If this isn’t a meta-testimonial for the magic of blogging, I don’t know what is.

Earlier this year I got an email from a guy who said he was a book editor, and he was getting an anthology together. His name was Philip Martin, and he asked me if he could include one of my blog rants on blogging from earlier this year in the book.

While this wasn’t exactly an email from a exiled Nigerian prince asking to use my bank account to deposit millions of dollars, I still harbored a healthy bit of skepticism. So I emailed Mr. Martin a “Yeah, sure. That’d be great,” muttered an “I’ll believe it when I’m holding the actual published book in my hands” under my breath, and went on with whatever I was doing at my computer that day.

Turns out Mr. Martin was for real. Thanks to that rabid post I threw out to the world back in February, I’m now among an elite group of contributors of an annual anthology on the craft, passion, marketing, and business of writing. Woohoo!!!! (I blogged some of the emotional, writer-ly deets here on my Wild Quills blog. This blogging thing is nutty, ain’t it?)

The impressive, wildly readable, utterly practical, and wonderfully integrated writers’ resource is called (drumroll, please…):

The New Writer’s Handbook 2007: A Practical Anthology of Best Advice for Your Craft and Career.

I’ve posted the publisher’s press release below, so you can read the “official” word on the street about this kick-butt book.

Scarletta Press
News Release

The New Writer’s Handbook 2007
Annual Collection of Expert Advice To Help Writers: Features more than 60 practical articles

GILFORD, NH (AUGUST 24, 2007) — Does the world really need another book of advice for writers? The answer, according to Scarletta Press, a new up-and-coming independent press in Minneapolis, is yes! In fact, they, with handbook editor Philip Martin, think that writers need an annual infusion of cross-disciplinary articles on the craft and career of being a good writer.

The first edition of The New Writer’s Handbook offers an eclectic mix of expert advice, stimulating short pieces, and overall encouragement. Every writer, from newbies to old hands, will find something to put to use in this far-ranging collection.

The 60 articles in this anthology were chosen mostly from pieces published in 2006–early 2007. Contributors include luminaries such as Barry Lopez, Richard Powers, Mary Pipher, Jane Yolen, Linda Sue Park, Ridley Pearson, William G. Tapply, and others. They include winners of the National Book Award, Newbery Medal, and many other honors. Other contributors include working journalists, writing instructors, authors with bestseller books, editors, literary bloggers, and more.

This inexpensive paperback edition serves as a personal annual professional-development seminar, touching on topics from craft techniques to career issues to helpful thoughts about creativity and motivation.

Sections in the book include:

Creativity, Motivation & Discipline

The Craft of Writing

Pitching & Proposals

Marketing Your Work

Internet Skills

Literary Insights & Last Words

Sample pieces include:

“Speaking a Book,” an essay by 2006 National Book Award–winner Richard Powers on why he dictates his books using voice-recognition software.

“Fundamental of Blogging,” an excerpt from Plug This Book: Online Book Marketing for Authors by Steve Weber (2007), provides practical tips on developing a professional blog.

“A Checklist for Character & Conflict Revision,” by NYT-bestselling author Gregory Martin, offers advice on revision.

A number of pieces speak to the deeper purpose of being a writer today, about how to have a positive effect on readers, on yourself, and on the shape of the world, such as Mary Pipher’s excerpt from her 2006 book Writing to Change the World, and poet Gabriel Gudding on writing for those right around you.

A few humorous pieces, like “Thank You for Hating My Book” or “Books as a Gateway Drug,” round out the collection.

“I wanted to offer a different kind of collection,” says editor Philip Martin, “one that would deliver lots of encouragement to listen to other voices in the field. I see a good anthology as a jumping-off point, a springboard for further reading and an invitation to celebrate a sense of community in the writing world. Writers are opinionated and diverse and competitive, and yet we need each other.

“No one else understands a writer as well as other writers,” continues Martin. “I tried to assemble a collection of articles that spoke to that, as well as supplying plenty of practical advice.”

The 2007 edition will appear in bookstores July 10, with an official pub date of August 1, 2007.

# # #

ERICA JONG is the author of eight novels including Fear of Flying, Fanny, Shylock’s Daughter, Inventing Memory and Sappho’s Leap. Her book for writers, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life, was released by Tarcher/Penguin in March 2006. She lives in New York City and Weston, Connecticut. Her website is www.ericajong.com.  

PHILIP MARTIN, editor of The New Writer’s Handbook 2007, has produced books that won the Benjamin Franklin and Banta awards and Small Press Award for Fiction. He has edited many guides for writers on craft and career as an acquisitions editor for The Writer Books 2001–2004. He is also the author of several books, including a recent guide to speculative fiction, A Guide to Fantasy Literature (revised edition, Crickhollow Books, 2007), which was called “the best and most reliable guide to this multi-faceted subject” by Newbery Award–winner Lloyd Alexander. Martin lives in Milwaukee.
For more info, to schedule interviews, or to request a review copy, contact:
Philip Martin, Editor, philip_martin@sbcglobal.net
David Unowsky, Marketing Manager, Scarletta Press, david@scarlettapress.com

# # #
 

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to Mr. Philip Martin, Scarletta Press, and, well, my Blog. You’ve given me the gift of an unexpected highlight for 2007 (in addition to that other unexpected highlight currently growing in my uterus), and for that I’m really, truly grateful.

Posted in Blog Bits, Press 'n Such |

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