Showing titles in Writing & Publishing

This guide to play reading for students and practitioners of both theater and literature complements, rather than contradicts or repeats, traditional methods of literary analysis of scripts. Ball developed his method during his work as Literary Director at the Guthrie Theater, building his guide on the crafts playwrights of every period and style use. The audiobook is full of tools for students and practitioners to use as they investigate plot, character, theme, and the other crucial parts of the superstructure of a play.

We are never really taught how to make sense of the torrent of news we face every day, writes Alain de Botton (author of the best-selling The Architecture of Happiness), but this has a huge impact on our sense of what matters and of how we should lead our lives. In his dazzling new book, de Botton takes twenty-five archetypal news stories - including an airplane crash, a murder, a celebrity interview and a political scandal - and submits them to unusually intense analysis with a view to helping us navigate our news-soaked age.

Doctor Strange, one of Marvel's most fascinating early characters, began at the hands of co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and his ethereal voyages through other dimensions made him an important figure in 1960s culture. Over his first ten years, a succession of writers and artists—including Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Gardner F. Fox, P. Craig Russell, Marie Severin, and notably Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner—expanded on Ditko's original mind-bending concepts.

Jump into the captivating world of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit with Creativity for Sale, an inspiring how-to guide by creative director and bestselling author Radim Malinic. Full of tried, tested, and proven insights gained from 20+ years in the creative industry, this book is your personal blueprint to turn your passion into profit.

The Story Grid is a tool developed by editor Shawn Coyne to analyze stories and provide helpful editorial comments. It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not. The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult).

Do you dream of becoming a published author and positioning yourself as an industry authority? Well the only way to make that dream a reality is to just write the damn book! In this book, Chloë Bisson shares a comprehensive roadmap for entrepreneurs who genuinely want to share their expertise, inspire others and leave a lasting legacy through writing and publishing their own book.

How to Write Everything is the ultimate writer's handbook. It tells you about every aspect of writing, from having an idea to getting the idea out into the world and getting paid for it, too. It covers everything from journalism to screenwriting, from speeches to sketches, from sitcoms to novels. With thirty years' experience as an award-winning scriptwriter, journalist, author, and broadcaster, David Quantick is ideally suited, as a writer, to write this definitive writer's guide to writing...everything.

In 1979, Elizabeth Eisenstein provided the first full-scale treatment of the 15th-century printing revolution in the West in her monumental two-volume work, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. This abridged edition, after summarizing the initial changes introduced by the establishment of printing shops, goes on to discuss how printing challenged traditional institutions and affected three major cultural movements: the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the rise of modern science.

Writers talk about their work in many ways: as an art, as a calling, as a lifestyle. Too often missing from these conversations is the fact that writing is also a business. The reality is, those who want to make a full- or part-time job out of writing are going to have a more positive and productive career if they understand the basic business principles underlying the industry.

The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact. The causes and effects have been analyzed until they are well understood. The correct methods of procedure have been proved and established. We know what is most effective, and we act on basic laws. Advertising, once a gamble, has thus become, under able direction, one of the safest of business ventures. Certainly, no other enterprise with comparable possibilities need involve so little risk.

You want to write a nonfiction book that matters. Book readers love and rave about a book they underline, dog-ear, and highlight. How do you do that, when you’ve never written a book like that before, when you aren’t sure what content to include in a nonfiction book, or how to organize it? And when you’re not sure if your idea is worth pursuing in the first place? At the heart of the answers to all these questions is a craft created by A. J. Harper, ghostwriter and editor for some of the foremost thought leaders of our time.

New York Times Bestseller “Both deeper and more democratic than The Elements of Style” —Adam Haslett, Financial Times “A guided tour through some of the most beautiful, arresting sentences in the English language.” —Slate In this entertaining and erudite gem, world-class professor...

William Somerset Maugham (January 25, 1874-December 16, 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. He became a medical student in London and qualified as a physician in 1897. He never practiced medicine, and became a full-time writer. The following is a 1955 recording of a conversation between Maugham and British critic and journalist Alan Pryce-Jones.

People everywhere feel ever more alienated from - and mistrustful of - news and those who make it. We no longer seem to know who or what to believe. We are living through a crisis of 'information chaos'. News: And How to Use It is a glossary for this bewildering age. From AI to bots, from climate crisis to fake news, from clickbait to trolls (and more), here is the definitive user's guide for how to stay informed, tell truth from fiction and hold those in power accountable in the modern age.

David Morrell, best-selling author of First Blood, The Brotherhood of the Rose and The Fifth Profession, distills four decades of writing and publishing experience into this single masterwork of advice and instruction for fiction writers looking to make it big in the publishing world. With advice proven to create successful novels,

Do you want to be a more relaxed author? There are plenty of books and tips on writing faster, learning more marketing tactics and strategies, trying to maximize your ranking, hitting the top of the charts, juicing the algorithms, and hacking different ad platforms. While these are all important things - which the authors themselves regularly write and talk about - it's also important to recognize that your author journey is a marathon, and not a sprint.

Taking listeners on a personal journey through his early life and school years, through to his relationship with literature, education poetry and writing, this book is filled with tips, anecdotes and publishing advice for anyone interested in getting their work seen. From Anthony's first slam win to the evolving British poetry scene, this book will provoke listeners into thinking about their writing more carefully - be it a poem, short story or novel - and help them finally get their book out into the world.

As practical as it is inspiring, The Art of Creative Writing remains a timeless, illuminating guide that teaches every writer, and aspiring writer, how to create works that are both compelling and enduring. 

Gareth L. Powell would be the first to tell you that he doesn't know everything about being a writer, or about getting published, or about life when your work is in a bookshelf. But his field-guide to publishing, About Writing, is absolutely here to help writers on every stage of their journey. Whether you need a bit of writing inspiration or tips on how to find your voice, are struggling to manage writing alongside a day job, want some no-nonsense advice about working with an agent or a publisher or are all at sea with social media, this updated and expanded guide is a must. 

Five-time Edgar winner and MWA grand master Lawrence Block wrote a monthly column for the Writers Digest magazine for 14 years. The Liar's Bible consists of previously uncollected columns, chosen to illuminate the often dimly-lit path of the writer of fiction.