see an effective, preferably interactive, Table of Contents and a glossary.

The content is extremely accurate and well-articulated.

This book will likely be useful until we communicate exclusively with emoticons. Necessary updates should be fairly easy to integrate.

Clear and well-written for its audience.

The text is generally consistent in tone and framework and uniformly consistent in terminology.

The text appears as of it would be easily adaptable as modules.

Some of the topics seem slightly out of place, but it has a clear structure.

The text appears to have several broken links, particularly in the beginning, in the .pdf version.

I had some questions about word usage--particularly the heading of "Dos" and "Don'ts" which, to my eye, looks funny. I would probably go with "Do's and Dont's."

The text does not seem culturally insensitive and makes an overt attempt to accommodate those students with differences in learning styles.

I will be giving it a try in my next class.

Reviewed by Michelle Robbins, Instructor, Portland Community College on 1/7/16

Writing for Success includes all the topics I cover in a developmental writing class, plus a large chunk on research papers. It covers grammar and constructing paragraphs and essays in a comprehensive manner. For developmental writing, I did... read more

Writing for Success includes all the topics I cover in a developmental writing class, plus a large chunk on research papers. It covers grammar and constructing paragraphs and essays in a comprehensive manner.

For developmental writing, I did find that Chapter 2 was a bit light on the parts of speech. For instance, in one exercise students must identify adverbs and adjectives, but there is no real explanation of them first. However, the sentence practice in regard to subjects, verbs, and independent clauses was solid.

Chapter 6 on purpose, tone, audience, and content was excellent. I haven't seen those elements addressed in quite the same way (sometimes barely at all) in other textbooks I have used.

I was also pleased with the links to articles and essays. (More on this in relevance and cultural relevance.)

Content is accurate, error-free, and unbiased. The author includes a variety of links to additional readings and does an excellent job of covering different sides of an issue. For instance, he is sure to link to articles arguing both for and against the use of torture.

Because grammar, language, and writing change fairly slowly, the content here is relevant and lasting. Some articles may become dated, but those are easy to change. Many of them won't need to be replaced anyway because, regardless of their dates, they are still good examples (and, obviously, in writing and literature older works are critical to examine). One of the sample essays was written in 1994. Certainly our outlooks on the material has changed (the role of wives), but the piece is still a good (and creative) example of a definition essay--and fodder for discussion.

The text is clear and accessible for upper-level remedial students and still works for 100-level courses. The student examples are useful, but a few of them were not especially compelling or strong examples and could be replaced.

It is consistent. I thought the repetition of sections such as "writing at work" and "key takeaways" were helpful for students absorbing a lot of information.

The organization of sections made the text easy to follow. At first I thought it would be better organized by integrating the writing samples in the last chapter into the instructional chapters, but ultimately, I found that grouping the types of content (grammar in one area, writing instruction in one, samples in another, and so on) made accessing content easier--especially because they are also cross-referenced within the chapters.

Much of the time, I want my students to access different topics simultaneously, so I found the organization here to work fine. The chapters and sub-sections are clear, so it is easy to move between them.

I found the cross-referencing of sub-sections to be particularly helpful, as in the chapter on coordination: it refers back to the section on semi-colons and vice versa.

All worked well for me. All graphics were clear, and it was key to be able to magnify the student samples for better readability.

One significant issue is that many of the links to essay examples in Chapter 15 are dead.

I found no errors.

The links to outside sources included cultural variety (and were quite interesting!). Perhaps the examples within the text itself might show more variety.

I was especially impressed by the links to Chapter 15 examples (those that worked); there were blogs, poems, and magazine articles. The variety of source types and authors was excellent, and the pieces themselves were compelling.

Overall, Writing for Success was clearly written, useful, and fairly comprehensive. I would definitely use it in my developmental Writing 90 course. I can also envision using many sections for Writing 80.

Reviewed by Kelsea Jones, Adjunct Instructor, Treasure Valley Community College on 1/7/16

McLean's text is surprisingly comprehensive, covering topics from reading and study strategies, to grammar, to writing paragraphs and essays, to research. While some of this material would be spot-on for first year composition, I feel as though... read more

McLean's text is surprisingly comprehensive, covering topics from reading and study strategies, to grammar, to writing paragraphs and essays, to research. While some of this material would be spot-on for first year composition, I feel as though most of the strategies are more appropriate for developmental composition courses (like WR 115: Intro to College Writing in the Oregon system).

The major downside of this text is that there is no Table of Contents or index for this 600+ page book.

The information in the text appears to accurate, unbiased, and very detailed.

The text makes use of sentence and essay examples that are relevant and that will not have to be constantly updated. The main pieces of information in this text that would need to be updated are the APA and MLA style guides; however, both guides follow the most recent editions. Otherwise, the links provided in the text, such as those to the Purdue OWL, may need the most monitoring and updating.

The writing style of this text is accessible and conversational. Terms are introduced with examples, including some excellent graphic organizers, before they are used in the text, and the terminology is consistent throughout.

There is a consistent framework in each chapter: learning objectives are listed, information is presented with tips and examples, and the information is summarized in a "Key Takeaways" box.

The text is divided into chapters and sub-sections that could be divided into smaller reading sections or reorganized to fit individual course needs. Instructors could take or leave any of the content without confusing their students.

The text is organized so that students can build upon their skills, from reading and studying all the way to researching and making presentations; in that way, it is a clearly organized and structured text. However, this organization is what makes the text more appropriate for developmental writing courses than first year composition courses. The reading, studying, and grammar sections of the text could easily be organized into appendices at the back of the book to act as supplemental material rather than the meat of the text.

Interface rating: 2

There are a few confusing interface issues with this version of the text: 1) None of the paragraphs are indented, which makes skimming the text difficult. 2) The learning objectives and tips in the text are set off in a light gray color that is easy to miss while scrolling through the pages; the blue and green colors chosen for the exercises and key takeaways are much easier to see and read. 3) Several headings for sections, tables, and figures are cut off from the information they introduce. 4) There are no clickable links in the text, table of contents, or index to aid navigation. 5) There is no title page for the text!

The text contains no apparent grammatical errors.

There was no content that was culturally offensive, but I also did not find the text to be particularly inclusive.

Overall, I found this text to be a good Open Educational Resource that offers a real wealth of information about college writing. For all of its interface problems, the text would be easy enough to adapt to either developmental composition courses or first year comp courses. I would recommend this text to instructors interested in using OERs in their classes.

Reviewed by Shawn Osborne, Instructor, Portland Community College on 1/7/16

The text clearly covers all areas and ideas of the subject at this level and is well organized. A nice addition is that each chapter opens with Learning Objectives and closes with Key Takeaways. read more

The text clearly covers all areas and ideas of the subject at this level and is well organized. A nice addition is that each chapter opens with Learning Objectives and closes with Key Takeaways.

I found the content to be accurate, error-free, and unbiased.

The content is up-to-date and relevant. It is arranged in such a way that any necessary updates should be quite easy to implement.

The text is straight forward and clear.

The terminology and framework of the text is consistent.

The text can be divided into smaller reading sections easily.

The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear way.

There are no interface issues. The images/charts and other display features are well placed and bring clarity to the learning point.

There are no grammatical errors in the text.

The text is culturally relevant.

Chapter 5: Help for English Language Learners and Chapter 14: Creating Presentations are useful additions to the text. I also appreciate the links to further readings in Chapter 15 and believe this will be very beneficial for students.

Reviewed by Fran Bozarth, Adjunct Professor, Portland Community College on 1/7/16

This book really covers it all so long as there is no need to address reading fiction - in fact, it has way more than I would be able to use in a term! However, it appears to be appropriate for a semester course, or for two terms of... read more

This book really covers it all so long as there is no need to address reading fiction - in fact, it has way more than I would be able to use in a term! However, it appears to be appropriate for a semester course, or for two terms of quarter-length courses.

Subjects are covered appropriately, although I don't know that students would find all of it particularly engaging - use of this material would be VERY reliant upon an effective, engaging instructor.

At our college we have the additional course goal of requiring some understanding of reading fiction, and an instructor utilizing this book would need to supplement for it.

While the Table of Contents is very clear, there is no index or glossary.

The content in this book is consistent with the goals of most Reading/Writing/Study Skills/College Success courses I have encountered. It seems to be error-free, and the author did a particularly good job of projecting no biases that I could detect.

The content related to this text has remained fairly static for decades, though there have been some developments in the past few decades regarding holding students more accountable for knowing their learning styles, and for constructing meaning with connections to their own experiences. This book addresses the basic, standard content, and nicely brings in opportunities for students to better understand themselves as learners. Again, this will depend heavily upon the instructor and their ability to engage students.

Some of the exercises and examples may become obsolete if there are any major technological changes in our society (for example, if email is suddenly abandoned in favor of something else.) However, I believe that such updates would be quite easy to implement given the use of a simple "Find & Replace" feature.

Clarity is a strong suit for this text. I did not locate any portion of the book that lacked clarity. Context was provided for examples of poor writing as well as for strong writing. Context was also provided for any specialized language.

The book is extremely consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

The framework utilizes a "here is what you will learn" type of bulleted list, followed by sections that match the bulleted list, with examples where appropriate, and exercises at the end of the chapter. The end of the book includes not only a full-text example of each type of essay, but also provides links to additional examples written by often well-known and well-regarded authors.

The structure of the overall text is appropriate, and logical. I really appreciate that exercises aren't just randomly thrown in, as many published textbooks often do.

The text is easily readable, but I find that the layout of the pages can cause the text and sections to run together. More effective use of headings and subheadings would make this easier for students to follow. Additionally, there isn't an easily discernible break between chapters/sections. I would very much like to see more solid page breaks (title pages perhaps?) at the beginning of each chapter/section. Given the learning styles assessment at the beginning of the book, it would be appropriate to at least include some icons that match each section - for example the "Key Take Aways " could have a key icon. Some suggestions for students regarding how they can apply this using their unique learning styles might be helpful as well. Otherwise, that learning style information seems to be unrelated from the students' point of view.

The links in the PDF did not seem to work. I don't know if I need to consider looking at this material in a different format in order to use the in-text links. (In other words, I don't know if it's me or if it's the text or the technology or what....)

The topics in the text are presented in a very appropriate fashion, with concepts building in a logical way, one upon the next. Very nicely scaffolded!

The interface seemed to be working correctly. I was able to read everything, and things seemed to be correctly placed. I was not sure if the blue text was supposed to be linked. I was unable to click it and go to any links (which were typically references to other chapters within the text, so it wouldn't be impossible to locate those items - just tedious.)

The text appears to have been impeccably edited. All of the writing lesson content was modeled within the text. Items that were incorrect were clearly labeled as being examples of poor writing, or were clearly used for the purpose of applying identification and editing skills.

This text appears to be quite sterile when it comes to cultural sensitivity. Given the audience, the examples are typically American with some culturally diverse names thrown in. The examples given weren't particularly indicative of one race, ethnicity or background or another. In some ways, I am thankful for the lack of contrived cultural sensitivity. I didn't note anything that would create a barrier to culturally diverse populations, other than the assumptions that are made based upon american culture (such as the notion that we have all had a job at one time or another, or at least have some understanding of the concept of employment.)

This book has much to offer. The authors did an excellent job of including the content that is consistent with standard reading/writing/study skill content. I think it will be very workable and pliable for use by instructors who chose it.

Reviewed by Kimberly Gutierrez, Assistant Professor of English, Bismarck State College on 1/7/16

One of the classes I teach is a freshman composition writing lab that focuses on sentence level errors and sentence clarity. This is a super resource for that type of class. The book contains all sentence, grammar and mechanics concepts that are... read more

One of the classes I teach is a freshman composition writing lab that focuses on sentence level errors and sentence clarity. This is a super resource for that type of class. The book contains all sentence, grammar and mechanics concepts that are essential to teaching students to recognize and repair sentence-level errors. The Table of Contents clearly outlines all of the all of the component of the book. As far as being the main source for a first semester freshman composition class, if I used it, I would certainly supplement it with more readings, but for freshman composition sentence level instruction, this book is very thorough. My comprehensive rating reflects that particular focus.

The descriptions of the concepts are very detailed, and these descriptions are very accurate, explaining the concept with correct sample sentences.

Since the primary focus of this book is the grammatical concepts that impact sentence issues, the text will not necessarily need updating. Of course, MLA formatting guidelines do change, so these changes will will need to be updated within the book, but the general sentence concepts presented in the majority of the book will not soon become obsolete.

All portions of the book are very clearly presented. Grammar can be confusing to first semester freshman composition students, but the explanations are clearly presented. Examples are clearly connected to the grammar explanations.

Terminology is consistent within the text. Within the framework of a composition lab class, this text is consistent, covering all essential components covered in the course scope.

The clarity with how the concepts are presented in the Table of Contents allows instructors to pick and choose which the concepts will be presented and the order of presentation.

The book has a clear organizational flow (considering that I would use this book for a composition lab that has a sentence practice focus). The sentence concepts build logically on each other.

No interface issues occur when accessing the chapters, and there are no display features that distract the reader. The lessons are presented very clearly, and the practice exercises are easy to follow.

The grammar lessons are error free.

The practice sentences do not contain an culturally biased material.

This is a text that I would consider using for a composition lab course (sentence practice focus). I would also consider using the text for first semester freshman composition, but using the text for that type of course would require finding supplemental readings.

Reviewed by Brandy Hoffmann, English Instructor, Central Lakes College on 1/7/16

Writing for Success offers a variety of sections that could be extracted as resources/readings for a first year writing course. In other words, despite some weaknesses, this text serves the function of an OER, and parts of it could be utilized... read more

Writing for Success offers a variety of sections that could be extracted as resources/readings for a first year writing course. In other words, despite some weaknesses, this text serves the function of an OER, and parts of it could be utilized widely. Overall, I would not feel comfortable using this as a primary text to teach rhetorical modes, including argumentative research writing, but I would use it as a supplementary text.

Strengths: I found the coverage of the following subjects to be generally effective: the overall writing process; the revision process (with exercises, p. 470); the editing process (with exercises, p. 476); thesis development (with samples of weak/strong, Chapter 9); paragraphing and topic sentences (with models of different types of paragraphs--summary/analysis/synthesis/evaluation, Chapter 6); sentence fluency and variety (with exercises throughout Chapters 2 and 7); preliminary research and research proposals (Chapter 11); outlining (with samples, Chapter 8), and basic MLA and APA documentation, including an effective discussion of in-text citations on pp. 501-503.

I want to point out the overall usefulness of the exercises offered throughout this text (adding value to the text, since practical exercises for college writing instruction can be hard to come by). I also appreciated the beginnings of chapters, which effectively addressed the questioning student and established the context.

Weaknesses: Viewed as a whole, the text struggles in terms of audience and purpose, organization of content, and content selection and emphasis. The text emphasizes some extraneous subjects while understating other topics that would be important to many composition courses. For example, for a composition course built on rhetorical modes—narration, description, illustration, argumentation, etc.--this textbook offers only a short overview of each. It also offers a few models and links to outside readings, but it doesn't include anything on composing annotated bibliographies, rhetorical analysis essays, critical reviews, or literature reviews. There is an overview on how to write a research paper, but the discussion on how to integrate sources effectively - quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing - is somewhat weak, and the discussion of plagiarism is limited.

The text offers an extensive section on study skills (in chapter 1), which seemed misplaced in this text - unless it was modified to address study strategies for a writing course, specifically (for example, rather than models of lecture "note taking," how about models of research note-taking in chapter 11; and instead of comparing general high school and college assignments, compare writing assignments specifically). I would recommend an overall reorganization of the text, moving chapter 8 (writing process) toward the front, for example, while moving chapters 2 (sentences), 3 (punctuation), 4 (words), and 5 (ELL) toward the end--to emphasize higher order concerns, first; lower order concerns, second.

I appreciate the attempt to address workplace writing as well as academic or in-school writing, but I found the brief "Writing at Work" sidebars a bit forced, possibly distracting, and unnecessary (e.g. pp. 224-225; p. 348). The attempt to include a pseudo student to shed light on the subject is sometimes helpful (Mariah, Chapter 8) but sometimes forced and not developed enough to be useful (Crystal, Chapter 1). The brief bits on "collaboration" throughout the text could be deleted- not developed enough to be useful. There is no index or glossary, and in the PDF I was using there was no table of contents, though this is available elsewhere. Despite these weaknesses, there are many reasons to use this text, as outlined under "Strengths" above.

Overall, this is an accurate and unbiased text. There will always be subjectivity in the delivery of academic writing advice because of varying preferences and changing ideas about what is appropriate or inappropriate. I tend to disagree with the following suggestions or omissions offered in this text: suggestion (through models that indicate 3 points to support a thesis) that a 5-paragraph essay is still the go-to formula for college writing in (Chapter 9); suggestion that a thesis is always one sentence; suggestion that it's a good idea to search for a random quote for your introduction online (p. 361); omitting any reference to intentional sentence fragments; omitting idea that contractions can be used in academic writing (in certain instances); omitting clear attribution and documentation in the summary on p. 220 apart from the opening signal phrase--not the best summary sample; the suggestion that a topic sentence begins an essay or article (p. 233), which seems misleading.

Writing advice tends to be timeless, to an extent, so there aren't big concerns that the content will become outdated. The author avoided pop culture and current event references, which was smart. The only suggestion would be to modify the text to better address new challenges and innovations in writing genres/writing instruction - perhaps including a chapter on multimodal writing and online writing toward the end of the text. (The use of "trade books" in Chapter 1 seems outdated, not fully defined.)

Overall, I found the writing to be very effective - definitely student-friendly yet not patronizing and still sophisticated. The writer avoided convoluted, wordy prose, and wrote in a tone appropriately formal yet conversational and relatable.

Yes, despite the overall issues with content organization and selection, which I address elsewhere, I found the text to be internally conistent with terminology and framework.

Yes, this text is easily divisible into smaller reading assignment, given the breakdown of subsectios within each chapter and the inclusion of exercise sections, etc. There are some issues with headers/interface, depending on the version of the text used, addressed in interface section.The text did not seem self-referential.

As stated above, I would recommend an overall reorganization of the text, moving chapter 8 (writing process) toward the front, for example, while moving chapters 2 (sentences), 3 (punctuation), 4 (words), and 5 (ELL) toward the end--to emphasize higher order concerns, first; lower order concerns, second.

Including Learning Objectives at the beginning of each chapter is helpful, allowing easy alignment with course objectives; the "key takeaways" at the end of each chapter are also helpful.

Please note: I was evaluating a downloaded PDF version of the text, so experience may be different in a different mode. Throughout the text, headings/labels can be difficult to distinguish from one another, making it challenging to follow the hierarchy/logic of the text. The organization of the "Reading Strategies" section in Chapter 1 was a bit confusing, listing the "three broad categories" of strategies but then failing to organize section headings that aligned. On p. 10, I would recommend moving "Ask and answer questions" before "Summarize."

For the "tips" offered throughout the text, it would be helpful if they were labeled in some way (e.g. "Tips: Succeeding in Timed Writings," p. 34). I would suggest eliminating the "Writing at Work" sidebars but turning some of these into tips (e.g. "Tips: Emailing Your Professor," p. 17). The paragraph on p. 38 that lists all chapters seems unnecessary and overwhelming. In the discussion of the SQ3R Strategy on p. 12, it seems like these steps should be handled separately with headings. The four academic purposes in Chapter 6 should be obviously highlighted at the beginning of the section rather than listed in the middle of the paragraph without emphasis (p. 217). On p. 230, "6.12" is referenced but does not exist? Use of "for this assignment" on p. 461 seems misleading.

Also, the font size, heading placement, spacing, indenting, and bullet formatting are all a bit awkward throughout; the text could be cleaned up for improved design and readability, though these issues do not detract largely from the text's usability.

Please note: I was evaluating a downloaded PDF version of the text, so experience may be different in a different mode. I located a few interface issues in my reading of the text: On p. 238+ the text keeps referring to underlined topic sentences, but they are not underlined. On p. 244 the text refers to underlined transitional words, but they are also not underlined.

Certain references to other sections in the text are colored in a way that makes them seem as if you could click on a link and be carried to a different section of the text, but this didn’t function, at least not in the PDF that I had downloaded (such as “see Chapter 12 ‘Writing a Research Paper’” on p. 10).

It would be helpful if there was a repeat of the chapter title on the top of each page of the text.

I located the following dead links in the PDF that I downloaded:

http://www.sunywcc.edu/LIBRARY/research/MLA_APA_08.03.10.pdf http://www.writing.ku.edu/guides p. 546

http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/132320728102659810/lib/132320728102659810/_files/Alexie,_Sherman_-_Indian_Education_TEXT.rtf http://www.pfeonyx.com/alliance/IndianCollection/Alexie2.pdf p. 596

http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/mcunningham/grapes/mother%20tounge.pdf http://learning.swc.hccs.edu/members/donna.gordon/sum-2010-engl-1301-5-wk-crn-33454/1301-reading-block-crn-33454/Tan_Mother%20Tongue.pdf http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2000/on_the_internet_theres_no_place_to_hide p. 602

http://api.ning.com/files/-3HiJ651xE-rSj4Q4WeH-*f0NQJGyoXgI8AR*3Rat-AyxVuVAgEE bfbuyGbTu9gpi7z3gT4jqd52W3fBsDRfFGgEgLxB5wO4/GetItRight.PrivatizeExecutionsArthurMiller.pdf p. 605

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/everythingsanargument4e/content/cat_020/Brady_I_Want_a_Wife.pdf http://www.usd305.com/212720101692451310/lib/212720101692451310/20100429123836146.pdf p. 607

http://eec.edc.org/cwis_docs/NEWS_ARTICLES_JOURNALS/Laird_Ellen.pdf http://depedia.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=I%27m_your_teacher%2C_not_your_Internet-Service_Provider p. 609

http://depedia.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=I%27m_your_teacher%2C_not_your_Internet-Service_Provider http://www.alandershowitz.com/publications/docs/torturewarrants.html p. 613

The title and link has changed for article p. 598: should be http://www.newsweek.com/dark-side-web-fame-93505 List of "Sources" on p. 568 awkward too... not sure links are directing to intended spot.

I located a few mechanical/sentence-level errors: p. 2 in Preface, 2nd paragraph, the list with "instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical..." could use semicolons for clearer listing/separation of items. p. 166 wording issue: "jargon a type" p. 202, 213, 275, 340, 366 spacing errors: "errors within, at and on"; "butit"; "thanswimming"; "Fencessymoblize"; "Writingis"; p. 208 lack of consistent periods at end of phrases in Table 5.16 p. 300 words/punctuation missing: "For example, for every Roman numeral I, there must be a For every A, there must be a B."

The text did not seem culturally insensitive or offensive and seemed usable by a wide audience of students.

I plan on using segments of this text in future writing courses, and I am grateful for the availability of OER texts like this one. So, despite any weaknesses addressed, this is still a valuable resource for faculty who are trying to lower the barriers to student success in their classrooms through the adoption of OER resources. I recommend the text, but study it carefully to determine how it will be used in your specific writing courses. It is probably best used as a supplementary text.

Reviewed by Michelle Cristiani, Instructor, Portland Community College on 1/7/16

What I look for in a writing text at this level is flow from simple to complex: word placement and part of speech up through essays. This text follows that format beautifully. One glaring omission is fragment and run-on work. This is such a... read more

What I look for in a writing text at this level is flow from simple to complex: word placement and part of speech up through essays. This text follows that format beautifully. One glaring omission is fragment and run-on work. This is such a common issue at this level. I would also want to see more transition from sentence to paragraph, not just paragraph to essay. There are a couple of underdeveloped sections as the topics grow in detail: for example, nine rhetorical modes are discussed, which is a wide array, but within each section there is not much elaboration or examples. But overall, there are appropriate exercises after concepts are introduced. The text provides a solid framework for instructors to build upon as they see fit. The table of contents are easy to navigate and generally well-organized. I do find chapter 8 misplaced, though – it is titled ‘how do I begin.’ Because it describes the writing process from prewrite to edit it seems sensible to place it closer to the beginning. I especially appreciate the inclusion of research and citation – it is well-done.

The lessons and examples are true to the field. The structure mirrors most other texts in organization and usage. The research and citation sections are more-or-less current.

Longevity is easy to attain with this discipline because grammar/writing rules are tried and true...but the organization of this text makes it a true 'open' resource. One could update or mold portions into a larger discussion on grammar concepts like punctuation, or writing for description. The APA and MLA sections are vague enough as to not need much updates as the rules change. The links work. I see at least one MLA rule that has changed since 2009, but it's relatively minor, and easily updated.

Grammar-heavy texts can be tricky for students because there are so many labels, like 'rhetorical mode,' that they know the definitions of, but have not heard the terms themselves. This text keeps that jargon to a minimum, so that students can focus on the concept and not the vocabulary. Subject-verb agreement is the least accessible, but that is often difficult to explain for any text, and the exercises support the instruction. Parallelism could be defined more cleanly. The research section is quite clear. The learning objectives are clear enough as to be useful tools themselves.

Exercises are often post-concept and always post-chapter. Learning objectives are defined at the beginning of each section. Each section resembles the others, and for that reason can be easily modulated - but there are no clear cumulative assignments.

These chapters can stand alone quite easily. This works especially well for instructors like myself who teach grammar concepts side-by-side with writing concepts - they will pair closely in this model. The end-of-chapter exercises could easily be used as pretests as well as post-tests. Chapter 13 on research documentation is slightly self-referential, but the sections are unlikely to be taught separately and it doesn't feel overdone.

As previously mentioned, chapter 8 on getting started might be moved forward. Ideally the text would pair the writing process stages directly with modes, as they do change given the purpose...but since this might made the text less modular I understand the vision behind its generality. The reading examples might be closer to the chapter on modes, instead of at the end after research. Within chapters, flow is sensible and straightforward.

The layout and structure is simple and clean. Charts keep their shape even when window size is minimized. The clear table of contents is navigable by both scroll and click.

Grammar texts especially need to be spotless; I spotted no errors. Most importantly, there is consistency in structure and punctuation, for example in learning objectives from chapter to chapter.

Most important in this volume are the sample essay readings. Linked and cited authors include various time periods and controversial yet not sensitive topics. The text is to be commended for inclusion of essays from at least five different races and a variety of worldviews.

A solid framework and foundation for essay writing. The book could be used for a class specifically about writing, or as a companion to another course. Modules on research and citation are of specific relevance to a variety of content areas, and the extra essays in the final chapter can inspire debate and argument both in writing and verbal discussion.

Reviewed by Mary Sylwester, Instructor, Portland Community College on 1/7/16

This textbook is amazingly comprehensive--probably more than any teacher actually wants. It covers strategies for success in college, reading, grammar, spelling, drafting, revising, thesis statements, and various rhetorical modes. Unfortunately,... read more

This textbook is amazingly comprehensive--probably more than any teacher actually wants. It covers strategies for success in college, reading, grammar, spelling, drafting, revising, thesis statements, and various rhetorical modes. Unfortunately, it does not include an index. The table of contents is fairly detailed, however.

The content is accurate: rules for spelling and punctuation and general rhetorical content are presented as any writing instructor would expect. More explanation about rules for grammar and punctuation would be nice: for example, the explanation of the dash is "to set off information in a sentence for emphasis." This is accurate, but not the whole story.

The main portions of this text will not become outdated. The section on readings, however, is already problematic. The book offers one reading example per mode, and then others as links. Just in a quick survey of links in two of the rhetorical modes, I found five that were no longer operational. To be fair, the book does try to get around that problem with multiple link sources for the same essay, but I found this strategy confusing, as it tends to look as if there are more readings available than actually are present. In the future, as with any textbook including readings, there will be a need to provide up-to-date topics.

I found the book very readable. There is little or no jargon. This book would be appropriate for a freshman in college.

The page design is consistent: examples and exercises are similarly formatted and easy to locate. The author uses fictional student names to illustrate how some principles might be applied in real life.

In the "Exercise" sections, the book does refer the studen to other parts of the chapters. All the examples I found, however, referred the student to sections within the same chapter and not out to other chapters of the book. For example, in the Exercises for Ch. 8, the instructions say: "Working in a peer-review group of four, go to Section 8.3 “Drafting” and reread the draft of the first two body paragraphs . . . ."

This book starts with strategies for success, which seems reasonable, but then has a giant section about sentence grammar & spelling before even getting to writing paragraphs. "Refining Your Writing" comes before "How Do I Begin?" which seems backwards. The topic of thesis statements does not come up until Chapter 9, which seems terribly late. If I were teaching from this text, I would probably skip from Chapter 1 to Chapter 6, and use Chapters 2-5 (grammar and spelling) as references.

The display seems fine: I read it online rather than downloading. One benefit to the online format is the search window at the top, which offers a kind of substitute for indexing.

The only problem I ran into was that several links to the readings in Chapter 15 were nonfunctional.

The text contains no grammatical errors.

Student example names used seem to cover a variety of ethnic backgrounds, but most are women's names. Readings cover a wide spectrum of ethnicities. For example, links to readings in the "Narrative Essay" section include Chicano, Russian Jewish, and Native American.

This is generally a well written textbook. However, there are two problems that instructors will encounter in using it: (1) it is not organized pedagogically, so instructors will need to consider the order of readings carefully, and not just move chapter by chapter through the book. (2) many links to readings are not functional, so instructors will need to be aware of that and either find new links or provide their own readings.

Finally, I have grave reservations about the ethics of using weblinks for essentially all the current readings in a textbook. I understand that using links in an online class for one-time readings is fine, but many of these links (especially those that remain functional) are to publications that have paying subscribers, such as The New Yorker. I would feel better about using a textbook that actually had permission to use other writers' work as a permanent fixture of the book.

Reviewed by Laura Sanders, Instructor, Portland Community College on 1/7/16

This text covers a range of topics students might need while building reading, critical thinking, research, and writing skills in developmental to upper division courses. read more

This text covers a range of topics students might need while building reading, critical thinking, research, and writing skills in developmental to upper division courses.

I see no evidence of inaccurate, erroneous, or biased content.

I believe it is safe to say that this book will be useful for a long time. While APA and MLA style may change and grammar rules may soften or transform, this book would be easy to update.

The book is accessible to students entering a course with various levels of academic preparation and experience.

Each chapter begins with learning objectives and ends with takeaways. Throughout each chapter, there are charts and exercises to clarify and emphasize key content.

Clearly marked sections focus on student success strategies, grammar and punctuation, and approaches to composition. Instructors could easily select the chapters most relevant to individual reading and writing courses at all levels.

The book is structured very well. It begins with reading strategies and helping students transition from a high school to college learning environment. It moves into sentence-level techniques, including specific areas for English language learners. The text also includes sections on the writing process, rhetoric, research, documentation, and presentation.

The text is easy to navigate.

I do not see any grammatical errors.

While I do not see anything I consider offensive, I do believe few of my students would "see themselves" in this text. The sample names (like "Steve" and "Jones") and sample essay topics (baseball, video game addiction) do not suggest a recognition of the broad cultural diversity instructors encounter in college classrooms today. For me, this lack of inclusiveness marks the main weakness of this text.

I enjoyed reviewing the text and plan to assign a few chapters to my online writing students.

Reviewed by Amy Forester, Instructor, Clackamas Community College and Portland Community College on 1/7/16

The text is very comprehensive. There are sections that are useful for many different writing levels, from students in need of grammar and punctuation instruction to research writing. Also, each section is nicely developed with examples,... read more

The text is very comprehensive. There are sections that are useful for many different writing levels, from students in need of grammar and punctuation instruction to research writing. Also, each section is nicely developed with examples, explanations, and exercises.

The text is very accurate. It gives clear and easy-to-read instruction on many topics.

This text has great longevity. I can imagine using it for many years because the examples are not time-sensitive. This is a great book to accompany a reading list or anthology.

This is one of the first things I noticed about the text. I really like the tone and style of the writing. It is clear and does not over-complicate ideas. The author clearly has experience with first-year writing students because it is written in a clear, accessible way.

I appreciate the consistency of this text. The terminology is direct and logical, and students will find it easy to get a broader understanding of a topic because the text provides links to other parts of the text where the term is mentioned. Also, the chapter organization is perfect for first-year students who do not want long, meandering chapters.

I will be using this book in modules for different writing classes. For example, it is easy to teach the grammar and punctuation sections in a remedial course and leave them out in research writing courses. Each section is very well developed.

The topics are nicely organized in this text. Each chapter has the same features, so students know what to expect. I am particularly impressed with the section Writing at Work, which gives students a sense for how each strategy is used in the workplace.

Overall, the interface is very easy to read. The one improvement that should be made is, at least in my screen view, the student writing samples are hard to read because they are small and in a difficult font.

It is grammatically correct.

The text is not culturally insensitive. It seems inclusive in its examples.

I am particularly impressed with the grammar and punctuation chapters. I have used many different books to teach these topics, and have found that they are often explained in complicated, technical language. I will definitely use these chapters in my classes.

Reviewed by Katie McCurdie, Instructor, Portland State University on 1/7/16

The comprehensiveness of this text is very impressive. At 600 pages, it covers so many aspects of college writing, from grammar to essay writing to creating presentations, that pieces of this text would surely be useful for a wide variety of... read more

The comprehensiveness of this text is very impressive. At 600 pages, it covers so many aspects of college writing, from grammar to essay writing to creating presentations, that pieces of this text would surely be useful for a wide variety of courses, but it is probably best suited to a first-year composition course. The first chapter provides a good introduction to writing in college, which includes a comparison to writing assignments in high school, along with more general advice on succeeding in college. This would be useful for just about any student entering an American university. It would also aid international students in understanding the expectations surrounding reading and writing as they transition from schools in their home country, where expectations, amount of coursework, and types of assessments can be drastically different. The next four chapters focus on sentence-level language issues: sentence structure, punctuation, vocabulary, and a whole grammar chapter for English language learners. These chapters could provide a great introduction to or review of the basics of English grammar, as well as the metalanguage needed to talk about grammar. In fact, I could see all four of the chapters begin useful for English language learners at intermediate and advanced levels. Chapters six through thirteen cover writing, from paragraphs to research papers, and fourteen focuses on presentations. Short exercises immediately reinforce the content in a variety of ways, such as by editing, completing sentences, and identifying and labeling grammar items. The amount of exercises might be enough for relatively advanced users of English, but those at a lower level would likely need additional exercises from another source. The “Writing Application” exercises at the end of most chapter sections provide opportunities for students to use what they’ve learned in short writing activities. In addition, there are end-of-chapter exercises for more practice.

Throughout the text, there is a combined focus on writing for academic purposes and writing in the real world. Examples and exercises reinforce this with work emails, business letters, job descriptions, cover letters, advertisements, and personal narratives and essays. This should send the message to students that the skills they are learning will be applied to all areas of their lives.

Although this text hasn’t reinvented the wheel in terms of writing instruction, it does present some novel ways to approach certain topics. For instance, there is a section in Chapter 2 on identifying and correcting fragments and run-ons that would potentially be very helpful for both native and non-native writers. It includes flow charts that students could use on their own to aid them in finding and fixing these all too common sentence structure errors in their own writing – an excellent tool to help students move towards becoming independent writers.

The table of contents is detailed and descriptive, but is not included in the pdf version.

I found the content to be mostly accurate. However, there are a couple places where the labeling of grammar items seemed incorrect or inconsistent to me. For instance, in Chapter 2, the text introduces some sentence structure basics including prepositional phrases (“At night,” “In the beginning,” etc.). However, when discussing how to fix fragments that begin with prepositional phrases a few pages later, the example sentences do not actually contain them; instead, they begin with adverb clauses or phrases (“After walking all day…”). For a native writer, distinguishing between these two different structures might not be crucial since the point here is fixing the fragment error. If using this text with English language learners, however, the discrepancy could cause confusion.

Information and example essays seem relevant and up-to-date although the chapter on MLA and APA documentation will have to be updated in the future. Updates should be easy to perform due to the text’s modularity.

The language used in the text is very easy to understand and approachable. Examples mostly consist of everyday language and situations or general academic vocabulary.

The text seems consistent to me except for the grammar terminology error I mentioned above.

This text seems made to be divided into smaller parts to be covered individually or even in a different order. Although the text does refer to itself at times, it does not rely on these references to convey information clearly and completely. Therefore, I noticed some sections of the text that necessarily repeat information from previous sections so as to stand alone as an independent lesson.

I appreciate how the book is organized, beginning with the introduction to college writing, which orients students to what they’ll be doing and why. I think it was a good choice to then put the grammar chapters next, before getting into the writing chapters. Writing books I’ve used tend to stick the grammar instruction at the end of the text or even hide it away in an appendix, but this text encourages students to become proficient writers from the sentence level up. The only part that seems oddly placed to me is Chapter 7, “Refining Your Writing,” which covers sentence variety, coordination and subordination, and parallelism. Also, I agree with another reviewer who said that it would be better if each rhetorical mode were given its own chapter. I never teach nine different modes in one course (maybe two or three), so the modularity would be better if each mode could be separate. On the other hand, I like how research writing is divided into two chapters and covered in detail. This type of writing is so difficult for most students, so it’s nice to have that comprehensive instruction. It’s also great to have the additional chapter at the end with example essays.

The interface is user-friendly with clear headings and sub-headings, logical use of bold text, numbered and bulleted lists, and blocks of subtle color to set off certain pieces of text from the main text. When suitable, information is presented in chart form or inside boxes. The font is highly readable and not distracting. Each chapter has a few main sections that are consistent throughout the text: “Learning Objectives” at the beginning, “Exercises” sprinkled throughout the chapter, and “Key Takeaways” at the end. There are also small boxes labeled “Tips,” which give advice on succeeding academically, and “Writing at Work,” which offers suggestions on how to use writing in real communication situations. As a result, the set-up of each chapter is predictable, which would theoretically allow teachers and students to fall into a comfortable routine.

One problem I found with the interface is that sometimes the margin sizes are not consistent from one page to the next. For instance, an indented list that begins on one page and continues on the next may not be indented on the second page. This is a small issue and may just be in the pdf version of the text.

I also noticed some navigation mistakes, when the text refers the reader to another part of the text, but it’s not the intended part. For example, in the section on fixing run-ons, it says, “For more information on semicolons, see Section 2.4.2 ‘Capitalize Proper Nouns’. However, there is nothing about semicolons in this section; this would most likely be in Chapter 3, which covers punctuation.

I did not see any errors.

I did not notice anything culturally insensitive, and there are some inclusive examples.

Overall, I find this text to be thoughtfully written, and I’d definitely consider using it for upper level writing & grammar-focused courses in the Intensive English Program.

Reviewed by Kirk Perry, Adjunct Instructor, Portland Community College - Cascade on 1/7/16

This textbook aspires to be a combined grammar book and reader. It covers all the appropriate areas, but the coverage is a bit thin when it comes to examples. read more

This textbook aspires to be a combined grammar book and reader. It covers all the appropriate areas, but the coverage is a bit thin when it comes to examples.

As far as I can tell.

The instructional content is very plain and basic; it will be sure to bore students for decades to come.

The readings (links) are good quality and likely to be useful for a decade or so.

Very clear and plain language--but again, not enough examples.

If anything, this text could be more technical. I think it is unhelpful to describe subordinating conjunctions as "dependent words." This strikes me as vague and misleading.

Yes, quite consistent.

Yes, it is effectively modular. Helpful subheadings and sections. There are lists and diagrams, but some sections can be a bit too text-y (dense paragraphs).

Yes: overview > grammar > process > writing modes > research > citation.

However, the example essays for the modes come in the final chapter. There is no good reason why "Chapter 10: Modes" could not be merged with "Chapter 15: Readings: Examples of Essays"--particularly because most of the examples are links.

Appears good.

Didn't notice any problems.

The example essay links provide a variety of ethnic/cultural perspectives.

This book is helpful but tries to do a bit too much--being both a grammar and a reader. It needs more examples of everything: run-on sentences, sense details, example essays, etc.

To adopt this for a course such as WR 115 or WR 121, I would have to provide many supplemental readings.

Reviewed by Annie Knepler, University Studies Writing Coordinator, Portland State University on 1/7/16

Writing for Success is quite thorough. It covers everything from sentence structure to the writing process. It has additional sections on creating effective presentations and concludes with sample essays. I could see how instructors could use... read more

Writing for Success is quite thorough. It covers everything from sentence structure to the writing process. It has additional sections on creating effective presentations and concludes with sample essays. I could see how instructors could use various elements of the text and adapt it to their course.

At the same time, it often felt a little too comprehensive, and sometimes seemed to aim for breadth over depth. For example, not much space is devoted to integrating sources and ideas. Learning how to apply sources, and develop your own ideas based on research, is such an important element of college writing. Paraphrasing and integrating source material is complex, and takes a lot of practice. Otherwise, students tend to let the sources speak for them instead of truly conversing with the sources (which is what I would begin to expect of college level students). The text leaves the impression that integrating sources is a straightforward task as opposed to one that involves critical thinking and analytic skills. Overall, I found the research section fairly weak.

I have looked at and worked with several writing texts, and I’m used to ones that either focus on a specific aspect of writing (such as research writing) or have a specific approach. This text tries to be a more general writing text, and it, perhaps, tries to cover too much.

The book strikes me as accurate, thorough, and generally without bias. At the same time, I don’t fully agree with the approach it takes to writing and grammar. The text does a really nice job of explaining certain grammatical elements and providing several examples to demonstrate the idea. However, the text generally treats grammar as rules rather than conventions. These conventions often change or shift over time, just as writing conventions change over time.

Similarly, whereas I appreciated the texts emphasis on writing as a process, Writing for Success does not really highlight the idea that writing can also be a process of discovery for the student. To me, this is an important concept for both learning and writing, and it helps get students excited about the possibilities for college writing. For example, when discussing thesis statements, the book indicates that a writer might end up revising a working thesis to broaden or narrow down their thesis. However, it does not present the possibility that students’ ideas may shift in significant ways as they write, research, and discover ideas. I allow my students to leave themselves open to the idea that their working thesis could change in significant ways as they write.

Overall, for me, it does not adequately emphasize the idea that writing should be both dynamic and purposeful.

The book is designed in a way that makes it easy to update specific details and examples. In general, many of the concepts it covers, such as specific issues students should pay attention to as they edit and revise (such as wordiness, transitions, etc.), will likely remain consistent.

However, I would not characterize the text as particularly relevant given the current conversations in the field of composition and composition pedagogy. In recent years, there has been a much stronger focus on purpose, audience, and genre in relation to writing, and although these concepts are addressed, they are not really emphasized or approached with the degree of complexity I would expect out of a college-level writing course. Writing for Success seems to encourage an expanded version of the five paragraph essay rather than providing students with the tools to recognize multiple approaches to writing. It approaches writing with a step-by-step approach, rather than as a complex task that involves continual critical thinking and problem solving.

Although the text encourages students to apply these ideas to other writing tasks (something I really appreciated about the text), it often implies that the writing they will do in their writing class may not have a clear context or purpose. It even states that students’ “college composition courses will focus on writing for its own sake.”

The writing in the text is very clear and straightforward. It would be helpful for the authors to more clearly define the audience for the book. It strikes me as a text that would be too basic for many first-year college writing courses.

I also found some of the organizational decisions confusing (I address this below under organization/flow).

Consistency rating: 3

The chapters follow a fairly consistent structure in terms of content. They all start by stating objectives, explain the main concepts, review the concepts, and provide exercises. The text also fairly consistently encourages active learning by posing questions for students/readers to consider as they delve into a topic.

To my eyes, there are some inconsistencies in terms of the framework and the message of the text. For example, it opens by framing writing as a challenge, and I was prepared for it to address several of the complexities of college writing. Instead, it goes on to take a fairly formulaic approach to writing, and even implies at times that the five-paragraph essay is a common form for college writing.

The text is broken into clear sections. I’m not sure how well the text would work if assigned from start to finish, but I can see how instructors might select specific chapters for a specific purpose. I usually have a select group of students that might struggle with a certain issue and I would, for example, direct a student that is struggling with commas to that specific section.

I also appreciate the way the is designed to work with other classes that a student might be taking. The exercises often direct students to apply the ideas they’re learning to a piece of writing that they are already working on for another class or to a task they have been assigned in their job.

The structure of the text was, at times, a little confusing. For example, the fact that tone, audience, and purpose are first discussed under a chapter on paragraphs was a little disorienting. Though these elements clearly relate to paragraphs and paragraph structure, they are really a central element of the larger structure and purpose of an essay or paper. Beyond that, in this section the author clearly explains different types of paragraphs, and provides a clear and detailed description of concepts such as analysis and evaluation.

There were a few other choices that did not make sense to me. For example, why are signal phrases and verbs discussed in the section on formatting as opposed to the section on integrating material into texts? That doesn’t really make sense.

My main concern is with the larger structure of the book. It starts by breaking down sentences structure and explaining the parts of the sentence. It seems like these chapters would make more sense in connection to editing since these are issues students should explore as they are editing their work. Most research shows that students more successfully learn grammar and sentence structure when it’s addressed in a specific context (such as their own work). The structure of the book implies that students can “learn” elements of a sentence and then easily apply that to their work.

I read the text in iBook, and the formatting did not always functioned properly. Some of the tables/columns were hard to read, and there were instances where the text referred to underlined sections of the examples, but there was no underline in my version.

I did look at the PDF version, and this did not seem to be an issue.

The book is generally free of errors. I looked at some of the previous reviews, and it seems as though some of the specific errors people noted have already been edited out of the text. I did find one clear typo on page 408 where the word “Thesis” in a title is written “ThesIs.”

The book did not make any statements that were insensitive or inoffensive. At the same time, it also did not address issues of language that relate to culture or gender. So it essentially avoids the topic, which is insensitive in its own way. For instance, it does not deal with issues of language and gender, and in the chapter on pronouns it does not examine the increasingly common use of the singular “they.” I appreciated the section for English language learners, but was a little confused about it’s overall purpose. It did not in any ways address some of the rhetorical issues that multilingual and international students often struggle with, and instead seemed to want to take the place of an English language course. In other words, it seemed as though it was well meant, but not sufficient or clear.

I appreciate that the text encourages students to be not only active readers and writers, but also active students. It emphasizes that they should seek help if they need it, and demonstrates ways to engage with reading.

The lists of words, such as transitional words, were very helpful. My experience is that students benefit greatly from these types of examples. The section on presentation skills was also useful and provided some good tips concerning tone, voice, and connecting with your audience.

I also appreciate the use of examples in the text, and these were generally very helpful. The sample essays at the end were helpful, and I really appreciated all the links to model readings available on the web. Despite the examples, while reading the text, it often feels like there’s a little too much telling students how to write rather than showing.

My main concern is that it wouldn’t work well for a more theme or genre-based writing course, one that worked to place student writing in a specific context. At our university, writing instruction is integrated into yearlong, theme-based courses for first-year students. When I taught composition at a university with a more traditional first-year writing sequence, the courses were theme-based, and students were encouraged to think of their writing as contextualized and purposeful. Writing for Success often seems to assume that writing courses function more as isolated courses where students focus on the structures and processes of putting together expository writing.

As I note above, I think it would be helpful to better define the specific audience for this textbook. It’s certainly not appropriate for the college writing classes I’ve taught or worked with, and it could be that it has a different purpose. A college writing course should introduce students to more complex ways to approach their writing, and get them excited about the possibilities for communicating their ideas. I’m not sure that this text would achieve that goal.

Reviewed by Sara Crickenberger, Instructor, Virginia Tech on 6/10/15

The pdf of the textbook does not provide a table of contents or an index/glossary. It opens with a Preface then jumps right into Chapter 1. These omissions are inconvenient for planning and for both students and instructors trying to locate... read more

The pdf of the textbook does not provide a table of contents or an index/glossary. It opens with a Preface then jumps right into Chapter 1. These omissions are inconvenient for planning and for both students and instructors trying to locate specific material in the 613-page book. However, the textbook covers a wide breadth of material relevant to a first-year writing class, ranging from basic discussion and tips to help students succeed as college-level readers and writers to sample essays employing a variety of rhetorical modes. I likely would not use everything in this textbook, but it contains a great deal of material that I would find useful.

The content appears to be accurate and unbiased. I did not find any factual errors or inconsistencies.

The material in the textbook is up-to-date and relevant. Some examples use historical references, which are essentially timeless. A couple of the sample essays discuss topics such as universal health care and low-carbohydrate diets that may be front page news one day and off the public radar the next, but the material was not dated in a way that made it less valuable as a resource for students. The sample essays are in the last chapter in the book, which could easily be updated with newer essays.

The book is easy to read and clearly speaks to college writing students. The language is accessible, explanations are clear, and instructions are easy to follow. The author defines terms that are specific to the study of language and writing and gives examples illustrating how they are used. After each section students are asked to demonstrate their understanding of the material by completing exercises based on their reading.

The book uses a consistent framework that includes learning objectives for each section, discussion/explanation of the material, exercises that allow students to practice what they have been reading/learning, tips to make difficult ideas more accessible or reinforce messages, key takeaways to reinforce the learning objectives for each section, and a writing application.

The book is divided nicely into numbered chapters and sections that work well as self-contained units. Each section has clear learning objects, examples, exercises, and a writing application. It would be easy to assign a chapter or section within a chapter with the accompanying examples and exercises for students to compete.

The chapter on Writing for English Language Learners seems a bit oddly placed. Since that material is relevant for only a segment of the student population, I probably would have moved that chapter toward the back of the book with the more specialized content on documentation and presentations rather than between the chapters on word choice and shaping content. However, the content in the ELL chapter does relate closely to word choice and sentence structure, so another instructor might think this is the perfect place for this material.

The biggest problem with navigation in this textbook is the lack of a table of contents and index is. However, I had one other problem with the formatting. The text is double spaced, but paragraphs are not indented and there are no blank lines between paragraphs, so it is difficult to tell where paragraphs break. This is an issue in terms of ease of reading, and it sets a poor example for students who are learning the conventions of mechanics and formatting.

There are a few spacing issues. In some places subheads butt directly against body copy or tables, for instance. And some page breaks cause awkward breaks in exercises, tables, and charts. These are small issues that don't significantly affect the readability or usability.

I found few errors in the book. One issue that I did notice is a problem that is common among my students, so I was especially disappointed to see the error in the text. The author uses "where" in reference to something other than place: "...establish a buddy system where you check in with a friend about school projects" (25).

The text has a few other issues, such as bullet points that don't use parallel verb structures, some use of "to be" constructions that could easily be revised to more active/vivid sentence structures, and some typographical errors, such as "accuratelydid" (92) and "ascrawny" (149). These errors are relatively rare but start to get annoying after a couple of hundred pages.

The book does not contain references that are culturally insensitive or offensive. The author switches between male and female names in examples/exercises and uses names that are reflective of a diverse population.

I am planning to use this book as one of my texts in a first-year writing class next fall. I likely will adapt it a bit by adding a table of contents, indenting paragraphs, correcting mechanical errors, etc. so that it is more functional and serves as a model of the writing and formatting I expect from students. I actually like the double spacing, which most publishers don't use because of space/cost issues. It provides plenty of room for students to annotate the text electronically or on print copies. I am not sure I am up for undertaking indexing.

Reviewed by Kari Steinbach, Instructor, University of Northwestern - St. Paul on 7/15/14

The text covers some helpful elements of a first college writing course, such as an overview of several genres of writing assignments, some grammar and usage issues, use of peer review and collaboration in writing, and research strategies. Some... read more

The text covers some helpful elements of a first college writing course, such as an overview of several genres of writing assignments, some grammar and usage issues, use of peer review and collaboration in writing, and research strategies. Some may consider the addition of the study strategy and reading strategy material to be too basic--even for a first year writing course. Without a clear table of contents or index, the organization was difficult to decipher and required paging back and forth throughout the book.

The book appears to be free from any obvious errors. Because of the rapid changes in databases, electronic research strategies, and documentation styles, it is likely that updates will need to be made--but this is the case for any text dealing with research and documentation.

Aside from requiring updates due to documentation and research changes, there may need to be an update of sample essays that have subject matter that may become outdated. Examples of cited sources may become outdated--especially in fields that change quickly.

The use of flow charts to help students understand grammar concepts is helpful. A better use of white space, illustration, font changes, bullets, and color in the design would make the text more visually fluid and more readable. The addition of full text student sample papers to show formatting is very helpful. I also appreciated the list of objectives at the beginning of each chapter.

The text appears to be consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

It would be helpful for the rhetorical mode section to be split into separate chapters, with each genre given more individual emphasis and examples of the strategies required for that genre.

My preference would be to teach grammatical concepts as they come up within the course of writing assignments. I would prefer a text that had grammar covered in an appendix that could be referred to throughout the course and as the issues came up during the writing assignments. I would not teach grammar independent of the writing assignment.

There is a need for a clear table of contents and index.

There are no obvious issues with the book's grammar.

There are no obvious issues of cultural insensitivity in the text.

Reviewed by Jonathan Carlson, Instructor, Composition, University of Northwestern - St. Paul on 7/15/14

The first chapter covers many "first year" or "freshmen" tips, best practices ideas and how-to info. Probably good material for the group using this book, but not essential. Table 1.2 is valuable to a student's overall understanding of writing.... read more

The first chapter covers many "first year" or "freshmen" tips, best practices ideas and how-to info. Probably good material for the group using this book, but not essential. Table 1.2 is valuable to a student's overall understanding of writing. Table 8.1 is great! The outline checklist on 301 and 302 is good info. I like the discussion of thesis statements on page 341. It points out significant errors. I appreciate the section on plagiarism. This is such a key issue today, with so much research done online with text that is so easy to copy and paste. I like that the book notes that there is intentional and unintentional plagiarism. I think the reading examples in chapter 15 could be stronger. The compare and contrast essay is quite brief, and it is not organized for easy reading (one massive paragraph and one short paragraph). The cause and effect essay is rather short. I would like to see 3 to 5 page examples - approximations of what I will be expecting my Comp 1 students to write. I feel the persuasive essay is much too brief to be persuasive. Universal health care coverage is a massive and nuanced topic, and to serve it up in two pages seems almost offensive. By the by, the linked essays seems very good. I just think the book needs better, stronger examples of student essays. Overall, I think this is perhaps the most comprehensive writing textbook I've seen. However, the sample writings included in the text need to be expanded and off "better quality"--closer to what a student would turn in for a Comp I course.

Pg 319: "Generally speaking, write your introduction and conclusion last, after you have fleshed out the body paragraphs." This is dangerous advice. While I don't think it means to, I feel it downplays the importance of a thesis and/or mapping statement/plan of coherence. Without such a guide directly in front of them, many students will go off course. I feel the discussion/instruction of the thesis statement should occur in the outlining and drafting segment. It can and should be revisited later, but to wait to this point could be detrimental to the paper. Section 11.4: Accurate and essential. Students really need to know how to evaluate source material. From page 435: Questionable sources: free online encyclopedias. Thank you! From page 438: "Think ahead to a moment a few weeks from now, when you've written your research paper and are almost ready to submit it for a grade. There is just one task left - writing your list of sources." I've always thought it wise to have students created their references page as they write the paper. They can delete a source they don't end up including, and if they wait to the end, they are more likely to forget a source. Page 570: The chart should probably be labeled "Winter Olympic Medal Standings since 1924." If the combined total is calculated, the US has more than double our closest competitor, the Soviet Union. Also, the URL included in the text does not work. On the whole, the info is accurate and will be very helpful to students.

Not much in the book seems dated. Not much background is given for the fictional students in the book, and no pictures of them are provided. While this does increase the longevity of the book, it also decreases the chances of a real student identifying with the students in the textbook. The sample student writing on 361 is or will be dated, but if you're writing about tech, it's going to be. Beyond the Hype: Evaluating Low-Carb Diets from page 455. This is quite dated. After the myth that Atkins died from heart issues circulated, the low carb movement died with him. The process that this paper goes through is structured well. And I think that the teaching done by it is very relevant. So...I don't think that it's relevance as a fad should necessarily be considered. But if the book gets updated in 5 to 10 years, I'd recommend a different topic. The annotated essay portion on page 470 looks like it was created on an old-school typewriter. Ding! Page 531: The discussion of the URL vs. DOI is timely but may become irrelevant. I'm glad to see it's in here, but it may become irrelevant in the future.

All the language seems clear to me. However, I have a Master's in Writing. It's difficult to take that filter off and think as a college freshman would. For example, page 327 uses the phrase "formal English." I have a strong context for that, but would most college freshman. I honestly am not sure. It might be helpful to have a few early college students review the textbook.

Yes, it is internally consistent. The book uses similar language throughout and references previous and upcoming chapters frequently.

The textbook seems appropriately modular. An instructor could use portions he/she wanted or needed and leave out non-applicable content such as the "freshman seminar" type sections. Nearly half the book is grammar, punctuation and "college wisdom" content, which makes modularity especially important if the book is being exclusively used a Composition I textbook. And I do think its modularity is designed well and designed well enough to function in that way. The text does references previous and upcoming chapters frequently, but I think this still works fine.

There is no table of contents at the front. The portions about Crystal, while they are related thematically to the text, still seem out of place. I've used another textbook with a similar element (a group of first-year students who share their struggles and successes). In the textbook I used, there were pictures of the students, and their comments and insight were set off in colorful textbooks. While it seemed a bit cheesy, as does this, the concept is helpful to students, I think. Setting off this element in sidebar allows the text to flow more smoothly and helps to identify the comments as such. Some of the tables are broken at the page breaks in segments that make them hard to follow. For example, if they were broken between rows instead of in the middle of them, that would make them easier to follow. Exercise 2 on page 544/545 is an example of a terrible table break. The overview of sections on page 38 is very confusing. This info should be included mainly in a table of contents or a chapter introduction. The Choosing Specific, Appropriate Words section on page 327-328 could be set off with a different color or the like. It seems odd simply being part of the flow of text. Something to consider: This textbook is set up in something of a narrative structure. It might be more effective if set up as an owner's manual, considering our current generation of learners' aversion to lengthy text. 9.1 Developing a Strong, Clear Thesis Statement Chapter 9 is covering developing a thesis, but chapter 8 looks at writing the draft. The instructions on the thesis need to come before instructions on writing the draft. Consider adding table 8.1 to page 354. Finally, there is no index, glossary or works cited sections at the end. The overall organization is good, quite functional, but some of the "accessories" are missing.

The color scheme is too muted. Various sections are "highlighted" in light gray. More distinct colors would give the reader clearer clues about how the text is organized. Also, some sort of picture or icon would help to recognize certain segments. For example, the "Writing at Work" segments could have a small picture of a person at an office desk (preferably Dwight Schrute). I really like the charts on page 49 and 51, 54.

I found a few punctuation errors, but they're all essentially the same: missing spaces. This may have happened when the document was converted to PDF. Orunless on page 52. "athesis" on page 338. Fencessymbolize on page 340. seeChapter 6 on page 368. From page 392: "Writers are particularly prone to such trappings in cause-and-effect arguments "Shouldn't it be "traps" instead of "trapping"? Manual published from page 424 Table 11.1 on 423 and 424 uses two fonts inconsistently. asSmithsonian Magazine orNature from page 434 athttp://www.apa.org and athttp://owl.english.purdue.edu on page 492. From page 521: "byperiods." From page 516: "inand"

I didn't find much that was necessarily inclusive, other than the names of the fictional students. There were some sample essays (linked) that included non-white authors, which is certainly inclusive. However, I don't think any of the examples or articles were exclusive. Being a "white" male myself, I have a filter that is difficult to remove. I would hope that you could find some non-white reviewers to give you their opinion of this element.

Very, very comprehensive. I actually felt all the grammar and "freshmen seminar" elements took up too much of the textbook, but since it's free and the modularity works well, that's fine. Please add stronger student sample essays, a table of contents, glossary, index and works cited sections. And make the color scheme bolder. Thanks for the opportunity to review this textbook!

Reviewed by Tanya Grosz, Assistant Professor of English & Director of Undergraduate Pathways, University of Northwestern - St. Paul on 7/15/14

I was surprised at just how comprehensive this book was. It covers everything from study strategies to prewriting to editing and punctuation and research writing. Also, it includes writing strategies for ELL students which is very helpful. While I... read more

I was surprised at just how comprehensive this book was. It covers everything from study strategies to prewriting to editing and punctuation and research writing. Also, it includes writing strategies for ELL students which is very helpful. While I would have liked to have seen more full-text essays woven throughout the text, there are several in the final chapter, there are links to others, and there are a few throughout the book.

I have taught writing for 20 years, and I find this text to be both accurate and helpful. I find that students, regardless of age, struggle most with essay organization, and this text devotes the appropriate amount of time to organizing a paragraph and essay.

Updates could be made in a straightforward and easy fashion; many of the principles are solid and timeless. The MLA/APA part can be easily updated as can the essay examples.

The tone is extremely accessible. As I read through chapters 1 - 3, I was concerned that the text was almost too basic to be used with college freshmen, but as I reflected upon this, it dawned upon me that I cover some of the same concepts in the first week of class based on a writing and editing assessment. A teacher could easily extract those components that aren't necessary. Ultimately, this book is clear and readable.

Each chapter has a framework that is consistent; there is review at the end that is helpful and exercises for the student who wishes to practice what has been covered in the chapter.

I could easily see myself extracting certain elements of various chapters and using some chapters but not others. The book lends itself to easily using some chapters and not others and certain parts of a chapter without the entirety.

This is a difficult question because no one would likely organize a textbook the same way as someone else. I found the Refining Writing chapter (Chapter 7) a little oddly placed, but it certainly was not a deal-breaker, and because of its excellent modularity, one could easily organize the presentation differently. The topics are definitely presented clearly and logically.

The charts and graphs did not present very clearly on my screen, but I'm not sure if that's the text or my computer. While it wasn't distracting, the graphs were a bit pixelated and fuzzy. The essay samples were clear. Navigation was easy.

I thought the grammar, sentence flow, punctuation, etc. was excellent.

I wish I had access to the chapter for ELL students 20 years ago! I found nothing offensive in the text and found helpful chapters for college-bound high school students, freshmen or sophomore college students, and adult learners.

I find this book to be pragmatic, helpful, clear, straightforward, and well done. I am going to recommend it to my department for review. I think there should be a Learning Style quiz embedded or linked to when discussing learning styles for students. The writing tips and advice given were accurate and relevant. Literally, the only piece I would have liked to have seen addressed but did not was how to be an effective peer editor, but the tips for editing one's own paper could easily be applied to editing a peer's essay. While I would likely not use the chapter on presenting with my own class, I found it to be helpful. I do have one question about the formatting of the essays in chapter 12 at the end of the book: Why were the paragraphs not indented? I know of no composition instructors who allow block formatting for submitted essays. I recommend reviewing this book!

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: Introduction to Writing
• Chapter 2: Writing Basics: What Makes a Good Sentence?
• Chapter 3: Punctuation
• Chapter 4: Working with Words: Which Word Is Right?
• Chapter 5: Help for English Language Learners
• Chapter 6: Writing Paragraphs: Separating Ideas and Shaping Content
• Chapter 7: Refining Your Writing: How Do I Improve My Writing Technique?
• Chapter 8: The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?
• Chapter 9: Writing Essays: From Start to Finish
• Chapter 10: Rhetorical Modes
• Chapter 11: Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?
• Chapter 12: Writing a Research Paper
• Chapter 13: APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting
• Chapter 14: Creating Presentations: Sharing Your Ideas
• Chapter 15: Readings: Examples of Essays

Ancillary Material

About the book.

Writing for Success is a text that provides instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical thinking, and combines comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition.

Beginning with the sentence and its essential elements, this book addresses each concept with clear, concise and effective examples that are immediately reinforced with exercises and opportunities to demonstrate, and reinforce, learning.

Each chapter allows your students to demonstrate mastery of the principles of quality writing. With its incremental approach, it can address a range of writing levels and abilities, helping each student in your course prepare for their next writing or university course. Constant reinforcement is provided through examples and exercises, and the text involves students in the learning process through reading, problem-solving, practicing, listening, and experiencing the writing process.

Each chapter also has integrated examples that unify the discussion and form a common, easy-to-understand basis for discussion and exploration. This will put your students at ease, and allow for greater absorption of the material.

Tips for effective writing are included in every chapter, as well. Thought-provoking scenarios provide challenges and opportunities for collaboration and interaction. These exercises are especially helpful if you incorporate group work in your course. Clear exercises teach sentence and paragraph writing skills that lead to common English composition and research essays.

Exercises are integrated in each segment. Each concept is immediately reinforced as soon as it is introduced to keep students on track.

Exercises are designed to facilitate interaction and collaboration. This allows for peer-peer engagement, development of interpersonal skills, and promotion of critical thinking skills.

Exercises that involve self-editing and collaborative writing are featured. This feature develops and promotes student interest in the areas and content.

There are clear internal summaries and effective displays of information. This contributes to ease of access to information and increases the ability of your students to locate desired content.

Rule explanations are simplified with clear, relevant, and theme-based examples. This feature provides context that will facilitate learning and increase knowledge retention.

There is an obvious structure to the chapter and segment level. This allows for easy adaptation to your existing and changing course needs or assessment outcomes.

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Turning Your Content Into a Book: A Step-by-Step Guide for Creators

• August 22, 2024

As a content creator, you’ve already done the hard work—crafting blog posts, recording podcasts, producing YouTube videos, and engaging with your audience on social media. The problem? Turning all the content you’ve created into money.

Content creation is a great way to build an audience. But once you’ve got those followers, you need to find a way to monetize what you’ve created. 

There are plenty of ways you can turn your expertise into a revenue source. Coaching or paid courses are both popular and lucrative options. But if you want to keep your existing content working for you, the best way is to publish a book.

Using a Book to Monetize Your Content

In this post, I’ll walk you through the process of gathering and organizing your content so you can publish it as a book. For entrepreneurs and content creators, this step-by-step approach will help you repurpose your content effectively, ensuring it resonates with your audience and stands out in the market.

The process usually entails three parts:

• Gathering content for your book
• Organizing the content
• Filling any gaps with new content

But there’s a preliminary step you can’t skip: determining your book’s theme and goal. 

You need to be certain your book does more than just compile some of the content you’ve already created—it needs to create a deeper connection with your audience and expand on your expertise. 

Before you start gathering your content, you need to know what your fans want (or want more of). Start with a poll to your followers to ask what they’d like to see more of. Then, look for other books that fit that niche to find ways you can differentiate yourself.

Imagine your niche is financial management. You might find three or four books on that subject and discover they’re mostly text-heavy volumes with charts and graphs. You could mix it up and use simple language along with vibrant graphics to share your take in a new way.

Assessing and Gathering Your Existing Content

Okay, with a direction for your book in mind, it’s time to take stock of the content you already have. As a content creator, you’ve likely created lots of content—blog posts, podcasts, videos, social media updates, emails, and—if you’re an author—short fiction. The key is to identify the content that aligns with the theme or message of the book you want to create. 

Remember to think about what you know your audience wants. Every one of them is a potential customer, and you need to keep them in mind while sorting through the types of content you’ve already got.

Categorizing Your Content

If you’re a fan of spreadsheets, this moment is for you.

Make lists of all the content you’ve created. This can be links to blog posts, YouTube videos, and podcast episodes. Then, create a categories column and a tags column. Depending on the platform you’re using to create and host your content, you might already be categorizing it. 

Organize everything into one category. Keep these broad and try not to have more than five or six categories. Then add tags to each—here, you can go wild. The tags should be more specific and niche, letting you further sort the content you’re working with.

Sorting For Specific Topics

You should be able to align a category and/or some of your tags with your book’s theme or goal. Make another list with just the content you’ll consider for your book.

Evaluate each piece of content as a potential chapter, section, or reference point for your book. Ask yourself: Does this content fit into the larger narrative or purpose of my book? Is it relevant and valuable to my target audience? 

By thoroughly assessing your existing content, you’ll not only streamline the creation process but also ensure that your book is rich with information that your readers will find engaging and useful.

Create Your Book

Use Lulu’s free templates to easily create and publish your book today.

Organizing Content for Your Book: Structuring and Formatting

Once you’ve gathered all your content, the next step is to organize it into a coherent structure for your book. 

You’ve done some of this work while identifying your existing content. For example, if you have a basic guide and an advanced guide, the basic one is likely to be good for the first parts of your book, while the advanced content might want to be held for later chapters. 

Your existing content will be the main content of your book. Group similar topics together to create chapters, and arrange these chapters in a logical sequence that flows smoothly from one idea to the next. Then, read it, review it, and take note of any content that might be missing. 

When you’re working with existing content, you’ll often lack the following:

• Transitions between sections or chapters
• Overarching or meta-commentary that ties big concepts together
• Conclusions, takeaways, and action items
• Supplemental and reference content

To figure out what you’ve got and what you might need, it’s smart to start with an outline . Use that as a guide to crafting your book’s manuscript. When you draft your outline, think about the natural flow of your book—will your organization make sense to your readers? Do the points you make in the later chapters align with the questions or problems you presented earlier?

Use your outline to further organize your content. Then, make a list of additional content you’ll need, whether that’s simple transitions or completely new sections.  

Once you’ve got all your existing content sorted and organized, you’re ready to fill in the gaps and design your book!

Filling the Gaps: Writing Additional Information

My four bullets above are not an exhaustive list. You need to carefully look through the content you’ve got and assess what might be missing. Start with the most obvious things like transitions and conclusions. 

This is also the right time to edit your in-progress book . Even though you created all that original content, you might use a different tone for blog posts than YouTube videos. Your LinkedIn posts might not read exactly like your Facebook ones.

Do a few rounds of editing to clean up your content and make sure it’s cohesive in tone and structure.

During this process, adhere to best practices in content creation: maintain your unique voice, ensure consistency in style and tone, and add depth where needed. You want to make sure that every piece of content in your book, whether repurposed or newly written, contributes to the overall narrative and purpose.

Adding Front & Back Matter

The front and back matter of a book are necessary elements you won’t have in your original content. You should plan to create these sections after you’ve organized your content and worked on filling the gaps in the body.

• The front matter includes the title page, copyright information, table of contents, and introduction. 
• The back matter can include additional information such as references, a glossary, or an index. This section can also be used to promote further reading, link back to your other content, or provide resources for your audience.

Finally, take inspiration from successful content creators who have turned their accumulated content into popular books. Their strategies can offer valuable reference points as you work on filling in the missing pieces of your book.

Trimming & Finalizing Your Content

The book’s interior file is basically done. You’ve got all of your content, and you’ve woven it together with transitions, filled gaps, and updated information. 

Now, you should take a moment to pause and think about cutting some of that content.

Hold on to your pitchforks. 

I know you just put a ton of work into organizing, sorting, and preparing this content for your book. So why would you want to consider cutting anything?

Because you have to be sure your book will meet your goals. If you’re writing the definitive guide on how to do something, a long tome rich with examples and insights is what your readers want.

But if you’re hoping to spark some interest or use your book as a simple lead magnet, you don’t need to write a brick of a book. A small volume with 60-100 pages is becoming more and more common. 

Think about how you plan to market and share your new book. Then, refine your content to be sure it fits your goals while speaking to your audience. 

Designing a Compelling Book Cover and Layout

Formatting a book is a lot of work. I’m not going to go into it in-depth here, but you’ll need to decide if you’re doing your own design work or hiring a professional to help you create your interior PDF and cover file. 

Your Book’s Interior Pages

A well-designed layout enhances readability and ensures that your content is presented in a way that is both engaging and accessible. Pay attention to typography, spacing, and the overall visual flow of your book.

Remember, your book’s design is not just about aesthetics—it’s about creating a user-friendly experience that draws readers in and keeps them engaged from cover to cover.

Your Book’s Cover

Your book’s interior pages are important, but your cover is a crucial marketing tool and essential to your content marketing strategy once you start promoting your new product. Your cover should reflect the essence of your content and appeal directly to your target audience.

When designing your book cover , focus on elements like color, typography, and imagery that align with your brand and the message of your book. This is your chance to make your book stand out on the shelf—or in the crowded online marketplace.

Sell Your Book, Your Way

Sell books on your Wix, Shopify, or WooCommerce website with Lulu Direct. Or use our Order Import tool for your next book launch.

Publishing and Marketing Your Book

With your book content organized, gaps filled, and design polished, it’s time to publish. Choosing the right platform is a critical step . Whether you opt for Lulu, Amazon, or another self-publishing service, ensure it aligns with your goals as a content entrepreneur.

Once published, your work doesn’t stop. Launching your book requires a well-thought-out marketing strategy . Leverage your existing audience—your blog readers, podcast listeners, or social media followers—and build excitement around your book launch. Consider pre-launch activities such as offering exclusive content, running giveaways, or providing special discounts.

The Power of Repurposing Content

Turning your existing content into a book is more than just a strategic move—it’s a way to amplify your voice, reach new audiences, and establish your authority while taking advantage of the content you’ve already created.

Now is the time to take that next step in your content strategy. Gather your content, organize it thoughtfully, fill in the gaps, design with intention, and give your fans the book you know they want. Then, once you’ve got past the initial book launch, go back to the spreadsheet with all of your content and decide what your next book should be about.

Paul is the Senior Content Manager at Lulu.com . When he’s not entrenched in the publishing and print-on-demand world, he likes to hike the scenic North Carolina landscape, read, sample the fanciest micro-brewed beer, and collect fountain pens. Paul is a dog person but considers himself cat-tolerant.

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David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing: The Dynamic Tension at the Core of the Grammar of Schooling

• Critical Theory and Pedagogy

This post is a piece I published in 2021 in  Kappan .  Here’s a  link  to the original. It is now a chapter in my new book,  The Ironies of Schooling .

In this essay, I explore an issue about the “grammar of schooling” that bothered me over the years as I was teaching about this subject.  The concept was originally introduced by David Tyack and William Tobin in a 1994 AERJ  paper  and then more fully developed in a 1995 book that Tyack coauthored with Larry Cuban,  Tinkering Toward Utopia .  

Tyack and Cuban define the grammar of schooling as the organizational and pedagogical forms of schooling that have persisted over the years and resisted efforts to reform them, shaping the structure of teaching and learning in much the same way grammar shapes language. And like the grammar of language, the grammar of schooling operates at such a deep level that its rules become invisible, just part of the way things are. If a person uses bad grammar in speech, it just doesn’t sound right; and when a school violates the grammar of schooling, it doesn’t feel like a real school.

The chronic problem for me in working with this concept (Larry tells me he wrestled with this as well) has been to establish the foundation upon which it rests.  Why are some school practices more resistant to change than others?  

Over the years, I’ve raised this question countless times with students and colleagues, and we always seem to get bogged down in circular logic: Something that’s part of the grammar of schooling is resistant to change; something that’s resistant to change is part of the grammar of schooling. You know it when you see it, but it’s hard to determine how it got there. It has felt like a black box, reliably foiling the efforts of reformers but never revealing the secret to its strength. We know the what but not the  why .

Here I suggest that the most deeply entrenched school practices — the ones that have proven to be hardest to budge, like age-graded classrooms and teacher-centered instruction — strike a balance between what we want our schools to do and what those schools can realistically accomplish. These two forces are continually in tension, and their constant pushing and pulling, back and forth, drives the slow evolution of American education and leads, every so often, to meaningful change. I argue that the elements of schooling that get embedded in its grammar have two key features: They meet the schools’ larger social purposes, and they meet the organizational needs of the school system.

The grammar of schooling, then, is not a fixed characteristic of the system but the result of the need to balance the tension between two components of the system, which can’t be resolved but must instead be continually negotiated.  

See what you think.

THE DYNAMIC TENSION AT THE CORE OF THE GRAMMAR OF SCHOOLING

Why are certain elements of schooling so resistant to change.

It’s no secret that the American system of schooling has been remarkably resistant to change. Innovative reform efforts bombard schools constantly, but they nearly always seem to bounce off the classroom door, having little to no effect on how teachers teach and students learn. Over many decades, various core elements of K-12 education — such as teacher-centered pedagogy, tracking and ability grouping, and the batch processing of students by age group — have proven to be remarkably durable. As David Tyack and Larry Cuban (1995) famously observed, they make up something like a basic, underlying “grammar of schooling.” (On this and related topics, see Cuban’s recent interview in  Kappan ; Heller, 2020.)

Tyack and Cuban’s concept has inspired a lot of scholarship over the last 25 years (including, most recently, a special issue of  American Journal of Education  on “Changing the grammar of schooling”; see Mehta & Datnow, 2020), nearly all of it focusing on what it would take — and why it’s so difficult — to dislodge those core practices that seem to stand in the way of more progressive approaches. And in a recent article, David Cohen and Jal Mehta (2017) find that while educators do sometimes make dramatic changes to their curriculum, instruction, and other practices, those changes tend to be confined to discrete organizational niches and programs, rather than prevailing across whole schools or districts. According to Cohen and Mehta, that’s in large part because school systems in the U.S. tend to be decentralized (or “loosely coupled”) organizations, with administrators having power to launch big initiatives but not to monitor or control what actually goes on in classrooms. This has both pros and cons: Because individual educators have some degree of privacy and autonomy, they have some freedom to change their teaching practices. However, because principals and superintendents can’t compel every teacher to make changes, they struggle to take bold reforms to scale.

Cohen and Mehta help explain why school systems tend to resist change in  general . But I’d like to approach the question from a slightly different angle: Why are  some  educational practices more resistant to change than others?  

Elements of the grammar of schooling

We’re all familiar with this grammar. It includes things like grouping students into grades by age, dividing learning into a set of discrete subjects (math, science, English, and social studies), each of them taught within a self-contained classroom, presided over by a lone teacher who controls the learning process, maintains discipline, and assigns grades based on performance. At the elementary level, students stay with the same teacher for the whole year and experience a common curriculum, while perhaps being divided into subgroups based on ability. But at the high school level, the day is divided into periods and the students move from one teacher’s classroom to another, with each teacher specializing in a particular subject. Classes in particular subjects may be tracked by ability level, with students of the same ability assigned to the same classroom. When students pass a class by earning the minimum grade, they accumulate credits based on the number of hours they spent in that class each week. When they accumulate enough credits, they are awarded a high school diploma. Elementary students who fail to attain a passing grade at the end of the year are compelled to repeat the grade. High school students who fail a class have to repeat it or replace it with credits from another class, and if they accumulate too many failures they too have to repeat the grade.

This all sounds so familiar that it hardly seems worthy of comment. It’s just the way schools are, and it’s hard to imagine an alternative way of doing things. Indeed, when teachers or schools try to change one or more of these core elements, parents tend to resist, demanding that their children be taught real subjects by a real teacher in a real school.  

But what is it, exactly, that makes a particular organizational or pedagogical practice so resistant to reform? For instance, it has long proven to be more or less impossible to dispense with the grouping of students into age-graded cohorts, but in recent decades, most states have gone ahead and outlawed corporal punishment in schools, even in places where it used to be entirely routine. Why does one seem like such an unavoidable, fundamental feature of a school, while the other has been relatively easy to abolish?

More than three decades ago, David Cohen (1988) provided an insight that might help answer this question. To understand why it is so difficult for teachers to give up certain practices, we need to think about not just the organizational nature of schools but also the nature and realities of teaching itself. In their recent paper, Cohen and Mehta make a similar point in their recent paper, too. They were able to find only a few reforms that were successful across a whole school system, but all “addressed problems that teachers thought they had, by being consistent with prevailing norms and values, mobilizing a significant public constituency, and building the needed educational infrastructure.” That is, if you hope to change the grammar of schooling, then you have to pay careful attention to both the social dimensions of education — including norms, values, goals, and traditions — and the real-world needs of the people who work in classrooms and schools.

Taking these arguments a bit further, I suggest that the most deeply entrenched school practices — the ones that have proven to be hardest to budge, like age-graded classrooms and teacher-centered instruction — strike a balance between what we want our schools to do and what those schools can realistically accomplish. These two forces are continually in tension, and their constant pushing and pulling, back and forth, drives the slow evolution of American education, and leads, every so often, to meaningful change. Building on Cohen and Mehta’s observations, then, I argue that the elements of schooling that get embedded in its grammar have two key features: They meet the schools’ larger social purposes, and they meet the organizational needs of the school system.

Social mission

The first feature operates in the realm of culture and ideology. We set up schools and to accomplish certain societal goals. That’s why we set them up in the first place and why we pour so much time and treasure into them. Children spend 13 or 14 years of their lives in schools, families organize their schedules around the school calendar, and state and local governments spend about a third of their finances in support of the schooling enterprise. So, to be seen as legitimate, and in return for all we invest in them, schools must credibly serve one or more of the social missions we’ve assigned to them, such as promoting democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility (Labaree, 1997).

For example, we ask schools to socialize the young in the ways of our culture, imbue them with moral values, prepare them to assume the responsibilities of democratic citizenship, and give them the skills and knowledge to contribute to the economy. Many of us also expect them to give all students an equal opportunity to succeed, first as learners and later as members of society, applying the same standards to everyone and assessing students on the basis of academic performance rather than social origins. We expect schools to be meritocratic mechanisms for socializing members of the next generation and selecting them for the social positions they have earned. Unless they meet such aims, schools are failing at their job.

Organizational needs

The second feature operates in the world of organizational management. Schools must serve their social mission, but they need to do so in a way that takes into account the challenges of operating in the real world. The American public school system is a complex and radically dispersed social organization, spread across 14,000 school districts, 100,000 schools, 3 million teachers, and 50 million students (National Center for Education Statistics, 2021). This system needs to be able to function within budgetary and logistical constraints. And it also needs to be a manageable place where teachers and administrators can effectively carry out the task of educating the young while pursuing sustainable careers that enable them to support their families and enjoy some degree of job satisfaction.

To put it another way, schooling must be not just  worth doing  but also  doable.  And, in fact, when a school reform meets both of these criteria, significant change can be accomplished with surprising ease. In the 19th century, for example, most European schools separated boys from girls, but U.S. schools opted to create coed classrooms, meeting little to no resistance despite being a dramatic departure from customary practice. This reform served the social mission of promoting a broad-based civic community while simplifying school organization by eliminating the need for separate classrooms. It was worth doing, and it made the everyday work of schooling even more doable than before.

When mission and needs converge

It’s easy to see that when reform efforts tip the balance between mission and organization too far in one direction or another, those efforts fail. The history of public education is littered with such abandoned initiatives in which reformers, pursuing idealistic goals, required schools to attempt things that simply weren’t doable on a large scale. But some school reforms strike enough of a balance to stick around.

Consider the age-graded classroom, which Cuban highlights as a prime case of a reform that succeeded (Heller, 2020). It emerged before the Civil War, in the period when the common school movement established the first U.S. system of universal public education, and it quickly became entrenched because it served an important social mission and it met organizational needs, thereby satisfying both of our essential criteria.

Age grading seemed to be  worth doing  because it established a framework for fostering meritocratic achievement — still a radically egalitarian ideal in 19th-century America. Specifically, it enabled teachers to assess students’ performance based on their individual merit, rather than their age or what family they come from. While it’s difficult to compare a 9-year-old’s achievement to that of a 5-year-old and a 12-year-old, it’s relatively easy to see where a 9-year-old stands in relation to other 9-year-olds. Success means you’ve performed at (or even ahead of) grade level and been promoted to the next grade with your age group; failure means you’ve performed below your level and have been left behind to repeat the grade.

At the same time, age grading seemed  doable , and even beneficial, from an organizational standpoint, in that it simplified curriculum and instruction, allowing teachers to teach the same subject at the same level to the entire class at the same time. It made classroom management easier, too, since teachers no longer had to look after big and little children in the same room. And it made it simpler for administrators to keep track of teachers’ responsibilities and monitor students’ progress as they moved through the system, grade by grade.

When mission and needs collide

Ever since age-grading was introduced, over a century-and-a-half ago, educators have been unable to find a better alternative that strikes a more even balance between the worthwhile and the doable. But that’s not to say this practice achieves a  perfect  balance. Actually, age-grading has led to all sorts of problems. Not long after it was introduced, it became clear that while students may start out with classmates of the same age, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll stay with their peers over time. As soon as schools began to hold back their underperforming students, they accumulated older children in the lower grades, resulting in precisely the sort of mixed-age grouping they were trying to avoid. By 1919, for example, the Philadelphia school system calculated that it was taking an average of 10 years for students to complete eight grades (Pennsylvania State Department of Public Instruction, 1922, p. 128). This was considered such a serious problem that reformers wrote books about it, with titles like  Laggards in Our Schools  (1908).

Keep in mind, however, that because age-grading seemed both worthwhile and at least somewhat doable, reformers couldn’t abandon it. They could only tinker with it, finding a way to address the unanticipated problem of having too many older students held back and placed in classes with younger students. In this case, the solution appeared to be simple: They would modify age-grading by adding the practice of social promotion. Instead of being moved to the next grade based on academic merit, students would be promoted along with their age group, regardless of performance. However, they soon discovered that this led to another organizational problem: When students performing at various achievement levels were placed in the same room, it became difficult to provide whole-class instruction. In turn, the solution to that problem was to introduce curricular tracking: Teachers would promote students by age but assign them to separate classrooms according to their academic performance. In short, efforts to improve upon one part of the grammar of schooling (age-grading) led to the creation of two other mainstays of American education (social promotion and tracking).

However, these attempts to fix organizational problems didn’t just create new organizational problems. They also presented schools with a growing legitimacy problem, in that the new organizational structures began to undermine the social mission (to nurture a meritocracy) that had led to age-grading in the first place. Originally, when students were promoted based on their achievement, determining whether a student was successful was as easy as checking to see if they  were on the same grade level as their peers. But with social promotion, the new measure of merit became the curriculum track, not the grade level. Over the course of the 20th century, this became the most important signal of students’ academic progress and potential. Were they in the advanced placement track, academic track, general track, vocational track, or remedial track?

This posed two legitimacy problems for schools, suggesting that they were no longer living up to their meritocratic ideals. First, this organizational structure seemed to undermine the very meaning of merit, equating success not with a student’s individual performance in relation to peers of the same age but by the particular track they were placed into. Second, this system also undermined the ideal of equal opportunity because tracking meant that students in the same grade and subject were being taught to differing standards, effectively predetermining their academic outcomes.

In short, it turns out to be very difficult for school systems to maintain a balance between social legitimacy and organizational practicality, even when it comes to educational practices that strike this balance relatively well. Inevitably, tensions emerge, as teachers and administrators realize that some aspect of their work has become undoable and needs to be fixed, or as reformers realize that this organizational fix has undermined the school system’s mission. In the case of age grading, for example, we’ve teetered back and forth between competing solutions to the problems that this core practice creates (see fig. 1).

You can see similar patterns in other school practices, too. One case in point is the tension between offering special opportunities for academically advanced students — gifted programs, advanced placement classes, and special schools for high achievers. Here too you find an alternation between merit and equality, commonality and differentiation. 

To succeed, reforms must seek balance

The core educational structures that make up the grammar of schooling can only be maintained by a recurring series of school reforms that seek to maintain the balance of school ideals and school practices. Understanding this will help reformers to figure out how to proceed in pursuing desired changes in the system. Instead of looking for a permanent fix, this means resigning yourself to making continual adjustments in a dynamic without end.

If today’s reformers want to avoid creating new educational problems for the next wave of reformers to address, they need to understand the dynamics of the system that they hope to alter. That means trying to anticipate both the ideological and organizational consequences of any new policy or practice, asking themselves, “What might happen if we introduce this reform? How is this likely to stretch the schools’ organizational capacities? How might it undermine the school system’s guiding ideals?” In education, as in medicine, our guiding principle should be “First, do no harm.”

In a piece I published in  Kappan  last year (Labaree, 2020), I argued that the much-maligned bureaucracy of public education deserves some respect. While often ineffective and easily ridiculed, it also serves as an important stabilizing force, helping to protect the civic mission of our schools from those who would undermine it. At a time when privileged parents have come to exert greater and greater pressure on the system, seeking advantages that will help their children win the increasingly intense competition to get into the best colleges and capture the best jobs, the bureaucracy insists on treating all students the same. Perhaps the schools’ profound resistance to change deserves a bit of respect as well. Maybe the grammar of schooling, as frustrating as it may be to those of us who wish to improve teaching and learning, sometimes does more to preserve equity than prevent it.

Ayres, L. (1908).  Laggards in our schools.  New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Cohen, D.K. (1988). Teaching practice: Plus ça change. In P.W. Jackson (Ed.),  Contributing to educational change: Perspectives on research and practice  (pp. 27-84). McCutchan.

Cohen, D.K. & Mehta, J.D. (2017). Why reform sometimes succeeds: Understanding the conditions that produce reforms that last.  American Educational Research Journal, 54  (4), 644-690.

Heller, R. (2020). What counts as a good school? A conversation with Larry Cuban.  Phi Delta Kappan 102  (3), 32-35.

Labaree, D.F. (1997). Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals.  American Educational Research Journal, 34  (1), 39-81.

Labaree, D.F. (2020).  Two cheers for school bureaucracy .  Phi Delta Kappan ,  101  (6), 53-56.

Mehta, J. & Datnow, A. (2020). Changing the grammar of schooling. Special issue of  American Journal of Education, 164  (4).

Metz, M.H. (1990). Real school: A universal drama amid disparate experience. In D.E. Mitchell & M.E. Goertz (Eds.),  Education Politics for the New Century  (pp. 75-91). Falmer.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2021). Fast facts.  https://nces.ed.gov/FastFacts .

Pennsylvania State Department of Public Instruction. (1922).  Report of the survey of the public schools of Philadelphia , II. Public Education and Child Labor Association.

Tyack, D. & Cuban, L. (1995).  Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform . Harvard University Press.

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David Labaree

EdTrust in Texas advocates for an equitable education for Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds across the state. We believe in centering the voices of Texas students and families as we work alongside them for the better future they deserve.

Our mission is to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement that disproportionately impact students who are the most underserved, with a particular focus on Black and Latino/a students and students from low-income backgrounds.

EdTrust–New York is a statewide education policy and advocacy organization focused first and foremost on doing right by New York’s children. Although many organizations speak up for the adults employed by schools and colleges, we advocate for students, especially those whose needs and potential are often overlooked.

EdTrust-Tennessee advocates for equitable education for historically-underserved students across the state. We believe in centering the voices of Tennessee students and families as we work alongside them for the future they deserve.

EdTrust–West is committed to dismantling the racial and economic barriers embedded in the California education system. Through our research and advocacy, EdTrust-West engages diverse communities dedicated to education equity and justice and increases political and public will to build an education system where students of color and multilingual learners, especially those experiencing poverty, will thrive.

The Education Trust in Louisiana works to promote educational equity for historically underserved students in the Louisiana’s schools. We work alongside students, families, and communities to build urgency and collective will for educational equity and justice.

EdTrust in Texas advocates for an equitable education for historically-underserved students across the state. We believe in centering the voices of Texas students and families as we work alongside them for the better future they deserve.

EdTrust in Washington advocates for an equitable education for historically-underserved students across the state. We believe in centering the voices of Washington students and families as we work alongside them for the better future they deserve.

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The Education Trust team in Massachusetts convenes and supports the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership (MEEP), a collective effort of more than 20 social justice, civil rights and education organizations from across the Commonwealth working together to promote educational equity for historically underserved students in our state’s schools.

Home – Blog – The Literacy Crisis in the U.S. is Deeply Concerning—and Totally Preventable

The Literacy Crisis in the U.S. is Deeply Concerning—and Totally Preventable

Literacy is one of the major civil rights issues of our time. Our children’s future—and our nation’s democracy—depends on us addressing this crisis now.

Frederick Douglass said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” This was true in the 19 th  century, when he was decrying the notion that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as American citizens, and that statement still carries weight today.  There is currently a literacy crisis happening in the U.S., one that disproportionately affects students of color, and that cannot be ignored. Literacy is one of the major civil rights issues of our time, and our children’s future — and our nation’s democracy — depends on us addressing it now.

There is overwhelming evidence that nearly all children can learn to read. But in schools across the country, many students — especially students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities — are not yet skillful readers. Last year, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), “the nation’s report card,” showed that not even half (43%) of fourth graders in the U.S. scored at or above a proficient level in reading. And for marginalized students, the numbers are much worse: just 17% of Black students, 21% of Latino students, 11% of student with disabilities, and 10% of multilingual learners can read proficiently by fourth grade.

That any child, let alone the majority of children, goes to school without being taught to read is deeply concerning — and also completely preventable. There are five widely accepted components that are essential to reading:  phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Decades of research shows that when students receive explicit and systematic instruction across all of these domains, they will learn to read. And when students are given access to texts with  rich, diverse characters and cultures , seeing people like themselves fully represented in school materials, they will become more engaged readers.

So why do we see staggering numbers of children, especially children of color and children from low-income backgrounds, without fundamental literacy skills?

In many districts and schools, outdated teaching methods and curricula that have been proven ineffective, and even harmful, are still being used. Adding to this problem is that too many teachers enter the profession without any  training in evidence-based reading instruction, which means they lack the knowledge to effectively teach their students how to read. Plus, there are unfounded and deeply entrenched ideas about how children learn to read that have had a reverberating and far-reaching impact — which have been expertly documented in Emily Hanford’s podcast,  Sold a Story  and the documentary,  Right to Read ,  executive produced by  Reading Rainbow  legend Levar Burton. To make things worse, the wave of states and districts taking steps to restrict the teaching of so-called critical race theory (CRT), ban books, and censor the ways race can be discussed in schools is curtailing the already limited degree of curricula diversity that is essential in opening students’ hearts and minds, and fuel their engagement and love of reading.

This phenomenon of denying people, particularly Black people, the right to read is part of a long, troubled history in our country.  Anti-literacy laws  in the U.S. prohibited enslaved, and sometimes free, Black Americans from learning to read or write, although many enslaved people defied those laws at great personal risk. When Black communities created freedpeople’s schools after the abolition of slavery in 1865, White Southerners responded by using violence to attack or destroy more than 600 schoolhouses. For nearly 100 years after emancipation,  literacy tests  prevented poor, immigrant, and formerly enslaved Black Americans from registering to vote. We’ve come a long way — yet still have much further to go.

As fiercely as Douglass fought for abolition and the right to literacy two centuries ago, we must now push education leaders at every level to adopt policies and practices  to ensure that every child learns to read and has access to diverse texts. Only then will children be completely free  live the lives of their choosing, and our democracy will be free from the consequences that come from illiteracy, ignorance, and intolerance.

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Ruby the Copycat

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Ruby is the new kid in school and, in an attempt to fit in, she begins copying everything that Angela does. When Angela wears a red bow in her hair, Ruby has one in her hair right after lunch. When Angela writes a poem about a cat, Ruby writes one that is oddly similar. Thankfully, their teacher, Miss Hart, is wise to the situation and helps Ruby recognize that the best way to be is to be yourself.

Each Kindness

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• ‘Red Wedding’: Storied Stanford Creative Writing Program Laying Off Lecturers

The university says creative writing faculty recommended returning its Jones Lectureships to their “original intent” as short-term teaching appointments for talented writers. A lecturer of 20 years said he thinks there’s a “peasants and lords issue” in the program.

By  Ryan Quinn

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Stanford University is laying off its current Jones Lecturers.

Some Stanford University lecturers are likening it to the “red wedding” in Game of Thrones —a massacre of characters by their supposed allies amid what had been billed as a celebratory feast.

Last Wednesday, a dean, a senior associate dean and a co-director of Stanford’s storied and popular creative writing program held a Zoom meeting with the program’s 23 Jones Lecturers, according to some of those lecturers, who were chosen from the ranks of those who have held the university’s prestigious Stegner Fellowship for writers.

The university leaders complimented the Jones Lecturers over Zoom. “They praised us to the moon,” Tom Kealey, a lecturer for two decades, told Inside Higher Ed . “Endlessly” praised was how Edward Porter, a lecturer of eight years, put it.

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Then, Kealey said, the leaders announced they would all be losing their jobs within the next two academic years. “The worst part is to be praised while you’re being fired,” Porter said. According to notes he took of the meeting, Nicholas Jenkins, the program’s co-director, said something to the effect of “you’re excellent, but others will be excellent in the future.”

There was an added sense of betrayal. The deans—Debra Satz, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Gabriella Safran, senior associate dean of humanities and arts—said this wasn’t their decision, according to Kealey. In Medium posts on the ordeal, he wrote that they said it came from “the senior professors of creative writing.”

“These are literally our teaching colleagues of the last five to 15 years,” Kealey wrote. “And they decided in a previous secret meeting to fire all 23 of their junior colleagues.” In another post, he wrote that “it was only the MALE professors who voted to fire us.” ( Inside Higher Ed reached out Tuesday to some of the male creative writing professors on Tuesday, but received no responses.)

In an unsigned announcement last Wednesday on the university’s website, Stanford said it is returning to the “original intent of the Jones Lectureships: one-year appointments with the possibility of renewal for a limited term.” That announcement said the recommendation came from faculty members on a “Working Group of Creative Writing Academic Council faculty,” but it didn’t name them.

Satz, Safran and Jenkins said in an emailed joint statement to Inside Higher Ed that "this change will again allow Stegner Fellows the opportunity to apply to be Jones Lecturers once they have completed their fellowships. Jones Lecturers will have one-year appointments with the possibility of renewal for up to four additional years."

While it’s no longer rare for non-tenure-track faculty members to be laid off by higher education institutions facing budget woes, Stanford is a wealthy institution and creative writing is, by its own admission, a popular program.

“We have a large number of fully enrolled classes, many with significant waitlists and some where the waitlists are longer than the enrollment roster,” Jenkins said in a February 2023 article on the university’s website. He also said, “We’re in a remarkable period of hiring during which we’re fortunate enough to be bringing to campus an extraordinarily talented array of significant artists and teachers.”

But the lecturers say they’re the ones teaching most of the creative writing classes for undergraduates, and that their years of experience improve teaching. Kealey said some lecturers teach five classes a year; others teach four. He wrote on Medium of the senior creative writing professors that “the 10 of them … taught 13 undergraduate classes last year (and 19 overall, less than two classes taught per professor).”

The leaders said during the Zoom meeting the decision wasn’t about money, according to Porter. “It’s maddening to have outstanding enrollment and be phased out anyway,” he said. While the university has said it wants to simply return the Jones Lectureships to the short stints they used to be, Kealey suggests the tenured professors in his department had other motives.

“I think there’s a peasants and lords issue here,” Kealey said.

A Long Time Coming?

In 1946, Wallace Stegner, who would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Angle of Repose , founded Stanford’s creative writing program. The Stegner Fellowships are named in his honor.

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E. H. Jones, who had an oil fortune, funded the fellowships and also established the connected Jones Lectureships, according to the university’s announcement from last week. It said these were meant to be “limited, fixed-year teaching appointments, allowing exceptional Stegner Fellows some time and support to prepare a manuscript for publication, hone their teaching skills and transition to a longer-term teaching career elsewhere.”

But “over time this framework of term-limited appointments was not followed,” the university said. It did not say when that change occurred. It might have had something to do with Eavan Boland.

Boland, an Irish poet, led the creative writing program for 20 years until her sudden death in 2020. “Eavan was just a fierce defender of the program,” Kealey said. He said her death “was a great loss to all of us.”

When Boland joined the program, Kealey said, it had maybe 20 or 25 classes. But Boland wanted every student who so desired to be able to take a creative writing class. Kealey said lecturers went to residence halls in early years to speak with students about the program. Over about 15 years, Kealey said, the program grew to offer about 120 classes.

Porter said Boland “developed a large cadre of about 20 to 25 lecturers.” Even though they were on one-year contracts, Porter said, they kept getting renewed. He said it’s true that Boland did move the lectureships away from their original intent—but that it was beneficial for students, teaching and the program.

“There are a lot of human skills to playing this game, and those don’t come in a year,” Porter said. “We have letters, testimonials from students about how much we’ve meant to them. We’re also very available to them—we talk to them outside of class, there’s a sense of continuing mentorship if they want it.”

Now, Porter said, “there is at least the appearance” of the university creating “artificial scarcity,” suggesting there’s no room for the new, younger Stegner Fellows writers to get a leg up by becoming Jones Lecturers “because these crusty old folks are hogging up all the real estate.” Safran, the senior associate dean, said, per Porter’s meeting notes, that “in some years few or no Stegners were able to advance.”

Kealey said, “There’s no shortage of space for new Stegner Fellows to be hired into the Jones Lectureships, but, I don’t know, the professors wanted to do a scorched earth with this, and that’s what they’ve done.”

The lecturers said they pushed for, and received, raises from the university in September 2023. “Exactly a year later we’re all fired,” so “connect the dots here,” Kealey said. “I think the lords didn’t like that—didn’t like the peasants speaking up.”

Porter talked about “balancing one set of values against the other.” He said the tenured or tenure-track “creative writing faculty doesn’t teach many classes and many of them are not involved—they don’t care about the undergraduates. It’s not their job to care; it’s their job to write books, be famous and raise money, and that’s very necessary.”

And part of the purpose of the Jones Lectureship program is to give new writers a step up. But Porter worries about the other side of the equation being lost. “It’s our job to care about the undergrads,” he said.

Cass Sunstein Wants to Help Universities Navigate Free Speech Conflicts

The legal scholar presents a wide range of speech-related scenarios that university administrators may have to naviga

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