The Book Bible: How to Sell Your Manuscript-No Matter What Genre-Without Going Broke or Insane

by Susan Shapiro, Ayesha Pande (Foreword by)

Overview

A Brilliant, Buoyant Guide to Publishing Your Book
Hundreds of thousands of books come out every year worldwide. So why not yours? In The Book Bible, New York Times bestseller and wildly popular Manhattan writing professor Susan Shapiro reveals the best and fastest ways to break into a mainstream publishing house. Unlike most writing manuals that stick to only one genre, Shapiro maps out the rules of all the sought-after, sellable categories: novels, memoirs, biography, how-to, essay collections, anthologies, humor, mystery, crime, poetry, picture books, young adult and middle grade, fiction and nonfiction. Shapiro once worried that selling 16 books in varied sub-sections made her a literary dabbler. Yet after helping her students publish many award-winning bestsellers on all shelves of the bookstore, she realized that her versatility had a huge upside. She could explain, from personal experience, the differences in making each kind of book, as well as ways to find the right genre for every project and how to craft a winning proposal or great cover letter to get a top agent and book editor to say yes.  

This valuable guide will teach both new and experienced scribes how to attain their dream of becoming a successful author.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781510762701
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	02/01/2022
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	470,632
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Susan Shapiro, an award-winning writer and professor, freelances for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine,  Washington Post, Newsweek, Salon, Tablet, Wired, Oprah, & New Yorker magazines online. She's the national bestselling author/coauthor of 15 books her family hates including Unhooked, Five Men Who Broke My Heart, The Byline Bible, World In Between, and The Forgiveness Tour. She and her scriptwriter husband, a New York University professor, live in Greenwich Village where she teaches her popular "instant gratification takes too long" courses at The New School, NYU, Columbia University, and now privately online. Follow her on Twitter at @susanshapironet and Instagram at @Profsue123. 

Table of Contents

Foreword Ayesha Pande vii

Introduction xi

Section 1 Nonfiction 1

Chapter 1 Memoir/Autobiography 3

Chapter 2 Biographies 25

Chapter 3 How-To Books/Self-Help 38

Chapter 4 Nonfiction Book Proposals 49

Section 2 Shorter Books 79

Chapter 5 Poetry 81

Chapter 6 Anthologizing 91

Chapter 7 Humor and Graphics 103

Section 3 Fictionalizing 111

Chapter 8 Adult Fiction 113

Chapter 9 Genre Fiction 132

Section 4 Children's Lit 145

Chapter 10 Picture Books 147

Chapter 11 Middle-Grade 156

Chapter 12 Young Adult 166

Section 5 Selling Your Book 177

Chapter 13 Figuring Out Genre 179

Chapter 14 Querying Literary Agents 188

Glossary 202

Acknowledgments 209

About the Author 211

Index 212

Editorial Reviews

11/22/2021

Shapiro (The Forgiveness Tour) offers a soup-to-nuts survey of how to get published in this accessible assemblage of publishing principles. All are animated by the notion that those who want to land a book deal “have to be hungry, determined, and desperate enough.” For scribes who meet those prerequisites, Shapiro lays out the basics, organizing her program by the type of book—nonfiction, poetry, fiction, children’s books—and keeping her tongue firmly in cheek. Each section begins with a list of what not to do (“Refuse to Read Similar Books: Write in a total vacuum”; “Expect immediate success”) and is loaded with practical guidance, as in a section on querying agents in which readers are advised to give a description of their project in “two lines, not twenty.” Shapiro’s track record, which includes published works about her struggles with addiction, and coauthoring a memoir with a Bosnian refugee, lends plenty of authority to her advice. Even if there’s some repetition, as when she repeatedly reminds that though Facebook and LinkedIn are regarded as passé by younger writers, many in the book industry still rely on them, Shapiro succeeds in dishing out hard-earned wisdom with plenty of verve. Would-be authors, take note. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Shapiro succeeds in dishing out hard-earned wisdom with plenty of verve. Would-be authors, take note." —Publishers Weekly

"A great pick for public-library collections, both as a refresher for publishing veterans and a valuable resource for those new to the field or unsure where to start." —Booklist

“Quite simply Sue Shapiro’s great advice is spot-on and responsible for launching my writing career. And that’s an understatement.” —SETH KUGEL, author of Rediscovering Travel

“Sue’s advice is sharp, her writing family is vast, and she sees the writer in everybody—even before they see it in themselves.” —LEXIE BEAN, author of The Ship We Built and Written on the Body

“I credit Susan Shapiro’s brilliant advice for my success. She is the ‘how to get published’ guru that all writers need!” —TIFFANIE DRAYTON, author of Black American Refugee

From the Publisher